as before, (demented) Mother is plagued with these calls and I've had to
hide her cheque book and anything else with her account numbers on, to stop
her giving the details to these people. Registered with the TPS, etc etc.

If I arrange for her to have witheld-numbers blocked, this would help to
some extent, but would it prevent her relatives in Australia from phoning
her?

I've thought about changing her number but then I've got to rely on her to
make a list of all the friends and relatives who phone her that we need to
inform of her new number, which isn't realistic.

What's the definitive answer? I can't be there every day, all day and
evening to "screen" the calls. I keep going to the bank and (Power Of
Attorney) cancelling her direct debits to charities, but within 48 hours
they've hassled her by phone again, and got her to reinstate them. I'd love
to kick these people's teeth out. It seems every time I pop in, she's on the
phone to one or other of these parasites.

On 09/12/2013 13:16, Mentalguy2k8 wrote:
as before, (demented) Mother is plagued with these calls and I've had to
hide her cheque book and anything else with her account numbers on, to
stop her giving the details to these people. Registered with the TPS,
etc etc.

Unfortunately she is on a chugging mugs list. Why not give her some
defective but plausibly authentic looking bank details so that the
chuggers will feed bogus data into their direct debit system?

They will probably stop if the info they get is no good.

If I arrange for her to have witheld-numbers blocked, this would help to
some extent, but would it prevent her relatives in Australia from
phoning her?

I've thought about changing her number but then I've got to rely on her
to make a list of all the friends and relatives who phone her that we
need to inform of her new number, which isn't realistic.

Enable itemised billing for a year and then act on that?

What's the definitive answer? I can't be there every day, all day and
evening to "screen" the calls. I keep going to the bank and (Power Of
Attorney) cancelling her direct debits to charities, but within 48 hours
they've hassled her by phone again, and got her to reinstate them. I'd
love to kick these people's teeth out. It seems every time I pop in,
she's on the phone to one or other of these parasites.

The best I can think of and it will only work on those that proffer a
CLID is to take BTs "choose to refuse" service and systematically block
them. It is a very double edged sword though - someone elderly or with
dementia is just as likely to block your phone number by accident.

Not such a problem if you live nearby but tricky form a remote location.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

Mentalguy2k8 wrote:
as before, (demented) Mother is plagued with these calls and I've had
to hide her cheque book and anything else with her account numbers
on, to stop her giving the details to these people. Registered with
the TPS, etc etc.
If I arrange for her to have witheld-numbers blocked, this would help
to some extent, but would it prevent her relatives in Australia from
phoning her?

I've thought about changing her number but then I've got to rely on
her to make a list of all the friends and relatives who phone her
that we need to inform of her new number, which isn't realistic.

What's the definitive answer? I can't be there every day, all day and
evening to "screen" the calls. I keep going to the bank and (Power Of
Attorney) cancelling her direct debits to charities, but within 48
hours they've hassled her by phone again, and got her to reinstate
them. I'd love to kick these people's teeth out. It seems every time
I pop in, she's on the phone to one or other of these parasites.

Not cheap but Truecall can be configured with a "white list" of numbers that
you could program into it. Normally you would set it up to reject all
withheld or unknown callers.

It is difficult (but not impossible) to deal with overseas callers who you
want to get through by turning on the "Sheild" function and recording a
message asking friends or family to press the "pass" key. You would have to
let all these callers what the pass key is beforehand obviously (a single
digit between 0 & 9).

You can read the instructions here.
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...,d.d2k&cad=rja

HTH

Tim

On 09/12/2013 13:34, Martin Brown wrote:
On 09/12/2013 13:16, Mentalguy2k8 wrote:
as before, (demented) Mother is plagued with these calls and I've had to
hide her cheque book and anything else with her account numbers on, to
stop her giving the details to these people. Registered with the TPS,
etc etc.

Unfortunately she is on a chugging mugs list. Why not give her some
defective but plausibly authentic looking bank details so that the
chuggers will feed bogus data into their direct debit system?

They will probably stop if the info they get is no good.


I *really* like that idea. Wouldn't it be nice to give them Charles
Saatchi's bank details.

I'm no longer in the same position, but perhaps I will need to suggest
it to the kids one day!

On 09/12/2013 13:16, Mentalguy2k8 wrote:


If I arrange for her to have witheld-numbers blocked, this would help to
some extent, but would it prevent her relatives in Australia from
phoning her?

We have anonymous caller reject with a Sky line, works the same as BT
did when we had it on there (suppose it's the same on Virgin as well)
callers who choose to have their Cli blocked by default can dial 1470
before making a call to temporarily pass Cli and 'get through'

What doesn't work is that often internal calls still get through with no
Cli, it only blocks 'withheld' it doesn't always block 'unavailable'

We currently use a pair of nice Panasonic Dect phones which have a
blacklist - calls added to the blacklist are simply ignored, they don't
even ring Can also be configured to only respond to calls on a
whitelist although that in itself could obviously be problematic...

