donotcall

Recoup · Guru

donotcall

dave48 · Senior Member

Just looked it up and it's a scam. been around in one form or another since 2005. You can look here although it's in quite a few places

www.scambusters.org/cellphonedonotcalllist.html

Dave

hako · Guru

Has to be a scam - for a start, in Australia mobile phones are not called "cell" phones. Telemarketers already have our mobile numbers.
We have all our telephones/mobiles on the donotcall register and only get charity or political call which cannot be stopped.

Good Luck.

macka17 · Guru

Denis.
We got pi==ed with the annoying calls on home line.
Contacted Telstra. Had No; changed
and listed on silent number listing.
$2.95 a month. and not one shonky call since.
Incoming calls line, only.

Plus handset sits on Answering mach.
Ph rings. They talk.
You either pick up for friends,
Or hit cancel button and block for others.

I have Bitdefender Total 2018 as our security.
Incl phones and Tablet.(covers 5 items)
Any of those multi calls numbers,
it gives a red box and says a "nuisance call number. Block or answer."
Just block. It's gone.

RustyD · Guru

Even a silent number is not guaranteed to keep scammers away. There are organisations (illegal of course) who will auto-dial all numbers in an area (eg. 03 0000 0000 to 03 9999 9999) and then sell all the active numbers to scammers. DoNotCall register is only used by legit callers. I'd like to see other lists that include opinion polls, political calls, and charity calls. There are valid organisations that supply numbers or services to charities etc. I've contacted several of these over the years to get my landline removed. The last one being last week after a call every evening for over a week.

Personally, I think there is corruption within Telstra with scammers with their Indian connection. A few years ago after a nasty issue with a scammer, my phone was disconnected within seconds of the call finishing. On calling Telstra, they identified the rank of the person (and who it was supposed to be) who disconnected my phone but subsequently refused to go any further. Several attempts to push the issue resulted in failure again.

At one point I had Telstra trace all my in-coming calls for 4 weeks. I was getting calls from about nine NSW numbers that Telstra had identified as duds and were happy to do the trace on my phone. Not one dud call in that period. Then the calls started coming again. Had the trace put on again, no dud calls again.

I then went through all my scammer calls and subsequent conversations with Telstra and came up with a list of about 6 points that suggested that there was corruption within Telstra. But who in Telstra do you report it to? Been down that path before as noted by the failure to find out who/why my phone was disconnected. Documented it all together to send to the Telecommunication Ombudsman. Still have it all ready to go.

mezza56 · Senior Member

NOT THE SAME AS YOUR ISSUE , BUT I HAVE RECEIVED A COUPLE OF CALLS FROM OVERSEAS , LEAST TO SAY I WONT ANSWER THEM AS THERE IS A SCAM RUNNING WHERE IT COSTS YOU SOME WAY JUST TO ANSWER THE CALL AND APPARENTLY A PERCENTAGE OF THE MONEY IS PAID TO THE CALLERS. I HAVE AN UNLISTED # SO THEY MUST HAVE AN AUTO DIALLER THAT RACKS UP PH NOS IN THE CHANCE THAT THEY EXIST . I HAVE HAD THE SAME # FOR AROUND 30 YEARS SO ITS NOT ANYONE ELSES OLD #.

Recoup · Guru

mezza56 wrote:
LEAST TO SAY I WONT ANSWER THEM AS THERE IS A SCAM RUNNING WHERE IT COSTS YOU SOME WAY JUST TO ANSWER THE CALL AND APPARENTLY A PERCENTAGE OF THE MONEY IS PAID TO THE CALLERS.

I don't get it , why do I have to pay some money to a crook , why is Telstra doing this , may be they are in it too ? Cheers

RustyD · Guru

And I forgot to note that I suspect that someone within Telstra must be supplying used, but not re-used, phone numbers to the scammers for use to bounce calls through a formerly valid phone number.

