Tuesday 4 September 2012

Do you understand the word 'Scam'?

Those are the words my son advised me to say to the next caller - always with an Asian accent - asking if I want to save myself a lot of trouble with my computer.   I have lost count of the number of these calls I have received over the past few weeks, and have had three today.   My son dropped in on us just after the second one, so I tried his suggestion when the third call came and it worked like a charm - the caller disconnected immediately.  I'm sure I'm not the only person pestered with these calls and thought I would share what I hope is the way to stop them.  They are a scam, incase you don't know, though I'm probably the last person to find this out! 

No photos today.  Still busy gardening, sorting stuff out and watching the Paralympics.  No wonder I'm exhausted! 

I'll try to come up with something creative and interesting for my next post, but don't hold your breath!

10 comments:

The Weaver of Grass said...

What I find so annoying about these so called cold calls is that they usually occur during meal times. I just put the phone down immediately without saying a word - luckily we have a surname which they find quite hard to pronounce, so they give themselves away immediately.

diane.ca said...

It must be the same company that keeps calling me here in Canada.

Virginia said...

Aren't they a nuisance! And they ring on dinnertime. My husbnd teases them by asking all sorts of questions about how they know our computer needs work, and what kind of a computer do we have... etc... and because we've got a Mac, of course we don't fit their profile. Having wasted their time and put them off their prepared 'patter' he gets rid of them. Fun to listen to - if the dinner isn't getting cold!

Maggi said...

I found them so intrusive but since I subscribed to the telephone preference thingy I have had hardly any. When I do get the occasional one I just point out that I subscribe to this system and that what they are doing is illegal. They can't get off the phone quick enough and I suspect remove my number pretty quickly

Heather said...

We are ex-directory and on the telephone preference thing so I don't know how they get our number. I think next time I'll just shout 'SCAM' and put the phone down, but I'm hoping there won't be a next time.

Julie said...

How very frustrating Heather. But thank goodness you didn't get taken in by them. I think some people are able to buy lists of phone numbers which they use for cold calling.

Carol Q said...

well done Heather. I'm sick to death of sales phone calls even though we're signed up to the telephone preference service. it doesn't seem to work!

Jane said...

So annoying - I've had the one where they call to say you have a virus and they can fix it if you just go to this website etc. I knew it was a scam after hearing an piece on Radio 4 so I spent a fun few minutes teasing them and asking for their address and phone number so I could call back for more help, then left the phone off the hook. Hope they had a big bill.

Ann Christy said...

Hi Heather
I had one of these calls early one morning and cut him off in his prime so he phoned me straight back.I cut him off again and he kept on ringing back. In the end I had to listen to what he has to say and I told him that there was nothing wrong with my computer and he hand no right to be ringing me. He was extremely persistent and I just could not get rid of as each time I cut him off he threatened to keep ringing me until I listened to everything he had to say. In the end I discovered that I have quite a talent for acting as I pretended to cry and told him he was distressing me and making me very ill!!!! He apologised and said he would take my name HIS list and put the phone down. needless to say we do still calls but I cut them off without actually saying anything to them. They are monsters!!!!

Anonymous said...

I've never had one of those calls. I signed up to http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/index.html

It is free and easy to register. If persistent callers do get through, blow a very loud whistle down the line, that stops them according to a chum of mine. Good luck.