Telephone Canvassing, What A Cheek!

Englishman

I'm being hassled by American companies tele-canvassing me from across the pond!

I'm registered with the UK Telephone preference service which theoretically stops unwanted canvassing calls. Also, my caller display reveals whether or not a person is witholding their telephone number.

But! Calls from outside the UK only show up as "Int'l", and as I have a fair few international calls from people abroad, I have no way of knowing if it is friend or sales person who is calling me.

Worse still, some companies in the US are using a power dialler, and most times when you answer, the phone goes dead because there are not enough available staff in the call centre to deal with the call that they have made.

10 minutes ago I really chewed up some young man's American ears as he earnestly explained to me that he wasn't selling me anything, he wanted only to explain how I would benefit from his product. God knows how I must have damaged transatlantic relations!

Anyone got any ideas as to how I can stop these unwelcome calls?

Englishman.

Angharad

Worse still, some companies in the US are using a power dialler, and most times when you answer, the phone goes dead because there are not enough available staff in the call centre to deal with the call that they have made.

My parents were getting these calls a while ago; but didnt know it was a sales thing, they thought someone was messing around because it was happening a few times a day. They rang up BT and spoke to the nuisance calls department and explained what was happening. They gave them a number to ring to register their number with. It stops all cold calling and they havent had the problem since (although it takes a few weeks to go through). Not sure if it will work for US companies but worth a try

ozziepost

Some years ago, I got these too....all the way from the good od US of A to downunder in the early hours of the morning! Fancy being woken in the wee small hours by some garrulous salesman!!

smack

We get em calling from India.

Funny how my english is hard to understand...well, my 'strine anyway ;)

Steve

Euphemism

International telemarketing calls? Well that's got to be costing them a packet!

You might want to look for the "telemarketer zapper" (or something like that). It's an automatic device that detecs the power dialers and hangs up on them.

Special K

Hey englishman,

There was an hour long t.v. program on here in Canada the other night.

It said "CANADA" is the the number one culprit for telemarketing scammers to set up and call from.

And guess who they scam the most. .. THE UNITED KINGDOMS.

They had one poor lady on from Scotland or Ireland they scammed out of $20,000 dollars

They sold her some fake lotto ticket of some sort and told her she had a 1 in 10 chance of winning. She sent the money

After a few weeks they called her and told her she won, but needed to pay all these fees first

She sent them the money

Then they called and said she need to pay all the income tax fees..

She sent them the money.

After all was said in done she was out big bucks and never saw the Million dollars she was supposed to have one.

She is in the hospital now.. and she is still getting calls from these scam artist.

I am ashamed that Canada is the leader in this type of fraud

When they asked one of these scammers why he didn't set up his Telemarketing scam from the U.S.

His answer was, " The U.S. takes FRAUD very seriously in their court systems, the jail time was significant"

sincerely

Special K

shotgun

Special K many people do not know it but the WMD Bush is looking for is here in Canada...shhh...Its Poutine..causes clogged arteries and heart attacks.

You also said

" The U.S. takes FRAUD very seriously in their court systems, the jail time was significant"

I heard they even jailed seven guys in 1918 for fraud but left them out a year later when they figured out they weren't frauds... just nuts.

obiwan

Disconnect your phone.

Scully

Worse still, some companies in the US are using a power dialler, and most times when you answer, the phone goes dead because there are not enough available staff in the call centre to deal with the call that they have made.

This is one of my pet peeves too. My phone shows the number of the person calling and finally after several such "dead calls" from the same telephone number (it turned out to be a charitable organization, The Variety Club, that helps disabled children), I told the person at the other end that if they did not have the courtesy to pick up the phone when I answered, then I was not going to be the least bit inclined to donate any of my money to their organization, whether it helps children or not. I then told them that they were NEVER to phone me again, or else I'd register a harassment complaint with the police and the Better Business Bureau. Visit Smiley Central! They have not bothered me again.

I really hate it when the person on the other end sounds as though they have a disability, as much as I feel for their situation and know that they are trying to do a job, playing on my compassion like that really bugs me. I tell them the same though, that they have to take me off their list and not call me again.

Love, Scully ( silence is golden class)

TR

I LOVE telemarketer phone calls! When they call, I'll do one of the following:

adopt a goofy foreign accent and pretend that I don't understand

set the phone down next to a stereo speaker blaring music.

sit and talk for a long, long time and then say "NAAAAWWWW, I decided I don't need your product."(insert pissed off salesman reaction here)

launch into tirade about how much I hate telemarketers

TR

Telephone Canvassing, What A Cheek!

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