Similar-ish to the Truecall mentioned, which would be a better choice
long term since it doesn't rely on the ACR service...

What doesn't work is that often internal calls still get through with no

D'o'h obviously that was meant to say 'international'

In article ,
"Mentalguy2k8" writes:
as before, (demented) Mother is plagued with these calls and I've had to
hide her cheque book and anything else with her account numbers on, to stop
her giving the details to these people. Registered with the TPS, etc etc.

If I arrange for her to have witheld-numbers blocked, this would help to
some extent, but would it prevent her relatives in Australia from phoning
her?

I've thought about changing her number but then I've got to rely on her to
make a list of all the friends and relatives who phone her that we need to
inform of her new number, which isn't realistic.

What's the definitive answer? I can't be there every day, all day and
evening to "screen" the calls. I keep going to the bank and (Power Of
Attorney) cancelling her direct debits to charities, but within 48 hours
they've hassled her by phone again, and got her to reinstate them. I'd love
to kick these people's teeth out. It seems every time I pop in, she's on the
phone to one or other of these parasites.

Does she have an internet connection, so you could use VoIP for the
Australian calls?

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
"Mentalguy2k8" writes:
as before, (demented) Mother is plagued with these calls and I've had to
hide her cheque book and anything else with her account numbers on, to stop
her giving the details to these people. Registered with the TPS, etc etc.

If I arrange for her to have witheld-numbers blocked, this would help to
some extent, but would it prevent her relatives in Australia from phoning
her?

I've thought about changing her number but then I've got to rely on her to
make a list of all the friends and relatives who phone her that we need to
inform of her new number, which isn't realistic.

What's the definitive answer? I can't be there every day, all day and
evening to "screen" the calls. I keep going to the bank and (Power Of
Attorney) cancelling her direct debits to charities, but within 48 hours
they've hassled her by phone again, and got her to reinstate them. I'd love
to kick these people's teeth out. It seems every time I pop in, she's on the
phone to one or other of these parasites.

Does she have an internet connection, so you could use VoIP for the
Australian calls?

Um, I don't think the OP was kidding about the "demented" status of his
mother. Whilst acknowledging that what skills are preserved in dementia
can be very patchy, I still think that's a big ask.

Tim

On Monday, December 9, 2013 1:16:30 PM UTC, Mentalguy2k8 wrote:
Mother is plagued with these calls
I'd love to kick these people's teeth out.

It's funny that our government and the Americans can intercept and trace phone calls, texts, emails, in fact every fart that flies, between private citizens in their never-ending quest to protect us from terrorism but when it comes to tracking down one of their crooked businessman buddies pushing boiler scrappage schemes from Manchester, dodgy solar panels from Wales or whiplash compensation from Birmingham, the same ability to track down and stop the white collar scumbags seems not to exist.

It's a shame because I'd really like to see some of those people being waterboarded in Guantanamo Bay.

On 09/12/2013 14:51, Tim+ wrote:
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
"Mentalguy2k8" writes:
as before, (demented) Mother is plagued with these calls and I've had to
hide her cheque book and anything else with her account numbers on, to stop
her giving the details to these people. Registered with the TPS, etc etc.

If I arrange for her to have witheld-numbers blocked, this would help to
some extent, but would it prevent her relatives in Australia from phoning
her?

I've thought about changing her number but then I've got to rely on her to
make a list of all the friends and relatives who phone her that we need to
inform of her new number, which isn't realistic.

What's the definitive answer? I can't be there every day, all day and
evening to "screen" the calls. I keep going to the bank and (Power Of
Attorney) cancelling her direct debits to charities, but within 48 hours
they've hassled her by phone again, and got her to reinstate them. I'd love
to kick these people's teeth out. It seems every time I pop in, she's on the
phone to one or other of these parasites.

Does she have an internet connection, so you could use VoIP for the
Australian calls?

Um, I don't think the OP was kidding about the "demented" status of his
mother. Whilst acknowledging that what skills are preserved in dementia
can be very patchy, I still think that's a big ask.

A standalone voip phone can be setup to look and behave just like a
normal one. It can be phoned via its advertised number or via an IP
address. So its the callers that would need re-education once its set-up.


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On 09/12/2013 13:16, Mentalguy2k8 wrote:

What's the definitive answer? I can't be there every day, all day and
evening to "screen" the calls. I keep going to the bank and (Power Of
Attorney) cancelling her direct debits to charities, but within 48 hours
they've hassled her by phone again, and got her to reinstate them. I'd
love to kick these people's teeth out. It seems every time I pop in,
she's on the phone to one or other of these parasites.

