Nuisance calls

[goneape]

May 2013: Minor bump from behind in heavy traffic from oldish woman failing to merge. 3rd party failed to stop, denied all knowledge and no witness, so it went down on my insurance as info only and no claim; matter is resolved as far as I am concerned. Premiums have been reasonable since, but miffed at the minor damage, but life goes on etc.

October 2014: I start getting, and am still getting, a high volume of calls from supposed legal companies with ambiguous names, e.g. 1st Choice, Fox Legal etc, asking me to clarify details of the accident and confirm my identity etc. Aware of a scam, and not intending to make any sort of PI claims, I've told them all to bugger off and blocked as many of them as I can on my handset.

January 2015: Calls from "private number" etc continue, 5 a day or so. I've spoken to my previous insurers and the brokers, who have said they do not disclose details like this to any third parties. 2 days ago I was able to anser one of these calls, and the lady told me the following:

My details given to them by the 3rd party's insurers; some 400 companies also have the same details and will all inevitably try to contact me - they just go through the list; there is £2500 allocated to my case that needs to be claimed, hence the reason for the calls. They won't stop until the money is claimed or the offer withdrawn. Sounds fishy to me, as liity was never established, an offer was never made and proceedings stopped by me when it looked like being an excess payout of £350 for £300 worth of damage.

I've just spoken to the 3rd party's insurers - they haven't disclosed anything. I'm not surprised, given they all follow (supposedly) the data protection act etc etc.

So where did these ambulance chasing s get my details from, and how do I get them to fk off and leave me alone? It's been going on for 3 months now, my phone is more or less continually winking the "someone has tried to contact you" light at me and it's getting beyond the pale. For example, I don't know if it's one of these berks trying to call me or a family member calling to say there's been some terrible calamity.

My first tack will be to get their names and contact phone numbers, then report to my previous insurer's fraud department; but is there anything more immediate I can do, especially givne that my handset doesn't show up the actual number so manual blocking isn't an option?

[PH]

Again, s.

[/PH]

Sorry about the profanity.

Edited by goneape on Thursday 8th January 17:59

[LoonR1]

A repairer who inspected your car. A dodgy claims handler at your insurer. Your insurer selling in details. A hire car company that hired off.

Oh and the TP denying the incident in 2013 is not sufficient for a claim to fail.

[505diff]

The fact you own a car and own a phone is enough for these people to start hounding you, just the same as PPI calls on the assumption you have a bank account, and the fact you have a landline, so have a roof over your head, so will want to save money on your gas and electric bills. Often these people are just chancers making thousands of calls a day and only need one 'hit' to make it worth while.

[Sheepshanks]

goneape said:

Aware of a scam, and not intending to make any sort of PI claims, I've told them all to bugger off and blocked as many of them as I can on my handset.

Did you tell them that you had had an accident?

They might have got your details from somewhere, but they do also call people at random. Same as PPI, Sky insurance, computer virus, hearing loss etc.

If you slip up and intimate you have any of those things they then sell your details to other companies.

[TooMany2cvs]

505diff said:

The fact you own a car and own a phone is enough for these people to start hounding you

Even the car is irrelevant. They phone up, with a very very vague story, which the OP then fills the details in on unwittingly. They then continue phoning, on the basis that they have a live one.

[goneape]

The odd thing was the first few got the date right which gave it a veneer of credibility. I told them politely to do one and since they had a real phone number, blocked them. Since then there have been dates mentioned which mean nothing.

[lbc]

505diff said:

chancers making thousands of calls a day and only need one 'hit' to make it worth while.

The same applies to mail shots in the post.

Anyone that has inside knowledge of sales will tell you this is true.

If it didn't work, they would not do it.

A call centre operator on £7.50 an hour probably has 90 seconds to secure a deal or move onto the next call, so 30-40 calls per hour per operator is bound to get some hits.

[silentbrown]

Telephone Preference Service? May not fix them all, but it's **always** a good idea. http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/index.html

[t400ble]

New phone number?

[goneape]

Yes, I'm on TPS. Fat lot of good it is! Perhaps unfair criticism. All's been fine until about October when all this started up. That's the other odd thing, the sudden start up. Almost as if someone had sold some data to some dodgy ambulance chasers database. ..

[paintman]

Are you registered with the domestic TPS or Corporate TPS? If the latter you need to renew annually.

[Who me ?]

Mostly it's a fishing trip. But stop getting upset. Answer a few, play them along and without giving anything ( or as little as possible, but make it fictitious), find out the company and as much as possible. By then you could have wasted at least five minutes of their time (@ £7.5/hr, that's cost them). Then comes the crunch, ask them if they know about the requirements of TPS.Usually it's a legal requirement to consult TPS lists before calling. I then remind them of the Data Protection ( telephony ) Act and penalties. It only applies to firms ,but if you suggest it applies to the callers and since all calls are recorded on the Telephone company exchange database TPS can prove the call came from them and ask for the ID of the operator. Even with held calls can be traced as the number calling is forwarded to the last exchange( Doubtful if the likes of BT/Virgin could be bothered,but does the caller know this?.) You now require that your data is purged from their data base .That's at least ten minutes or a sixth of his hourly pay wasted without any commission.
Even if the firms name is not given , check out http://whocallsme.com/ or http://who-called.co.uk/ to get it and report the call to TPS, THEN check out the link to the ICO website and make a complaint there.
As for number display - it's great for seeing who's calling. SOME, possibly most now, work like a mobile- using the phone memory- store number and name and the name is displayed when they call .

