UKH

Its not very good is it. 

I have tried numerous times to stop the calls/text/scams etc but I'm getting lots each day now.

Anyone else had experience of it or an alternative way to prevent the calls?

As far as I understand it if different agencies already have your number, stopping BT from republishing it in the future changes little. 

A cursory bit of detective work on LinkedIn is quite revealing.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/elaine-lee-fcim-mciof-8080742/

in summary, [primarily UK-based] companies that comply with the law will take you off their call list if you are registered with TPS.  Overseas companies that are trying to break the law will not...

We’ve not had the landline plugged in for a couple of years now, relying on just our mobiles. The beauty is, when a unrecognised number or withheld number rings us, we google the number and if feedback points at telemarketers or scams, that number is added to the ‘block caller’ list on the mobile and they can never get through again.

Our thinking is simply if it is important, they’d had left a message. No message left? - blocked!

It’s a hash way of dealing with modern life but spam and scam stuff is uncontrollable these days, you just have to do what you can.

In my experience, even the UK companies just don't. Presumably because they know noone will bother to report them.

Most of the cold/scam calls come from outside the UK (while displaying a UK caller id, probably spoofed), where the TPS is UK only, so it's a bit harsh to expect the TPS to be the be all and end all of blocking cold calls.  The cold callers can show whatever caller id they like, sometimes bona fide numbers, and they will often randomise or rotate their caller id.

Possible (but not limited to) solutions

• get a phone that displays the incoming caller id: if you don't recognise it, don't pick up
• some mobile phones will display the incoming caller id, and also give you an indication if the incoming number is already suspected of being dubious; there are also apps that will facilitate this
• be careful where you give your phone number to (or get a second line, or a second SIM or an eSIM or a burner SIM etc), although many of the cold callers just war dial (dial sequential numbers till they get an answer) or random dial.
• have a chat with the cold caller and string them along for a while, they get quite angry when they realise you're winding them up and tend to like to show you how good their English sweary vocabularly is at that point, but at least you might have stopped them scamming/cold calling another three unsuspecting "targets" during that time.  I've learnt some very unusual English style expletives in this way
• there is an emerging protocol called STIR/SHAKEN (that's not humour, see for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STIR/SHAKEN) which is gaining some traction but it's proving tricky to get into widespread use.

To be fair to the TPS, the number of scam/spam calls we used to get dropped off quickly when we first registered with them.  But that was 20-odd years ago and the proliferation of unsolicited calls from overseas outbound scam/spam call centres spoofing UK numbers has skyrocketed since then and there is nothing that the TPS can do about them.

We use a call blocker telephone such as this one: https://www.bt.com/help/user-guides/phones/landline-phones/cordless-phones-... on our landline.  And yes, we do still use the landline, mostly to receive calls from older family members who are still wedded to 20th century technology for day-to-day purposes.

The BT call blocker phone linked above is the actual one we use.  It allows through calls from numbers present in the contacts list on the phone, and you can set it to block other specific numbers.  IIRC it's one button press to register the originating number of a unsolicited call to be blocked in future.  I say "IIRC" because I can't actually remember the last time I had to use it, and that's because of the way it handles calls from non-recognised numbers.  In such cases it puts the caller through to an automated 'concierge' function within the phone's answering machine which asks the caller to state their name.  Most if not all spam calls get dropped at this point because the autodialers the spammers use detect the concierge as an answering machine (which is what it basically is).  Call routed to the concierge don't ring, so if the caller drops the call then you don't even know that it happened.  Genuine callers just have to leave their name and the phone then rings, and uses the recording of their name to let you know who's calling, at which point you have the option to accept or reject the call.  We have never had any problems with genuine callers not understanding the concierge.

The only feature you need from your landline provider for the call blocking to work is caller ID, which AFAIK is pretty much a standard feature with landlines these days anyway.

Spam calls & texts on the mobile are generally well handled by the phone & text apps on our Pixel phones.  It's not quite as seamless as the landline call blocker but the phone will usually flag a suspect call or text as it arrives and give you the option to accept it or reject it, and mark it as spam if appropriate.  A spam call or text which does get through is trivially simple to tag as such, and I believe the Android ecosystem gathers such information from across its user base and uses it to refine its call blocking (I suspect Apple does the same with iPhones).  I can't immediately recall how many unsolicited calls or texts have actually got through to my mobile recently, largely because there are so few - probably no more than than a dozen or so a year, and they are very easy to deal with.  That said, we are using recent model Pixel phones with the latest Android updates installed.  Older phones, or android phones from other manufacturers, may not have the same functionality (although who knows, it might even be better!)

