[AlaninCarlisle]

There must be a database for scammers that lists all of us oldies as possible targets. Just 30 minutes ago I got a call on my house phone from an 0151 (Liverpool) number. It was a pleasant sounding woman, pleasant at first anyway, telling me that my loft insulation was outdated and needed urgent attention. I just laughed, said "how the hell would you know, have you been up there?" and hung up. I then got mildly annoyed thinking about it and decided to give her a piece of my mind and rang the number she'd called me from. No ring-tone or anything, just silence. How do they manage this? Anyone else plagued with this sort of blatant attempt at scamming?

[mumofstig]

Continually!! Most of the time, nowadays, if I don't recognise the number and I'm not expecting a call, i just cut the connection without answering.

[Kleftiwallah]

I've had a recorded message telling me there have been two WITHDRAWAL transactions with my bank and this is before 8am.

Cheers,  Tony.

[mrs bouquet]

I avoid most of these because I have Sky.  The caller has to say who they are.  If I don't recognise this person, there is a delete button.   

[JayG]

Is your landline registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) Alan?

It helps a bit, as does any additional call protect feature which should give further protection if offered by your phone/broadband supplier.

Touch wood, I've only been getting one or two per week for the past few months, although in the past I had periods when it averaged a couple a day, even with two levels of protection in place.

[AlaninCarlisle]

To be perfectly honest about it, I sometimes feel amused by answering these calls. I just listen for about twenty seconds to the dodo being spouted  and then entertain myself by taking the mickey out of the caller

[JayG]

I used to answer the odd one, but found the amusement factor wore off pretty quickly! 

Last one I spoke to, when I expressed my opinion that she was a scammer rather than from Microsoft as she claimed, told me not to insult her, and to eff off!    

[wighty]

I too love listening to where I am supposed to have 'spent' my money (I wish)  so far I've spent about a grand with Amazon, a grand with Western Union (who I had to google to find out who they were) and my daughter (not named on the call) who has never received the five grand!  I just listen now to find out what I have supposedly  been spending and p ut the phone down.  It seems to have stopped as I've not had one for about two weeks.

[Yorkie]

Most of these calls are made from abroad - even if they appear to come from a legitimate UK number (which has been 'spoofed') - and therefore are outside the TPS unfortunately 

[jaydig]

I avoid most of these because I have Sky.  The caller has to say who they are.  If I don't recognise this person, there is a delete button.

Me too, Mrs B.  I never get unwanted calls these days.

Edit to fix quote

[Hampshire Hog]

I used to answer the odd one, but found the amusement factor wore off pretty quickly! 

Last one I spoke to, when I expressed my opinion that she was a scammer rather than from Microsoft as she claimed, told me not to insult her, and to eff off!    

Complain about that to Bill Gates !

[Goosegirl]

I rarely get one but love scamming them if I'm in the mood. Sometimes get one and there's no-one on the end of the phone.

[hamstergbert]

... Sometimes get one and there's no-one on the end of the phone.

This can easily happen with 'legit' callers, especially where it is a company (or call centre acting on behalf of a company) that uses an auto dialler.  These thingies educate themselves into how long to the second each call should take, continually revising their prediction, and ditto for how long from start of dialling the next call to answer.  Suppose it takes eight seconds to actually dial and for the call to connect and five seconds ring tone before the average punter answers.  The system will therefore put the next call in thirteen seconds before it calculates the next operator will finish their current call so the machine can immediately pop the target's details up on the operator screen in that magical instant when the call is answered and the operator becomes available.
Which goes to show how stupid supposedly sensibe people can be.  Calls may be longer or shorter but very rarely exactly on the average, and time to answer is not really that accurately predicatable.  So it may be several seconds (or many seconds) after a call is answered before there is an operator to start talking to you.  Or (averages are a beggar, aint they) some calls are finished sooner than expected and the operator is ready before a call is.  This is a bad thing of course for them wot run the call centre as it represents dead time in which the call centre staff are being paid but not actually in a call.
Annoying, but not always sinister, just inadequate technology, unrealistic call centre managements and attempts to model tightly things that are inherently too variable.
Waffle over.  Sorry but these ruddy things are a pet hate of mine! (you'd never guess)

[Goosegirl]

HGB, what's going to happen when AI kicks in? Am pretty savvy with phone calls and emails, but there's going to come a point where we will have to have so much security to do anything on-line or on the phone (main line or other) that we'll need a personal IT consultant to even log in to our own PC. I find it pretty scary TBH.

[Hampshire Hog]

Afraid AI is already in use I’m afraid.
Called up about insurance an automated voice wanted all my details before connecting me. Rang a local pub to book a table and was answered by a friendly female who was unable to handle me making an analogy when giving my name, clear give away that she was a fictional female!!