[Squawk1066]

My elderly parents were being plagued by cold calls, so I did some research and found Call Guardian from BT. They have not had a cold call since it was installed about 3 months ago. The caller has to tell the computer 'guardian' their name then the computer patches the person through. They only get people they know through now, I assume the auto dialers in call centers can't get round this.

I hope that helps and makes sense.

[DSLiverpool]

Call guardian is a stripped down version if TRUECALL (google it) it's the best call blocker that doesn't block the calls you want - give me a shout if you want one

[Red Devil]

goneape said:

May 2013: Minor bump from behind in heavy traffic from oldish woman failing to merge. 3rd party failed to stop, denied all knowledge and no witness, so it went down on my insurance as info only and no claim; matter is resolved as far as I am concerned. Premiums have been reasonable since, but miffed at the minor damage, but life goes on etc.

October 2014: I start getting, and am still getting, a high volume of calls from supposed legal companies with ambiguous names, e.g. 1st Choice, Fox Legal etc, asking me to clarify details of the accident and confirm my identity etc. Aware of a scam, and not intending to make any sort of PI claims, I've told them all to bugger off and blocked as many of them as I can on my handset.

January 2015: Calls from "private number" etc continue, 5 a day or so. I've spoken to my previous insurers and the brokers, who have said they do not disclose details like this to any third parties. 2 days ago I was able to anser one of these calls, and the lady told me the following:

My details given to them by the 3rd party's insurers; some 400 companies also have the same details and will all inevitably try to contact me - they just go through the list; there is £2500 allocated to my case that needs to be claimed, hence the reason for the calls. They won't stop until the money is claimed or the offer withdrawn. Sounds fishy to me, as liity was never established, an offer was never made and proceedings stopped by me when it looked like being an excess payout of £350 for £300 worth of damage.

I've just spoken to the 3rd party's insurers - they haven't disclosed anything. I'm not surprised, given they all follow (supposedly) the data protection act etc etc.

So where did these ambulance chasing s get my details from, and how do I get them to fk off and leave me alone? It's been going on for 3 months now, my phone is more or less continually winking the "someone has tried to contact you" light at me and it's getting beyond the pale. For example, I don't know if it's one of these berks trying to call me or a family member calling to say there's been some terrible calamity.

My first tack will be to get their names and contact phone numbers, then report to my previous insurer's fraud department; but is there anything more immediate I can do, especially givne that my handset doesn't show up the actual number so manual blocking isn't an option?

Don't get mad, get even.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20068927
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2346248/Ma...

Btw, did you not know about this? - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2344122/22...

[CallorFold]

I've taken up a tactic of when they phone and ask for Mr. XXXX - my reply is "No sorry this is Mr. YYYYYY.... I think you've got the wrong number"

Seem's to have cut my nuisance calls significantly.

[Stevoox]

Also hear people say not to answer, just let them ring out. As sometimes it is just an automated call, answering lets them know the number is active and more calls are received.

I've had problems with this too and the above seems correct. About a year to 6 months ago i was probably getting close to 10 a day. Texts then also started coming through as well as whatsapp messages. I ignored it all, didnt answer or reply to the texts with 'stop' and it then died down.

Until i had a call from a mobile number at a later date. Assuming these pest companies wouldn't be calling from mobile numbers, i answered....it began again. Bombarded with calls and texts, when i got my phone statement through it turned out the texts were actually charging me and had amounted to £70. Got the number for the company, gave them a call and had removed my details/refund me the money. How they can charge you for texts you A) dont want and B) never signed up to anything i dont know...

Not even sure how or why they had my details. I did answer a few calls and always asked the question but the response was always "i'll remove you from our database". On occasions i did answer, every single time the people were after one of my parents. Sometimes to do with an accident (which neither of them have had) or sometimes as random as things so do with lawn/garden services..

[Johnnytheboy]

I had an accident about a year ago - I hit a dog that ran into the road. For most of last year I was plagued by multiple calls a day trying to get me to claim (off the dog, I assume).

I tried various tactics: my favourite one was - once they'd asked for me by name - was to ask in a sickly sweet voice if this concerned the accident I'd had in February. They'd instantly hang up for some reason.

The last ever call was the fourth one in an hour, and as soon as I realised it was the same kind of call I shouted "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, fk OFF!" and hung up.

I haven't had another since.

[R2T2]

I play the hold game, if they're after anyone I just say "just a sec, I'll get him" and put the phone down and leave them there. Usually get the odd "hello?" but generally hang up after 60 seconds, if they wait longer I pick the phone back up and say "Not nice when someone wastes your time is it? I hope you'll get the hint and not call again"

Seems to work.

[L1OFF]

If my 4 yr old granddaughter is in the house I pass her the phone and tell her the nice lady on the phone wants to know all about Frozen