Online banking (for you) perhaps.

Could you give instructions to the bank to not accept DD instructions
until confirmed with you?

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On 09/12/2013 15:37, mike wrote:
On Monday, December 9, 2013 1:16:30 PM UTC, Mentalguy2k8 wrote:
Mother is plagued with these calls I'd love to kick these people's
teeth out.

It's funny that our government and the Americans can intercept and
trace phone calls, texts, emails, in fact every fart that flies,
between private citizens in their never-ending quest to protect us
from terrorism but when it comes to tracking down one of their
crooked businessman buddies pushing boiler scrappage schemes from
Manchester, dodgy solar panels from Wales or whiplash compensation
from Birmingham, the same ability to track down and stop the white
collar scumbags seems not to exist.

They may be scumbags but they are generally legal and there is no reason
for anyone to track them down and do anything.
They will attempt to track down illegal calls.

If you are being pestered by illegal calls you may be able to get the
phone operator to intercept all calls and only forward the ones that
pass the screening, I know BT used to do this in extreme cases.

Martin Brown grunted in
:

On 09/12/2013 13:16, Mentalguy2k8 wrote:
as before, (demented) Mother is plagued with these calls and I've had
to hide her cheque book and anything else with her account numbers
on, to stop her giving the details to these people. Registered with
the TPS, etc etc.

I sympathise as I have personal experience of similar stugg with M-I-L.

If I arrange for her to have witheld-numbers blocked, this would help
to some extent, but would it prevent her relatives in Australia from
phoning her?

I don't think it blocks overseas calls, but can you not test this out
for real? Eg, if it's not already done, block your own number to
witheld numbers, and get the relevant Aussies to try phoning you? That
said, I think chuggers and telesales outfits are wise to this and do
usually present a number (of sorts) to display.

I've thought about changing her number but then I've got to rely on
her to make a list of all the friends and relatives who phone her
that we need to inform of her new number, which isn't realistic.

Can't help thinking that number changing is the only real solution for
someone in her position.

Enable itemised billing for a year and then act on that?

I wonder if *somehow* it's possible to obtain such a list from BT
retrospectively? After all, if Plod wanted that information, you get
bet it would be available!

--
David

Lobster wrote:

Can't help thinking that number changing is the only real solution for
someone in her position.

It's certainly AN option but the Truecall device does work albeit a bit
awkwardly if you wan't to maintain reception of certain overseas calls.

Other possible options might include putting all landline calls through an
answer phone and provide a mobile phone for friends and family. This would
depend on the person being able to operate a mobile phone though unless you
get something like this.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Neo-3000-G...-/161163638035

Tim

John Rumm wrote:
On 09/12/2013 14:51, Tim+ wrote:
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
"Mentalguy2k8" writes:
as before, (demented) Mother is plagued with these calls and I've had to
hide her cheque book and anything else with her account numbers on, to stop
her giving the details to these people. Registered with the TPS, etc etc.

If I arrange for her to have witheld-numbers blocked, this would help to
some extent, but would it prevent her relatives in Australia from phoning
her?

I've thought about changing her number but then I've got to rely on her to
make a list of all the friends and relatives who phone her that we need to
inform of her new number, which isn't realistic.

What's the definitive answer? I can't be there every day, all day and
evening to "screen" the calls. I keep going to the bank and (Power Of
Attorney) cancelling her direct debits to charities, but within 48 hours
they've hassled her by phone again, and got her to reinstate them. I'd love
to kick these people's teeth out. It seems every time I pop in, she's on the
phone to one or other of these parasites.

Does she have an internet connection, so you could use VoIP for the
Australian calls?

Um, I don't think the OP was kidding about the "demented" status of his
mother. Whilst acknowledging that what skills are preserved in dementia
can be very patchy, I still think that's a big ask.

A standalone voip phone can be setup to look and behave just like a
normal one. It can be phoned via its advertised number or via an IP
address. So its the callers that would need re-education once its set-up.



Didn't realise that. Cheers.

Tim

"Huge" wrote in message
...
On 2013-12-09, Mentalguy2k8 wrote:

What's the definitive answer?

Put her in a home.

My friend had exactly the same problem as the OP and they tried this
solution

She wouldn't stay there because every day she would wake up and think, "This
isn't my house, why am I here" and then go wandering the streets trying to
get "home"

Homes really can't cope with people who are this bad and the ones that can
are really oppressive (in as nice a way as possible)!

tim

"Tim+" wrote in message
...
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
"Mentalguy2k8" writes:
as before, (demented) Mother is plagued with these calls and I've had to
hide her cheque book and anything else with her account numbers on, to
stop
her giving the details to these people. Registered with the TPS, etc
etc.

