OK - Unsolicited Calls!!!

[ameerat42]

Now I have had a silent number for years, and I had never suffered from crank/unsolicited/scamming calls until very recently.

Just in the past week I have had a couple of calls from people representing banks - OK, they "proved" it, but I still gave them short shrift -
and more disturbing, about four calls from charities - and the likes of the RFS. In the latter cases I asked how they got my number and they said that
IT WAS A RANDOMLY GENERATED NUMBER.

Now that was from three such callers. So I'm wondering what the go is? If you have a silent number, isn't it supposed to be invisible?
I guessed that if they were using such a program, then even my invisible number would show as a "valid" number. OH, and they each and every one
assured me that they couldn't see my number! I hope that wasn't a porky.

Any ideas/strategies/more ideas on how to go back to the land of unsolicited calls?

Am(perplexed, and not a little peeved).

[Granville]

No idea at all. There is the do not ccall register, but since you alreeady have a supposedly silent number, that should be redundant. Have you tried complaining through your service provider? Like chicken soup and a cold, it might not help but it won't hurt either.

[ameerat42]

Ta Granville. The thought of the provider had crossed my head, but I hesitated until I had the brilliant idea of sending an email instead of
waiting hours on the phone. - I mean, what if a crank caller wanted to reach me I haven't yet sent the email, but I am interested in
how the "random" generator is supposed to work.
Am.

[Granville]

Indeed. My impression of these random generators was thatthey randomly select numbers from the phone listings that you aren't on.

[Warus]

I believe charities are exempt from the do not call register even though that's the reason we place our numbers on there ie not to be called! I hang up if there is even the slightest hesitation of a call connecting when I answer or if I don't immediately know the person. If I want to contact your organization I will contact you. Same with the door to door sellers, just go away.

[ricktas]

registered charities, real research organisations, like Galaxy, Roy Morgan, and political parties are exempt from the do not call register.

It is random. What they do is target an area. My home phone starts with 6223..then they just use computers to fairly much dial every number that starts with 6223..so 6223 0000.. 6223 0001..6223 0002 and so on. I do wonder though that when their computer registers that a number is valid, that they then on-sell that list of valid numbers to other call centres scammers.

How to stop it..I don't think there is a solution. Though my home phone allows me to assign a ringtone to each caller, so I have set all the spam numbers I get to a 'spam' ringtone I have set..which is silent. So they can call all they like but at least the ringing phone doesn't interrupt me. They just shows a missed call on the screen of the phone.

[cupic]

Tele-marketeer have old phone books ,perhaps prior to being silent you have had it listed in the phone-book

[Rattus79]

I deal with dozens of these every week at work. I'm that fed up with them, that I just don't even try to be polite anymore.

The latest one that I've gotten is that they tell you that they're from Telstra's "wholesale division" I've called them out on that almost instantly and upon further questioning admitted that they don't work for or on behalf of Telstra at all.

I promptly reminded them of the laws surrounding misrepresentation of a product and the fines of up to $40,000 as well as a jail term, and suggested they change their pitch.

I got the same call with the same pitch at least 4 more times. Funnily enough, I haven't heard the same pitch for some time now!

[ktoopi]

It is a pretty frustrating situation. As an at home mother you would be amazed by the number of unsolicited calls I get per day. It can often be as high as 7,8 or even 10 !!! as I had once.I've even had calls at 10:00 at night!! I look at the phone before I answer and if it says overseas caller as it frequently does I don't pick up and if I do happen to pick up , I also hang up if there is the slightest delay after I have said hello!

A frightening situation happened several years ago where someone was constantly calling my number every ten minutes or every half hour etc over the period of a week. There was a person on the other end who kept tring to sell me something or other to start with but then it turned into a game for them, ......it was the same person every time. The only way to get relief from the constant barage of phone calls was to take the phone off the hook which wasn't always possible because if I picked up, then the phone would ring again instantly . we complained to telstra and they tried to trace the calls. They told us that their equipment indicated that the calls were coming from all over the country.......a different place everytime!!!! It was definitely the same person always calling! We had to change phone numbers in the end and telstra thought it was a bored call centre operator somewhere playing around.

