I keep getting calls about "my recent accident".. How can I escape?

[fib_112358]

I receive about 1 call per week on average from a recorded message or call centre about PPI claims or about my recent accident suggesting that I am entitled to compensation... They are nuisance calls and so every time I press "9" or ask to be removed from their database. I also block the numbers on my phone from calling again and I now have over 20 of these numbers in my address book saved as spam and blocked (should I post these number here?)

I now however, get a lot of calls from "unknown"..

How can I get my number removed from these databases permanently to avoid getting these annoying calls?

[kids]

One of the reasons that TPS in not as effective as we would wish is that they have no control over phone calls originating outside of the UK.

When you receive a call and block the number you see or hear you are in many cases not blocking that number. A lot of the telemarkers use software that spoofs the callers' number.

I am involved with a small charity and we often get offers of active phone numbers which cost around £250 for 25,000 numbers. The best thing is to never ask to be unsubscribed as you are just validating your number and then you go onto anothers spammers list.

[fib_112358]

I just registered with TPS, took a total of 60 seconds. Most of the calls I get these days are from unknown or odd numbers like "+0000000000" (this is genuine caller id!) so not sure if it will reduce my calls. I guess I will need to ignore all unknown numbers. I might change my voice mail message to tell people I don't pick up unknown numbers so if they are genuine to leave a message for me. 🙂

I recently discovered that I can block contacts on my iphone so I save every spam number that has a caller ID to my address book as "Spam" then block all calls from "Spam".. This has worked well so far.

Thanks for all your advice... 

[tjgray2011]

Hey, didnt know that it is possible to have a "Spam" folder for callers numbers.

Is that a phone specific feature, or a network service?

[hrym]

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@fib_112358 wrote:

I recently discovered that I can block contacts on my iphone so I save every spam number that has a caller ID to my address book as "Spam" then block all calls from "Spam".. This has worked well so far.

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I've suggested that in the past.  Glad to hear it works!

[hrym]

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tjgray2011 wrote:Hyrm.. when you say "I have all my numbers registered with TPS and get very few cold calls".. does the time that you waste fielding the few that you still get, not annoy the living

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Tempting fate, but I don't think I've had a spam call for serveal months.   There's occasionally a raft of silent or incomprehensible calls from overseas call centres, but they usually give up after a while if all you do is hang up.   I haven't even had a "Hello, I'm a government grant advisor" one lately either.  I always told them they weren't (they may have been technically, but they weren't employed by the government and I told them so.   Short shrift goes a long way.

[Getafix]

On the Note 4 I just add it to the blocked number. In the last two days I have received call from 01301* and 01728*. Both ended when I answered with Recorded Message "Thankyou".

One of the place that number is got from is Comparison Website so don't give out your number there.

[fib_112358]

Hey, sorry I wasn't clear. How it works is every time I get a call from a spammer I save the number to my address book as if it was any other contact, I call that contact "spam". When the next spammer calls me from a different number I add this to my address book but this time I "add number to an existing contact" and choose "spam" again. Hence I now have 19 different phone numbers in my address book that are all under the name of "spam". I then block "spam" using the block contact feature on the iPhone. 🙂

[tjgray2011]

fib.. Pure genius.

Extending that technique, it would also be possible to compile a list of the phone numbers that would associate with calls FROM vodafone.  That way, you could be reasonably assured if you were called by one of them, that it was ok to "go through a few security questions".

What do you reckon?

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[fib_112358]

Yes.. or better still....

On reviewing the VF support pages, I discovered that I can stop VF calling me altogether...

"If you’d prefer not to receive any marketing-related calls from us, simply text STOP to 9774" :smileywink:

[tjgray2011]

Great minds, fib..

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