always worth getting a new ex directory number in those cases Elaine.
Found out I can alter the info on-line, so I am doing that now. Good catch. Thanks.
Just checked on-line and sure enough both my husband and I exist on pages jaunes and pages blanches there I have been given a mobile number which doesn't belong to anyone in the family. I thought it could be my son's mobile as I am the name on his phone but it's not . My husband is showing as the Internet number. Can I come off the list?
I got the call before xmas, I told him to £$^^&&^^* OFF and that seemed to work!!......
Claire - I suggest you look at your local telephone directory! Our 'Livebox phone number', which only my family have' appeared in our directory after twelve months - without me asking for it to be included. Sounds like the same might have happened to you!
I do this too Carol - except when they ask to speak to Madame Roper I say 'oh - I'll just get her for you' Then I just put the receiver on the table and carry on doing whatever it is was they interrupted
I had the same thing just before Christmas I told him it was a load of bunkum and hung up on him. He then phoned me straight back and said I'm so sorry we got disconnected, I said we didn't get disconnected i hung up as I don't believe a word you say! Thta was the end of that.
I knew it was a scam before he even opened his mouth, as he rang on the phone that uses the internet line on the orange box. It's the one that gives me the land-line calls included in the forfait. As I don't even know the phone number for that phone. and have never given that number to anyone it's fairly clear it's an unknown It only ever rings if it's some calling me back for a call I made when they were out or a scammer.
Scary how we are being targeted in English. We aren't on the phone book under our name ( only the business name)so don't get calls for Ex pats. Orange live-box must be selling on info!
My solution to cold calls is just to put the phone down next to the speaker so they can listen to LBC, Radio5 or whatever else I have on.
Buy a whistle Carol....and blow hard down the receiver next time...guarantee they will stop bothering you.
My policy too; say some "back in a minute" BS to them and leave it off the hook.
The French cold callers are predominantly trying to sell some home improvement program. "Je suis un locataire" sends them packing. I got this tip from a French friend.
I have so many cold calls on my France Telecom line that I no longer answer it and listen to the messages instead. If I do answer it, they usually ask some question like 'do you own your own house,', or ' you are over 50, aren' you?' to which I reply that I don't give out personal information and they hang up immediately.
Chris & Sheila ideas are great ;-) And technically: A good solution is always and everywhere to tick off almost all boxes when on-line booking: whether SNCF, flights, and even EDF. The another thing is which is offered with ISP, where also the phone is connected: you type # 13 # into the telephone's keypad. This code might be different with your ISP, look up at their website. However thus, the caller ID is either suppressed and / or shown, as you wish. It took almost 3 months until this calling nonsense stopped. Its not that these poor storyteller could make me believe their nonsense, but it is annoying to run to the phone and be interrupted for nothing. By the way, a good configured "Opera" Browser ist the best with not leaving traces and cleaning up the temp-folder.
A friend at social services developed a hobby out of the number of cold calls she received. She would start by telling the caller that she was so pleased they rang as she had no one to speak to....developed it to the point where she would tell them all her problems (invented) and start to cry (pretending) most would put the phone down on her...but she had one caller in tears and she felt quite bad about that!
We have had a call like this and regularly get cold calls. We are with Orange and I wonder if they are the ones who sell the numbers? However, once on a database, this gets sold over and over again and we have to tell each company to remove us. Although there is a TPS service in France (I forget the name right now) and we are on it, it is not very effective. I have taken to ignore the 'pitch' by cold callers and explain to them some hideous medical condition I have, or marital problem, or how sexual dysfunction I'm currently suffering from could be theirs. Sometimes I invent a religion or cult that I try to recruit them to. I often find that I enjoy the conversation much more that they do and it becomes quite short.
I usually don't give people my landline (I don't know it by heart anyway...) this discourages callers as it's more expensive to call a cell phone, especially if you're overseas.
My mum had same call last year in uk and she was taken in by it. Luckily I was there and realised, grab the phone and told the guy in no uncertain terms that he was a fraudster and that I was ringing the police, he hung up very quickly. My concern is that if I hadn’t been there my mum would have given him the information he was seeking.
Ive been told the best thing to do to stop them ringing back is to say 'hold on I just need to get a hankie' and leave the receiver on the sofa for an hour or so....they are paying for the call and I believe they cant disconnect until you return the receiver to the cradle.
I had a slightly different scam put to me recently.
I am trying to restore a 1943 DUKW in time for the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings & unfortunately the funding I had saved for this project went when I broke my leg last year-just before qualifying for aid! As there is no way I will be able to build up enough "spare" money to get the project done I have started to appeal for donations ( you might have noticed the article in this month's Connection). One avenue I have explored is Cyber begging where you can put an advert on a site stating your needs & hope a generous soul can see things your way. Naturally you do leave yourself open to all kinds of abuse & I soon had an email asking how much I needed to "get back on my feet". My reply made it clear that I was not in any personal trouble, the money was to continue a project that I had already invested heavily in but had ground to a halt - I did not want to take funds away from someone who might really need them.
The reply was the exact same email! Suspecting a scam I googled the name "Jeff Allen" & sure enough the scam was revealed! I had an offer of $5000 & all I had to do was send a payment of $130 by Moneygram to a Canadian address to release the cash! I have never had to pay my bank to make a withdrawl!
I strung him along for about 30 emails before giving him false claim numbers & telling him my address for which I used the address of the RCMP headquarters in Canada. It was good fun making up excuses as to why my payment was slow. My thanks to a mythical Dr Feintusche.
Needless to say I am still open to donations from like minded people, of any amount as small amounts from many will add up. If you wish to see what I am up against check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_fJ0O1P0x8 .
I also had this call. I too work in IT and knew it was a scam straight away, coupled with the fact that we don't get many calls from English speaking people to our French landline other than family. I said to the guy that I knew it was a scam and I put the phone down. He then called back. He was trying to insist that it wasn't a scam and tried to argue with me. I, of course, put the phone down again. He called back a third time so my daughter answered the phone, who is fluent in French, and began speaking to him in French. Low and behold he put the phone down on her!