While the intrusive and irritating nature of a cold call can infuriate the masses, there have been quite a few times in the past when I have tried to treat the unwelcome interruption with a bit of humour. How? Well when I see that the Caller ID has been withheld again, I resort to answering the phone in a way that could lead to an interesting conversation. Here are some of my favourite ones so far:

“Hampshire Constabulary Incident Room, DI Smith speaking,” (a personal favourite of mine).

“Surbiton Pizza Hut, is your order for collection or delivery?” (in the typical teenage tone).

“Cyber and Communications Crime Unit,” (always goes down well!)

“PPI Compensation Hotline, can I help you?” (get them with their own game).

“Thank you for calling ‘The Smithson Clinic’. To book an appointment, press 1.” (usually followed by a long list of different fake options).

What ends up happening next? Most of the time, the caller returns the handset within a split second but sometimes, comedy gold ensues! So next time you see the all-too-familiar ‘Caller ID Withheld’, pick a persona and see how it goes.