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Author Topic: Another scam in use  (Read 4593 times)

sweeper

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Another scam in use
« on: June 28, 2010, 04:32:51 pm »

A heads up for anyone interested.

A company is phoning around claiming to be "The Telephone Preference Service". They say their aim is to stop companies cold calling you to sell their products.

Yes, there is a legit firm called the TPS who, if you register with them, will perform this task for you  FOR FREE.
These comedians want to charge you for doing the same job.

It made me laugh, someone trying to stop cold calls (mainly from Asia) cold calling me with an accent so thick that it took quite a bit of understanding.
And Sir, it will only cost you x pounds per month....

Even my cat was smiling after that one. 
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malcolmfrary

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Re: Another scam in use
« Reply #1 on: June 28, 2010, 05:37:42 pm »

I got signed up with the real one years ago. It mostly works, but you still get the odd one blundering through.  Like last weeks'.  The phone rang, I answered, it might well have been someone that I wouldn't have minded speaking to, silence for a few seconds.  Click, NU tone.  Dial 1471, either "number withheld" or the rather strange "There is a semantic error" in a transatlantic accent.  This several times a day for about a week.  Eventually, a voice, someone there, asking me if I wanted any of their superb financial services.  I asked if he was a part of the halfwit company who had been calling anonymously for the past several days, and if they thought I would be impressed by such a sloppy, ham fisted sales approach, and if they thought that I would be impressed by that approach, they had just mortally insulted me (Words used may have differed). Click. 1471. "Number withheld".  Touch wood, been quiet since.
It seems that an automated machine rings numbers from a list.  No reply, move on.  If the call is answered, the machine calls a centre where someone might or might not answer.  I believe that this kind of operation is actually illegal in the UK, being basically a nuisance call, so the only companies operating it will not be bound by any UK or EU legislation, not only for their approach, but also for the reliability or security of their product. 
You can have legitimate "number withheld" calls, but that kind of commercial policy can only safely be regarded as a prelude to theft at some level.  Back in monopoly days, BT had a department and/or a procedure for dealing with nuisance calls involving tracing and an agreement to support a prosecution, not always effective because of the technology back then.  Now there is the technology, but I suspect that economies due to competition have ensured that such a department either no longer exists or access has been rendered so obscure as to be. effectively non-existent.
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PMK

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Re: Another scam in use
« Reply #2 on: June 28, 2010, 07:09:37 pm »

Methinks that somewhere between the State of Confusion and the county of Lancashire be a fiendishly mysterious cunning little plot going down.
I mean, is it more than just a coincidence that you should both be discussing this particular subject and, all of sudden, for the first time in ages, I too had a call from the very same pest just this day?
And is just a coincidence that the two of you should both know all about electro stuff and telephone systems and what-not?
So I'm thinking...

Mr Sweeper: Hmm... he knows all about electro stuff and everything. (Dink!.. a light comes on).
MalcolmF: Hmm... he knows all about telephone wires and liitle green boxes and stuff. (Dink!.. a light comes on).

In my book 2x lights = I'm on to something. I smell a rat and I've deduced that one of you, or BOTH of you, is/are getting up to little shenanagins in your spare time. This is just too uncanny to be more than just coincidental. I mean, do the math yourself; 1x electro wizz + 1x telephone wizz + 1x bloke suddenly getting scam calls again  = a couple of suspects who are therefore very likely more than capable of staring a pole for a while, rubbing their chin and thinking: "Hmm.. now all I have to do climb up this pole, then swap around a few wires at the top, then I'll call PMK and pretend I'm a 'foreign' with a rotten English accent.".
Ergo, the sudden appearance of this particular thread, in conjunction with my receiving said iffy phonecall, means it HAS to be one of you.
The power of sheer deduction, innit.

You can't go 'round bugging me like that.
I know my rights.
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malcolmfrary

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Re: Another scam in use
« Reply #3 on: June 28, 2010, 07:42:20 pm »

Not part of the plot, Mr K.  (Wasn't he a top USSRian?) Anyway, they were calling, and deeply annoying, me.  If there's a conspiracy, the conspirators are keeping quiet about it, but then again, to nearly quote Mandy Rice Davies "They would, wouldn't they?".  Another anyway, it was a Mumbai accent.  Different altogether.
Yet another anyway and a quote "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times somebody's after you".
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johno 52-11

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Re: Another scam in use
« Reply #4 on: June 28, 2010, 07:45:32 pm »

I have just had a look and it on the TPS site about this scam.

http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/tps/
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malcolmfrary

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Re: Another scam in use
« Reply #5 on: June 28, 2010, 08:08:25 pm »

I have just had a look and it on the TPS site about this scam.

http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/tps/
Thanks for that.  I've just chased down that line and eventually found this link
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/complain/landline/silent/?itemid=284912
which is the form to fill in to complain about these bozos.  If the number is withheld, when they do eventually talk to you, keep asking their company name until you get it written down.  Then you can shop them properly.
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Roger in France

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Re: Another scam in use
« Reply #6 on: June 29, 2010, 07:29:38 am »

Unfortunately that kind of scam is not illegal, here in France.

