I must admit that I have had success with yelling very loudly, including some naughty words 
, at the tax dept scammers and āfrom microsoft- your computer has a problem that needs fixingā callers. I have not heard from either of them in at least 2 years 
If only there was someone to yell at on the calls I mentioned earlier, yelling at a machine that isnāt recording is a wasted effort.
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me too and got one yesterday from Red Cross asking for money.
I am on do not call plus pay for silent number (when I think it should be other way around - pay to be in in directory if want to be known).
Time charities are banned as they always manage to ring when one has just sat down and taking first bite of dinner seemingly!
I absolutely agree.
Charities are a booming industry, this is evident by how many there are.
They need a āButton Planā such as the car industry had years ago to get rid of a few.
Plus I feel intimidated by charities ringing, they have a way of making you feel like Uncle Scrooge if you donāt donateā¦
Donāt let them make you feel mean, you just say, if catch you on phone or at door, - thank you but I always donate on line. Works for all charities.
And until they stop paying their execs etc obscene salaries then I dont donate. I actually stick to The Dogs Home, and animal welfare organizations where many work for sheer pleasure of dealing with these defenceless animals.
I do donate on line just not to human charities all too often spend donations on themselves and the organization rather than the target.
.
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I have being getting calls for months now on my landline. They are have become so annoying that I just refuse to answer the phone at all and only keep the landline so I continue to have internet available. So much for the āDo Not Call Registerā it simply does not work and never has for me.
If you are with Telstra . Get in touch with their sales and they can block those particular calls coming into your phone . I will try and find the two 1300 numbers they gave to me and post them so you can get in touch with them to block incoming nuisance calls .
I had my landline and mobile under the DNC register many years ago, there was a good reduction in nuisance calls, but they never totally eradicated. Since I paid extra monthly surcharge to have my landline converted to silent number, the number of unwanted calls did come down a little further. I suppose Telstra had to be compensated for the loss of revenue from the nuisance calls from their more āvalued or gold customersā. Anyway, back to nuisance calls, initially, I tried a few times to complaint to the DNC registry, only to be told invariably that there is nothing they can do. I understand sometimes the calls are generated randomly from a computer and I also feel sorry for the callers, either from the other end of the world or some poor souls who are struggling to make a few cents. If I detect a call being generated from overseas, I would politely tell the caller that his/her call is important to me, please hold on until I finish what I was doing. I then put them on hold and walk away. They usually hang up after a few minutes. On another occasion, I asked the caller to hold so that I can start recording the call for quality assurance purpose, he hanged up immediately.
I would support a ban on commercial ācharityā callers - those profit making companies who collect on behalf of charities - often passing on only a small percentage to the actual charity. The numbers who ring saying they are collecting for Cancer, then next call it is Lost Dogs, then Sick Kids etc. Often running a raffle - when I say I prefer to donate - they argue for the raffle. More of them are using overseas call centres through an Australian number by VOIP which means little cost to them. Choice report (some years ago) disclosed some kept up to a year or more of your donations before the charity got a cent. Genuine charities with a relationship with you - OK. They can call to remind you their annual appeal is on. At least it goes directly to charity.
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Besides charities, the other nuisance calls I get are from real estate agents asking if I want to sell my house - I get more of them these days than any other nuisance calls. I have been on the Do Not Call register for years.
@aschefamily When the real estate agents phone you again advise them nicely that you are a full member of the Choice Community Forum . Also tell them the power that Choice has if you were to name them . I doubt they will phone again . Marketing is all about subtlety and inventiveness not bothering people in the privacy of their own home
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I too have experienced nuisance callers. Most of the calls I get now are charities or scams, but have been spared the politicians! Phone scammers, like the Taxation Office and Microsoft scams, have been very busy here, so much so that warnings have been put in Neighbourhood Watch newsletters and sometimes through the newspapers to alert unsuspecting vulnerable people. As previously stated by others on this page, Iām on the DNC Register and re-registered because of problems. I have found some satisfaction in asking the individual charity to remove me from their contact list and most times I havenāt heard back from them. As for the scammers or any other number which I donāt recognise, I Google the number or contact reverseaustralia.com. Attached is a link for the ATO scam number.
http://www.reverseaustralia.com/lookup/0260642073
I hope Iām not diverting away from the topic when I suggest that it would be great if Choice could initiate a campaign to prevent these nuisance calls being made by Indian call centres on behalf of Australian companies. Naturally, the call centres ignore the Do Not Call register, even though itās illegal for any Australian company to try and circumvent the regulations in this manner.
In my experience the worst offenders are the solar panel companies, though they arenāt the only ones. On several occasions Iāve given the Indian caller a false first name and when, a couple of weeks later, I get a call from a local company asking for the person of that name, Iām able to link the two calls together. Iāve then reported the company to ACMA via the DNC website, laboriously answering the long list of questions. Thereās never any acknowledgement or response from ACMA, and nor do the nuisance calls decrease. I very much doubt that anyone in ACMA does anything with regard to this information. It seems to be a dead letter office. I can recall only one instance where a company has been prosecuted for ignoring the register.
As I said, it would be great if Choice could take it on as a campaign to get ACMA to actually start doing their job. It canāt be that difficult.
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We get calls from various call centres asking for a person by their surname.
āCan I speak to ā¦?ā
The name comes from lists of phone numbers obtained by call centres and are a real nuisance.
Any ideas on how to prevent them?
After I married him, my husband was getting calls asking for him specifically, if it was something we didnāt want I would explain why we no longer wished to donate, buy raffles, sign up to regular products, buy solar; and asked for our name to be removed. Some kept ringing and asking for him specifically and I got the impression I was on their list as ādonāt talk to the wife, she will only say No, insist on the husband.ā
The other tactic was asking for the first wife (who had probably donated or at least given them her name) and when told she had died some years before, they would then tug at his heart strings - I received regular calls from one particular ācharityā which I knew neither were interested in.
Because the son kept his white pages listing as his parentās names, people were finding it difficult to locate us, so I listed under our given names rather than initials, which means they know our first names and greet us as long lost friends. No way to prevent them, except to list the numbers and assign a different ring-tone. Unfortunately we have just reached the 100 limit on phonebook memory - our next handset will be about 200+ memory to handle them and still list family.
I had one ring the other day and said Iām on the Do Not Call register. She apologised and said sheād take my name of the list. I guess Iāll see if it worksā¦
I had one this morning that just asked is that Mr (my surname) and I said yes, then they hung up! I looked up the number (07 3188 2925) on reverseaustralia.com and someone else had tried to call that number back after a missed call, and just heard 2 rings then a busy tone.
Sounds a bit scamy, and now they have my name, which I guess they could have found in the phone book anyway, so why bother to call to confirm it?
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Yes Gordon I seem to remember that number and the same procedure . Ask for name and hang up . Thatās the cold call , expect to be hit by overseas call centres now for funeral plans or whatever is flavour of the month with the telemarketers at the moment . Most annoying
Between 3-5 every weekday we get bombarded by oversea telemarketers asking for the owner. Reception asks all callers what their call is regarding and its either cheaper phone lines, SEO or investments.They become very rude when their request is refused. Put them on hold and forget about themā¦
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The calls have started, just had someone with a strong Indian accent calling from 02 95882723 to tell me the Federal Government was offering rebates of $4000 for solar panels (Iāve been living with off-grid solar since 1991, never had and not interested in govt rebates). He knew my name and address and asked if I was the owner, and I said no, I donāt know who owns it, itās been abandoned and we have just set up camp here.
Strangely, he lost interest at that point and told me to have a nice day.
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Thatās a unique one!
