Felix.

A man targeted by marketing companies is making money from cold calls with his own higher-rate phone number.
In November 2011 Lee Beaumont paid £10 plus VAT to set up his personal 0871 line - so to call him now costs 10p, from which he receives 7p.
The Leeds businessman told BBC Radio 4's You and Yours program that the line had so far made £300.
Phone Pay Plus, which regulates premium numbers, said it strongly discouraged people from adopting the idea.
Mr Beaumont came up with the plan when he grew sick of calls offering to help him reclaim payment protection insurance (PPI), or install solar panels.
He said: "I don't use my normal Leeds number for anyone but my friends and family."
Once he had set up the 0871 line, every time a bank, gas or electricity supplier asked him for his details online, he submitted it as his contact number.

He added he was "very honest" and the companies did ask why he had a such a number.
He told the programme he replied: "Because I'm getting annoyed with PPI phone calls when I'm trying to watch Coronation Street so I'd rather make 10p a minute."
He said almost all of the companies he dealt with were happy to use it and if they refused he asked them to email.
Warning
The number of calls received by Mr Beaumont has fallen from between 20 and 30 a month to just 13 last month.
Because he works from home, Mr Beaumont has been able to increase his revenue by keeping cold callers talking - asking for more details about their services.


Nice little earner....

RA Dunk

These type of calls should be illegal anyway, invasion of privacy as far as I'm concerned.

dpb

Funny, was thinking about just this subject only yesterday. Just realised we no longer have any ( almost) cold calls.

We signed up to the bt nuisance calls thing,God knows, maybe a year ago - that long ago I'm skeptical I did anything at all about it in fact

hodgy0_2

Quite an old story

Felix.

oldie but a goodie.

I quite like to argue with them when they phone. refusing to provide your bank details or date of birth when they think they have a sale normally does it

LSherratt

iTrader: (1)

I had a call once about a well-known scam where the person on the phone asks if he can access your computer or something because it's showing a virus? (can't remember exactly what he said because it was about a year ago). Anyway, I lead him along for about 10 minutes pretending to do everything he said, then afterwards I said to him "I don't understand because I'm using an Apple Macbook" and he just hung up LOL.

Felix.

I've had a few of them - get you to view all these errors on your computer which will make the world end if you don't do something about it. They end up asking you to let them access your computer..... lol

The thing that makes them argue with you intensively is if you say that the computer is less than 1 year old, therefore "... I will just take it back to PC World and get them to give me another one.." Gets them going for ages as they say that it can only be fixed by them lol

reedy107

the ones i dont get are the ones that hang up as soon as you pick up

Always pakis aswell with names like John & Phil , you ask them to spell it and they freeze and hang up

My technique is a big old " **** OFF" down the phone to them

RA Dunk

Yea those bstards pi$$ me off immensely, I never seem to be next to a phone either I'm usually in the bath or outside or doing something, only for the phone to go dead when I reach it, *******..

Turbohot

How charming.

dpb

reedy107

Well what do you call someone England............... English

What do you call someone from Pakistan ...............Paki !

Fact

tarmac terror

iTrader: (2)

I have memorised the postcode for no10 downing street and the current prime ministers date of birth. I like to string along the PPI cold callers and provide those details to have the information pack or whatever it is they send sent out. They have never indicated that they think I am winding them up.

I did look at the premium rate line thing some time ago, but you need to be very careful with it - you must declare that the number is a premium rate number, otherwise the company could turn the tables on you. For that reason I didn't pursue it.

dpb

Really , I thought English were honkies or mzungus

reedy107

Racist.

Turbohot

Ok, thank you for sharing your wisdom.

reedy107

I take a bow to u sir

RA Dunk

He has a point, Pakistanis are Pakis, just like a Scottish person is a Scot and a Danish person is a Dane.

dpb Honkeys is what darkies call us whites, or sometimes they call us chalkies for obvious reasons lol

Before anybody jumps of the bandwagon and gets all PC there is absolutely nothing racist about what I just typed so go do one if you fancy a whinge.

Turbohot

Yes, he makes a terribly ignorant point.

The use of the Paki word isn't like calling a Scottish person a Scot etc. Even a 14 yr. old knows these days that 'Paki' is a derogatory term. People from Pakistan are called Pakistanis, not 'pakis'.

Calling white people chalkies or hankies is not something I hear.

RA Dunk

No need for insults.

Turbohot

I apologise, Dunk.

I said what I said because you talked about PC-ness and whinging and stuff. I'll alter my post now.

Sorry, again.

Merry Christmas.

reedy107

I actually lol'ed then

magepaster

iTrader: (2)

I may be wrong, but I understood that the suffix "STAN" means land. So Pakistan actually means Paki Land, Turkestan is Turke Land etc etc. If I am wrong then sorry I spoke.

Boro

iTrader: (1)

Should have used an 09xxx number at £3/min. Atleast then it would be worth the incovenience.

I'd spend all day talking to PPI reps for £180/hr lol