OT:Massive surge in scam calls for SWMBO ?

[Jethro_uk]

SWMBO has just hung up on her 3rd scam/cold caller of the day.

We've gone from 0 scam calls in 6 months to about 10 in a week.

Is there something in the air ?

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

ebay scams are up as well .....

[The Natural Philosopher]

i am getting a lot on the mobile...no idea why.

Mostly of the 'I hear you had an accident that wasnt your fault' variety.

On the landline it's 'I am calling from BT about your internet'

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

I ask then to tell me about the accident seeing as they know all about it.....but no.... they want you to tell them......

[Jethro_uk]

We don't have a landline.

My mobile seems scam-free (touch wood) so her number has been hoovered from somewhere - they know her name.

[Harry Bloomfield]

The same here too, but maybe 20 per week. None get through though, due to the caller filter.

[harry]

I have zero scam calls. All you need to do is have "number withheld".

[Brian Gaff]

No, you have just found yourself on a list. Do you not have truecall on your phone or one of those telecom based call blockers? I don't think iI could survive without such a device these days. On the mobiile an app that keeps track of this and intercepts calls before ringing the phone would be great to have too, however I suspect tht the way the phone part works means that nobody can write a kind of true call simulator for an I phone. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Yes indeed, Occasionally you hear a bit of a recorded call but the main folk hang up when asked for their names, I imagine they are getting the hang of what these things do and that the user is unaware of the call till they say their name and optionally hit a certain key.

Brian

[Davidm]

I was getting a couple a day. Three weeks ago I installed a trueCall Call Blocker, since then I've had none. Well pleased with it.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Brian Gaff was thinking very hard :

They all seem to use computer dialled calls and their computers are far to dumb to say their name and press #, so in the two or three years since I put the system in - not one single nuisance caller managed to get through to the point of my phones ringing.

The only nuisance I suffer now, is when I check the list of missed calls and try to ring them back. They are almost always spoofed numbers they have called me from.

My guess as to why I can go for weeks and months with not a single such call, then suddenly become flooded with them, is that the companies get caught, taken down, then like the phoenix they rise again to make millions of these calls, until they are taken down again. Difficult for the public to report them, when they spoof their numbers, but they have to present valid numbers to the telcos - who ought to take more action to stop them.

[Harry Bloomfield]

It happens that Brian Gaff formulated :

The later versions of ios, include the means to block certain numbers. trouble is, they spoof their numbers so they change several time a day.

[Harry Bloomfield]

harry submitted this idea :

You can do that, on an individual call basis by typing 141 before the number you are calling.

[Bill Wright]

Blessed as I am with a vivid imagination I let them prise from me increasingly lurid and improbable details of the accident. Eventually they ring off.

Bill

[Paul Herber]

I had one of these calls a few years ago. I told them I'd died in the accident.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Oh that is good!

I'll remember that one.

[Brian Reay]

Tell them you need to get the details and leave them waiting. Pop back now and then saying ?still looking- it is slow on crutches ? etc. My record is

65 min. I cooked dinner during that call.

[spuorgelgoog]

You mean they didn't believe the one about you getting stuck in the wheeliebin?

Owain