Dodgy calls, what would you do???

[paulg]

OK peeps advice wanted.

My mum has been getting these calls where nobody says anything , today she refused to hang up (as its their bill) and they kept the call going for around 4 mins. This can happen around 3 or 4 times a week and there has been a few to my house too. And before anyone blames me NO i havent been up to no good or upset anyone ;) so we are baffled.

None of us are worried by that sort of crap but it does make you very curious.

I have times and dates of the calls so it would be simple to report it to BT but im pretty sure they wont tell me where the calls are coming from, im not sure if I could force them to tell me because I would be within my rights to press charges against these people i would have thought ???

So if anyone works or knows someone who works at BT and could get me a bit of secret info then drop me an e-mail ;)

 

Cheers

Paul

[b19rks]

When I was a kid we selected a bloke at random from the phone book, and kept calling him to say he had our lawnmower, he had borrowed it and not returned it, we kept it going for about 3 years on and off, he found it quite amusing in the end!!

 

Still, we were kids then, grown out of stuff like that now!!

 

Seriously though if it is upsetting your mum she can let bt know, they can trace these menace calls these days.

[Welshboy]

you may need to speak to the cops first though since nuisance calls is a criminal offence, only then will bt trace the calls and disclose where they are coming from.

[pete shrimp]

Have you got their phonenumber?

 

Do a search on the tinternet (if you live near one) for "hotels in New York" or somewhere in America - most have a ringback facility whereby you enter "your" phonenumber on the screen and they ring you back within moments. No-ones gonna bother tracing it, IP address etc.

 

We did it to a guy it work and he was flummoxed :D. I'd imagine it would get v annoying if you did it in the middle of the night, day in USA, a "few" times ;)

 

Or you could try BT's malicious calls number, its in the front section of your phonebook :)

 

Pete

[SRRAE]

This kept happening to us. Phone ring and then there is no one on the other end. We found out that it was companies trying to phone selling you stuff, but its an automatic dialler.

 

Why the telephanist is on the phone to some one else, the computer phones some one up automatically. When you answer the phone, IF there is a telephanist free, you are put through them. IF there isnt ones free, you just get a dead line.

 

Apparently their system doesnt do that, but we phoned BT with the number that keeps calling and they told us that is was such and such company.

 

The phone calls happen about 5-6 even upto 10 times a day on some days but they only happened at business hours. When we finally answered to the phone and had someone on the other line. We asked for a superviser and demanded to be taken off the calling list.

 

If you finally do get through to someone, ask to talk to a supervisor and tell them take the phone number off thier lists and also say that, because you have been calling so much with no one on the line, you have started harrassment charge against the people who have been phoning. They will quickly stop phoning.

 

There is also a phone number of a company who will stop companies from phoning you, they just order companies like who are calling you, to take you off the list but they do it for hundreds of thousands of companies. Its a free service but I dont know the phone number. However if you phone the operator, and ask for the phone number for this service they will know what you are on about. It takes about 2 weeks before 95% of the phone calls stop, but they do stop.

 

Stuart

[Guest senna]

BT cant and dont trace calls automatically.

 

Phone them up and say you have been getting malicious calls, they will then set up your line to route all calls through their malicious calls department.

 

Then after that every call you get, you call call a number and speak to someone at BT who will tell you who is calling you, Even if they withhold their CLI.

 

Phone BT.

[dave jones]

get a whistle next time they call blow it as hard as u can also inform the police they will inform bt:mad:

[MAC 1]

Paul BT will not tell you where these calls are coming from FACT!

If you tell BT you are getting these calls,they will change your number free of charge;)

Yes I know someone that works for BT,so do you he owns a Z:D

[51x]

From a completely different perspective... this kept happening to me quite a while ago. Long story short, it turned out to be a mate trying to call me from his bosses office, but the outgoing voice was blocked. He could still make the call, and still hear me, so he thought I was just trying to wind him up. It went on for days, until he finally called me from his house... flippin plonker.

[Gio]

BT and other will do plenty to help you out.

Malicious calls can be offensive, threatening, or simply very annoying. They may also be a criminal offence under Section 43 of the Telecommunications Act 1984 if you are getting "malicious calls".

 

Their what to do list includes a couple of 24hr freephone numbers for people who think they may be getting such calls. http://www.bt.com/customerservices/cust_details.jsp?parentcat=cs_malicious_calls&childcat=work_together

 

Also if you don't want to be cold-called by a bunch of tw*ts who are trying to sell you mortgages, double glazing or whatever you can be taken off their list here http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tpsr/html/default.asp

 

Me - I like the "where dod you get this number from, it's ex-directory" which soon gets rid of them or the above mentioned - "oh, hang on a minute" and then leave the phone off the hook so their bill just keeps going.

[Guest ArundaleP]

Bt have a chargable service called "Choose to refuse", it allows you to block calls even if they are hidden numbers but does not allow you to know the numbers. That way you can block that number and any call centres that keep hassling you.

 

Hope that helps

 

Paul.

[WillieO]

also could happen with a duff Sky digibox.

 

These things are programmend to call up sky using your phone line and transmit data on what you view back to sky. Yup your own sky spy!!!

 

Our phone would chirp sometimes and when you picked it up there was nothing. Then I noticed one time a led flashing on the sky box as it happened. this led goes out immediately as soon as you lift the phone up. It must be programmed to hang up if you lift your phone up and it will ring sky quietly again later.

 

Cure is to pull out the telephone connection to the digibox. The sky contract says it must be in but so what.

 

Also heard that if this goes wrong big time it calls up other people and you get charged for the calls. Basically it should be programmed with a sky freephone number to upload the spy data on you!! If it gets some other persons number it gives them a quiet call! quiet because it waits for a digital signal handshake.

[Ajay]

This happened to us once, starting at 6am on a Saturday morning!

 

Leapt out of bad as no one rings at that time without it being a problem, to find dead air.

 

It then happened almost every half hour until about midday when I rang BT and got the Choose to Refuse set up (costs after a month, I think...)

 

Then, I think as pure happenstance, I answered the phone and it was some double-glazing company trying to sell DG. They confirmed that they have a system which rings random numbers and if an agent is free, will put the ringing number through. If not, the householder answers to get dead air.

 

Most annoying.