Genealogy Chat

We had a strange phone call yesterday around midday, from a man with an African accent, (recently we have had those strange emails from Africa wanting to give us loads of money from some stranger) so hubbie was suspicious and put the phone down, and then immediatly did 1471 to see what number came up, all we were given was 000000000, and he got onto telewest straight away to find out if it was another phone scam, we told telewest we were bothered several times a day by silent phone call's from a network unable to transmit numbers, and we were advised to log onto www(.)tpsonline(.)org(.)uk it's a telephone preference service, and will stop these phone calls (i have already registered with silentcall guard) and although after registering they tell you it will take 28 days to fully register (after which you can make a complaint if you get a call) we never had another call yesterday, which is a first, it's free, so give it a go, and have a quiet afternoon. April

Thankyou very much for the link April - much appreciated. I have registered.

April, did Telewest not offer you the option to activate a service they offer where your 'phone will no longer not accept withheld numbers? It's £1 pm, we have it and it's brilliant, we were getting constant silent calls from a withheld number, day & night, but not anymore. This service would exclude anyone being connected to you from a withheld number, or a "network that cannot transmit numbers". So at least if someone chooses to pester you then you can dial 1471 and have a valid telephone number to report to them, the police etc.. They don't want to be identified, so they wont bother. Sam

Hi Samantha, Yes I already subscribe to that service, but that doesn't cover "a net work unable to transmit numbers" telewest told us yesterday it's a problem and they are working on it, as far as I'm aware it's only calls from this country that it stops. We get several calls a day mostly in the mid to late afternoon, which really annoys me as i work in admin and start work at 5 in the morning, and am usually trying to have something to eat or most importantly a nap when these calls start, I also registered for my mum as she thinks it's a burgler trying to find out if she's in or not. April.

I didn't know that! Not such a great service after all. Sam

By the way folks, if you want to stop junk mail through your letterbox, the sister service www.mpsonline.org.uk works too. Rick.

Hi I have also had telephone calls with "network etc etc" and found that it was a call from Canada also when my bank call to give me their special offers (loan) rundown, the phone call is generated by computer and if you do 1471 it also comes up with unable to transmit numbers. So this could be another explanation but I would still be careful. Karen

I too have Telewest with Anon call barring. It does stop number witheld but I do still get the odd one where I cant 1471. Its still worth it I think Samantha. Bob

Have never had life so peaceful after we did this a couple of months ago. BUT why was it that they would wait to ring when you were just settling down to have dinner?