If I arrange for her to have witheld-numbers blocked, this would help to
some extent, but would it prevent her relatives in Australia from
phoning
her?

I've thought about changing her number but then I've got to rely on her
to
make a list of all the friends and relatives who phone her that we need
to
inform of her new number, which isn't realistic.

What's the definitive answer? I can't be there every day, all day and
evening to "screen" the calls. I keep going to the bank and (Power Of
Attorney) cancelling her direct debits to charities, but within 48 hours
they've hassled her by phone again, and got her to reinstate them. I'd
love
to kick these people's teeth out. It seems every time I pop in, she's on
the
phone to one or other of these parasites.

Does she have an internet connection, so you could use VoIP for the
Australian calls?

Um, I don't think the OP was kidding about the "demented" status of his
mother. Whilst acknowledging that what skills are preserved in dementia
can be very patchy, I still think that's a big ask.

Even getting then to swap their landline for a mobile can be daunting. They
don't "connect" when you pick them up and the demented don't have a clue
what to do next

tim

In article ,
Tim+ writes:
John Rumm wrote:
On 09/12/2013 14:51, Tim+ wrote:
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
Does she have an internet connection, so you could use VoIP for the
Australian calls?

Um, I don't think the OP was kidding about the "demented" status of his
mother. Whilst acknowledging that what skills are preserved in dementia
can be very patchy, I still think that's a big ask.

A standalone voip phone can be setup to look and behave just like a
normal one. It can be phoned via its advertised number or via an IP
address. So its the callers that would need re-education once its set-up.



Didn't realise that. Cheers.

Tim

Doesn't even need to be standalone.

I installed SPA-3000's and SPA-3102's around the extended family,
spread across a few different countries. Effectively, the standard
phone line passes through them, and an ethernet connection is used
to reroute some of the calls to/from VoIP. All calls come through
the same bog-standard telephone though, as far as the end-users are
concerned. Even things like caller display work properly.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On 09/12/2013 21:01, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
Tim+ writes:
John Rumm wrote:
On 09/12/2013 14:51, Tim+ wrote:
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
Does she have an internet connection, so you could use VoIP for the
Australian calls?

Um, I don't think the OP was kidding about the "demented" status of his
mother. Whilst acknowledging that what skills are preserved in dementia
can be very patchy, I still think that's a big ask.

A standalone voip phone can be setup to look and behave just like a
normal one. It can be phoned via its advertised number or via an IP
address. So its the callers that would need re-education once its set-up.



Didn't realise that. Cheers.

Tim

Doesn't even need to be standalone.

I installed SPA-3000's and SPA-3102's around the extended family,
spread across a few different countries. Effectively, the standard
phone line passes through them, and an ethernet connection is used
to reroute some of the calls to/from VoIP. All calls come through
the same bog-standard telephone though, as far as the end-users are
concerned. Even things like caller display work properly.

You can do similar tricks with VoIP capable routers like the Vigor
2830... they can be setup to link to normal phones and a normal phone
line as well as the internet. You can then set a dial plan to choose
which calls to send over what type of link. You just need to point them
at a SIP provider to do the VoIP termination.


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

Does that work on a Virgin line though?

I suppose one of those sophisticated devices that will not ring the phone
unless its on a list of alowed numbers might be a start, but it would need
some hands on help at least to start with.

Brian

--
From the Bed of Brian Gaff.
The email is valid as
Blind user.
"Martin Brown" wrote in message
...
On 09/12/2013 13:16, Mentalguy2k8 wrote:
as before, (demented) Mother is plagued with these calls and I've had to
hide her cheque book and anything else with her account numbers on, to
stop her giving the details to these people. Registered with the TPS,
etc etc.

Unfortunately she is on a chugging mugs list. Why not give her some
defective but plausibly authentic looking bank details so that the
chuggers will feed bogus data into their direct debit system?

They will probably stop if the info they get is no good.

If I arrange for her to have witheld-numbers blocked, this would help to
some extent, but would it prevent her relatives in Australia from
phoning her?

I've thought about changing her number but then I've got to rely on her
to make a list of all the friends and relatives who phone her that we
need to inform of her new number, which isn't realistic.

Enable itemised billing for a year and then act on that?

What's the definitive answer? I can't be there every day, all day and
evening to "screen" the calls. I keep going to the bank and (Power Of
Attorney) cancelling her direct debits to charities, but within 48 hours
they've hassled her by phone again, and got her to reinstate them. I'd
love to kick these people's teeth out. It seems every time I pop in,
she's on the phone to one or other of these parasites.

