Finding telephone numbers

[T16GEM]

Does anyone know if there is any way that you can find out where someone has called you from by putting in the telephone number?
The reason I ask is I have been having strange calls and I don't want to ring it back so I wondered if there was any way of finding out if its residential or commercial?
If the worst comes to the worst I may just ring it back!!

 

[BONZO]

Before you go down that route you could try this: -


BT voluntarily operates Nuisance Calls Bureaux (NCB) to help and support customers receiving malicious and nuisance calls.

Initial enquiries are answered by specially trained advisers who offer simple advice and solutions. The NCB is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Complex cases, which may require police investigation or call tracing, are passed on to NCB specialists who are trained in police liaison and may appear in court as prosecution witnesses if necessary.

The Nuisance Call team can be contacted 24 hours a day on 0800 661 441.

 

[T16GEM]

Thank you! Will give that a try!

 

[Cochise]

Are these calls quiet and nobody will speak ?

If they do happen to be then this is what they may be :

If so I think you are looking at a marketing ploy. I believe (I may be corrected) but a company will pay for a subcontractor to make a certain number of cold calls for them to be paid a cetain amount of cash. But to complete this they cannot afford to pay people to make that many calls so they automate them. A machine will run through known telephone numbers and dial them, when you pick up the phone it is a call made for them even though they dont attempt to sell you anything.

I rang up BT and registered on their list to stop receiving any unsolicited calls for sales, this put a stop to the ones we are receiving apart from the companies we have had loans etc with in the past (Pain in the a** AA for one). From registering it will take a month to work through and companies have signed up to this, if they are found to be breaking the rules on this they may be heavily fined.

 

[SEVANS2208]

Also, it might be worth having a look at www.tpsonline.org.uk

 

[BONZO]

TPS is fantastic and I've been with them for some time now but it can take up to 28 days to get everything in place and I think you have to renew after a year or two - haven't had any "cold callers" for years and it's all free!

Auto-dialers are a problem but they can eventually be filtered out.

One thing to be aware of - when you sign up for anything, like Credit Cards etc, look carefully for the small print and box that says something like "I agree for my phone number / e-mail address to be used by other companies for marketing purposes" - if you don't say "No thanks" then your details may be added to a marketing list which is then sold onto other 3rd parties.

 

[Miffy2003]

If you are getting an actual number when you dial 1471 I would be surprised if you were being called by a PDU (Predictive dialler used by Call Centres for selling, collections, marketing etc).

Bonzo gives good advice!

I think what Rob is describing above is a PDU call that has miscalculated when an agent will be available (a so called "nuisance call). PDU campaigns in my industry are supposed to run at a rate of less than 5% nuisance calls.

 

[Cochise]

If you request what i said with BT they must list you on the TPS, i just wasnt aware of this at the time directly. I set my Mum up on it and checked her number online with the address above and it is on there.

I must remember to ask my Mum if she has been getting any calls, she was plagued by them for ages but has not mentioned them lately. Two thumbs up i would expect by the service.

Miffy do these PDU thing always miscalculate when someone will be available, cause it did happen an awful lot in the past to be bad timing.

 

[Miffy2003]

They shouldn't Rob, that's the idea of them - to save the outbound dialling time / time for customer to answer and maximise staff effectiveness. I can't speak for other PDU users but mine runs at approx 0.06% nuisance rate

Having said that, it can and does happen as you have found.