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On Tue, Jun 15, 2021 at 05:13:00PM +0100, Gordon Henderson wrote: > > The first way is to opt out of the phone book. This is sometimes called "ex > directory". If your chosen telco does not offer this, then move to one that > does. > > If you think it's a good thing to be in the phone book in 2021, then stop > reading at this point as you're beyond help. > > However if you've not opted out then it's probably too late as scammers > trade/sell lists between themselves, but it may stop new scammers in the > future. > > Next, opt out of the public voting register. You still need to register to > vote but there are 2 lists that our government will give/sell to anyone who > asks for it and one has the full details and the other just your names. > Opting out will remove your address at least. > > On-going, use the TPS. https://www.tpsonline.org.uk/ This is a FREE service > and you can use it for all your numbers, landline and mobile. > > This won't be effective immediately but may take some time. > > However as before if the scammers already have your number then they will > sell it to others and some just don't bother, or pretend to be "marketing", > etc. > > Also ask your telco for caller ID, however caller ID can and is spoofed now. > There is nothing more than a "gentlemans handshake" style agreement about > passing calling ID from one telco to another. Once upon a time there was a > level of trust and you simply didn't trust some telcos who placed calls into > your network - that level of trust has long gone. It's almost impossible to > police anyway. > > So while caller ID may be helpful, it may not. > > I'd also suggest unplugging your landline and moving to mobile. It costs > scammers fractionally more to call a mobile number, so they tend to not > bother. Telcos have deals for residential callers to give them so-many > "free" call minutes to mobiles now, so if your friends/family complain tell > them to move to a telco which does this. If you can unplug your landline, > then look for an ISP that supports SOGEA - your current one might - this is > copper without the voice part, so broadband only. Obviously if you're on > FTTP you can simply drop your copper phone line. > > Finally, which really ought to be firstly is EDUCATION. Educate your family > to recognise scam calls immediately and deal with them. The best way is to > simply hang up. Do not try to negotiate with them. I take the silent > approach in that I answer the call but do not speak until they do. More > often than not their automatic systems will hang up before they connect a > human to the line. Sometimes if I'm bored I'll say "Hello?" then wait, but > lifes too short. > > And scam emails? Why on earth are you not running an email spam checker or > using an email provider that does this for you? You do not have to use your > ISPs email provider - there are many others but note that the better ones > may not be free. +1 And if you come across an offer that sounds too wonderful, it may be worth seeing a professional to unpick it. But why oh why would you get a genuine wonderful offer by the telephone, or email or letter. https://campaigns.which.co.uk/scam-alert-service/ https://www.fca.org.uk/scamsmart -- Henry Communication not signed with an original manual signature or an appropriately verified digital signature is not binding. Tue 15 Jun 17:34:43 BST 2021 -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG https://mailman.dcglug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq