Spam phone calls

[Blair Malcolm]

This may not be the correct news group to ask this question but does anyone know how I can prevent these frequent and tiresome Spam calls?

[Wanderer]

Yup, google for "telephone preference service" and give them a bell. Haven't had any unwanted 'phone calls for years now.

[Peter Crosland]

Do a search on Telephone Preference Service and register with them. It will not eradicate the problem but it should reduce it.

[Mary Fisher]

Sign up with Telephone Preference Service - google on TPS. It works and it's free.

Mary

[Bob Eager]

really does work.

[Lee]

What the others said :)

If you want to throw money at the problem then you could subscribe to anonymous caller reject, but that's around £10 a quarter from BT :(

Lee

[Andy Burns]

Also if you have an extra number on the line (e.g. with CallSign) register that too ...

[Set Square]

And it will stop *all* calls with number witheld from getting through - possibly including some from your friends.

[Huge]

Shouldn't withold their numbers then, should they?

[John Blakeley]

Does it work with text messages to mobiles ? - the wife is getting suspicious of all the offers for lonely hearts introductions I get. :-)

JB

[JM]

Not forgetting mobile numbers too.

[Huge]

Yes.

[bof]

Registered with TPS the day after it started, re registered twice, still getting junk calls.

[bof]

Or redial prefixed with 1470 (I think)

[Bill]

In message , bof writes

I have a block on all withheld numbers and it works well, stopped most spam calls. BUT there are companies out there that for one reason or another do not reveal their number and cannot reveal it by dialling

1470, so it can have its problems.

[Coherers]

Dunno about 1470, but dialling 141 followed by the number itself blocks the caller ID

[Set Square]

Precisely! There are callers who withold their numbers for legitimate reasons (e.g. doctors) or without knowing it (e.g. people with ex-directory numbers who don't realise that the default is for CLID to be witheld). You may wish to receive calls from any of these - but would be prevented from doing so if you use Anonymous Call Rejection.

In my view, it is a rather unsubtle tool - to be used only as a last resort.

[Andy Burns]

I am ex-directory, my CLI is released by default, I didn't have to ask for it to be that way ...

[John Stumbles]

So what happens when you report them? (I presume if you can be donkeyed to register with TPS you're also clued up enough to know to get callers' identities and report them.)

Since I registered I've only had 2 junk calls: on the first, when I asked their company's name and it became clear I was on TPS the caller said "Oh s*1t" and apologised for calling; the 2nd was some SMS-to-voice gateway run by BT which someone used to advertise a yoga group. Since she didn't give any contact details it was pretty pointless advertising, and may have been a genuine mistake. I didn't take that one up and it hasn't happened again but if it did I certainly would.

[Lee]

There have been arguments on this topic before in here, so I won't revisit them. Except to say that this is what presentation numbers are for.

Lee