Telephone Scammers.

[Techno]

My good colleagues, on the forum.

Can't say why this particularly has 'struck me today'.

Almost certainly after the 4th call today from a call centre in India, or Pakistan....Where I managed to confine myself to just saying 'Fekk Off''....I have to admit, to my absolute shame, that I was SO close to making a truly horrible racist comment, in calling 'Christine', a **** C**t.

As we have friends all over this planet.......

Do our friends (to whom English is NOT their first language) around the world, get as many 'scam' calls ?

Or is it just 'English' speaking countries that get bombarded with this 'poop'.

Cheers - Phil

[Leman]

I got one that started, "Hello, my name is David."

I replied, "Not with that accent it's not!"

[fsn]

My 3rd fiancee was Indian. All her family used Anglicised names at work.

[Ben Waterhouse]

I got one that started, "Hello, my name is David."

I replied, "Not with that accent it's not!"

Unless they are Indian Christians, then again if they were Christians they wouldn't be scamming...

[Matt J]

I deal with a number of companies in Asia (China, Thailand, India, Vietnam etc) pretty much all the contacts have anglicised names.

One poor girl from a Thai company (hugely complicated names) had her handle reduced to 'Porn'. A bit off-putting when you commence an email 'Dear Porn' (took 2 years for them to change it)

[Leon]

I used to have a member of bar staff in Manchester who was called Xiao Han, but when she'd first started school the teacher refused to attempt it and called her Mandy instead.  The name stuck and she continued using it. 

[Techno]

I used to have a member of bar staff in Manchester who was called Xiao Han, but when she'd first started school the teacher refused to attempt it and called her Mandy instead.  The name stuck and she continued using it. 

WHAT !!!!!

Pendraken used to run a bar in Manchester ?....How come I never get sent free alcohol with the 'Compliments' slips ? (I think we should be told.  )

Cheeeeershhh - Phil (Hic)

[Leon]

Pendraken used to run a bar in Manchester ?....How come I never get sent free alcohol with the 'Compliments' slips ? (I think we should be told.  )

All the drinks were scaled down so it took ages to get p*ssed...

[Nick the Lemming]

Unless they are Indian Christians, then again if they were Christians they wouldn't be scamming...

You must be unaware of the televangelists.

[Techno]

I don't know why I bothered to ask the original question. 

Cheersh - Hic.

[d_Guy]

The word you almost called poor "Christine" would have approximated the Hindi word, खुत, meaning "Clean".

[OldenBUA]

I got one such call a couple of days ago, and I'm in the Netherlands. So it happens, but not that often. Maybe once or twice a year?

[mmcv]

Are you getting these by mobile or landline? I find mobile services have gotten better at screening these out over the years. Still get the odd one through but can generally tell from the area code of the number that it's a scammer. If in doubt I don't answer and assume anyone important will leave a voicemail. I've no landline so can't speak to that.

[Techno]

I got one such call a couple of days ago, and I'm in the Netherlands. So it happens, but not that often. Maybe once or twice a year?

Did they 'try' and talk to you in Dutch ? OB.

Are you getting these by mobile or landline? I find mobile services have gotten better at screening these out over the years. Still get the odd one through but can generally tell from the area code of the number that it's a scammer. If in doubt I don't answer and assume anyone important will leave a voicemail. I've no landline so can't speak to that.

Mine's a landline, M.

If my guess is correct, these b*ggers use an auto dialler, and pick on a particular area code.....Then it's just 'pot luck' as to who gets called.
I'm ex-directory.....and subscribe to the telephone preference service....(Overkill is me  ).....But it'll never stop random 'dial-ups'.

The caller's number is displayed.....Though I (mostly) forget to look at that.
They've also got quite 'cute' in making it appear that the call is coming from the UK.....As well as that, 'they' also seem to generate different UK landline numbers...So you don't get the same number displayed, if they try again.

Cheers - Phil

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Unfortuneatly they have the tech to piggyback onto other numbers....

[FierceKitty]

I deal with a number of companies in Asia (China, Thailand, India, Vietnam etc) pretty much all the contacts have anglicised names.

One poor girl from a Thai company (hugely complicated names) had her handle reduced to 'Porn'. A bit off-putting when you commence an email 'Dear Porn' (took 2 years for them to change it)

Not an unusual nickname for Thais.

[Techno]

There's a book called "Cooking with Poo" written by a young lady from your neck of the woods, Alexander.

(Available from Amazon .....at least.....)

Cheers - Phil

[OldenBUA]

Did they 'try' and talk to you in Dutch ? OB.

No, this was a standard 'Hello, I am so-and-so and I am calling from Microsoft' call. People will accept that such a call would be in English, and most could manage a conversation I suppose. So it is doable for the scammers.

[Big Insect]

The 'trick' with auto-diallers on landlines is to 'train' them out of calling you.
There are 2 approaches

1). pick up the phone but remain silent - a lot of auto-dial tech is voice activated - they only want to spend money on the call if they will have somebody to talk to. So until you speak they often wont connect you through to an agent. If I can hear it is a foreign call centre I very often just put the phone to one side (don't hang up) and let them rattle through their script - it's nice to know that you are wasting their money 
Ultimately, your number will get a registration in the auto-dialler as being an expensive number to call - as they do get charged for the pick-up. It can be unnerving to friendly callers but I used to just say I had a mouth full of coffee if they queried why I hadn't answered on pick-up. But it's now standard that we leave our answer phone on the landline on permanently and anybody who knows us well and wants us to pick up just shouts abusive messages!

2). the 2nd technique is to have your calls go straight to answer machine (for a few weeks at least) - the auto-dialler will automatically hang-up as the call is of no value to them. After a while you'll notice you have a lot of dropped calls but your 'nuisance' calls get less and less and ultimately disappear.

Talking (or screaming abuse) to the agents who call is pointless and in fact makes matters worse, as all you are doing is confirming that at that time of day you are at home, so can be rung (incessantly) and also they can legitimately sell your number on to others who will also call you. As you are a confirmed target.

Making a note of the numbers and reporting them to your telco provider also works - they will track and block the calls at the main service routers.

If you work at home during the day or run a business from home, this is all a real nuisance but it is ultimately possible to stop the calls.
Not putting a contact tel.number on your business website also stops your number being harvested and abused in the 1st place.

Cheers
Mark

[Ithoriel]

I think I'll stick with

"Cooking with Pooh"