Despite our being registered with the Telephone Preference Service, we regularly receive unsolicited telephone calls which, up until recently, I have just ignored. We have an answering machine built into our telephone, which allows us to listen to the initial part of any message after the answerphone is tripped. If I recognise the caller, I pick up; if not, it just records until they go away and I later delete the message.
However, recently I have made a point of answering and pretending interest. In this way, I can usually obtain the name of the company and its telephone number (and if they refuse to give it I can always dial 1471 to obtain it anyway).
I have twice now supplied these details to the TPS, who say they will follow them up. On each occasion, the caller spoke excellent English, so it seems unlikely they would be from foreign locations (which I believe the TPS can do nothing about). Twice now I have received an e-mail from the TPS stating that they can find no valid name and address of the caller and that the telephone numbers I have supplied have been found to be fictitious, despite the ones I obtained by dialling 1471 appearing to be UK telephone numbers.
It seems that, regardless of whether people register with the TPS, these companies have found ways of avoiding their means of detection. I don't think I shall be making the effort to make any more reports and just go back to ignoring them.
However, recently I have made a point of answering and pretending interest. In this way, I can usually obtain the name of the company and its telephone number (and if they refuse to give it I can always dial 1471 to obtain it anyway).
I have twice now supplied these details to the TPS, who say they will follow them up. On each occasion, the caller spoke excellent English, so it seems unlikely they would be from foreign locations (which I believe the TPS can do nothing about). Twice now I have received an e-mail from the TPS stating that they can find no valid name and address of the caller and that the telephone numbers I have supplied have been found to be fictitious, despite the ones I obtained by dialling 1471 appearing to be UK telephone numbers.
It seems that, regardless of whether people register with the TPS, these companies have found ways of avoiding their means of detection. I don't think I shall be making the effort to make any more reports and just go back to ignoring them.