These people have been targeting this area for many weeks,mainly because the folk are elderly,I felt left out as I did not receive one until a week ago,as mentioned in the post the numbers are withheld or similar

One of the joys of having a Fritzbox is you can block calls with no number along with the ones with numbers who call to tell you about your accident claim, the fact you are with TPS means nothing to these people

......the fact you are with TPS means nothing to these people

If they are calling from outside the UK (which many/most are) then the TPS service cannot block them

My favourite is to keep agreeing with them, and when they think you are coming along, they will direct your attention to the keyboard, and the Windows function key sitting in between Ctrl and Alt at bottom left of keyboard.

At this point I inform them that I have a custom keyboard, and this space is occupied by a red light, which is now flashing.

This usually makes them pause, until they decide they misheard and try again.

Then I say, well, you're a microsoft expert, right, so you know what the red flashing light means ?

When they eventually have to acknowledge the question, even if it isn't in their script, that's when I tell them it means..
"the phone is ringing, and some lying £$%^&*( "£$% is trying to scam me for money."

What was even funnier, one of them was really shocked by this, and informed me:
"you are a bad man, you will go to hell"

Talk about moral relativism...

Edited by bathsheba666 (Wed 16-May-12 11:47:12)

In reply to a post by bathsheba666:

My favourite is to keep agreeing with them, and when they think you are coming along, they will direct your attention to the keyboard, and the Windows function key sitting in between Ctrl and Alt at bottom left of keyboard.

I sometimes play along like that, and can usually string it out for a few more minutes with confusion about which key they are referring to.

At which point I ask innocently "Does it matter that I'm using a Mac?"

"Click" from the other end

Edited by billford (Wed 16-May-12 11:53:47)

These people seem to know that the phone number has a computer connected to it. It might be interesting if a poll of those who have received such calls as to who their telcoms/service providers are is conducted.
I've known many people who have received such calls and in almost every case, two ISP's are involved. What's more interesting is that they have called their ISP's call centres in the months leading up to the calls.

That doesn't surprise me. Were their call centres in India?

To be fair, it seems to be individuals in the call centre making a quick buck by selling user data rather than the ISPs themselves.

Well i have never had one of these calls, and now I am feeling left out.

I've never had one either.

Actually calling your telephone provider and getting the number for these people and reporting to the police may be a good idea, as they can get the Regulatory body for the industry aware of the situation and may be able to get something sorted

In reply to a post by TrishaH:

More recently, if it's 'number witheld' or 'unavailable', I usually lift up the reciever and then hang up.

I bought a box off Amazon that solves that problem. It can be programmed to reject specific numbers but by default it rejects any call without an ID. It cost me £30 but it's been worth it.