Spam calls

[KARL]

We have had three calls yesterday and today where we were addressed by full name (they obviously have a mailing list), all of them almost certainly from India, asking what make our TV is. We have refused to entertain answering the question which is supposedly a survey on what is the most popular make in the UK. Does anyone know what the objective is on this one or where it leads to if you answer the question (just curious) ? This seems to me to be the latest incarnation of the call that tells you there are irregular signals coming from your computer, would you please go to it..... Is there any sign that BT will bring in a modern caller ID service, one of the sort of quality found in India itself where you see international numbers in full, not just national ones - the UK is in the stone age in this respect ? If one could see these numbers (or withheld/unavailable - I don't answer such calls either) then one simply would not answer the phone.

[nannybooby]

if you are with bt you can have a stop placed against these type of calls

[sherrardk]

I currently have a list of 11 different numbers who call me constantly - I just don't answer them anymore.

[KARL]

Nannybooby, you may have hit on the answer BT will not provide a decent caller ID service because while they can see the callers' details (assuming they internally have a post 70's capability), you cannot, so they can then charge you for using their privileged information. However, I rather think what you are referring to is the TPS (which I am covered by) but they can only influence UK callers and not those based abroad (and BT actually have no means or the will to do anything effective ?). Sherrardk, assuming you are in the UK you cannot possibly have a list of numbers that includes any overseas numbers because in the UK there are no facilities for identifying the number from which an international call originates - people you call abroad are able to see yours as you call them (their networks are modern) but you cannot see theirs as they call you (UK networks are primitive). I am referring to landlines, not mobiles, but the situation may be exactly the same on both.

[boxtops]

Join the caller preference service or the telephone preference service, Karl - we hardly get any spam-type calls now, since we joined. If we do get a call, we report it and the service contacts them and gets our number taken off the callers' lists.
We don't have a number display function anyway, so that wouldn't help us.

[KARL]

Boxtops, you probably didn't read my entry before yours - the TPS (Telephone Preference Service) is utterly ineffective against international spam calls (as they will tell you) and we are listed with them anyway, but we still get UK based calls (particularly "not selling you anything, just a survey"). The international ones are something there is absolutely no defence against unless perhaps if you pay a fee as for the CPR Global (Call Prevention Registry) and/or others - is this what you are doing ? My beef is, amongst other things, that BT are so primitive and steadfastly plod on being useless in this regard. If the caller ID (which has a multidude of potentially useful functions) in the UK were up to international standards then one could filter out the calls I was referring to in my OP (by just not answering.

[craft1948]

When I get a call from abroad my BT caller id shows 'International'..........

[craft1948]

Iy also shows 'Withheld'...........

[sherrardk]

My phone occasionally shows 'unavailable'.

[KARL]

I treat "Withheld" the same way as "Unavailable" - they are calls from within the UK made by individuals or organisations who do not want to be identified so I may not answer the call if I choose not to (they may well be spam, but are not necessarily so). Those who want to reach me have to accept that I prefer to know who they are before getting involved in a telephone conversation - if they do not reach me by phone then they can always write. As for "International", these are very possibly among the many calls I really want to answer but even if those who are calling do not hide their number, BT won't install equipment that displays the number - they are providing a mask for the spammers whose number, if not hidden, would otherwise be shown so (after the first spam call received) I could tell it is not one I want to answer. If the international spammers' number is hidden then I can treat it like any other "Withheld" or "Unavailable". In every other country I know of international callers' numbers are displayed, but not in backward UK because BT are so far behind the times (or being deliberately obstructive)

[muslimmaslow]

There are various ways by which you can get rid of these calls. One such way is to look for the best service online. A Few days back, I was also trapped by the spammers. They used to call and blackmail me daily. I was so startled by all these and finally asked to one of my relative for help. He advised me to use reverse asia. This helped me alot to fetch all the details of the caller along with his name and address. If you also wish to identify the spam callers, you can do the same.
For more details, visit https://www.reverseasia.com/.