Cyril Haearn wrote:Whatabout chuggers, how should one deal with them?
I don't get approached by them but aren't there specific laws or regulations covering them now (wasn't there some sort of scandal or outcry a few years ago?) Or am I having a "senior moment" ...
Ian
I worked as a chugger, would have approached anyone, talked to a few thousand people, signed up about a thousand Why do they not approach you?
Maybe I don't go to places where they look for people. I don't like cities much, don't like shopping much, etc. and when I do go to them I try to get in, get what I need done and get out so I probably look quite unapproachable or a bit in a hurry - I don't dither ambling around looking in shops, etc.
pete75 wrote:My approach has always been to immediately end the call. Why bother to do anything else?
I used to find just hanging-up and you get another call a few days later and again a few days later. Ideally I think to try and do something to stop them calling again. My best solution so far has been to leave the landline unplugged. But some do call mobiles though I've not suffered badly from that (yet). Maybe it gets more expensive as I think a proportion of these calls come from overseas and hence they can't be bothered about TPS (and they spoof UK numbers).
Ian
No because I then permanently block the number. In any case my phone is now set up to not take calls from withheld numbers and to require callers from numbers not in it's database to announce themselves.
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
pete75 wrote:You must have heard the phrase you can't con an honest man. That being the case why should I waste my time in an attempt to protect the dishonest?
You're suggesting that the other people who could be potential victims if I wasn't wasting the scammers' time stringing them along are dishonest ?
pete75 wrote:My approach has always been to immediately end the call. Why bother to do anything else?
I used to find just hanging-up and you get another call a few days later and again a few days later. Ideally I think to try and do something to stop them calling again. My best solution so far has been to leave the landline unplugged. But some do call mobiles though I've not suffered badly from that (yet). Maybe it gets more expensive as I think a proportion of these calls come from overseas and hence they can't be bothered about TPS (and they spoof UK numbers).
Ian
No because I then permanently block the number. In any case my phone is now set up to not take calls from withheld numbers and to require callers from numbers not in it's database to announce themselves.
A few years ago when I was still using my landline, mid-Jan one year I enbled a fantastic BT anti-spam system (one they ran in their exchanges). You just enable it and you stop getting SPAM calls. Then a week or so later deadline for HMRC Self-Assessment online and they'd introduced 2 factor authentication and you part login with username and password and they telephone you with a magic 2ndry code to enter ... except they didn't phone me with any code! So after hours of retrying I called them and got angry, etc. A few days later I went to bt.com to download my bill and saw a log and ... BT SPAM system had been blocking HMRC calls.
al_yrpal wrote:My approach has always to put on a false Indian accent and ask them for their order. This usually makes them put the phone down pronto.
It was the same when I was working, when they rang asking to speak to the the Managing Director. We always said thats Mr Singh and he is in the kitchen because we have too many takeaway orders, I'll just go and get him.. then put them on hold. They all ring off almost immediately.
Al
It’s so nice to see casual racism and racial stereotyping are still alive and well in Als house You do realise it’s not the 1970s don’t you?
Psamathe wrote:I used to find just hanging-up and you get another call a few days later and again a few days later. Ideally I think to try and do something to stop them calling again. My best solution so far has been to leave the landline unplugged. But some do call mobiles though I've not suffered badly from that (yet). Maybe it gets more expensive as I think a proportion of these calls come from overseas and hence they can't be bothered about TPS (and they spoof UK numbers).
Ian
No because I then permanently block the number. In any case my phone is now set up to not take calls from withheld numbers and to require callers from numbers not in it's database to announce themselves.
A few years ago when I was still using my landline, mid-Jan one year I enbled a fantastic BT anti-spam system (one they ran in their exchanges). You just enable it and you stop getting SPAM calls. Then a week or so later deadline for HMRC Self-Assessment online and they'd introduced 2 factor authentication and you part login with username and password and they telephone you with a magic 2ndry code to enter ... except they didn't phone me with any code! So after hours of retrying I called them and got angry, etc. A few days later I went to bt.com to download my bill and saw a log and ... BT SPAM system had been blocking HMRC calls.
Ian
The system on my phone blocks numbers I tell it to. Others go through some call minder system unless they're stored in the phones contact list. Maybe BT shouldn't have put HMRC numbers on their spam list.
