Weird phone calls

[NikkiB]

About 3 months ago whilst my father was at work my mother had a call on her landline by a man asking if she was "Mrs Bloggs" who lived at "16 Acacia Avenue". Unwisely, she confirmed both facts. The man then asked her who lived at number 14. Number 14 were fairly new occupants. My mother only knew them for small talk and did not know their names. The man begged her to get a message to them although he never actually gave one. She agreed, if he gave his name but he wouldn't. He called again soon after with the same request but she was uncomfortable and wouldn't go any further. When she told me about this I suggested she at least let the new people at 14 know what was going on. She did, they were polite but equally puzzled. Today my mother had a similar call. Again the man asked her to confirm her name and address and foolishly she complied, even though we tell her to be a bit more suspicious of unfamiliar callers. He then asked her if she would give a message to "Mark" at 18! There is no-one of that name at 18 nor ever as far as anyone can remember. At some point the caller said he was in London, some 100 miles from here. But it's all very creepy and a bit of coincidence. Does anyone know of some kind of phone scam around this kind of MO? Does anyone think these calls are real cause for concern?

[counsellor]

Not heard of this scam but it may be worth contacting the telephone preference service and getting the phone number removed from mailing and telephone lists! they have website i think... try google it.... x

[NikkiB]

Thanks for you answer, Counsellor. But she's been on the preference service list for over a year. She barely gets telesales calls now.

And this caller always witholds his number. Telesales usually leave the "we do not have the callers number" trail.

[Fulton]

Contact your service provider, and have them put a bar on withheld numbers. I had a problem over some months; it cost us an extra �1.50 per month, but the problem went away.

[MarkyP05]

Well NikkiB, during a recent piece of work in a call centre of sorts i was told that it is now illegal for telesales companies to ring people with a withheld number.

So if this is true then either the company is acting illegally while calling you - which in this sense they are because one, your number is on the preference service and two they're withholding their number.

Having said that, i believe companies based abroad maybe exempt from the preference service boundaries and maybe even the withholding number thing as well.

Might be a good idea to judge the quality of the line when they ring again as a bad line may indicate that they are calling from abroad.

Hope this helps, let us know how it turns out

[Lindy66]

I get these calls too!!
Last year received about 4 and told last one that if they didnt stop would call the police.
Today I received another asking to put a note thru the door of someone asking them to ring them I said no if you want to contact these people you write to them and again threathened them with police.
The first time it happened I did speak to the neighbour who had recently moved in and they got the person who called me got the persons name wrong and my neighbour was confused as to who was contacting them and why thru me.
One last year was an odd one it was from a guy asking again if I could put a note thru this time another neighbour again with phone number on and I said no and he said I want to come and visit him but dont have his number I said well write to him and do not use me as a messaging system.
Really confusing and would love to know what the hell these people are playing at.