Con Men

[Steven]

Don't you hate it when people sell your telephone number and end up in the hands of con men.

I had a call from one of those american lottery bodies that claim you will win loads and stuff... then ask for your credit card.

Well fortuantly the guy caught me at the wrong time and had some abuse

Nothing is safe nowdays... I am ex direcotory but but number gets sold off the net.

I usually gie out my 0870 number especially for the net.. but a few slipped by.

What is the biggest con you have ever seen?

[TonyGoose]

Ooh Ooh i know the answer to this one ...

The 400% tax on fuel at british pumps :flaming:

Along with the rest of the outrageous tax burden

the honest wage earner has to endure in this country.

Having said that, i guess the BIGGEST BIGGEST con in the whole world ...

has to be that beureaucratic, bottomless money pit they call the 'European Union'

Scuze me while i wrap myself in a union flag :smilegrin:

[Monster-Mat]

hear hear....................

i second that.............but then again i get tax free advantages of being out here

long live the euro/europe:lol:

[Claire G]

One of the biggest cons I'm having to endure at the moment is my husband 'borrowing' my car all the time...

"Just to pop to the shops" or "I don't mind taking you, why don't you just have a snooze in the passenger seat"....."No, YOU have a drink tonight - I don't mind driving"

:lol:

[Matthew_McNally]

being listed in the Yellow Pages mate

Its basically a listing of companies for other companies to try and sell stuff to.

I used to tolerate them, then starting saying I wouldn't talk to anyone who gt the details from YP - no I just completely dodge 'em.

If the phone rings and someone says

"Hi - my name is - can I speak to the person in charge of "

eg

advertising

mobile phone bills

hardware purchasing

software purchasing

gas / electricity bills

etc

now they just get my vague "hey I'm just a YTS here on community service" impression.

"no - she's not around right now.

Dunno when she'll be back

No - she gets on my back if I give her direct dial details out"

gets 'em off the phone anyway

[Claire G]

Car tax and car insurance is a con! Firstly car tax - people get penalised for the size of engine no matter how efficient, clean and environmentally friendly. My 2.0l IS200 Sport is a lot better for the environment than my first car, a knackered little Y-reg 1.0l...yet I pay more car tax.

Car insurance How come you get charged more for import cars EVEN if the use EXACTLY the same parts as a UK car.

Hmpf

[Steven]

Originally posted by Matthew_McNally

being listed in the Yellow Pages mate

Its basically a listing of companies for other companies to try and sell stuff to.

I used to tolerate them, then starting saying I wouldn't talk to anyone who gt the details from YP - no I just completely dodge 'em.

If the phone rings and someone says

"Hi - my name is - can I speak to the person in charge of "

eg

advertising

mobile phone bills

hardware purchasing

software purchasing

gas / electricity bills

etc

now they just get my vague "hey I'm just a YTS here on community service" impression.

"no - she's not around right now.

Dunno when she'll be back

No - she gets on my back if I give her direct dial details out"

gets 'em off the phone anyway

Ack... I know the feeling

However.. there is a solution and it workd great... I have a special 0870 number that goes straight into music... then i have a special recorded message asking for the name of the person... then the system calls me and tells me the persons name and where there from... then i have a choice of wether to pick the phone up or not... usually not.

If not then it goes into answer machine mode where it emails me a WAV file of the message.

Sweet eh.. and all for £10 a month... so i always dodge those pesky YP salesman.

I got ripped off one for £400 when a magazine company went bust... i swore never to buy anything over the phone again.

Another tip... when the person is on the phone talking... either ask them to hold or put them on secrecy and then put the phone down.... they will never know you have put the phone down and they will sit there for 15 mins waiting.... that makes me laugh because they are usally still in the system and I make 2 pence a miniute from the call.... great beer money!

[JMRussell]

No problem at home - registered with the telephone preference service and within 3 weeks silence.

the office is a different story but mostly IT companies or tele[hony co's. I have fun with the IT ones cause they normally phone me as the IT partner in my accountancy practice but I'm also the MD of an IT security / network co. as well. It means they're usually either trying to sell exactly what we do or sell me equipment at really low prices - until I explain we're a VAR too!

I don't really mind as they do have a job to do and my secretary's pretty good at stopping the orst ones. The 2 scams that bug me are the 'thank you for helping us out with the XXXX survey as a thank you we are sending you (most recently a set of Talisker Whisky) and here is your security code in case it does not arrive and while we are on ........ Of course it never arrives! The other is an unsolicited fax firm that says we are confirming our mailing list - if you do not want to be onour list please fax this page back to11111111. Needless to say the single a4 fax is black with small white print on it and its a premium number to send it back to - probably take about 3-4 minutes with your average fax to send.