The best I can think of and it will only work on those that proffer a CLID
is to take BTs "choose to refuse" service and systematically block them.
It is a very double edged sword though - someone elderly or with dementia
is just as likely to block your phone number by accident.

Not such a problem if you live nearby but tricky form a remote location.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

John Rumm wrote:
You can do similar tricks with VoIP capable routers like the Vigor
2830... they can be setup to link to normal phones and a normal phone
line as well as the internet. You can then set a dial plan to choose
which calls to send over what type of link. You just need to point them
at a SIP provider to do the VoIP termination.

Are there boxes that can do 'dialplans' on incoming calls as well as
outbound? If it's on the whitelist, ring the phone, if it's international
play a 'use the batphone' message, if it's withheld play 'we don't accept
withheld calls', if it's giving a number but unrecognised divert it to you
as the 'switchboard operator' for screening ('I'm sorry, mother-in-law is in
a meeting right now...').

If there's no boxes to do that, porting the number to a VOIP service would
do the trick.

Theo

mike writes:

On Monday, December 9, 2013 1:16:30 PM UTC, Mentalguy2k8 wrote:
Mother is plagued with these calls
I'd love to kick these people's teeth out.

It's funny that our government and the Americans can intercept and trace ph=
one calls, texts, emails, in fact every fart that flies, between private ci=
tizens in their never-ending quest to protect us from terrorism but when it=
comes to tracking down one of their crooked businessman buddies pushing bo=
iler scrappage schemes from Manchester, dodgy solar panels from Wales or wh=
iplash compensation from Birmingham, the same ability to track down and sto=
p the white collar scumbags seems not to exist.

It's a shame because I'd really like to see some of those people being wate=
rboarded in Guantanamo Bay.

You'd need to go after the owners, not the unemployed callers who are
probably trying to scrape up a few pennies calling (via their
employers) from home.

--
Windmill, Use t m i l l
J.R.R. Tolkien:- @ S c o t s h o m e . c o m
All that is gold does not glister / Not all who wander are lost

Theo Markettos grunted in
:

Are there boxes that can do 'dialplans' on incoming calls as well as
outbound? If it's on the whitelist, ring the phone, if it's
international play a 'use the batphone' message, if it's withheld play
'we don't accept withheld calls', if it's giving a number but
unrecognised divert it to you as the 'switchboard operator' for
screening ('I'm sorry, mother-in-law is in a meeting right now...').

If there's no boxes to do that, porting the number to a VOIP service
would do the trick.

Actually - that would be an excellent and simple way round the problem of
changing Mum's number... I have a VOIP number (a free sipgate.co.uk one)
which I have set to divert permanently to voicemail, and I use it
exclusively for those occasions when I have to give out a real phone
number but when I don't want to risk being phoned with sales calls etc
for evermore. So if anybody needs to reach me, they hear *my* voice on
the message and can leave me a VM, which is delivered to me either by
email or as a URL. If sales droids can't get through to a human, they
just hang up, therefore win-win.

So - the OP could change Mum's number and port the old one to a VOIP
number. Record a personal message: "Hello, this is Doris's son; please
note that Doris has changed her number, and if you wish to speak to her
please leave your name and number and I'll pass it on to her" and Bob's
your uncle!

--
David

In article , John
Rumm scribeth thus
On 09/12/2013 21:01, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article 1482226411408308527.878012timdownie2003-nospampleaseyahoo.co.uk@ne
ws.eternal-september.org,
Tim+ writes:
John Rumm wrote:
On 09/12/2013 14:51, Tim+ wrote:
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
Does she have an internet connection, so you could use VoIP for the
Australian calls?

Um, I don't think the OP was kidding about the "demented" status of his
mother. Whilst acknowledging that what skills are preserved in dementia
can be very patchy, I still think that's a big ask.

A standalone voip phone can be setup to look and behave just like a
normal one. It can be phoned via its advertised number or via an IP
address. So its the callers that would need re-education once its set-up.



Didn't realise that. Cheers.

Tim

Doesn't even need to be standalone.

I installed SPA-3000's and SPA-3102's around the extended family,
spread across a few different countries. Effectively, the standard
phone line passes through them, and an ethernet connection is used
to reroute some of the calls to/from VoIP. All calls come through
the same bog-standard telephone though, as far as the end-users are
concerned. Even things like caller display work properly.

You can do similar tricks with VoIP capable routers like the Vigor
2830... they can be setup to link to normal phones and a normal phone
line as well as the internet. You can then set a dial plan to choose
which calls to send over what type of link. You just need to point them
at a SIP provider to do the VoIP termination.



Indeed you can or if she has Virgin broadband just get a subscription
from VoIPfone around 2 quid a month for the number get a standalone
phone keep that number strictly ex directory and her relatives can call
her via VoIP and that call will be free...

