Spam Phone calls

Guys, this morning my mobile phone has been inundated with silent phone calls from a Manchester phone number
0161 827 8150. This number is registered to a "digital marketing" company called Red Star. When I looked them up on the internet there are about 14 companies trading under this name and using the same phone number. Most seem to be so-called "Financial Services" companies doing PPI claims and investment advice.................

My home and mobile phone numbers are both registered with TPS so i shouldn't be getting these calls. Anyway after loosing my temper with the call centre operator ( a British woman!) I was put through to her "team Leader" who assured me that the company IS also TPS registered................. I said I couldn't care less but to remove my phone number from their databases as I don't have any PPI Claims to make or require any dodgy investment advice thank you.

I have learned two things this morning as a result -
a) I didn't know that it is very easy to block phone numbers in an iPhone - search on line and there are numerous websites, but it is a simple case of a couple of clicks after clicking the "i" button next to the number in the recent calls list, scroll down until you see "block this number"!

b) I created a complaint with Ofcom who despite what I have read/ heard about them being slow to respond were in fact very swift to reply to my complaint with a phone call. It transpires that Red Star are on their list of companies under investigation for making "cold" and "silent" phone calls.

Silent phone calls are a pain - even more so if like me you get 15 of them from the same number in an hour, but if you do get them then you can "google" the phone number and find out a load of info about these companies and also see just how many complaints some of them have had made against them.

Well done Tim. 'Rogue operators' need standing up to and properly investigating.

I had a couple of calls re PPi from a company called The Claims Guys with a 0161 number so probably the same place.

(20-05-2014 11:13am)XFullFatTim Wrote:  b) I created a complaint with Ofcom who despite what I have read/ heard about them being slow to respond were in fact very swift to reply to my complaint with a phone call. It transpires that Red Star are on their list of companies under investigation for making "cold" and "silent" phone calls.

I never bother to do this, as I didn't think they'd do anything with my info.
Really refreshing to hear that they followed up

(21-07-2014 06:27am)mcnulty017 Wrote:  I never thought that there is still some spam phone calls if i am not mistaken they are already gone because of do not call list.

They get around this, by phoneing from outside of the UK

On my iPhone I have one ringtone set for everyone in my 'Contacts' and for anyone not in the contacts a completely different one so that I know without looking if the call should be answered. The only time that this does not work is when I am expecting a call from some one not stored in my contacts but as this os not often it isn't really a problem.

I know that this method would not work for a phone used for business but it is fine for a private phone.

Mcnulty017 has been banned and all posts from the user removed for continually posting commercial links in his posts. There is zero tolerance of new members who have blatantly disregarded the sign up requirements, they will be banned. Amazing how they all have the same ICQ number too! Commercial links in bio's and signatures are prohibited by the forum owner ( who is not me!) links not related to the topics of the forums will also lead to banning as will use of computer generated user names.

(21-07-2014 10:22pm)JimWooly Wrote:  On my iPhone I have one ringtone set for everyone in my 'Contacts' and for anyone not in the contacts a completely different one so that I know without looking if the call should be answered. The only time that this does not work is when I am expecting a call from some one not stored in my contacts but as this os not often it isn't really a problem.

I know that this method would not work for a phone used for business but it is fine for a private phone.

I'd like to do this. I have hundreds of contacts. Is if possible to do this in one go or does it have to be done one-by-one?

TIA

David, I googled it and it appears that it isn't easy and you need to have a "jail broken" phone. This is what I found using google http://forums.imore.com/iphone-4/171801-...group.html

i don't have a 'Jail broken' iPhone. I got sick of the sales calls coming in at lunch/tea/supper time and searched for a way of preventing them. In the iTunes store is an app called Call Bliss that I installed (IOS 6). Call Bliss gives the option to assign ringtones to groups of contacts. I also installed another app called 'Groups' which enabled me to create contact groups easily.