All too often I have calls but when I reply nobody answers for a few seconds and then when they come on line they try to sell something. As you say, some auto dialling system followed by a pick up if the number called responds.

The other annoying version is a call which when answered results in a pre-recorded message, "You have an important message, please hold" (in French, of course). After a second the line goes live and the sales patter starts.

If I do not put the phone down quickly and I get a real person I sometimes say, "Just a moment, I need to switch the radio off", then I leave them holding on for a while. At least that may slow the process for a short time!

Roger in France
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FullLeatherJacket

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Re: Another scam in use
« Reply #7 on: June 29, 2010, 08:12:43 am »

We've been signed up to the real TP for ages, and so I regard any cold-caller as fair game. My usual ploys are
a) Being Mr Angry - "Why have you called me? What do you want? I'm not very well, you know. I haven't any money"
b) Being Mr Senile - "Do you know how old I am? I'm 86 years old next birthday" (results in instant hang-up)
c) Being Mr Smooth - "Well, helllllooooooooooo. You sound like a lovely young filly. How much would it cost to take you for a canter round the paddock, eh?"or, if the caller is male "Ooooooh! You sound soooo nice, dear! It must be awful   working in that nasty call centre. How do you cope with all those common people being so rude to you?" (in very camp accent, of course)
d) Being me - "Oh ^£$*& Off!!"

Seriously, no reputable company would ignore the hefty penalties which TP can impose, ergo no cold caller is from a reputable company and so falls within my definition of fair game.
"Caveat vendor?"  <*<
FLJ
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MikeK

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Re: Another scam in use
« Reply #8 on: June 29, 2010, 08:34:28 am »

Thanks for the link Johno, I used their service years ago at another house and couldn't remember the name of the orginization to get it again. Hopefully I might get a break from straining to understand very garbled versions of the English Language originating east of Suez from strangers who appear to know me quite familiarly -  or struck dumb the moment I pick the phone up  >:-o

Mike
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malcolmfrary

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Re: Another scam in use
« Reply #9 on: June 29, 2010, 09:23:56 am »

Quote
if the caller is male "Ooooooh! You sound soooo nice, dear! It must be awful   working in that nasty call centre. How do you cope with all those common people being so rude to you?" (in very camp accent, of course)
You gonna get your come-uppance when the pink tent salesman rings  ;D
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FullLeatherJacket

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Re: Another scam in use
« Reply #10 on: June 29, 2010, 11:01:13 am »

You gonna get your come-uppance when the pink tent salesman rings  ;D
Would you care to be more specific about exactly what "come uppance" means, Doc? And pink tents? Oooooooooooo! I'm all a quiver!  :kiss:
FLJ
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John W E

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Re: Another scam in use
« Reply #11 on: June 29, 2010, 11:28:40 am »

Hi there FLJ, and there was me thinking you glowed in the dark in that area already!  :D {-) {-) {-) {-) {-) {-) {-) {-) {-) {-)
 
Aye
 
John
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sweeper

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Re: Another scam in use
« Reply #12 on: June 29, 2010, 12:01:47 pm »

Thanks for the vote of confidence PMK :}
Rumbled so soon! Back to the drawing board to plan the next scheme to torment you.

Sorry to say it's nowt at all to do with me. I've just been getting well peed off with home improvement firms phoning me to inform me that I've won £X000 in their exciting draw to spend on a new kitchen/bathroom. They must be well thick (or worse still) think that I am. It happens about four or five times a month, telephone companies (BT being prime for my wrath), double glazing firms and now, the latest version, firms supplying guttering and fascias. When they are informed that I have stone fascias on my house and could not fit their upvc crap, they blithely carry on with their waffle. Could I have discovered the secret of the call centre? That they employ ex-civil servants (motto - Accept what you say, ignore what you say and carry on with their original idea - as though you had never spoken).
 I have tried to be polite and advised them to investigate certain activities involving sex and travel but they will insist on sticking to their script.

The cruncher call came recently when a firm insisted that they wanted to talk to Mrs S...
"Is your name Doris Stokes"?
"No, why do you ask"?
"Well, Mrs S passed away over twenty six years ago. You'll have to be very good to get in touch with her now".
"That's alright then, can I speak to her".

The reply cannot be printed here.

In my mind, I wish I could consign every firm / organisation / call centre that is involved with this practice to the deepest cess pit possible. They'd be right at home immersed in the s**t. I would even offer to stand on their collective shoulders to ensure that they didn't resurface.