What I am getting at the moment - and has only started within the last month or so - is a veritable avalanche of junk e-mail.  My mail provider is doing a decent job of routing the vast majority of it to my junk folder so it's not clogging up my inbox, but there didn't used to be anything like as much rubbish turning up in the that folder as there has been these last few weeks, and I do wonder why that is.  (That said, the overwhelming majority of it is almost laughably amateurish and really shouldn't be able to fool anyone with an IQ higher than an amoeba.)

Tell us you're a telecoms engineer without telling us

To the OP - in addition to what YLAd2 has said, OFCOM have recently issued an edict to UK telephone networks to say they must vet calls to ensure a valid CLI is used for the inter-exchange messaging at least.  As someone who drives telephone exchanges for a living, I can say that this has reduced the amount of spam/scam calls we're seeing, probably along with improved anti-malicious call technology in UK networks.  Thus I suspect what we will see is the end of UK landline numbers being spoofed because the incoming international gateways will stop accepting UK landline numbers coming in from abroad unless they have agreements with the foreign carriers they trust. As a result, I predict a shift to 07xx mobile CLIs being implemented as these could legitimately be roaming and thus can't easily be blocked on international interconnects without blocking genuine traffic.  Network operators are keen to kill off scam/spam traffic as it's causing the public to not trust phone calls and thus they're losing revenue.

Taking your number out of the phone book is of little benefit nowadays - the bad actors are simply calling every single number that exists with autodiallers. One of our customers was bombarded by people calling them claiming they'd called them recently i.e. they'd received a call from my customer's CLI. I reported the issue to our interconnect partners to ask them to block calls from that number on their networks, one came back to me to tell me they'd seen 15,000 call attempts from the number over a two hour period.  It's full-on organised crime using huge call centres, not some bloke in a shack in Nigeria.

I messaged the board member. Got a really good response back, quickly too.

Copied here in case it informs others.

'Hi Richard

You're right, I am a board member at TPS Limited - I'm glad you felt able to reach out. 

I'm sorry you are being disrupted by nuisance calls. Can I firstly check that this is where you have registered your number? https://www.tpsonline.org.uk/register/text_to_register 

You should be able to check your number is registered on this page (https://www.tpsonline.org.uk/register/am_i_registered ) 

TPS is the only official register in the UK and we operate under licence from the ICO. 

If you are registered you should not be getting any sales or marketing calls from companies you have not shared your number with or given consent to (which would over-ride your registration for that company only). You can withdraw your consent from any company at any time - simply by asking them to stop calling you. 

All legitimate businesses in the UK should be screening their telemarketing lists against the TPS register - so if you do get a call, please do register a complaint at the ICO (https://ico.org.uk/global/privacy-notice/report-a-nuisance-call-or-message/) as all complaints are registered and the ICO will then investigate. The ICO have increased their enforcement action significantly over recent years which is acting as a deterent.

Unfortunately, the scammers do not follow the rules and regulations so do not comply with screening against the TPS register and may still call you. In order to stop as many as possible of these I would recommend registering a complaint for each with the ICO on the link provided and also using the "block number" facility on your telephone. 

In addition you can report a spam / scam call to your mobile network provider. Again these reports are used by the providers to investigate and shut down scams quickly. You can find out more on this link https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/scam-calls-and-messages/7726-.... 

Once again I am sorry you are being disturbed and frustrated by these calls. I hope these points will help you feel a little more in control of them - by committing to reporting these nuisance calls and scams we are working together to stop the "businesses" in their tracks.  Do come back to me if there's anything else you need and I can put you in touch with the team at TPS directly 
Best wishes
Elaine'

Telecoms regulators around the world are implementing S/S and other measures, with some jurisdictions putting in hefty penalties for not, for example, checking that the originating network is 'trusted' [here is looking at you, USA].  As indicated below, i suspect it will stop a bit of the calls, but scamsters will always be one step ahead.

It's crap isn't it. I understand that scammers aren't going to care about TPS, but I'm baffled by the genuine companies that ignore it. The first thing I ask when I receive a cold call is "have you heard of the TPS?", and they'll reply that it doesn't apply to them. "But why call me? I don't want your call and I'm just going to tell you to piss off. You're wasting both our time". They don't have an answer to that, so they launch into their spiel. And I tell them to piss off.

Fascinating facts... captivate Uber nerds with telephone trivia.

