I get quite a few, and during many of those I manage to show to the unfortunate person having to make it for a pittance that the market research/survey is clearly a lie by their employers. I then ask to be removed from the call list.

I hadn't realised that it is technically legal when a legitimate survey. But those can usually be recognised by the opening being the name of a company I know of or even have dealings with.

Amusingly I had a marketing/survey type call from EE the other day - I recently took out a mobile phone contract with them. When the caller asked if I was happy with the service I responded I was glad she had rung as I did have a few problems.

She asked for more info.

I started to tell her about having kept my number when transferring to EE from O2 but being unable to ....

"Sorry Sir, I'm calling from the A, A, not EE. It's my accent, I'm from Newcastle".

Whereupon we both had a chuckle and mutual apologies ensued.

In reply to a post by David_W:

]The legislation behind the TPS (Regulation 21 of The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (SI 2003/2426)) only applies to "unsolicited calls for direct marketing purposes". Market research calls are therefore not covered by the TPS unless there is a direct marketing element to the call alongside the market research element. There are organisations who try to dress up a marketing call as a sham survey, though I have no idea how common this is.

Yes the problem is our useless politicians who did not include market research type calls in the recent change in the law.

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

In reply to a post by David_W:

]The legislation behind the TPS (Regulation 21 of The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (SI 2003/2426)) only applies to "unsolicited calls for direct marketing purposes". Market research calls are therefore not covered by the TPS unless there is a direct marketing element to the call alongside the market research element. There are organisations who try to dress up a marketing call as a sham survey, though I have no idea how common this is.

Yes the problem is our useless politicians who did not include market research type calls in the recent change in the law.

Market research as in 'do you receive your TV by satellite?'

In reply to a post by somerset:

Market research as in 'do you receive your TV by satellite?'

To which I would reply "No, they brought it in a van".

In reply to a post by Cammy:

In reply to a post by somerset:

Market research as in 'do you receive your TV by satellite?'

To which I would reply "No, they brought it in a van".

In my case they said they were calling on behalf of my bank. I was tempted to say that I did not own one. I have a strong dislike for divulging any financial information to unsolicited calls.

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

In my case they said they were calling on behalf of my bank. I was tempted to say that I did not own one. I have a strong dislike for divulging any financial information to unsolicited calls.

I like it when either my bank or my mobile phone provider phones me and asks me for my password where I say why do you need to know that, where they say its so that they know they are talking to the right person.

I just laugh and reply why should I give you any of my security questions when you called me, so obviously its me, so I then say what's your security question and how do I know your who you say you are.

Where they reply well we called you, so I say well when I call my bank or phone provider I have to prove to them that I am who I say I am with my security question and answers etc, this goes on for about 20 odd mins, and most of the time they just give up.

Just makes me laugh really.

Like I also got woke up at 4am this morning, by one.

Hello Good morning, is that Paul what ever, which I reply yes.

They then say are you ok, due to you was in a road traffic accident.

Bit miffed being woke up at 4am I replied I am fine but how are you due to if you keep calling at this time of the f***ing morning you will be in a road traffic accident where it when all quiet and then they hung up.

A few weeks before that it was PPI and yes from the same number.

The classic ones was the caller pretending to be my phone provider trying to sell me a broadband USB dongle to go along with my phone contract with them.

I told them that I wasn't interested due to already having 2 broadband connections here where they asked how much do I pay which I told them nothing, do to my brother company that he works for when he lived here paid for it, where he replied well I cannot beat that price and hung up.

So of these calls just make me laugh.

Paul

No point reporting half of them to TPS as TPS just say they don't cover surveys.

The other half of calls are also no goo in reports to TPS as the numbers are usually spoofed, what appears on the display isn't a number you can call them back on.

My MP has been involved with a cold calling campaign but they can only deal with those genuine companies where the calling number is real. They can do nothing about overseas call centres who give caller ID numbers like 01020304 or even ones which look genuine.

Ofcom need to look closer at the way such calls are handled by the telephone network. BT and others can tell that a call originated outside the UK, so should bar it from showing a UK number. They should also stop all such unsolicited calls to numbers registered with TPS or are ex-directory.

I bought some Panasonic DECT phones with call barring, but you can only have 30 numbers barred. I have to keep un-barring numbers to add new ones. I've since left that phone with a recorded message to advise that calls are being screened, got myself a VOIP number and set that up for family and friends instead. For the odd genuine call I get to the old number I don't mind calling someone back if they leave a message.

If there was some code we could dial to denote spoof number calls then this would flag up an issue with the service operators and they could add a network bar to these, hopefully reducing the unwanted calls ?

I like it when either my bank or my mobile phone provider phones me and asks me for my password where I say why do you need to know that, where they say its so that they know they are talking to the right person.

I just laugh and reply why should I give you any of my security questions when you called me, so obviously its me, so I then say what's your security question and how do I know your who you say you are.

I had something similar some time back. They wanted to talk to me about new products I could have but before they could they needed to confirm I was me. I said I wouldn't give them the details as they rang me. They said that means they couldn't talk to me. I said I was fine with that as I didn't want to talk to them in the first place.

It took a few minutes for the penny to drop with them that I didn't care what they were trying to peddle and therefore had no incentive to provide them with my security details.

In reply to a post by ian72:

I like it when either my bank or my mobile phone provider phones me and asks me for my password where I say why do you need to know that, where they say its so that they know they are talking to the right person.

I just laugh and reply why should I give you any of my security questions when you called me, so obviously its me, so I then say what's your security question and how do I know your who you say you are.

I had something similar some time back. They wanted to talk to me about new products I could have but before they could they needed to confirm I was me. I said I wouldn't give them the details as they rang me. They said that means they couldn't talk to me. I said I was fine with that as I didn't want to talk to them in the first place.

It took a few minutes for the penny to drop with them that I didn't care what they were trying to peddle and therefore had no incentive to provide them with my security details.

Yeah, a few years ago I got a call, got me at an off day so I said that I would be right back laid the phone down and took a long walk to my local shops came back an hour and half later to find that they hung up, call display showed then waiting for 45 mins, now that's determination and dedication LOL.

I had a few of these in the past, where they call you pretending that they are Microsoft and that we have a slow PC due to a virus, the trick here is to play dumb but at the same time not to release any personal information and to keep them on the phone as long as possible, and just before it gets to the point where think you are about to run or open up you PC for remote connections etc you then say to them "do you think I am stupid" and watch their voice change to a slightly stuttery one.

Very funny when that happens.

The way I see it phone providers should be held responsible for all the call their network makes, then that operator would then be forced to start to do something about it or run the risk of being fined.

We already have a VoIP Server setup so we could just transfer our phone number over to that once we get FTTP and have the VoIP server forward all calls to an answer service and only allow through family, friends and numbers we know , I think that is doable

Paul

That number is NOT market research, it is the usual crooks posing as Microsoft trying for access to your PC.