Should I report this to the police?

[ThePublisher]

I have read suggestions in the past of blowing a whistle down the phone at incoming nuisance callers.

The problem is you just don't know if you're going to make it worse by doing that.

 

[a1anm]

I'm guessing they are empty threats which will never get acted on so I would try not to worry about it too much.

However, if the crank calls are becoming too much of a nuisance a phone which can block numbers may be useful:

http://www.smithgear.com/block-phone-calls.html

(This is a US site but I'm sure similar phones are available in the UK)

EDIT: Or this:
http://www.truecall.co.uk/

Think this was on Dragons Den once.

 

[quikshop]

I can see why these scams are on the increase. Clearly they are above the law in the UK.

It has nothing to do with UK law, they cannot police the World.

There are technical solutions, this is the first I came across doing a quick google search.

You have to take this into your own hands and either collect their number and research where it originates, informing the local law inforcement there, or use technology to block him... he will soon loose interest when his numbers no longer work.

 

[bdw]

It has nothing to do with UK law, they cannot police the World.

There are technical solutions, this is the first I came across doing a quick google search.

You have to take this into your own hands and either collect their number and research where it originates, informing the local law inforcement there, or use technology to block him... he will soon loose interest when his numbers no longer work.

I am already aware that there are technical solutions but a crime has been committed.

Do you really think that I should have to take this into my own hands and that I should have inform the local law enforcement myself?

Someone is harassing me and making all sorts of threats. Forgive me for assuming that the police should be able to do something to protect people from this and that they would have a better chance of convincing the police over there that there was a problem. I have noted four different numbers from which that guy calls me. It's not rocket science and it would help reduce the number of people who are getting robbed by these scammers.

The only advice I got from the police was to get my telephone provider to block these calls. I tried this but they cannot do it. So where to now?

 

[bdw]

It has nothing to do with UK law, they cannot police the World.

They can when it suits them.

 

[quikshop]

Do you really think that I should have to take this into my own hands and that I should have inform the local law enforcement myself?

No, I don't think you should have to deal with this without any assistance from the Police, but having traded online for a decade and been the victim of many attempts at fraud and verbal abuse from overseas I am well aware that the Police have little interest in protecting individuals and businesses from foreign criminals.

You have my sympathy but there is a solution; if it was me I'd be out tomorrow morning buying a device to block his numbers.

 

[telemax]

They can when it suits them.

The police would need

The time, technology and resources to track down callers from a global population of 7 billion

Carte Blanche to fly around the world,

Permission to extradite

Taxpayers money to trial and fill our already overcrowded prisons with foreign criminals.

I don't think anybody wants police taking their time away from catching violent criminals etc in order to solve telephone fraud from abroad.

 

[bdw]

No, they only need to provide the evidence and get the other force to handle things from their end, that's all.

 

[Lease4Less]

I think its shocking that nothing can be done about this.

Why on earth should anyone in this day and age have to tolerate abusive phone calls?

With internet trolling being punished severly (and rightly so), I can't believe that either the phone company or the police don't have something in place that can block this.

I also think that some of the replies on this thread have been rather harsh.

 

[bdw]

I think its shocking that nothing can be done about this.

Why on earth should anyone in this day and age have to tolerate abusive phone calls?

With internet trolling being punished severly (and rightly so), I can't believe that either the phone company or the police don't have something in place that can block this.

I also think that some of the replies on this thread have been rather harsh.

The authorities will take action only when companies and governments are being affected as with Julian Assange and this one http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/02/piratebay_founder_tracked_down_in_cambodia/

They obviously don't give harassment and Internet crime committed on the the general public the same priority.

 

[puffin]

I've only read the first and last page. (I do not have the time to read through them all)
Has it happened since?

Surely, a lesson has been learn't here, don't play along, and next time just say 'Sorry but no thank you'.

 

[bdw]

Surely, a lesson has been learn't here, don't play along, and next time just say 'Sorry but no thank you'.

