I told them that I do not use Telstra

I said that when I moved into the house a few years ago, the person who owned it, said that he would disconnect the phone
As the phone has never been disconnected, then I assume that I am on a private telephone line, as I have never paid any money to Telstra or anyone else

This answer always got a "please hang on and I will get a supervisor" type response, so I hang up and let the supervisor ring me
After a bit of politely acting the fool, and asking can I have their address, so that I can come around to pay for my phone, as I do not have a bank account etc, they left me alone for a bit

They must be very smart in India
They must have figured out that if they had rang me through a Telstra line, then I must have a Telstra phone, so after a few weeks they would ring again

I have finally found a way of stopping the calls for a while, but it does take some patience

In a loud voice (hearing impaired people talk louder when not using hearing aids)
I say something like, will you please speak up, I can not hear a word you are saying, is that you Billy, are we still going to the footy on Saturday

If you are good at it, you can then get the supervisor to start shouting, as I said it takes patience, and you must let them disconnect the call
Now when I answer the phone and say Hello, many times the other end disconnect, I will assume that I am in the too hard basket

The wife on the other hand says "not interested" to normal salespeople, and puts the phone down, but if the accent is Indian she will say (enter the Anglo Saxon word here) OFF
She has been through no more spam stuff at Telstra, but apparently you can not block overseas calls
Sometimes when she answers the phone, she gets heavy breathing, which we assume comes all the way from India

Thanks for that tip, Frank

But...Err

I was 17 when I left Mudder England, and I still have pommie friends/rellies and we use the phone for those who are not on the net

Your advice was appreciated, and I will search later on to see if they can just ban Indian/Pakistani countries, as all my potential friends over there seem to be call center supervisors

Edit to say that I have just found out from the wife that we use Iinet as our carrier
Found an Iinet website which is more or less the same as Telstra, as they both take you to the Government website, which we are already on

But when we register for malicious calls through Iinet, after registering on the Do Not Call website, we can then get the ball rolling, providing we have so many calls within a certain period

Anything is worth a try

-- Edited by Tony Bev on Friday 10th of March 2017 08:09:55 PM

I respond by acting alarmed. They then think " AHA - We've got one!" And I start apparently panicking. 'I have only just got this computer and don't know much about it.' So they tell me to click on Start. 'What's that?' I reply. They then patiently tell me that it is on the bottom left of the screen. I do as they say and then they take me through all sorts of other steps, each one being more painful and taking longer than the earlier ones. After 10 or 15 minutes they get me to the point where I am supposed to hand over my computer to them, and at that point I say to them something like 'You want me to give you control of my computer so you can scam me! No bloody way', and then hang up. Incidentally, one of my friends did something similar to some salesman over the phone, and eventually hung up. The scammer then phoned him back and said that he would then call them every night from then on. They didn't phone again.

My son-in-law is, shall we say, less than patient with imcoming unwanted phonecalls. He had someone call him trying to sell him something which he didn't need or want. As I said, he is less than patient and swore at them and carried on somewhat as he is wont to do at times. Next thing, the police knocked on the door. He explained what had happened and how they had been calling him before with no success etc, and the Police advised him to tone it down in future. I guess that we should be tolerant of these mongrels - they are only doing their job - even the scammers - but gee it is hard at times....

My wife and I get a lot of this type of call
best answer is to say " I will get my husband he works for XXX "
they hang up. I have been in electronics and computers for over 40 years
none of the major company's will ask you to download software so they
can get into you computer. Team viewer will allow them full control of your computer.
so do not do it
Cheers Mark

After trying blocking tools, abusing unsolicited callers or playing dumb now days I just let the landline ring until the answering machine cuts in. If some one starts talking who I know or want to talk to I will pick it up, if they couldn't be bothered to leave a message I reckon the call couldn't have been that important anyway. Usually the telemarketers, charities or scammers will hang up as soon as the prompt starts as they know that you aren't going to call them back. With my mobile phone I never give out the number especially to businesses I tell them I don't own a mobile phone and give them the landline. When I do give my mobile number I always put their name in my contacts list even it's just to tell me the car service is done - then they appear on the screen when they call. A little off topic but have you noticed how many electronic forms you fill out on the internet these days that won't let you proceed without entering your phone number - unless it's someone that I think really needs to have it I will make one up (sorry if at some time I have accidentally given them yours ).

I may seem to be a bit anti social but the only way to stop these people from annoying or trying to scam you is by not giving them any opportunity to talk, Frank I'm glad it's working for you but I don't want to rely on someone like Telstra to do the blocking as they are probably making money from these calls especially the ones that originate in Australia.

Just hang up .

My daughter had a phone call from JOHN who said he was with Telstra & that her computer was INFECTED. Funny word to use. She actually played them along for a while pretending to follow their instructions using a cushion as a pretend computer. Eventually he woke up & hung up. But he has called many times since. Short memory.

Mozilla polled 30,000+ Internet users about privacy and security online. This is what they said.

Over 90% of the participants said they don't know much about protecting themselfes online. Only 8.9%are basically Mr.Robot

 

So if some smart sales man rings and pretents to be from Telstra and tells me a Hacker took over my computer , then I am one of the 90%.Cheers

Hi Recoup, I don't usually comment on others computers but this might help you.

Better wipe the Teamviewer off the computer as well through "control panel, remove programs". Also have a look through all your programs and see if any thing else came in at the same time as Teamviewer.

Seldom do they only send one attachment.

There is nothing wrong with team viewer itself I use it to fix others computers from a distance. The thing is it is freeware from that provider if you go through Teamviewer.

 

Getting it through that scammer is a trap to simply get your contact numbers or email details etc. You see once you answer a request it is known that you are a live target. A lot of these scammers are simply collectors of email contacts and the sell them on to sales or vindictive organizations.

There are also malware programs that you can download if you cant get rid of sabotaged files. But it is best to let a tech inspired mate do that.

Folks it just easier to say to them you do not have a computer.

I have a personal alarm next to my phone and let it off often! The ****atiel doesn't like it. .but i feel empowered against the pests.

Hard to believe that people still fall for these very basic scams. They have been circulating for years and there is so much info about them on various websites, it's hard to imagine people still get conned. Maybe some people should not operate computers.