--
Tony Sayer

On Mon, 09 Dec 2013 13:16:30 +0000, Mentalguy2k8 wrote:

as before, (demented) Mother is plagued with these calls and I've had to
hide her cheque book and anything else with her account numbers on, to
stop her giving the details to these people. Registered with the TPS,
etc etc.

Make up some fake chequebooks with false numbers on?

(Aren't Jeremy Clarkson's in the public domain somewhere? ;-))



--
John Stumbles

I've got nothing against racists - I just wouldn't want my daughter to
marry one

On 10/12/2013 01:11, Theo Markettos wrote:
John Rumm wrote:
You can do similar tricks with VoIP capable routers like the Vigor
2830... they can be setup to link to normal phones and a normal phone
line as well as the internet. You can then set a dial plan to choose
which calls to send over what type of link. You just need to point them
at a SIP provider to do the VoIP termination.

Are there boxes that can do 'dialplans' on incoming calls as well as
outbound? If it's on the whitelist, ring the phone, if it's international
play a 'use the batphone' message, if it's withheld play 'we don't accept
withheld calls', if it's giving a number but unrecognised divert it to you
as the 'switchboard operator' for screening ('I'm sorry, mother-in-law is in
a meeting right now...').

For that level of control you would probably need to go for a Vigor IP
PBX 2820 style PABX router, or a "Roll your Own" solution using software
like asterix or similar.

The basic VoIP routers give some control - such as barring certain
calling numbers or URIs, or blocking anonymous calls. The IPPABX ones do
all that and in addition give all the usual voice menu and voicemail
capabilities.

You could for example install one at mum's place and set her phone up as
an extension. You could also have an extension at your place (physical
location of IP extensions does not matter so long as they can see the
internet). Set the auto attendant to answer incoming calls before
ringing any extensions, and have a voice menu giving three options... 1
leave a voice mail, 2 speak to the operator (i.e. you - you can transfer
the call back to mum if appropriate), or ask them to dial the extension
they want. Friends and family get given the "secret" extension number,
and hence can ring mum directly. Other callers get the choice of leaving
a message or getting past the operator ;-)



--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On Monday, December 9, 2013 5:22:19 PM UTC, dennis@home wrote:

They may be scumbags but they are generally legal and there is no reason

for anyone to track them down and do anything.

They will attempt to track down illegal calls.

Ofcom seems to think they are illegal (including calls from charities):

http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/2012/1...ing-calls/#law




If you are being pestered by illegal calls you may be able to get the

phone operator to intercept all calls and only forward the ones that

pass the screening, I know BT used to do this in extreme cases.


If they're illegal, it's up to statutory authorities to sort them out - it's not something to be left to some private company's discretion.

On 10/12/2013 18:47, mike wrote:
On Monday, December 9, 2013 5:22:19 PM UTC, dennis@home wrote:

They may be scumbags but they are generally legal and there is no
reason

for anyone to track them down and do anything.

They will attempt to track down illegal calls.

Ofcom seems to think they are illegal (including calls from
charities):

http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/2012/1...ing-calls/#law


It actually states they are allowed, unless you tell them no or are TPS
registered. Both of which work with most UK callers and are irrelevant
to international calls.




If you are being pestered by illegal calls you may be able to get
the

phone operator to intercept all calls and only forward the ones
that

pass the screening, I know BT used to do this in extreme cases.


If they're illegal, it's up to statutory authorities to sort them out
- it's not something to be left to some private company's
discretion.


The authorities just get the operator to do something, they don't want
to use the intercept facilities for anything so minor.

On Tuesday, December 10, 2013 8:05:22 PM UTC, dennis@home wrote:
On 10/12/2013 18:47, mike wrote:

On Monday, December 9, 2013 5:22:19 PM UTC, dennis@home wrote:



They may be scumbags but they are generally legal and there is no

reason



for anyone to track them down and do anything.



They will attempt to track down illegal calls.



Ofcom seems to think they are illegal (including calls from

charities):



http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/2012/1...ing-calls/#law





It actually states they are allowed, unless you tell them no or are TPS

registered. Both of which work with most UK callers and are irrelevant

to international calls.









If you are being pestered by illegal calls you may be able to get

the



phone operator to intercept all calls and only forward the ones

that



pass the screening, I know BT used to do this in extreme cases.





If they're illegal, it's up to statutory authorities to sort them out

- it's not something to be left to some private company's

discretion.





The authorities just get the operator to do something, they don't want

to use the intercept facilities for anything so minor.