 

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sweeper

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Re: Another scam in use
« Reply #13 on: June 29, 2010, 12:06:54 pm »

Update to the above:
As I posted that, phone rings, another firm informing me that I've "won" an £850 voucher for home improvements.
Now thinking that (1) someone is trying to tell me that I live in a total dump (2) only £850 now... by the heck, time must be getting hard <:(
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kinmel

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Re: Another scam in use
« Reply #14 on: June 29, 2010, 12:11:15 pm »


I always ask for the third and fifth character of their telephone password.

They always just hang up on me and never call again.
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malcolmfrary

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Re: Another scam in use
« Reply #15 on: June 29, 2010, 01:40:19 pm »

FLJ - "come uppance" - one of these days you will get your implied offer taken up, and learn the meaning of "Camp as a row of pink tents".

Anyway, all of you, please keep these people on the line as long as possible, my pension fund says "thank you very much" and its costing them, not you.  Added to which, regard it as a public service, while you are wasting their time with their inane blatherings,they are not wasting mine.
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FullLeatherJacket

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Re: Another scam in use
« Reply #16 on: June 29, 2010, 03:21:43 pm »

Doc

As a man who knows (or used to know) is it still true that you can "hang" someone's phone if they ring you and you just leave them on the line without hanging up? If 'tis the case then we could effectively jam the whole world's cold-calling centres were we to join ranks..........

BTW I've found that behaving 'camp' also drives away evangelical groups faster even than appearing to be Jewish. Apparently their God doesn't go in for either 'outdoor activities' or gefilte fish sarnies. Oyveh!

FLJ
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sweeper

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Re: Another scam in use
« Reply #17 on: June 29, 2010, 03:55:21 pm »

Quote
BTW I've found that behaving 'camp' also drives away evangelical groups faster even than appearing to be Jewish. Apparently their God doesn't go in for either 'outdoor activities' or gefilte fish sarnies. Oyveh!

Now that's what I call a really useful gem FLJ.

I knew that one group who call to "discuss" the Bible have a deep aversion to uniforms as I found out when I answered the door in my RN jacket. They withdrew rapidly, knealt down and started either praying for my soul or cursing me to yon place. Suspect it was the latter.

Must go and dig out my old Dick Emery / John Inman / Larry Grayson tapes out, some serious studying is called for. :kiss:
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malcolmfrary

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Re: Another scam in use
« Reply #18 on: June 29, 2010, 05:02:05 pm »

Quote
As a man who knows (or used to know) is it still true that you can "hang" someone's phone if they ring you and you just leave them on the line without hanging up?
It used to be the case that the caller had full control of the call unless it was to an operator.  An answered call that was hung up by the receiving end would keep connected for up to 2 metering periods, whatever they were at that time and distance unless the caller cleared it first.  Tey could engage your line, you could not engage theirs. 
However, in the case of these silent calls, the machine hangs on until either it times out after you have answered, at which time their meter clocks up, or they get fed up after the machine has passed you on to an agent who subsequently babbles at you for a while.
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FullLeatherJacket

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Re: Another scam in use
« Reply #19 on: June 29, 2010, 05:35:42 pm »

Thanks, Malcolm. I think I'll stick to "$&£% off"!
FLJ
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PMK

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Re: Another scam in use
« Reply #20 on: June 29, 2010, 05:47:44 pm »

"Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times somebody's after you".

In that case, someone is after me.
I've just had another one come through. The LCD display said "Number Unavailable". And sure enough, another scammer.
I've just broken my all-time best record of 1:20 seconds before they hang up on me.
First of all he said he was calling from some place in London, and I'm like: "Nah, mate - I can't understand a bleedin' word you're saying. Can you spell it for me?". He ended up saying he was actually calling from India. Then the phone went dead even before I had a chance to ask if his name was Malcolm or Mr Sweeper.

So yeah, I think you're right. This is more than just coicidental; someone is deffo after me.
A mate of mine, ex BT engineer...
Geoff, if you're earwigging, I swear I did NOT touch your gorgeous wife that night. It was the other way around - so there.

Two of the best snippets I learnt from various GPO boys over the years were...

1) Dial 1267 to make your own phone ring.
2) Dial your own number for a pitch-perfect G note.

I never did try the G note dodge, but the twelve-sixty-seven scam worked a treat for getting someone out of the favourite armchair -- every time.


And then the digital epoch came along.
...along with 'foreign' scammers.
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tigertiger

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Re: Another scam in use
« Reply #21 on: June 30, 2010, 01:41:00 am »

Evangelicals can also be freaked out if you offer a deal.

Tell them that they are wlecome to come in and talk about their Lord, as long as they also listen to you talk about your Lord.

When they ask you 'What Lord are you talking off?', you simply answer 'The Lord Satan'. :o :o
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