Back in history, when post office telephones did their thing, landlines were the only option and people still knew who Buzby was... (or what Bernard  Cribbins sounded like) in the event of civil unrest, nuclear war, general badness etc. The post office (and later BT) wanted to be able to switch landlines to incoming calls only, except for trusted groups who would be able to send and receive calls such as police, civil defence, security services, military and so forth. So they set up a system to control making of outgoing calls that could be invoked if needed. As a spinoff and to justify/explain it they were able to blacklist numbers too. This system to control outgoing calls to trusted groups (or blacklist numbers) was called the telephone preference service. For an old cold war legacy, TPS is still going! Not quite so relevant or effective in the age of international calls centres spoofing numbers.

Yes I've lost count of the 'it doesn't apply to me' replies I've had. 

Now I start by asking if the call is being recorded, then if they are able to delete my details from the mailing list. If they can I ask then to delete, if not I ask to speak to their supervisor in order to repeat the request. 

No idea if it works, but wastes a bit of their time and hopefully makes it clear that calling back won't generate a sale - but without being rude. Think asking if the call is recorded is important as it means there is a record of my request should I report subsequent calls to the TPS.

On our landline we never answer a number we don't recognise and let the answer machine take it. If it is a scam or a cold caller the call ends when the machine cuts in. Family/friends know we will pick up if they start to talk and bone fide callers will leave a message.

Dave

We bought a phone from BT that blocks unwanted calls. We never have any cold or spam calls ever. Little bit pricey but absolutely superb. The phone never even rings....

I really hate people who do that (sorry), if I want to talk to you I'll call back later not leave a voicemail.

I try to answer all calls but am just quick to shut down unwanted ones - keep telling my husband this with his mobile, unsolicited  callers will just keep trying and bothering you. (I do get quite a few legitimate calls from unknown numbers)

Yorkshire lad 2 does what I do sometimes - string them along if they are calling from somewhere outside the UK.

We have a BT phone which we sometimes use to block callers.

BUT:-

If you get a caller from within the UK, then I think the GDPR  (data protection laws) apply.  
We had two consecutive calls from the same UK company selling something.    I told them to remove the number from their data base as I hadn't given them my permission to call me.  A couple of days later I got another call and insisted I talk to the supervisor - they tried to palm me of with various excuses but I told them that I would report them to the DPC  for using my data without permission.   I reported them and I've never heard from the company again.

UK created matching laws on EU exit

"..The Data Protection Act 2018 is the UK's implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).."

https://www.gov.uk/data-protection

I used it about 4 or 5 years ago and practically overnight the junk calls stooped

Maybe once a fortnight or month a IT Center from India calls but they get fed up well before I do. 😂😂

That's not quite the same thing as the TPS you can sign up to. When a line is provisioned, one of the parameters is the 'preference level', and people like police etc. can be given a different level to the general public. Then, in the event of a special event the exchange can be set to only allow calls from certain preference levels.  It's not possible to assign a preference level to an incoming transit call, only an exchange's own directly-connected customers.  It seems to have died a death as it doesn't always exist on exchanges made by manufacturers outside the UK.

Ofcom being included in the list of regulators requiring the telcos to take action, it would seem:

https://www.theguardian.com/money/article/2024/jul/29/ofcom-clamps-down-on-...

BT has prevented as many as 1m calls a day from entering its network on a voluntary basis since July 2022, and other firms such as TalkTalk have adopted similar measures.

Now the regulator has ordered the other telecoms firms to block “presentation” numbers, albeit with a further six-month grace period. That means fraudsters will still be free to call consumers on some networks until January.

Interesting that BT appear to have been doing it for a couple of years already.  Since we're with Plusnet I would hope that we have been benefiting from it as well.  However, since we have a call blocking phone (as per my earlier posting) - and have had for a lot longer than two years - we wouldn't actually have noticed any difference, because nobody we don't know and who doesn't tell the 'concierge' who they are can get through anyway.

Another recommendation for a phone with a call blocking option. I'm on the TPS, which I assume works because I get very few spam calls. And the few I get I only know about because my phone tells me I had a missed call without it ever having rang.

My phone is set up so that if the number is in my contacts it will put them through - any other numbers they have to effectively leave a voicemail announcing who they are - my phone then rings and when I pick it up I get their message saying who they are and can then choose to press 1 to accept the call or 2 to decline. Oddly enough none of the cold/spam callers want to say who they are and stay on the line and just hang up.

I recently switched to EE as Plusnet stopped doing mobile. Not sure if it's related but I'm getting a dozen or more automated calls a day , all from different 07 numbers. They are in Chinese, or your mobile is about to stop working, or immigration stuff. Blocking doesn't help as they are all different numbers. I use the Google screen but the phone still rings a lot. It's a nuisance as we're having work done on the house at the moment, so some unknown numbers are legitimate calls. Any ideas?

Everyone will have been benefiting as so much traffic to UK numbers routes via BT's networks.