3.2 billion nuisance calls isn't minor but do carry on being obtuse, Dennis.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...very-year.html

On Tue, 10 Dec 2013 14:16:46 -0800, mike wrote:

3.2 billion nuisance calls isn't minor

You must be so busy answering them that I'm amazed you get anything else
done.

mike presented the following explanation :
On Monday, December 9, 2013 1:16:30 PM UTC, Mentalguy2k8 wrote:
Mother is plagued with these calls
I'd love to kick these people's teeth out.

It's funny that our government and the Americans can intercept and trace
phone calls, texts, emails, in fact every fart that flies, between private
citizens in their never-ending quest to protect us from terrorism but when it
comes to tracking down one of their crooked businessman buddies pushing
boiler scrappage schemes from Manchester, dodgy solar panels from Wales or
whiplash compensation from Birmingham, the same ability to track down and
stop the white collar scumbags seems not to exist.

It's a shame because I'd really like to see some of those people being
waterboarded in Guantanamo Bay.

Well said lol

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

On 10/12/2013 22:16, mike wrote:


The authorities just get the operator to do something, they don't
want

to use the intercept facilities for anything so minor.

3.2 billion nuisance calls isn't minor but do carry on being obtuse,
Dennis.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...very-year.html



Nuisance calls aren't even illegal so what do you suggest they do?
Maybe if you don't want them you should get rid of your phone?

On Wed, 11 Dec 2013 09:30:00 +0000, Huge wrote:

What's the definitive answer?

Put her in a home.

My friend had exactly the same problem as the OP and they tried this
solution

She wouldn't stay there because every day she would wake up and think,
"This isn't my house, why am I here" and then go wandering the streets
trying to get "home"

Care homes with demented residents shouldn't have open doors.

Apart from basic common sense and security, the Care Quality Commission
regs say that visitors shouldn't be able to just wander in anyway, IIRC.

Homes really can't cope with people who are this bad and the ones that
can are really oppressive (in as nice a way as possible)!

My M-I-L is in a care home who cope perfectly well with a number of
severely demented residents, and other than the fact that the external
doors have digital locks, it's hardly "oppressive".

Well, quite. We had the exact same situation with my M-i-L. They had a
confused resident who figured the front door lock out. So they changed
the front door lock to one which that resident couldn't figure out. Still
utterly straightforward for anybody with a full complement of marbles.

People with dementia can be cared for at home successfully - a friend of
mine does fine with his mother - but it's a full time job.

On 11/12/2013 09:31, Huge wrote:
On 2013-12-09, tim...... wrote:


Um, I don't think the OP was kidding about the "demented" status of his
mother. Whilst acknowledging that what skills are preserved in dementia
can be very patchy, I still think that's a big ask.

Even getting then to swap their landline for a mobile can be daunting. They
don't "connect" when you pick them up and the demented don't have a clue
what to do next

Quite. We got my M-I-L a mobile for use in emergencies (before she went into
care) and she simply couldn't work it. Even one designed for elderly people
with large buttons & display and an "emergency" Big Red Button.

How did it fail? I have essentially the same problem - with the easy to
use phone & SOS button as backup if they leave the main phone off hook.
I chose one that retains enough battery charge between visits...

I am toying with the idea of customising a 7" Android tablet to be
elderly friendly with a few very large icons on the home screen for the
most commonly used tasks including Skype to me, Phone me etc.
(this obviously can fail with forgets to charge and out of battery)

Do any RNIB apps exist to already cover this (they favour Apple)?

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On 11/12/2013 09:46, Martin Brown wrote:
On 11/12/2013 09:31, Huge wrote:
On 2013-12-09, tim...... wrote:


Um, I don't think the OP was kidding about the "demented" status of his
mother. Whilst acknowledging that what skills are preserved in
dementia
can be very patchy, I still think that's a big ask.

Even getting then to swap their landline for a mobile can be
daunting. They
don't "connect" when you pick them up and the demented don't have a clue
what to do next

Quite. We got my M-I-L a mobile for use in emergencies (before she
went into
care) and she simply couldn't work it. Even one designed for elderly
people
with large buttons & display and an "emergency" Big Red Button.

How did it fail? I have essentially the same problem - with the easy to
use phone & SOS button as backup if they leave the main phone off hook.
I chose one that retains enough battery charge between visits...

I am toying with the idea of customising a 7" Android tablet to be
elderly friendly with a few very large icons on the home screen for the
most commonly used tasks including Skype to me, Phone me etc.
(this obviously can fail with forgets to charge and out of battery)

Do any RNIB apps exist to already cover this (they favour Apple)?


The problem with some is that they will just forget what they mean and
there is nothing you can do other than use a method they remember from
the past. Try writing notes on what to do and they will probably manage
to read them.

tim...... wrote:

Does she have an internet connection, so you could use VoIP for the
Australian calls?

