Who to report to?

[badger]

Yet again one of those phone calls saying they have a record of someone at my address having a car accident. Did not get the company name except I heard the word solicitor and the number was not withheld - 0161 408 3391 - so Googled it. Obviously well known with lots of different links about this type of call and various companies to report to - whocallsme.com., uk.whocalledme.com etc. I feel these people should be reported because they may well call someone who has had an accident and believes them or might be concerned about a family member. After all if you get a call from a solicitor it sounds pretty convincing. Does anyone know who to report these calls to, or should it be police ?

[mi16]

I'm what way could the call be considered illegal?

[r.rackstraw]

I have had numerous calls like this since I had a minor bump a couple of years ago. The latest was from an organisation called Immediate Assist.
It is a scam of course. I have not fathomed it completely but I think its purpose is to persuade you to make a spurious insurance claim for injuries or damage which never took place. I expect they will take a cut if the claim succeeds.
I reported calls to the National Telephone Preference Service but they seem to be toothless.
Would the police be interested? You would probably have to go along with the fraudsters until you had sufficient evidence that you had been induced to make a false claim. The police might then do you for fraud, instead of the bad guys.
Does anyone have a solution to these pests?

[mi16]

What makes you think that they are trying to get you to make a fraudulent claim, I would have thought that they are interested in getting you to pursue a genuine claim and they would take a cut (hefty) of the proceeds.

[sweetpea]

You can report it to this organisation

http://www.ico.org.uk/

[gmcborgie]

Trading standards are always interested in this kind of call too, let them know about it!

[kriklah]

my sister had one of these calls recently, it went like this......
caller - "Hello Miss J, I'm calling in regard to your recent road traffic accident"
her - "And what accident would that be?"
caller - "The one you've had in the past 3 years"
her - " You are aware I don't hold a drivers licence aren't you?"
caller - "...oh?"
her - "Try doing your homework before calling anyone else you forking twit!"(edited to protect innocent readers)
needless to say the call was ended abruptly at this point.

[gerry4]

It is the insurance companies themselves that sell this information on. They have admitted it a few years ago. Nothing illegal about.

[badger]

There must be something illegal about cold calling people who have not had an accident, or as kriklah said don't even drive. It's obviously random in the hope they will contact someone who has had an accident and make something out of it. I'll try sweetpea's suggestion - thanks.

[mi16]

Nothing illegal about making a phone call

[2little2late]

I was listening to Jeremy Vine on Radio 2 a while back. Apparently you can buy a premium rate number from BT, any person that phones the number gets charged premium rates and you make a wee profit. Although, I think you have to tell the caller they have phoned a premium rate number thus, they are not on the phone for too long.

[mi16]

That chap made quite a few quid out of it also

[ducati]

If you are driven in Caithness then just take a note of the phone number, chances are you will need it one day.

[Fran]

I had a call from these people, PPP, asking if I'd had a loan sand could make a claim etc

[2little2late]

Funnily enough I received a text from a claims company stating I could claim compensation from the accident I had (say) five years ago. Reply to.. so on and so on. I replied back with. "Oh yes, that'll be the time I S**t my pants. Never received a text of the like anymore. Also if one receives a text for pay day loans etc. forward the text to 7726 (spam).

[badger]

As I said at the beginning, I searched the number and found masses of complaints about it. It's a Manchester number so not premium rate. Like so much cold calling it could upset someone who believed them and thought a family member had had an accident.

01614083391 - who calls me from 01614083391? 1/2
whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/01614083391‎
22 Jul 2013 - I had a call from 0161 408 3391 this afternoon - a guy with a very strong Indian accent asked for me by name. Said he got the information from ...

01614083391 on tellows | 2 Comments (1 positive) for phone ...
www.tellows.co.uk/num/01614083391‎
9 Sep 2013 - Phone number 01614083391 from Manchester tagged as Cost trap 1 times: "Window scrappage scheme" recorded messa... 320 searches on ...

01614083391 / 01614083391 | RU Scammer
www.ruscammer.com/01614083391/index.html‎
8 Oct 2013 - RU Scammer from (0161) 408 3391 comment 'CONTINUOUS RINGING AND ABUSIVE RE ACCIDENT'. They are from Manchester, United ...

0161 408 3391 - Reverse Phone Lookup For Great Britain
www.411phonesearch.co.uk › All area codes › area code 0161‎
... Royton, Failsworth, Irlam, Dukinfield, Audenshaw. Existing complaints for: 0161 408 3391. There are 5 reported complaints for phone number: 0161 408 3391.

and so on ...

[Tighsonas4]

we ge t 2 or 3 calls a da y from someone claming to be from parkinsons and to ring s no they g ive you and have decided to let them ring on as advsed by a bt eng​neer tony

[poppett]

Not sure if this works with a landline as I have never tried it. Only pesky calls to landline are from the "windows" scam man. I gave up telling him I don`t have a computer for him to fix remotely and yesterday told three callers I live in a council house, it`s their windows!

On a mobile, pesky text messages should be forwarded and the number SPAM (7726) used. This is a free service and it does work. With talk calls to a mobile if you press "9" while they are still speaking they are disconnected automatically and your number is then barred from them calling back. This certainly works too.