On 23/04/2011 20:15, hugh wrote:
In message , tony sayer
writes

In my case, the caller witheld their ID and the calls were silent so I
couldn't identify them; this was later confirmed as a rogue autodialler.

A lot of firms do that, they have a computer system that dials out and
makes the called party wait till they get around to dispensing their
spiel to you..

I do wait sometimes and tell them in as menacing voice as I can muster
to get to the next on their list and delete our number as I have some
friends in MI5 the Home office and similar .. seems to work..

As the calls were to my mobile and happening up to four times a day,
this was very inconvenient. The phone company would not release any
details to me, as the number was withheld or contact them on my behalf
to tell them to stop, their only advice was to contact the police and
report nuisance calls. The police response was that they receive
hundreds of these and that they would not follow it up, as it was a
waste of manpower and advised me to change my number. Unfortunately
changing my number is not a viable option, as not only do friends and
family know this one, so do clients, suppliers, agents, HMRC,
accountants, utilties, even my local garage and I can guarantee that I'd
miss informing someone of the change and that it would lose (possibly
significant) sums of money.

I suppose you have complained to Ofcom not that it does a lot of good
but if enough people agitate them they might...


The auto diallers ring out but then find when you answer there isn't an
agent free to pass the call to hence the silence followed by hang up.
There was an edict from Ofcom that these systems should be changed and
the number of complaints dropped, but of course there will still be some
around - and Ofcom can't control overseas call centres.

It was confirmed that it was a rogue autodialler - every single time it
called (dozens of times over 10 days or so) it was silent and waiting
didn't get anyone at the other end. My mobile provider confirmed this,
but would not release the information, despite me quoting a section of
European Legislation that requires the release of witheld numbers in
cases of harrassment or nuisance calls.

I did contact Ofcom, they were a waste of time.

SteveW