OT Cold calling

Despite being signed up with the TPS I'm getting the scum giving away [1] solar panels phoning around 3 times per day and leaving the same recorded message on my answer-phone. One week I had a total of 40 identical messages.

Tonight the answer-phone intercepted a new 'number withheld' cold call message. I paraphrase:

If you are more than £5K in debt you can legally write it off. If you want more information press 5 now, repeat press 5 now. If you want to opt out press 9. After saying 9 the caller instantaneously hung up.

No time to opt out unless you have lighting reaction times. I wonder if they can claim that it's OK to call again because the option was given the to stop the calls.

[1] They imply it's free because they have assessed my property and financial circumstances and I will get a full government grant.
Reply to
alan_m
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If pressing "9" really opts you out, the system could do it in a few milliseconds, based on your phone number which it had just dialled, then immediately drop the call.

The cynic in me says it probebly opts you in to a different service or product.

Reply to
Graham.

I always press the number to speak to someone, and waste their time until they get fed up. If you waste their time enough to make it not worth continuing, or get them upset enough to cry, they'll most likely take you for their list.

Reply to
Simon Finnigan

You are now my hero and I want to marry you...

Reply to
Tim Watts

Cold calls? What are they?

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

(glances proudly at Asterisk box)

Reply to
Bob Eager

Or they might put you on their special list, people who get called extra often.

Reply to
Mike Barnes

I speak to them as well - and then tell quite simply to f**k off!

Over a period of some 6 months, that reduced cold-calls from around 30 a week down to about 2 a month now.

Cash

Reply to
Cash

An hour or so ago I programmed mine (Raspberry Pi running RASPBX) to forward all calls from a particularly nasty call centre in Cumberland, to their incoming number which happens to be an 0800. I have called the inbound route "FUD"

Reply to
Graham.

Ditto for my Panasonic DECT phone with its caller display and ICB feature. :-)

Reply to
Johny B Good

Once you've all finished waving your willys, I'd just like to point out that other than being ex-directory and on the TPS list, I take no precautions with our home phone and can count the number of junk calls in the last 10 years on the fingers of one rather truncated hand.

OTOH, our alarm line is neither of those and gets one or two a week. But then, it's in the downstairs loo (don't ask), so occasionally I answer it and am appropriately rude to the caller.

Reply to
Huge

dedicated alarm lines should usually be incoming-calls-barred, to prevent Chummy phoning it and busying the line so it can't dial out when he's jemmying the window.

Owain

Reply to
spuorgelgoog

Like it. B-) I think perhaps I need another Pi. Is this all VOIP or have you another box to convert to/from POTS?

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Yeah, right! "For training purposes only." :-\

Reply to
Johny B Good

The phone system looks like this at the moment.

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The lower box is an SPA 3000, it has a FXO port for my land line, and an FXS port for most of the wired phones in the house in parallel

The other ATA is a PAP2, one FXS is wired to a DECT set and the other is my office desk phone.

My iPad runs a nice free IP softphone called Join, but rather than connect over the LAN, it connects indirectly via the free hosted Asterisk service PBXES.com. It took me a while to configure it correctly, but it means it is still an extension on my Raspberry Pi when I am away in a hotel.

Outgoing calls go via voipcheap.co.uk Incoming calls via a block of free DDIs from ukddi.com, and some Sipgate and Callcentric USA numbers, but mainly they come from the POTS line (spit)

Nothing whatsoever goes out through the POTS line except 999/112 111 &

101. Even 0800/0500/0808 goes via Sipgate!

I will probebly get a second Pi as a belated birthday present, I have already downloaded Raspbmc for when I get it.

Reply to
Graham.

====snip====

Nice! :-)

Reply to
Johny B Good

En el artículo , snipped-for-privacy@gowanhill.com escribió:

How will Chummy know the number?

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

In message , Huge writes

I just assume it is a geographic thing. No-one wants to bother with rural NE Scotland? Dunno.

Reply to
News

On the boiler solar ones you do have time to press 2, and I did and told the obviously long distance bod with no uncertain terms that I'd be reporting them if they rand me again. No further calls so far after 2 weeks. I've not heard the otherone, but a guy from the gov agency did tell me that they are taking action against the people who hire these companies. They would like mor powers from the Government, but at the moment they only have som obscure EU law to get them on and fine them. they would like more punitive powers, a bit like the Marine Offenses bill for the pirate radio, where huge fines were imposed on advertisers using the ships.

Information commissioners Office is the place to contact. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

On 08/09/2014 23:18, Huge wrote: ...

I suspect that, like me, you are also very careful about tick boxes that might give people an excuse to contact you for marketing purposes.

Reply to
Nightjar

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