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Yet Another Scam

Sonority

Trade: Sonority Design Ltd
To be aware of.
Cold call at 7.50am at work - obviously an asian call centre.
I am calling you from the TPS (Telephone Preference Service) to offer you an enhanced service.
There is a charge for this and we need to set up a direct debit for it..

You can imagine my response at that time in the morning.

After a quick search - yes - it's been a thing for a few years.
TPS is free, and these fraudsters are just that.

Be careful out there.
 
TPS is administered by the ICO, and the DMA. It's free.

It reminds me of the old scam where businesses were charged exorbitant fees to 'register' with the ICO under the old DPA. In point of fact, the process was very straightforward, and cost very few drinking vouchers, but these scammers were creaming hundreds off companies to do it, and like as not, not actually bothering to do the admin anyway.
 
The TPS is useful as t*ts on a bull.
The problem is, it's very effective at stopping calls from reputable companies, but can't do anything about the crooks and scammers. That said, if you're registered with the TPS, that makes any scam call very clearly unlawful, whereas if you're not registered, its not quite so black and white. Most of the scammers who get fined large sums by the ICO (there have been many) are nabbed due to their calling TPS registered victims, so please get registered, it does make a difference.
 
if you're registered with the TPS, that makes any scam call very clearly unlawful

I think that you will find that it is not unlawful - it is subject to a code of conduct rather than law. This was pointed out to me by a cold caller and when I checked I am pretty sure that I found that they were correct.

TPS is a TOTAL waste of time anyway. I registered years ago - before automated dialling for cold calling. If they withheld their number, you could not report them and with automated diallers........................
 
The problem is, it's very effective at stopping calls from reputable companies, but can't do anything about the crooks and scammers. That said, if you're registered with the TPS, that makes any scam call very clearly unlawful, whereas if you're not registered, its not quite so black and white. Most of the scammers who get fined large sums by the ICO (there have been many) are nabbed due to their calling TPS registered victims, so please get registered, it does make a difference.

Trouble is, most of my recent scam calls have been from India, pretending to be my internet provider wanting to fix a slow connection so very difficult to prosecute, if if clearly unlawful.
 
I think that you will find that it is not unlawful - it is subject to a code of conduct rather than law. This was pointed out to me by a cold caller and when I checked I am pretty sure that I found that they were correct.
No, they were bullshitting. It's covered by law, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 and, not to put too fine a point on it, if you register with TPS, then any unsolicited marketing you get after that is illegal.

TPS is a TOTAL waste of time anyway. I registered years ago - before automated dialling for cold calling. If they withheld their number, you could not report them and with automated diallers........................
It's your, er, call whether to register obviously. I just have to question why you'd not do something that is dead easy, costs nowt, and can reduce the number of calls you get from reputable companies to zero, pretty much overnight. Then you know that any calls you get after that are, by definition, from scammers. Makes it easier to ignore them.

https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/nuisance-calls/

What you're saying, really, is that there's no point taking any action to help yourself, because the bad guys just go round it. So you might as well just leave your car keys in the door, as the bad guys will break in to steal them anyway.
 
I think that you will find that it is not unlawful - it is subject to a code of conduct rather than law. This was pointed out to me by a cold caller and when I checked I am pretty sure that I found that they were correct.

TPS is a TOTAL waste of time anyway. I registered years ago - before automated dialling for cold calling. If they withheld their number, you could not report them and with automated diallers........................

No, definitely illegal, though obviously virtually impossible to enforce if the number is witheld / from abroad.

https://www.tpsonline.org.uk/pages/what_is_tps
 
It's your, er, call whether to register obviously. I just have to question why you'd not do something that is dead easy, costs nowt, and can reduce the number of calls you get from reputable companies to zero

As I said - I registered many years ago - probably over 20. If the number of cold calls were to be higher than if unregistered, then, at times, I'd be permanently on the 'phone.
 
I registered years ago.
Still get weekly calls asking about my non existent car accident or to tell me my internet is about to be shut down because of illegal activity and there is nothing I can do about either of them.
 
I registered years ago.
Still get weekly calls asking about my non existent car accident or to tell me my internet is about to be shut down because of illegal activity and there is nothing I can do about either of them.
As above, this is because all these calls are illegal, and probably criminal. It's like saying 'I pay all this council tax to fund the police, but people still get mugged/burgled'. You can't use a regulatory mechanism to stop criminals who are determined to be criminals. What it does do is send out clear messages to companies that (legitimately) use telemarketing as a business tool, eg lead-generating, that you don't want to receive them. So you can start from the assumption that any calls you do receive are from scammers. As has been said upthread, catching and dealing with these lowlifes is a different matter, but you make it easier to spot them by removing the legit calls, so all that's left is the dodgy stuff, regardless of how convincing it might sound at first.
 
As above, this is because all these calls are illegal, and probably criminal. It's like saying 'I pay all this council tax to fund the police, but people still get mugged/burgled'. You can't use a regulatory mechanism to stop criminals who are determined to be criminals. What it does do is send out clear messages to companies that (legitimately) use telemarketing as a business tool, eg lead-generating, that you don't want to receive them. So you can start from the assumption that any calls you do receive are from scammers. As has been said upthread, catching and dealing with these lowlifes is a different matter, but you make it easier to spot them by removing the legit calls, so all that's left is the dodgy stuff, regardless of how convincing it might sound at first.
Yep, this is true. I just don't answer if I don't recognise the number. Unless I am in a particular mood when I might entertain myself for 5 or 10 minutes, winding up the Microsoft Support caller.
 
I get 2 calls a day (on my work phone) from a company called "Beneficial" telling me that they can help me sorting out my CC debt.
Everytime I tell them to sod off and take me from their list; I block the number and a couple of hours latter they call me again from a diferent number.
this has been happening every day since November and I cant get rid of them.
 
Incoming call display/recognition costs - I am damned if I am going to pay for something that is of no real use as unless the phone itself had a facility to block unknowns, I certainly wouldn't remember any but VERY few, and countless people call me just once in a while.
 
I get 2 calls a day (on my work phone) from a company called "Beneficial" telling me that they can help me sorting out my CC debt.
Everytime I tell them to sod off and take me from their list; I block the number and a couple of hours latter they call me again from a diferent number.
this has been happening every day since November and I cant get rid of them.

Tell them you work for the Fraud Squad. They'll soon vanish.
 
I get 2 calls a day (on my work phone) from a company called "Beneficial" telling me that they can help me sorting out my CC debt.
Everytime I tell them to sod off and take me from their list; I block the number and a couple of hours latter they call me again from a diferent number.
this has been happening every day since November and I cant get rid of them.
Use the nuisance call reporting tool on the ICO website https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/nuisance-calls-and-messages/spam-texts-and-nuisance-calls/
 


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