Model Boat Mayhem
Mess Deck: General Section => Chit-Chat => Topic started by: malcolmfrary on September 15, 2010, 02:50:50 pm
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Just had another one of them scam calls - an Indian lady trying to convince me that I needed something for my new computer. (New??!). She hung up after several requests to find out where she got my number.
1471 revealed, in an American accent, "There is a semantic error in the system" or near enough. Presumably one of those offshore jobbies where they insert a spoof number, which in this case caused the system to fall over.
I did a goggle, and found a link to, oddly enough, a forum on my ISP, talktalk. It advised, for malicious calls like that, to 1477 it instead of 1471-ing it to log the call with its real details. I did so, and was informed "The last call has been logged as a malicious call".
Hopefully there is a system growing that can combat the increasing army of scammers and plain, simple nuisances, like BskyB. Dont know if it is available on other systems, but it might be.
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Google's great for chasing up those unknown-to-me numbers that ring. On my mobile, my freelance number, I tend to let them try once, look them up ("Do you want another ten mobiles for your business?" "Can I speak to the person in charge of Health and Safety?") and then block 'em.
:-))
Andy
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A silly question perhaps, but if you just put the phone down without ringing off, is it true that the callers phone is blocked from making any further calls? BY.
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A silly question perhaps, but if you just put the phone down without ringing off, is it true that the callers phone is blocked from making any further calls? BY.
It used to be. At least here in Oz.
With improved equipment if you inadvertently don't hang up correctly, the exchange equipment, after a fixed elapsed time will sense the open connection and "break" the link.
This will restore the exchange equipment to "normal"
However the caller will be able to use their phone but you will receive no further calls until you have hung up your handset and have dial tone again.
Also with hands free and mobile handsets you may not hear dialtone but will have t to try and ring out to reestablish your connection.
It is wise to have a conventional handset connected to one of your points.
Generally at least two phone points can be installed in your "home".
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A silly question perhaps, but if you just put the phone down without ringing off, is it true that the callers phone is blocked from making any further calls? BY.
No.
If the called party cleared down, the call remained under the control of the caller, so if the called party wanted to make another call, they couldn't until the caller tired of paying for a dead connection and cleared from their end. It only becomes a silly question if it gets asked repeatedly. "Ringing off" is a thowback to the olden days of manual magneto signalling, where, when you finished the call, you gave the hand generator a tweak to set the supervisory off on the switchboard to tell the operator to pull the plugs out.
This is the nice thing about this "new" facility - you get one of these dud calls, 1471 it to see if they admitted it came from. If its not your best mate ringing up from a dud phone (it has happened) or someone trying to fax you back because you could fax them from your PC, but a "withheld" or deeply unlikely number or, as in my recent case, a "seemandig errawrr", you can dial 1477, which flags the last call you received as a nuisance call. Hopefully this will help the company build a barring database. Just remember that if, in the meantime, your favourite aunty rings, its her who will get flagged as a nuisance caller.
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I just dialled 1477 and the service is not available Malcolm.
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Would you believe it, just got a scam call while reading this!!!! {-)
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I just dialled 1477 and the service is not available Malcolm.
The BB I looked at stated that it was available on talktalk and BT, another implied that there is a whole set of common facility codes that are available from a wide range of companies. The inference was that BT customers and at least one other service using BT lines had this facility. What was further inferred was that various cable suppliers had the same facilities. When I tried it, I was just told by a recording that the last call had been logged as a nuisance call.
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A silly question perhaps, but if you just put the phone down without ringing off, is it true that the callers phone is blocked from making any further calls? BY.
What might be of more use would be to say you are very interested, then ask the caller to wait for a while, and then put the phone down on a cushion or such like without ringing off and leave it. At least as long as they are waiting on your line they aren't calling anybody else...
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Just found yet another way of combating silent calls,
http://www.ukdatait.co.uk/cgi-bin/sgAddNumber.cgi
to register a landline against silent calls for 12 months (free).
It seems that there are fairly legal auto callers, but these should give an announcement if they fail to connect you to a live caller, otherwise they are operating outside of their license terms by originating silent calls. Obviously, it does nothing about the illegal foreigners from outside the UK who are almost certainly scammers after your details, but 1471 to find out who called, followed by 1477 (if available) should at least make you feel better.
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What annoys me with all these scam and junk calls, is that you would hope being registered here in the UK with the Telephone Preference Service that would be it. I also notice the TPS was referred to again on Watchdog last week.
Sure it works up to a point BUT there is one massive loophole which these pest sellers use more and more.
All they have to say is "this is a market research call" and there is nothing TPS will do in response to a complaint.
They only act on complaints against sales calls and marketing calls - to my thinking an unsolicited Market Research Call should be no different particulary as the aim is to sell you something.
My solution >>:-( <*< <*< <*< :-))
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Jut ask them where they got your number from. Then ask again if they dont have a proper answer, then just leave it off the hook until they get tired of paying to talk to the room.
The real loophole is the overseas scammers, which is where 1477 comes in.
I now never fill in my phone number unless I have to, and I always look for the "no contact" box, and read it carefully, some are opt-out, some more slippery ones are opt-in.
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Jut ask them where they got your number from....
Just had an interesting one.
Indian call center caller comes on the phone - announces himself as BT Wholesale. Goes into a spiel about how I am currently with BT Retail, and how being with BT Wholesale would be much cheaper. Mumbles that this would involve being billed from some odd name - at that I realise that this is a simple 'please transfer your phone to us' sales call, with the gimmick that they are pretending that they are still BT (presumably because they have bought their commercial phone service from BT Wholesale.
So I ask him to email me, and when he asks for my email I say that he must have it already if he is really BT. Then he puts the phone down....