2014-06-06

Arrrg! Why do people work for these criminals?

When the hell will the ICO get some teeth?

We need these laws beefing up somehow. I did suggest an amount that could be used in a civil case rather than proving damages. Sadly my blood pressure going up does not count as damages.

Latest bozo calling me, rather than a honey pot - no idea where he got my details: recording here.

I note they used a mobile number as well, but did not sound like a mobile calling, so may be breach of OFCOM Numbering Plan rules as well.

Oh, well, recording forwarded to ICO who will no doubt ignore it.

[update] A&A have just launched a new feature which is a softer Anonymous Call Reject which only catches known junk caller calling numbers. These are then recorder against a monologue that tries to get information ("what company are you calling from") and then the recording will (eventually, after we check it) be emailed to the Information Commissioners Office asking them to take action. This is enabled on all new numbers as well as all invalid numbers.

17 comments:

  1. Further info here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4664345

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  2. Part of me feels bad for the poor little sod who has no idea what he's doing and whose training clearly doesn't involve the words "TPS" and "apologise heavily, remove from lists".

    Only a little bit, mind. Nice to get cold called from a UK number for a change though! ;)

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  3. Hey, Isn't that the Call Centre from the BBC3 series?

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    Replies
    1. That was my impression too, will have to iPlayer it to check if indeed they were calling from the exact same "company". They have been fined in the past so wouldn't be too surprised.

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    2. Don't think so, aren't they "Nationwide Energy Services"

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    3. I think they're anyone who pays them to call

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  4. I like the sound of that service. What I really want is to route all anonymous calls (both CLID withheld and 'unavailable') straight to voicemail: phone spammers rarely seem to bother leaving messages, and if they do it's easy to dispose of.

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  5. I do this too, I've not published any yet.. maybe I should ;)

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  6. Good on you Mr K! I publish a ton of stuff like this as well now, its the only way now. Bloke on the end of the phone (not you!!) sounds like a cocky tosspot who is bluffing his way out of the situation

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  7. Following you update, can't wait to ear the first recording, maybe you should made the recording public on a web server somewhere.... for those long winter nights, would probably be more entertaining than X factor anyway :-)

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  8. Very good... "Don't worry, this isn't a sales call" ... "This sounds like a marketing call" "yes".

    I very rarely get telesales calls, but they almost always hang up as soon as I ask for their company number, so reporting them is a problem.

    The disappointing thing is that the legislation isn't widely enough known for the employees to realise they are committing a crime. A perverse part of me wonders if it would be interesting to try a private criminal prosecution against the employees themselves.

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    Replies
    1. I had the same thought. But it would be very hard to track them down. What might be easier is a private prosecution against the company directors (assuming there is a company). The way to go about it would be to go along with their pitch, and ask for the paperwork to be sent. Hopefully the paperwork would the reveal the company behind the calls.

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  9. Great idea, just updated my settings to use it. Will you publish the list of known junk callers somewhere?

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    Replies
    1. A public DNS blacklist (SpamHaus, Spamcop, etc. do for email) would be a really good idea. This could work with ENUM format records - i.e. querying 9.9.8.7.6.5.4.3.2.1.4.4.blacklist.somedomain would result in NXDOMAIN (phone number is not listed as a spammer) or an A record of 127.0.0.2 (phone number is a known spammer).

      I'm also curious how you're going about adding numbers to the system? Are you just relying on your customers reporting these calls, or have you got another source for the numbers?

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    2. I do need to decide some of the details - at present it is a small list of people that have got hold of me with junk calls, but a customer reporting, and number of reports threshold, would make a lot of sense.

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    3. Maybe a code that a customer can dial while on the call to automatically start a call recording and log the recording and CLID for you to review?

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    4. Phonespamfilter has had a queryable blacklist for years, but the problem is it's not as easy to classify phone numbers the way it is straight spam - eg. ao.com doing followup calls after orders have been delivered.. that number is on the spam listss.. it's potentially annoying but I hesitate to call it junk.

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