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
pete75 wrote: No because I then permanently block the number. In any case my phone is now set up to not take calls from withheld numbers and to require callers from numbers not in it's database to announce themselves.
A few years ago when I was still using my landline, mid-Jan one year I enbled a fantastic BT anti-spam system (one they ran in their exchanges). You just enable it and you stop getting SPAM calls. Then a week or so later deadline for HMRC Self-Assessment online and they'd introduced 2 factor authentication and you part login with username and password and they telephone you with a magic 2ndry code to enter ... except they didn't phone me with any code! So after hours of retrying I called them and got angry, etc. A few days later I went to bt.com to download my bill and saw a log and ... BT SPAM system had been blocking HMRC calls.
Ian
The system on my phone blocks numbers I tell it to. Others go through some call minder system unless they're stored in the phones contact list. Maybe BT shouldn't have put HMRC numbers on their spam list.
BT's system was "automated" (their claims) and put caller numbers on their block lists based on behaviour of the calling number (without human complaint and without human intervention). Clearly hadn't been properly tested and still had some "issues". Maybe it still does because I have no idea about the "take-up" and I was always very private and didn't give out my landline to everybody and anybody and have now given up using a landline.
One thing I have found in the past is when I got a clearly SPAM call (about "my recent accident" or "free boiler replacement") from a clearly identified UK number (with a UK address) and I complained to TPS (who I'd been registered with for years) - TPS never did anything about it and always gave rather feeble excuses.
pete75 wrote:You must have heard the phrase you can't con an honest man. That being the case why should I waste my time in an attempt to protect the dishonest?
No, I must confess I've never heard that phrase; nor, I suspect, has anyone else.
You may be confusing it with the old adage, "you can't lie to someone who tells the truth" but that's a separate issue.
But you are quite right to choose not to waste time with these individuals. Nor do I - I invariably hang up on them. Let those with more skill in the business try it on! Like this famous example (albeit probably actors)...
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity. Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments... --- Arthur Eddington (creator of the Eddington Number).
pete75 wrote:You must have heard the phrase you can't con an honest man. That being the case why should I waste my time in an attempt to protect the dishonest?
No, I must confess I've never heard that phrase; nor, I suspect, has anyone else.
You may be confusing it with the old adage, "you can't lie to someone who tells the truth" but that's a separate issue.
But you are quite right to choose not to waste time with these individuals. Nor do I - I invariably hang up on them. Let those with more skill in the business try it on! Like this famous example (albeit probably actors)...
I think that the phrase must refer to the essential conman's technique. This is to draw the mark in with the prospect of a slightly dodgy gain. The Nigerian scam works because the dupe thinks that they will make a cut from a dubious transaction.
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
pete75 wrote:You must have heard the phrase you can't con an honest man. That being the case why should I waste my time in an attempt to protect the dishonest?
No, I must confess I've never heard that phrase; nor, I suspect, has anyone else.
I suggest you type the phrase into google and look at the 23,700,000 results......
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
For e-mail: I understand SCAMers tend to be deliberately obvious. The e-mails we sometimes get are blindingly obviously SCAMs but reality is the SCAMers are easily smart enough to write in better English and to come-up with scams that are less obvious. Being so obvious is a deliberate tactic. They are looking for gullible people who can be persuaded to send them significant quantities of cash. Send a clever difficult to spot scam and you'll get a higher proportion of non-gullible responding who will drop-out before they get sent the money. It's a "false positive" avoidance technique designed to get the less gullible to delete and ignore the mail.
But for phone calls with e.g. "about your recent accident" whilst appealing to your greed, you'll need somebody to claim against. Or do they expect you to lie and when discovered you'll have to pay their OTT fees because you invented a non-existent accident? Or do they hope you might have had a trivial accident that they can exaggerate to the level for a claim? Or are they just seeking people who have had a real accident (which seems an expensive alternative to daytime TV ads)?
661-Pete wrote:But you are quite right to choose not to waste time with these individuals. Nor do I - I invariably hang up on them. Let those with more skill in the business try it on!
I don't think it requires any particular skill. Just a bit of free time and the ability to act dumb (which for some reason I seem to find easy).
Bear in mind that while you're taking up their time (I managed an hour once), that's time that they haven't been able to spend on scamming someone more vulnerable.