Um, I don't think the OP was kidding about the "demented" status of his
mother. Whilst acknowledging that what skills are preserved in dementia
can be very patchy, I still think that's a big ask.

Even getting then to swap their landline for a mobile can be daunting. They
don't "connect" when you pick them up and the demented don't have a clue
what to do next

You don't have to be demented to find *that* annoying! :-)

The many different ways that one accepts a call on different mobiles
never ceases to amaze (and confuse) me!

Even some DECT phones don't, by default, connect/accept when you pick
them up off their stand.

--
Chris Green
·

dennis@home wrote:
On 11/12/2013 09:46, Martin Brown wrote:
On 11/12/2013 09:31, Huge wrote:
On 2013-12-09, tim...... wrote:


Um, I don't think the OP was kidding about the "demented" status of his
mother. Whilst acknowledging that what skills are preserved in
dementia
can be very patchy, I still think that's a big ask.

Even getting then to swap their landline for a mobile can be
daunting. They
don't "connect" when you pick them up and the demented don't have a clue
what to do next

Quite. We got my M-I-L a mobile for use in emergencies (before she
went into
care) and she simply couldn't work it. Even one designed for elderly
people
with large buttons & display and an "emergency" Big Red Button.

How did it fail? I have essentially the same problem - with the easy to
use phone & SOS button as backup if they leave the main phone off hook.
I chose one that retains enough battery charge between visits...

I am toying with the idea of customising a 7" Android tablet to be
elderly friendly with a few very large icons on the home screen for the
most commonly used tasks including Skype to me, Phone me etc.
(this obviously can fail with forgets to charge and out of battery)

Do any RNIB apps exist to already cover this (they favour Apple)?


The problem with some is that they will just forget what they mean and
there is nothing you can do other than use a method they remember from
the past. Try writing notes on what to do and they will probably manage
to read them.

Hey, writing, now that's a clever idea! It was only invented a few
thousand years ago to take over from icons and such.

Now we have unintelligible icons foisted on us again and we wonder that
they're not always understood.

--
Chris Green
·

Is there anything that can be done so that the calls come to your phone and you vet the caller before "I'm transferring you now" passing the calls to her phone.

Maybe it's only PABX systems that allow such things.

Robert

On 11/12/2013 11:14, wrote:
tim...... wrote:

Does she have an internet connection, so you could use VoIP for the
Australian calls?

Um, I don't think the OP was kidding about the "demented" status of his
mother. Whilst acknowledging that what skills are preserved in dementia
can be very patchy, I still think that's a big ask.

Even getting then to swap their landline for a mobile can be daunting. They
don't "connect" when you pick them up and the demented don't have a clue
what to do next

You don't have to be demented to find *that* annoying! :-)

The many different ways that one accepts a call on different mobiles
never ceases to amaze (and confuse) me!

Even some DECT phones don't, by default, connect/accept when you pick
them up off their stand.

The annoying ones are those that don't release the line again until you
put them back on the stand or press the "end call" button *TWICE*.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On 11/12/2013 10:49, Huge wrote:
On 2013-12-11, Martin Brown wrote:
On 11/12/2013 09:31, Huge wrote:
On 2013-12-09, tim...... wrote:


Um, I don't think the OP was kidding about the "demented" status of his
mother. Whilst acknowledging that what skills are preserved in dementia
can be very patchy, I still think that's a big ask.

Even getting then to swap their landline for a mobile can be daunting. They
don't "connect" when you pick them up and the demented don't have a clue
what to do next

Quite. We got my M-I-L a mobile for use in emergencies (before she went into
care) and she simply couldn't work it. Even one designed for elderly people
with large buttons & display and an "emergency" Big Red Button.

How did it fail?

Complete bafflement. I think she was beyond the stage where she could cope
with anything new with buttons on it. Shortly thereafter, complaints that
the telly didn't work turned out to be caused by her trying to do it with
the cordless phone we'd previously bought her.

Yes. I recognise that problem. An astonishing number of modern consumer
items designed for the elderly seem to have insanely subtle "designer"
on off switches that are almost impossible for them to see!

My dads new "easy to use" electric razor has the most subtle indented O-
symbol on a smooth black on black body that even I find hard to see!

I have found painting on/off buttons bright red helps. And/or putting
blobs of colour on other controls that are the same as previous ones.

And let's not go into the
digital switchover where despite giving her a simplified remote control,

Digital switchover was a nightmare for me too, but in this case it
wasn't user error. When they wound the wick up on the transmitters Welsh
channels swamped Panasonic sets (and other brands) in the vicinity of
Manchester with aerials pointed at Winter Hill.

Even now I have had to disable auto tuning on their set since it is
disastrous to allow the set ever to retune itself.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown