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Crank calls

deebster said:
When cold calling was part of my job at age 17 in a (manual trades-focussed) recruitment agency and on being given a mahoosive folder full of pages of addresses and phone numbers for local employers fear engulfed my tender heart.

Then when I saw that I was expected to call Steve Stride, the then secretary of (my team) Aston villa FC and ask him if he needs any plumbers or plasterers I thought bollocks to this for a lark, left the phone alone and just made up reasons why they didn't need any.

In hindsight 'twas a valuable lesson but at the time bloody awful.
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The worst time in the year for marketing calls was when they new Yellow Pages came out in June, a bloody nightmare, I remember going into one of my suppliers to buy something and one of the counter staff was sitting at a desk with a YP open and on the phone phoning customers/advertisers.

I used to spend a fortune advertising in YP, I worked out that for every ten calls YP generated eight of them were marketing calls and each call was costing me something like £8.

I don't advertise all now and haven't for the last six years although I do have a website but it's really only an information site but it does get picked up by Google, I occasionally advertise on Gumtree (for the website/Google thing) and it really is torture but I've stopped advertising there now too as its a complete waste of time and money.
 
On a point of order, isn't this type of call better referred to as nuisance or spam? Crank calls are more in the line of heavy breathers or enquiring after your underwear.
 
I've just had another one, an 0116 238 number from Leicester apparently I Googled the number and it came up with a guy's actual name and address including the postcode from a site called www.britishphonebook.com, never had that before from a landline, a mobile number occasionally but never a landline.
 
kensalriser said:
Numbers can be spoofed, just like email addresses.
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Aye I know but this one is definitely unusual, when I Googled the number that site came up with 100 entries for the surname of the person who 'apparently' called me.

Just Googled the guy's name he's a solicitor at a law practice in Nottingham working out of the Leicester office, now why would a solicitor in Leicester be cold calling a plumber in Glasgow?

The guy specialises in employment law, pretty weird but I don't employ anyone.
 
I don't answer calls at home from numbers I don't know, but at work today, I answered a colleagues phone, as he was out of the office, and it went something like this:

Me: Hello, Ian's phone.
Him: Hello sir, I am calling from BT, and I have to tell you that your internet connection has been compromised.
Me: Oh dear, that is a shame.
Him: I need you to urgently do something on your computer.
Me: ok.
Him: Are you at your computer?
Me: Yes.
Him: Can you see the control key on your keyboard?
Me: Which one is the control key?
Him: It has CTRL written on it.
Me: Yes, I see it.
Him: What key is next to it?
Me: Fn.
Him: Next to FN is a key with 4 little squares on it, that is the Windows key. Do you see it?
Me: Yes.
Him I need you to press... (where he gave me a key combination that I can't remember).
Me: Sorry, I can't do that.
Him: Why?
Me: I only have one finger.
Him: (he then repeated the original keystroke request).
Me: (shouting a bit) I told you I only have one finger. I can only press one key at a time.
Him: No problem sir. Please go to Google screen and type 'what is my IP'.
Me : OK.
Him: What can you see?
Me: A message.
Him: What is the message?
Me: It says 'you are being scammed by an Indian call centre. It is very bad to scam people with only one finger'.
Him: You say you only have one finger, sir?
Me: Yes.
Him: Can you do one thing for me? Take your finger and stick it up your a**e.
Me: Thankyou and goodbye.

These people can be so rude!
 
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