Is that what you would say to people who are trying to rob you? :|

So if you catch someone trying to pick your pocket you push his hand away and say "No thank you, I am sorry but you can't have my wallet!"

The only lesson I have learned from this is that crime can and does pay when the police refuse to do anything about it.

.

 

[cody44]

Like most say on here I dont think the police would want to get invloved and will probably fob you off and tell you its a Civil Matter!!!

You could actually make a list of the numbers and you can actually redirect them to a specific number of your choice!!

I would redirect them to a high premium number - once they get wind they have been charged a high price for each call they will stop!!!! :9

 

[DDPlumbing]

Since I opened my shop I get daily scam calls (Thats not including the useless BT and the Banks! ), If its a quiet I string them along and wind them up, If I'm busy I listen to their first line and hang up without saying a word.

I have had to report 2 scams to the Fraud people (0300 123 2040) Who are VERY helpfull people, They will advise on many aspect and what to do. I have 2 cases currently, my favorite is a company who claim to be from the police/fire/ambulance service and selling advertising. I even have THEIR bank details now lol

some quick pointers from my minimal experience.

1. Ignore the ****s on here who think its all a joke (Ok I accept my telling off for veiled profanity... so ban me)
2. DONT spend too much time worrying about it
3. Report to Fraud office 0300 123 2040
4. Block all international numbers (I have, small cost but less crap on the phone)
5. AGAIN, Ignore the idiots on here, I keep telling myself to ignore this forum.... But then, I must be stupid and keep coming back.

Hope you get sorted (or have sorted it, skimmed through last few pages)

p.s. Currently dealing with scammers (NEG Online Ltd, Universal Media) U M are the best, apparantly they are going to call round to collect the money lol, I told them to bring friends LOTS OF THEM


[engage troll drive]

 

[Wiggy]

My sympathies, BDW.
One silver lining that you have brought to our attention is that these people are pretty cr*p at their jobs. Anybody who has worked in telesales (the legal kind) will tell you that you can't waste phone time on bad prospects. Phoning a no-sale repeatedly is not a route to success. Perhaps what we should all collectively do is undertake to really annoy any of these people that phone us. If they have to take time out of their busy days to make abusive calls to a really long list of people, they might just starve to death ...
Oh and just in case you thought this was a good idea:

You could actually make a list of the numbers and you can actually redirect them to a specific number of your choice!!

I would redirect them to a high premium number - once they get wind they have been charged a high price for each call they will stop!!!! :9

Guess who pays the redirect charge ...

 

[puffin]

Is that what you would say to people who are trying to rob you? :|

So if you catch someone trying to pick your pocket you push his hand away and say "No thank you, I am sorry but you can't have my wallet!"

The only lesson I have learned from this is that crime can and does pay when the police refuse to do anything about it.

.

But this is totally different.
You have provoked the person on the phone to do this. (We (UKBF) don't know the full extent of what you actually said)

Somebody robbing you, you haven't provoked, they just do it.

Same applies with the pick pocket, they are just doing it.

I'm not saying this is right (it is wrong), but you didn't help the matter at all, and this is causing you hassle, from youractions.

 

[bdw]

OK, perhaps you can tell me how to apologise to my unfortunate friend?

.

 

[JMRidley]

I think you should report to the police or your local trading standards office. Ours do a lot of work raising awareness of scams with vulnerable groups so even if they can't catch the people doing it they can build up a picture of what is happening in the area and warn people. My friends mum was caught out by this particular scam a few weeks ago. She was very nervous about using a computer anyway and this has just made her feel as if it isn't worth it which is a shame because she has been using the computer to talk on skype to her grandchildren.

 

[Lease4Less]

But this is totally different.
You have provoked the person on the phone to do this. (We (UKBF) don't know the full extent of what you actually said)

Somebody robbing you, you haven't provoked, they just do it.

Same applies with the pick pocket, they are just doing it.

I'm not saying this is right (it is wrong), but you didn't help the matter at all, and this is causing you hassle, from youractions.

The guy phoned the OP up and attempted to steal from him so your reasoning is flawed.

