Unwanted spam/marketing calls on landline!

Swifty55

Swifty55

Swifty55

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All of a sudden after many years, I've started receiving automated calls about boiler schemes/PPI and just now had a call informing me that I have a problem with my Windows installation. Strung them on for about 5 minutes before telling him that I will slit his throat if he calls me again - that followed with a swift 'sorry' and then he hung up. :rolleyes::D

Anyway - how am I able to opt out of all this ****? I've seen this; http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/index.html

Is this the only way? Anyone done it and does it work?

Cheers.
 
I have been having this on my work phone over the last month or so which is unbelievable.

I even requested they remove my details, they obliged and I still get phone calls as they share everything between third parties.

Can you get in contact with your provider to block them?
 
Swifty55 said:
All of a sudden after many years, I've started receiving automated calls about boiler schemes/PPI and just now had a call informing me that I have a problem with my Windows installation. Strung them on for about 5 minutes before telling him that I will slit his throat if he calls me again - that followed with a swift 'sorry' and then he hung up. :rolleyes::D

Anyway - how am I able to opt out of all this ****? I've seen this; http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/index.html

Is this the only way? Anyone done it and does it work?

Cheers.
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I think the TPS service only works in the UK or Europe. Usually when you receive calls from people regarding "windows installation" be very careful it is 99% a scam most of the time and the TPS service to my knowledge will not block them or will have no effect on these people as firstly they are not registered companies, heck they aren't even a company. A bunch of people who go out there way to scam people as soon as they get your CC or DD details from you.

I've seen it happen many times, usually I just tell I don't have a PC and they get confused and I just hang up. I even reported it to the police as one call I had received started getting verbally abusive in his native tongue, I did understand him slightly and could tell he was swearing at me and I started swearing back but yeah the police couldn't really do anything as they were calling through Skype and hiding their phone numbers plus they are mostly calling from India.
 
My dad was so annoyed at this when he retired (ex phone company employee as well so is aware of how little they care about this) but he went down the route of using "TrueCall - The Nuisance Call Blocker" - £100 from the forest company.

He's so pleased with them he bought a whole bunch to sell on at cost (no profit) to people in our town. Gave a whole bunch (25 I think) to the local rotary club as well that give them free to local OAP's (they give them back when they 'don't need them any more').

While I'm sure there are other cheap alternatives the TrueCall really is quite good.

In addition to having a blacklist it automatically answers the phone for unknown callers then asks them to leave their name. Only then does your phone ring and you can choose to block or let them through.

It's great for OAP's as it means they don't have to have the discussion "asking" them to go away, and if they try to ring back they're automatically blocked anyway.

You can add a whitelist so your friends and family don't even know you've got it installed.


My dad often brings them along to wee craft fairs and stuff and sets up a stall. He's got this awesome printout showing the number of calls my Gran used to get and the number it automatically blocked. She then replied to an advert in the paper about hearing aids and the numbers went through the roof (form about 10 blocked calls a week to about 90).

Still, between automatic blacklists and being presented with the recorded message of "We are monitoring our calls. Please leave your name after the tone" not a SINGLE cold caller got through. She didn't even know of the increase in cold callers. For her this was great as it meant she was never getting up out of her seat.


So, yeah, long story short, even an ex telephone company employee thinks the best thing on the market is a 3rd party device. If you're interested I can recommend the TrueCall but feel free to look at others.
 
The TPS doesn't work as nobody bother's with it and most of these calls are from overseas anyway. What I did was buy a BT8500 call blocking phone. It uses BT's call guardian (true call) to basically vet each call. It has 200 of the most well known numbers already blocked plus you can add more. You can also add numbers for family and friends etc which get straight through. I got the twin pack from Currys for £54.95 and have not had a single nuisance call since getting it.
 
Swifty55 said:
All of a sudden after many years, I've started receiving automated calls about boiler schemes/PPI and just now had a call informing me that I have a problem with my Windows installation. Strung them on for about 5 minutes before telling him that I will slit his throat if he calls me again - that followed with a swift 'sorry' and then he hung up. :rolleyes::D
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Good man, i have done the same:)

Deep said:
You have some issues
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Good issues, nothing wrong with saying that on the phone to these leeches:)
 
pastymuncher said:
The TPS doesn't work as nobody bother's with it and most of these calls are from overseas anyway. What I did was buy a BT8500 call blocking phone. It uses BT's call guardian (true call) to basically vet each call. It has 200 of the most well known numbers already blocked plus you can add more. You can also add numbers for family and friends etc which get straight through. I got the twin pack from Currys for £54.95 and have not had a single nuisance call since getting it.
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Nice! It's good to see BT taking this up because my Dad was in direct talks with the TrueCall guy in the past telling him he should be in contact with telco's trying to do exactly this!

Those phones look like great value if you're getting TrueCall built in although one review does state the sound quality isn't that great. How are your BT8500 handsets and how good are the recordings of the callers names?

Energize said:
Yes.
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I'm genuinely interested - what telephone company lets you do this or are you using a 3rd party piece of hardware?
 
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