It was not a nice experince!

Another thing to remember is that peoples contact details including phone numbers are bought and sold by big companies all the time!! Be careful to read the fine print in all things you join and or sign up for everywhere not just online

[ameerat42]

Ta folks for your comprehensive replies. I will ask Optus what the go is. Cupic, it was silent (and AFAIK) new since I got it.
I stopped a bloke the other day - a "banker" selling life-insurance - who, as soon as he confirmed my name, started rattling off
about the insurance product, piling benefits on top of figures on top of bonuses...

Any-whay! I stopped him and asked if he always began with such a spiel. He said it was not, and I asked what he would call it. I then said I wasn't
interested in life-insurance. He asked why that was. Can you believe it? He certainly didn't get an answer to that.
Am.

[ricktas]

Ta folks for your comprehensive replies. I will ask Optus what the go is.

Am.

Ooooh. Optus. I don't like them. I was on the Do Not Call register and suddenly I was getting heaps of calls..from Optus. Turns out my DNC registration had expired and the moment it did, they were onto it. I re-signed up to the DNC and had to wait for the 'processing period' to stop Optus calling me. They must keep a check of changes in the DNC and as soon as someone drops off, they are fair game.

[Mary Anne]

Within an hour of getting back from holiday on Tuesday I had two calls one wanting to sell me Solar Panels, I never answered the second one as I waited to see if they left a message my family do. Connected the desktop and got on to the DNC site and resigned as ours must have expired while we were away.

[Warus]

I have had banks doing the rounds recently too trying to flog insurance. One called me on my mobile phone as it was listed on a legitimate account info I have and when I politely told him I wasn't interested he got quite aggressive and started accusing me of not caring about my family. Hope he was wearing a headset when I screamed an obscenity down the line and hung up. Those sorts of tactics are unwarranted.

[WhoDo]

Hear's an idea I haven't yet tried but wouldn't mind giving a go. How about starting a recorded message on your phone with the FAX tones (sounds like an old modem connection). Tell your legitimate friends to wait until the tone stops and leave a message. Tell the spammers nothing! What's the bet they either kill the number in their database or try to send it a fax?

[rookie]

I have a whistle beside the phone funny thing is they never call back again

[Darey]

When I get unsolicited calls I ask them to hold on while I finish another call I'm on. I leave the phone off hook and go about my business for a few minutes. When I get back to the phone they are usually gone.
This holds up their line and operator AT THEIR COST and they usually never call again.
This also stuffs up the algorithms in their outbound predictive dialing system

[geoffsta]

I had a CD which I got around 1999-2000. On it was every phone number in Australia. Silent numbers were also listed, but marked as such. All the telcos sell them to marketers, or so I was told back then.
I wouldn't be surprised if it is still available.

By the way... If I get a call that starts with a pause..... I wait, put on an Indian accent, and say; "Hello, my name is Rahib, Welcome to the Testra call centre. How may I been helping you kind sir". I don't get any for a while after that...

[Warbler]

Here's a bloke that sells your phone numbers.

http://www.mavenmarketing.com.au/

He was selling a list of all photographers in Australia recently. Most of the spam and phone calls I was getting were coming from lists this turd was selling, according to the callers I didn't tell to F$%k Off immediately. Give him a call. I did. I also reported him to ACMA and Telstra whose customer data he was selling.

- - - Updated - - -

This is how he gets your data.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiNUL94qO6g

In fact one of the site sponsors here also used his list to email me.

[Sifor]

By the way... If I get a call that starts with a pause..... I wait, put on an Indian accent, and say; "Hello, my name is Rahib, Welcome to the Testra call centre. How may I been helping you kind sir". I don't get any for a while after that...

Like this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syPSHe0kzMs

[Bear Dale]

I have a silent number and get no people ringing but still get the odd spam fax..