I can't fault the OP for what he did, no doubt he is as fed up of receiving these calls as most people are.

If the telephone companies did more to stop these scammers phoning people up in the first place then maybe this situation would not have happened.

 

[bdw]

I think you should report to the police or your local trading standards office. Ours do a lot of work raising awareness of scams with vulnerable groups so even if they can't catch the people doing it they can build up a picture of what is happening in the area and warn people.

Read from message 119 in this thread.

 

[cmcp]

That should boost my enquiries then eh?

.

Or, use a call answering service. Get them to weed out the crap. Hope you get it resolved to a happy place

 

[TheWhiteGroup]

I've had quite a few of these, personally don't see the point nothing will happen.

 

[Tom McClelland]

What a load of garbage! The OP is mildly rude to someone trying to commit a criminal act and now he should accept some responsibility for the escalation; I've heard it all now.
In what parallel universe is it right for someone to be threatened for telling someone to eff off while they are trying to rob you? Worse still to be then told that somehow it's his fault; I give up.

Blaming the victim is commonplace these days.

I go down the time-wasting route, which doesn't take much of my time and wastes a large amount of theirs.

Basically I pretend to follow their instructions, but I mimic an elderly slightly confused person who owns the worst PC in the world. It takes about 10 minutes for this computer to start up, but then generates a BSOD before anything can be done so we have to begin again. I do lots of apologising, but basically I can get on with other work during this call. I put them on speakerphone and give them a progress report whenever they ask for one. So they're sitting there going round and round with someone who they think is a really good prospect for their thievery. Meanwhile I'm getting on with my normal work with minimal distraction.

After a while I put the phone down and a few minutes later they ring again. I apologise that something must have gone wrong with the phone, "which has been acting up recently". Rinse and repeat until they give up having wasted a huge amount of their time sitting on a silent phone. After I did this 3 times one week I completely stopped getting calls from these people.

If a few% of PC savvy people did something like this it would kill the thieves business model which relies on them identifying no-hopers quickly so they can get onto the next prospect. They can't afford to spend a long time on international calls to no-hopers.

EDIT: A key point that I forgot. I tell them that I have quite a large house and the PC is nowhere near the phone and I don't have a cordless phone. This helps to explain long silent intervals. Actually the key point is use your imagination, and don't waste your own time, just theirs.

 

[firstmarket]

Blaming the victim is commonplace these days.

I go down the time-wasting route, which doesn't take much of my time and wastes a large amount of theirs.

Playing the victim is also common place. The starter of this thread decided to engage with the caller. It's not known what was said by him to the caller, it could of been a torrent of abuse and the caller is on Asian business forums complaining about a rude person in the UK.

In an ideal world the police would deal with every minor infringement of the law including litter throwing and DNA testing dog poo in the street to find the culprit.

In the real world this doesn't happen and most people know this. The OP needs to deal with this situation himself and either learn from it or accept that these issues occur. It stands to reason that if you mess around someone who's original intention was to commit a crime their response may not be reasonable.

I hope by now the Original Poster has take some action rather than spent the last 15 pages procrastinating.

 

[Tom McClelland]

My point is that some of us here can instantly identify these calls as attempts to rob us. When we just say instantly, "Thanks but no thanks" we proceed content with our own lives, but we have actually just facilitated the thieves business model, which relies on them identifying no-hopers immediately so that they can spend as much of their time as possible talking to genuine prospects for their thievery, and no time at all talking to the aware.

The situation is analagous to 10% of the population having a highly refined awareness of pickpockets, and simply choosing to cross the road when they approach so that the thieves can get on with robbing the unaware majority with impunity.

I agree that there is next to zero point in wasting police time on this. Nor is it reasonable to expect phone companies to have a magical "scam calls" filter. You might as well report every viagra scam email to the police.

 

[bdw]

Playing the victim is also common place. The starter of this thread decided to engage with the caller. It's not known what was said by him to the caller, it could of been a torrent of abuse and the caller is on Asian business forums complaining about a rude person in the UK.

What an unbelievable, astoundingly stupid statement.