I had a "Joke of the Day" being sent to a mobile (SMS) some years ago. It was from a Premium service that charged $5.50 per joke per day. I was just ignoring these calls as I had no idea what it was. It was only when my pre-paid went to zero quickly that I found out what was going on. Then the blame game between OPTUS and the company sending me these SMS jokes. OPTUS finally refunded the charges. Apparently I was supposed to read the SMS and text back N to stop further SMS coming. I'm so glad I didn't have a monthly contract account as it could have been a lot more $5.50 debits before I noted. I now have all premium phone calls banned from mobiles and landlines.

In my prior house, my name was incorrectly spelled in the White Pages. So any unsolicited snail-mail with the wrong name I knew came straight out of the phone book. Also, any phone caller who addressed me as Mr. XXXXXX, I'd asked them to spell my name as the prior occupants has same sounding family name. The wrong spelling also said it was ad-hoc from the book. If the caller doesn't know your name, it's completely ad-hoc and someone you don't want to talk to.

Ger08 · Senior Member

Just a quick question Rusty - how is it illegal to use an auto dialer?

RustyD · Guru

Ger08 wrote:
Just a quick question Rusty - how is it illegal to use an auto dialer?

1. Computerised auto dialling numbers in a range hoping to make a connection is illegal (i.e. autodialing from 03 0000 0000 to 03 9999 9999). This is where people are trying to make a list of valid numbers to pass on to scammers and will include silent numbers.

2. Dialling from a list of stored numbers (e.g. your mobile phone contacts) as long as the caller manually does something to terminate/initiate is OK.

3. From time to time I get some automated crap promoting something political. Those numbers are autodialled from a list from the White Pages and is OK. You should not get these if you have a silent number.

This info came from Telstra.

-- Edited by RustyD on Saturday 12th of August 2017 10:30:52 AM

SouthernComfort · Guru

RustyD wrote:
....Apparently I was supposed to read the SMS and text back N to stop further SMS coming....

Anyone noticed that "Opt out" has taken over from "Opt in" in many things these days? So easy to get caught out because you didn't actively opt out of an unsolicited service or sale. I preferred the days when you weren't at the mercy of such arrogant marketing and could decide what you wanted and when you wanted it, without the trap!

Bruce and Bev · Guru

The "do Not Call" requirement only applies to companies within Aust and as already pointed out, excludes our wonderful political parties and registered charities.

Telstra says it does not have the ability to stop overseas call centres from phoning you and that's where most of these annoying calls come from.

In the USA, its common practice to start a personally suggestive conversation (about their body if you get my drift). It does work, as I started doing that and obviously got put onto those call centre "black" lists and never heard from them again. In fact many of the well known American chat show hosts brag that they do it to stop the calls

RustyD · Guru

How I got a refund from Optus (and not the premium service) for the "joke of the day" SMS was because I asked them for proof that that I'd agreed to receive these "premium" jokes. They couldn't show me anything where I said I wanted these calls. It was an auto debit to my phone account without any authority from me (that I knew of). It was not initiated by me actually calling the premium service.

Lancelot Link · Senior Member

I purchased a pea less whistle with a really sharp and shrill note. Every time I get a scammer or nuisance phone call, I fill my lungs and blow into the whistle! I think they all must be connected somehow as the number of calls have dropped off markedly! I am on the do not call register and all scam calls, marketing calls are from overseas. Telstra is not allowed to block overseas call anymore, probably due to the fact that all their call centres are now overseas. Leaves me to ask what has Australia become? An overseas supermarket?

aussietraveller · Guru

like Lancelot I have a whistle from my young days as a paperboy and this whistle resides beside our main phone, its amazing how quickly those that try to harass us hang up and yes the number of calls has dropped off considerably.

Greystone · Senior Member

We have voice mail on our home phone. Any number not listed in the phone's memory including private numbers are automatically diverted to voice mail. Marketers never leave a message, so they are easy to ignore.