Category: Cold Calls

Dealing with telephone cold callers

April 4, 2016

The Microsoft Support Scam

Your receive a call from someone with important information for you – your PC has a virus.

The caller claims to be from Microsoft or another famous computer company or a bank or Internet company and they are calling you to help. I remember that this scam was popular about 12 – 18 months ago but seems to be becoming prevalent again.

Next, they try to convince you to install some special software to remove the virus, but it will actually allow them to access your passwords and account details and perhaps control your PC. Sometimes they charge you for the software or for their ‘help’. Charges between of up to £300 have been reported to Action Fraud. Then they tell you the problem is solved but in fact your PC never had the virus and they may take more and larger sums of money from your credit card.

Legitimate computer companies, broadband providers and banks will never call you out of the blue to say your computer needs repairing or ask for remote access to your device. If you do get such a call, don’t follow their instructions, don’t pay anything.

It’s a scam.

Never divulge your password or PIN to anyone by phone and don’t believe unknown callers.

April 1, 2016

Annoy the Cold Callers by Asking Personal Questions

These callers have a script to follow – it tells them the questions to ask and how to respond to your answers.

But they don’t have a script for when you ask other questions – personal questions.

So, you could for example, tell them you are busy at the moment but will call them back at home that evening and ask for their home phone number. You wont get it – unless they fancy you of course.

If they say they can’t give out a home number then that leads in to the comment “I presume you don’t want anyone bothering you at home, right? Now you know how I feel!”

Or how about this example:-

“while I’ve got you on the line, I’ll just ask you a couple of very brief questions?

Where are you based?

Who do you work for?

What computer systems do you use?

What is your name?

What is the name of your manager?

etc.

Its amazing how people who want to know so much about you are so unwilling to give you information about themselves.

So, annoy the cold callers by asking them personal questions they don’t want to answer.

March 30, 2016

PPI Cold Calls

According to figures from Citizens Advice, 30 million people, or two thirds of British adults, have already received messages about PPI – and 98 per cent did not give permission to be contacted.

Richard Lloyd, executive director of Which?, said: ” People can use our free online claims tool to get in touch with their bank if they think they have a PPI claim.” Do not deal with the PPI claims companies that keep cold calling.

A couple of years ago there was a huge number of PPI calls – many homes were being called several times a day, every day.

That’s reduced a lot so nowadays but there are still some companies calling though not many.

The remaining companies often use computers to call you and relay a message asking you to press 1 to speak to someone. Unfortunately if you don’t press 1 then the computer will phone again and again – maybe in a day’s time, maybe in a week’s time. If you have the time and patience then you can press 1 speak to someone and demand they stop phoning you. Maybe that works with some of the cold calling companies.

We shouldn’t be plagued by these companies. The sooner PPI is finished the better.

March 25, 2016

Doreen Deals With Cold Callers

Doreen has strong views on cold callers. She says:- I tend to regard these people as invading my space and I think that more should be done to stamp out cold calling.

We are registered with the Telephone Preference Service., I get fewer calls than I used to but there are still some cold callers. I like to tell them THIS IS A BARRED LINE GET OFF IT!

I do say it quite curtly! If they don’t put the phone down straightaway then my follow-up is I will get your company fined. That stops them.

Before we registered on the Telephone Preference Service, I used to have several strategies for dealing with cold callers. One of my favourites was telling them they had rung a crime scene and I needed their number for further action! That stopped that call dead.

March 23, 2016

Who Called Me?

If you’re getting cold calls and want to know who they are from then this website may have the answer. who-called.co.uk

You type in the phone number and see who it is. Sometimes, as they don’t have all the numbers used by cold callers.

The website also lists recent numbers people checked up on and lists some recent scams you should be aware of.

Many cold callers block their ID so you can’t know the number they are calling from, but if you have the type of phone that lets you block callers – then block all calls where the caller ID is withheld.

Or alternatively, a simple remedy to caller withheld is just don’t answer the call.

There are other website that also let you do reverse telephone number lookups, such as

https://whose-number-is-this.com

http://whocallsme.com

https://who–called.com/

http://www.thiscaller.co.uk/

So, if you want to know who’s calling you and they won’t say – then try one of these websites.

March 19, 2016

Time Wasters

Time-Wasters. These are the people who send out sales emails or make cold sales calls that are inappropriate and a waste of time for you and them. If only they had put in a tiny bit of effort then they wouldn’t have chosen to bother you.

There is an overlap between time-wasters and spammers and cold callers but the difference is that the time-wasters are usually harmless and should have known better.

Some examples from a couple of days of emails and calls to Brooklands Radio station.

Phone calls asking you to answer survey questions. What A waste of time.
Automated PPI calls. Total waste of time.
A caller wanting to speak to the fleet manager. We’re a volunteer radio station – there is no fleet.
Emails about card processing equipment designed for restaurants. We are not a restaurant.
Email about expediting our customer debts. We’re a volunteer organisation – we don’t have customer debts.
Email about an IT support company opening a new office in North England looking for local clients. We’re in Surrey, not North England.
Email from an American logistics company wanting to help us to move our factory production lines. We’re a Radio station – no production lines and even if we did have, then what use is a company that operates only in America?

And so the list goes on. Dumb people who should have put in a little thought rather than phoning or emailing random people who could not possibly want their products or services.