legs 49 Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 If I don't recognise the number I don't answer, if it is important they would leave a message I would think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaffa1 Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Done that, it doesn't make much difference to be honest. I don't think it stops numbers calling from abroad. Did you pay a fee? I've used these , costs £35 . Peace at last. We shouldn't have to do this , the government should do something about all these foreign calls harassing us. I did used to swear at them because they deserved it as they were invading my privacy. If any calls do get through you report them to this company and they deal with them, I've never had to do that yet thankfully it seems to work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medusa Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Done that, it doesn't make much difference to be honest. I don't think it stops numbers calling from abroad. It doesn't stop people calling from abroad and the effect that it has on people calling from in the UK takes some time to work, and that's measured in months rather than weeks, purely because of the time between when people buy mailing lists and use them. I registered for the TPS for my home phone about 18 years ago and my mobile about 10 years ago, and other than a very occasional phone call from abroad and a few texts here and there I can honestly say that I don't get sales calls. I have to add to this that I'm not in the phone book, or on the edited electoral register and my phone has its identity protected so it never leaves a number which can be picked up by number recognition software. I also routinely specify to anybody I do business with that I don't want to go on mailing lists and I don't give my home number to those businesses with whom I do need to communicate. It is possible to gradually reduce your number of calls, but it takes time and lots of different steps. ---------- Post added 09-02-2013 at 16:18 ---------- i am getting seriously fed up of this now, had the house phone cut off 4 years ago due to 40 - 50 calls per day, the phone was always answered as it could have been a job. i now get calls and texts on a daily basis on my mobile probably 3-4 of each usually monday to friday. the text messages arent bad, but the call are relentless. Unfortunately there's little that can be done about that because the bots that scan websites, forums and the like to harvest potential phone numbers are going to find your number very easily and those who call from outside the country aren't bound by the rules that regulate the businesses who operate only inside the UK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esme Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 i am getting seriously fed up of this now, had the house phone cut off 4 years ago due to 40 - 50 calls per day, the phone was always answered as it could have been a job. i now get calls and texts on a daily basis on my mobile probably 3-4 of each usually monday to friday. the text messages arent bad, but the call are relentless. If you are getting spam texts there is a number you can forward them to. Don't reply to them whatever you do, just forward it to your service providers spam number Shortcodes for service providers are O2 - 7726 T-Mobile - 7726 Vodaphone - 87726 Three - 37726 Orange - 7726 If enough people report spam texts then the service provider will do something to stop them For the spam calls on your mobile, turn off the forwarding to voicemail if you don't answer, and add the number to your contact list with some suitable name such as SPAM, then when you get a call if it's international or one of the spam numbers, don't answer it, they will eventually give up If the spam calls are a major problem, report them as nuisance calls and get your number changed ---------- Post added 09-02-2013 at 16:59 ---------- Is there any number i can call to block these nuisance calls[tele sales ect] they are driving me nuts. Had six yesterday two of them were trying to tell me there was a problem with my computer which they could fix for £10 and then they asked for my bank details. needless to say i hung up. But some people must fall for these scams or it wouldn't be profitable for them to do it.I know someone who fell for that, she gave them remote access to her PC, and they did some work and charged her £60. However when she restarted the machine the following day she found they disabled the USB ports on startup which meant the keyboard wouldn't work and the machine could only be accessed over a network, then they set a password so only they could access the machine. She couldn't even get into safe mode. They called shortly afterwards and demanded another £250 before they would release the machine. She ended up scrapping the machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elmambo Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 They are so annoying. Never give out your phone number especially your mobile, unless you have to. Subscribe to the TPS and you will be offered silent call blocking as well. As has been pointed out this will not stop calls from abroad ( where they seem mostly to emanate from) You can buy a call blocker (ebay?) these work by asking the caller to press a key to connect. This will defeat most automatic dialing machines. If you have modern cordless phones you can block any number. It will not stop the first call, but does stop subsequent ones. This is what I have been doing with some success. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gormenghast Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 I ask them for the password to continue the call. There isn't one of course, but it winds them up a bit. Since doing this I've had fewer nuisance calls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spooferman Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Is there any number i can call to block these nuisance calls[tele sales ect] they are driving me nuts. Had six yesterday two of them were trying to tell me there was a problem with my computer which they could fix for £10 and then they asked for my bank details. needless to say i hung up. But some people must fall for these scams or it wouldn't be profitable for them to do it. dial this number follow the prompts, 28 days the calls will stop BT preference service 0845 07 007 07 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onewheeldave Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 If you are getting spam texts there is a number you can forward them to. Don't reply to them whatever you do, just forward it to your service providers spam number Shortcodes for service providers are O2 - 7726 T-Mobile - 7726 Vodaphone - 87726 Three - 37726 Orange - 7726 If enough people report spam texts then the service provider will do something to stop them Will they? How do you know this- how do you know it's not just a typical company fob-off to placate customers and that the company, like many others, do nothing whatsoever to tackle the issue? If you do have some evidence that the phone companies actually take notice of these reports, then please do share it with us. I think that if the public felt confident that by reporting the texts, something would be done, then they'd probably report them. That's blindingly obvious- customers find these unwanted texts incredibly annoying: of course they'd report them, if they thought the report would be acted on. The phone companies should maintain a webpage detailing all the reports, the numbers of the offending companies, and, the penalties/punishments those companies have received: then, customers would report the texts. As it is, they don't, cos they think it's a waste of time. The fact that the phone companies don't offer such feedback, is, to me, an indication that they don't really care about dealing with these spammers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esme Posted February 12, 2013 Share Posted February 12, 2013 Will they? How do you know this- how do you know it's not just a typical company fob-off to placate customers and that the company, like many others, do nothing whatsoever to tackle the issue? If you do have some evidence that the phone companies actually take notice of these reports, then please do share it with us. I think that if the public felt confident that by reporting the texts, something would be done, then they'd probably report them... Fair point. It's not the phone service providers that are driving this and making the prosecutions, it's the Information Commissioners Office who are informed by the reports made to service providers. The ICO has the following advice for unsolicited spam texts from organisations that are generating random telephone numbers and texting them to generate leads. http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_the_public/topic_specific_guides/marketing/texts.aspx How can I stop receiving messages from these organisations? You can report them to your network operator, who may be able to prevent further spam from the originating number. Unfortunately as the numbers often change, your network provider cannot guarantee to stop all unsolicited messages. You can either contact your network operator’s customer services, or forward spam text messages to 7726 (If you are a Vodafone user, forward to 87726 instead). The ICO's latest actions http://www.ico.gov.uk/enforcement/action/texts.aspxIn our latest action we served two monetary penalties totaling £440,000 on two owners of a marketing company which has sent millions of unlawful spam texts over the past three years. We also intend to take other enforcement action against the pair for a breach of related legislation The ICO is also currently considering issuing penalties to three other companies for breaching the regulations as we continue our crackdown on the illegal marketing industry. We are not identifying these companies now, as this could jeopardise our investigations and evidence gathering.Further if you are receiving unsolicited and unwanted premium rate texts that you pay to download, the ICO recommends contacting PhonePayPlus Here are some more links I found you may be interested in Blue Stream Mobile fined for porn scam Privacy watchdog fines text spammers £440,000 - this seems to be the same story reported on the ICO website Crackdown on spam text message firms - BBC Video So action is being taken, but if they don't get reported in the first place then it will never stop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
llamatron Posted February 12, 2013 Share Posted February 12, 2013 BT do a phone that you can set to only allow known numbers through... or you can block foreign calls: http://www.btplc.com/news/articles/showarticle.cfm?articleid={96214bfb-17d1-44ab-af6c-065ab08f34a3} Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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