Anyone else had this scam-type phone call?

[epithet]

My phone rang at 7.45 this morning - the caller display said 'Unavailable' which would normally arouse suspicion, but because my dad died recently and I have been having all kinds of phone calls from official and unofficial channels, I answered it on the off-chance that it was something relevant.

In fact, it was a man with a heavy accent, claiming to be from something called the NIFA. He then launched into a spiel which I couldn't really decipher, so I interrupted him to ask why he was actually calling me. 'I understand you have some debts to your name, epithet,' he said. At which point I knew it was def dodgy - because I have no debts - and I told him so and slammed the phone down.

But the more I think about this, the angrier I get. If I had had debts, it's possible that, in my confusion and grief, I might have let him rattle on a bit longer. A more vulnerable person could easily get sucked in. I feel like I want to report this somewhere - any ideas where?

They are ringing me every single day it is driving me up the wall.

We changed telephone providers recently and we had the opportunity to change our telephone number but dh chose not to. I really wish he had as the amount of sales calls we are getting are unbelievable. I even had a text on my mobile which said "according to our records you are entitled to £3,700 compensation for the accident you recently had." I think there should be laws against things like this.

No-one else had this then?

Sorry, dollshouse, cross-posted there!

So you are getting them every day? What a pita. We did register with the Telephone Preference Service, ages ago, and I think we get a lot fewer weird sales-type calls than we used to, but there are still a fair few surveys & whatnot.

The thing that really angered me about this particular one is that is was v obviously dodgy. I can imagine it might have really worried and upset my mum if she had taken it.

I get these too saying 'I'm calling about your recent loan/credit card application'. When you tell them you haven't made an application they launch into a sales pitch. Really annoying.

I suppose there's so much of this kind of thing now that there's nothing anyone can do to stop it. One centre gets shut down only to open up down the road. It pisses me orf though.

I was getting loads of calls like this a couple of months ago. I was just hanging up on them, but then tried my friends suggestion and they stopped calling.

When they say 'we're calling to speak about your debts/ loans/ we know you have debts etc' ask them how they know this. Then before they can answer say something along the lines of if you know information about my credit record then you have accessed it without my permission which isn't leagal. Give me your full company name, address, your name, your supervisors name as I'm going to report you.

They hung up about 2 minutes into my rant and haven't called back

legal

Ooh, good one, Invisible! I'll definitely use that line next time .