"TalkTalk" scam calls daily, what can be done?

FoxEye · 25 Jul 2017 at 11:38

It's getting ridiculous now. We're getting >2, up to ~6 calls throughout the day from Indian "TalkTalk" or "Your ISP" scammers.

Telephone Pref thingy doesn't work coz they're overseas callers.

What can be done to block them? Or isn't it possible?

One of the buggers even had the gaul to tell me "You are very stupid" when I told him I wasn't falling for it. The cheek! Phones me up to steal my monies, then calls me an idiot for failing to be scammed. ***hat.

PiKe · 25 Jul 2017 at 11:40

Since I lead them on and managed to syskey one of them (he gave me his teamviewer ID and password?!), they haven't been back in touch.

FoxEye · 25 Jul 2017 at 11:42

PiKe said:
Since I lead them on and managed to syskey one of them (he gave me his teamviewer ID and password?!), they haven't been back in touch.

The sheer volume of calls implies it has to be more than one outfit/group, surely.

Captain · 25 Jul 2017 at 11:48

House phone? Disconnect it. We haven't had a house phone for 10 years.

Nasher · 25 Jul 2017 at 11:49

We used to get these at work and just troll them, they stopped eventually. Which is a slight shame because it was fun

But yea, I don't even have a land line any more. Just cable internet and mobile. It's easy to filter them out on a mobile, just don't answer unknown numbers.

Rannoch · 25 Jul 2017 at 11:53

Perhaps a phone with BT call guardian. My parents have one and they have a phone line with Virgin Media.

FoxEye · 25 Jul 2017 at 11:54

Clov!s said:
House phone? Disconnect it. We haven't had a house phone for 10 years.

It's not for me - Mum uses it a lot. And she's of the generation who just aren't going to use a mobile phone, ever.

For me the home phone is (mostly) just a pain in the ass.

PiKe · 25 Jul 2017 at 11:56

Get BT Callminder?

dodg3rman · 25 Jul 2017 at 11:58

2 ways for me

1. I blow a whistle loudly down the phone for anyone who is cold calling

2. I then block the number using the 14258 and ** after the call

Nasher · 25 Jul 2017 at 12:03

Do what this guy did:

LeMson · 25 Jul 2017 at 12:04

I kept one of the line for 40 mins, in the end he was shouting obscenities down the phone, never had any since, they are there to make money, if you waste their time it would be pointless phoning back, so they haven't I guess

Liquidfox · 25 Jul 2017 at 12:13

dodg3rman said:
2. I then block the number using the 14258 and ** after the call

For £60 a year surely there's better alternatives?

dowie · 25 Jul 2017 at 12:15

Liquidfox said:
For £60 a year surely there's better alternatives?

yeah just buy a device to filter your calls

mmj_uk · 25 Jul 2017 at 12:16

Just take the phone off the hook for a few days they might strike you off the list.

GSXRMovistar · 25 Jul 2017 at 12:17

Just buy a BT call guardian phone, zero problem calls since using one for the last few years.

ron3003 · 25 Jul 2017 at 12:31

Is this a BT landline? Log in to My BT online and add the BT Call Protect package (it's free to all BT customers) and block spammers by dialling 1572 every time you've received a call. If it's your mums phone then just block all international calls via Call Protect unless she has family members ringing her from abroad. You can also block unknown numbers but sometimes Doctors, Govt Depts etc will be hiding their number so be aware of this.

FoxEye · 25 Jul 2017 at 12:39

ron3003 said:
Is this a BT landline? Log in to My BT online and add the BT Call Protect package (it's free to all BT customers) and block spammers by dialling 1572 every time you've received a call. If it's your mums phone then just block all international calls via Call Protect unless she has family members ringing her from abroad. You can also block unknown numbers but sometimes Doctors, Govt Depts etc will be hiding their number so be aware of this.

TalkTalk, soon to be Sky.

pastymuncher · 25 Jul 2017 at 13:22

Sky has a similar facility as well although I have a BT8500 call blocking phone so don't use Sky's filter. We used to be bombarded with cold calls until we bought the BT8500 in the New Year sales in 2015 and haven't had a single one since. It's just too much hassle for them to go through the procedure plus it blocks the most common numbers automatically. It can be set to block all international calls as well which is what I have done. The BT8600 is the latest version and can be had for £45 for a single or £59 for a double (there are triple and quad versions as well).

RoyMi6 · 25 Jul 2017 at 14:21

Despite the shoddy looking website we've used these for my grandparents: https://www.truecall.co.uk/product-p/cb1.htm

Best thing to do is set it up so that by default it blocks every number other than what's on a whitelist you create. If it's an unknown number they get a message saying "we are monitoring our calls - please leave your name after the tone". The house phone then rings and you get a wee message saying "'BOB' is trying to call you - press star to let them through".

The built in blacklist means that 90% of calls are automatically rejected before that and the other 9% of scammers don't bother trying. You might get the odd chancer, but they're much fewer and farther between. In addition, you can then block the number so it gets automatically rejected in the future.

I think it's actually the Truecall software that runs on the BT phones - think they started working together at some point.

FoxEye · 25 Jul 2017 at 14:40

Cheers for all the suggestions. We need a new phone anyhow, so will look into going down that route.