Carbon Credits. -Boiler room operation?

Derek Geldard :

Cold call? Just put the phone down.

Isn't this stuff regarded as stalking these days, making it a criminal offence? It has very much the smell of a scam. How did they get your number?

DIY regulation with

or similar, perhaps?

Well I certainly wasn't so desperate to lay my hands on Carbon Credits I phoned round following up adverts!

I think some years ago during one of the "bubbles" I answered the phone during the day and someone asked for my son who was out at work(I am at home, retired). For the avoidance of confusion I gave them my name. Thereafter they had both our names and our phone number which got added to their list of punterz and probably sold on.

Derek G

I'm very skeptical that this product would work. IME overseas call centres show as "Unavailable" as do legitimate international calls. Therefore programming in known cold-callers' numbers would be virtually useless.

Derek Geldard :

So far so reasonable but you've compounded the problem by listening to their sales pitch. They know you're listening, that means they're in with a chance, and they'll *keep* phoning. In future, do the sensible thing and Just Put The Phone Down.

I suspect that you're from a generation for which "just putting the phone down" is rudeness and rudeness is something to be avoided if at all possible. You must make every effort to get over that. Otherwise it could cost you dearly.

In message , Mike Barnes writes

I'm in the generation (70s) which lets the answer phone field those calls, usually international, so the TPS is a waste of time. However, they just keep repeating the call several times in a day if they get an answer phone.

If I am in a time wasting mood, I enjoy myself by engaging with them for as long as possible by making them repeat everything, and the ones which try to persuade you to allow remote access for them to "fix your computer" get really annoyed when you carry out all their instructions only to report that "nothing is happening", until you finally ask whether you need to have the computer switched on...

In message , Mark writes

True, I can block known callers on my home phone, but almost all are withheld or "unavailable".

BT told me that they cannot block international calls, and in any case I have children on two other continents, so that would not be a solution.

We have a couple of "Truecall" machines which we stopped using because they screwed up SWMBO's home banking because they filtered out * or # characters. This may not be the case now that "Home Banking" has morphed into "Internet Banking". You can even set up nested levels of hoop jumping incoming callers have to go through, ditto recorded messages they must listen to. There is a pass code you can give to relatives or trusted contacts that short circuits all this.

Derek G

Just press recall and put the phone down. Your phone will ring a couple of times, ignore it. The calling party will have been cut off.