Is there any point to the Telephone Preference Service?

[Bill]

I just reported a call from 0208 0997988. I told them that the barely understandable foreigner said she was doing a survey.

Googling the number indicates it is a bunch of fraudsters after "deposits" to provide a phantom loan. Apparently you pay the deposit to a gentleman in Delhi. Have they found a way to fake the number they are calling from?

I had a reply from TPS saying that surveys are allowed under the terms they operate, so no action will be taken.

So if, say, I ask the question in the title of this post, I can cold call anyone.

[chrisj.doran%proemail.co.uk]

It does seem to have stopped double-glazing etc. callers from the UK. The local health club seemed not to have heard of it for some years, but they've stopped calling me as well now. I just get them from what, from the callers' accents, is probably the Indian sub-continent and thus not subject to UK law. Cue many stories as to how to wind them up/ waste their time (if you can spare yours)

As the TPS say, "surveys" aren't prohibited, nor are calls from companies like your utilities supplier with whom you already have a relationship, but if you foolishly agree to answer any of the questions in the "survey" expressing an interest in Dan's Dodgey Deals, then that moves DDD into the "relationship" category, so expect a call.

The thing that most annoys me is that when you fill in the complaints form, you have to supply loads of personal information unrelated to the complaint, and _send it to the spammer_.

Chris

[polygonum]

Strikes me we need something like 1471. You get a spam call, you don't answer it or hang up if you did, and then dial this special number. That automatically reports the call. Behind the scenes information about the call that you or I would never know could be collected and used to identify perpetrators.

Of course, Ofcom (is that what they are these days?) will then investigate and stop these calls from happening. Gallows will be rebuilt at Tyburn and Jack Ketch brought out of retirement. Or not.

Rod

[Tabby]

Truecall

[Richard Russell]

Registering with the TPS hugely reduced the number of unwanted calls we received. Of course it didn't eliminate them entirely: we still get a few junk calls from overseas, calls from companies with which we have had legitimate dealings, and calls such as genuine surveys. But the answer to the question "Is there any point to the Telephone Preference Service?" is a resounding 'yes' in my opinion.

Richard.

[polygonum]

Have they got a licence to hang?

A considerable proportion of our wanted calls have number withheld - entirely ridiculously. Like GP surgery and hospital departments. Not sure how Truecall handles those. If it really knew where they came from, maybe it could.

Rod

[jgharston]

No such dialling code. London is 020.

JGH

[Alan]

Signing up to the TPS initially reduced the number of unwanted calls I got but these days I'm getting around two calls a day with number withheld and another two to flagged as International. I get another two a week where I guess the "return" number is premium rate.

My caller identifier box flashes green for numbers I have programmed in and flashes red for all other numbers. It also records the caller ID information. I let the answer-phone pick up all calls but recently the spammers offering Disneyland holidays resort to playing a recorded message and when the answer-phone times out and hangs up they will dial multiple times again in an attempt to fill up the message facility. I suspect that this is a deliberate policy.

Fill in a phone number on a web comparison site for insurance quotes and wait for the number of nuisance to rise dramatically!

[Owain]

There's a 'whisper' function where they say who they are and you choose whether to speak to them or make Truecall tell them to get lost.

There is also a code access function on the internet control panel where you can give trusted people a PIN (up to 8 digits) to get through to you.

You could also try getting a VoIP number on a number range that is less commonly used ( eg 020 3xxx) as that is less likely to attract the attention of autodiallers.

Owain

[Bob Eager]

Agreed. I hope to get very few more of these now I've set up the Asterisk box...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

When you get phoned up for a survey, ask for details so you can bill them for your time, before anything else. Also works for door steppers. In other words waste their time too. It usually gets them annoyed, if nothing else.

[Dave Liquorice]

BT do offer something along those lines, ie after a call dial a number and that call is barred from yoru line. I *think* it's BT Privacy at Home but my google chi isn't working tonight. All I can find is complaints from people who haven't read the T&C's of Privacy at Home properly...

[Owain]

Choose to refuse. Only remembers 10 numbers, and costs =A3 per quarter.

't work on "we do not have the caller's number" calls.

Owain

[Bob Eager]

I do that. Last time the guy said he wanted to slap my face!

[polygonum]

Thanks Owain. :-)

I was just about to try to find out...

As I see it, such a facility needs to be near-universal so that any newl= y =

used line is likely to be identified quite quickly.

Had thought about getting an 0871 number to give out to untrustworthy =

people but I know that might have prevented some of them making the call= s =

I'd want to receive!

Rod

[Chris J Dixon]

"Our sponsors will contact you with offers relevant to you."

I don't give you permission for that.

"Our sponsors will contact you with offers relevant to you."

No, I don't want that. If you are really conducting a survey, it shouldn't matter to you.

"Click"

Had a call from the scammers wanting to sort my computer virus yesterday.

"Your computer has a virus problem."

Which computer is that?

"Your oldest one, running XP."

Sorry, what computer are you talking about?

"The one you have running windows."

Are you going to give me a computer?

"Click"

Chris

[Man at B&Q]

Not so. People see conspiracies in all sorts of coincidences.

MBQ

[Mark]

Me too. Signing up with TPS did reduce the number of cold calls I got but this has crept up over the years. Most of them are international ("Unavailable") or Withheld. I can't block these since I get legitimate calls with the same statii (or is it statuses?).

Ugh! Never fill in your phone number into any web site.

[jgharston]

The oldest one? What, the ZX Spectrum or the BBC model B? ;)

JGH

[Jethro]

It's one of the most important parts of the site. Capture a phone number, and prioritise it into an outbound hopper. Research shows that if you can call the customer within 30 seconds of their getting the quote results, you are x% more likely to convert to a sale. Ofcoms website has a list of unassigned numbers which will pass any validation, if you want to avoid this.

The holy grail for a lot of aggregators is to guarantee the phone number ....