I am not "playing" the victim. My wife and I were the victims and I have the recording. Do you really honestly think that scammers would go on a to a genuine business forum to complain about one of the many thousands of people worldwide who tell them to eff off on a daily basis? That's all it was. It was not a torrent of abuse. Are you saying that I am lying?

I think most reasonable people will see you as a troll.

I hope by now the Original Poster has take some action rather than spent the last 15 pages procrastinating.

Procrastinating? Ah, I see! You have only been reading snippets and have been unable to follow the thread, a large part of which recently has been about the police refusing to act on my report. Please pay attention if you want to comment.

 

[Simon-M]

You might as well report every viagra scam email to the police.

You mean you don't do this? No wonder there is so much spam ... pft.

 

[Tom McClelland]

You mean you don't do this? No wonder there is so much spam ... pft.

I just don't understand why Mrs McC has been passing on details of my (ahem) disfunction to so many global suppliers.

 

[Lease4Less]

Nor is it reasonable to expect phone companies to have a magical "scam calls" filter.

I disagree Tom.

If my business were to "cold call" someone on the TPS list I could expect to receive a hefty fine.

If this had been a UK call centre that was phoning the OP I imagine the general concensus would not have been "you shouldn't habe wound him up", rather it would have been "that's disgraceful, report him to the police immediately."

So just because the caller is abroad NOTHING can be done to stop abusive phone calls?

The phone companies should have a duty to stop this. The OP is a customer of whatever network he is with, and as such has a basic right not to receive calls such as these.

 

[Simon-M]

I disagree Tom.

If my business were to "cold call" someone on the TPS list I could expect to receive a hefty fine.

How many fines or prosecutions in the last 12 months?

 

[Lease4Less]

I couldn't even guess Simon.

We used to do a lot of fax marketing, and we always employed an external company to do this for us. We used to receive about 30-40 complaints a week from the FPS and had to respond to them giving a reason why we had sent an unsolicited fax to the number that had complained.

Obviously we were covered as we had employed a third party.

The point is that there are systems in place that stop business's (certainly UK ones) making unsolicted calls. I just find it hard to believe that nothing can be done to stop someone from abroad phoning someone up and screaming abuse down the phone at them on a regular basis!

It might seem trivial to some but I would be livid if this was happening to me, especially if my family were involved.

 

[firstmarket]

What an unbelievable, astoundingly stupid statement.

I am not "playing" the victim. My wife and I were the victims and I have the recording. Do you really honestly think that scammers would go on a to a genuine business forum to complain about one of the many thousands of people worldwide who tell them to eff off on a daily basis? That's all it was. It was not a torrent of abuse. Are you saying that I am lying?

I think most reasonable people will see you as a troll.

Procrastinating? Ah, I see! You have only been reading snippets and have been unable to follow the thread, a large part of which recently has been about the police refusing to act on my report. Please pay attention if you want to comment.

No of course I don't think he was on the Asian business forums complaining, it was a tongue in cheek statement which I thought was blatantly obvious.

I don't know whether you're lying or not - I wasn't there to hear the call was I.

Are you lying? If you are then share it with the forum and seek redemption from your peers.

 

[Optegris]

No of course I don't think he was on the Asian business forums complaining, it was a tongue in cheek statement which I thought was blatantly obvious.

I don't know whether you're lying or not - I wasn't there to hear the call was I.

Are you lying? If you are then share it with the forum and seek redemption from your peers.

There is no reason at all to doubt the OP and to insinuate he is lying is unfair. Please keep posts on topic and non-personal or warnings may be forthcoming.

 

[ThePublisher]

BDW is he still calling you?

 

[bdw]

I got one call yesterday from a strange foreign number which I did not answer. Last time he called me from one of the previous numbers was Friday.

 

[Simon-M]

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=255263

It seems that 9 got fined etc in the last 5 years.

 

[Lease4Less]

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=255263

It seems that 9 got fined etc in the last 5 years.

A great example that enough is not done to protect people from receiving unsolicited calls (Threatening or other)