Topic: Credit Card Scam

[ACE]

My wife works in social services (adult abuse) and she make a couple of calls a month to someone who has been scammed by some lowlife, unfortunatley the older population still trust people and get ripped off quite often.

Why is it they can hide behind a hidden number, The government should be passing laws on cold calling instead of persecuting smokers, drivers, disabled benefit holders, oh the list goes on and on.

[Baccy Man]

The government should be passing laws on cold calling instead of persecuting smokers, drivers, disabled benefit holders, oh the list goes on and on.

The Information Commission's Office have just started prosecuting companies for cold calling under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article2054655.ece

Coincidentally Staybrite Windows one of the companies successfully prosecuted has persuaded an elderly couple 3 doors down to agree to an appointment for a free quote this afternoon. They have asked me to be there to ensure the sales rep doesn't get past the front door as they feel they were forced into accepting the appointment & don't want to be forced into buying new windows they don't want or need.
Their current windows were fitted 18 months ago by a local company they approached themselves & have a 25 year warranty. They looked up Staybrite on the internet after reluctantly agreeing to the quote from Staybrite & found out they would be in for a 4 hour aggressive sales pitch & they are unsure if they will be able to say no so they asked for help, at least in their case they feel they can ask for help dealing with it the majority of people wouldn't.

[ACE]

Good for you Baccy man, Make sure you do not come away with some new ones yourself ;D

Ask him if he smokes, if he says no, tell him it's a designated smoking area and he is not allowed in.

[Baccy Man]

They have seen me in action with door to door salesmen & Jehovas Witnesses in the past & know I have resolved problems for other people in the village who have had problems with various companies including the worst of the lot (council, benefits agency & inland revenue) salesmen are easy by comparison, somehow I don't think I will be buying any new windows today.
I helped them sign up for the mail preference service & telephone preference service yesterday so that should help a bit in the future.

[djbrenton]

The easiest way to get rid of salesmen is to mention that you declared yourself bankrupt a few months ago. They know they can't sell you credit so won't waste their time. If really, really bored, I'd let them spend a couple of hours before imparting this gem.

[Slug_killer]

As soon as the saleman is inside ...

Lock the front door, and make sure he sees you doing it.

Disconnect the phone

Then get out the boxes and boxes of  holiday photos, or the family album and go through them.

Or leave some handcuffs, rubber mask and whip around, and tell him you heavily into s&m and you need some practice.


Or, invite him to sit in a chair where he can see his car, and get the local kids to loiter around the vehicle with spray cans in hand, or even move the it around the corner.

or, invite the local Jehovas Witnesses round at the same time.

[Pesky Wabbit]

... until he asked for the 3 digit number on the back of my card - he didn't ask for any other details - I made up a number and told him - listened to the tap tap of the keyboard and then he responded that that was correct

Nice move.

If he was a genuine and he'd said it was wrong, you could have just said "Ops, wrong card".
But then a genuine  wouldn't ask in the first place.

[Baccy Man]

Salesman lasted 1:43 minutes 5 minutes later phone rang Staybrite wanted to know why the 'UK's number 1 window company' was being turned away when they had such a good deal to offer. Phone was passed to me & I politely explained that there was no interest in any product or service from their company at the present time & said the phone number had been registered with the TPS so if there were any further calls I would be complaining in writing directly to Staybrite's CEO Chris Watson & informing the  Information Commission's Office that the company had breached yesterdays court ruling. I can't post their response as it wouldn't get through the swear filter but I got the impression they were unhappy about missing out on their commission.