What to say to cold callers
It’s not surprising to hear that British people fielded 2.2 billion cold-call phone calls last year — for some, it might feel like we had that many on our own! A research piece by The Times clocked cold calls at 4,200 phone calls and texts every minute in the UK, with many being scams.
As a result, 57% of people in the UK say that the worst part about having a phone is being annoyed with cold calls. To help combat the problem, we’ve joined True Solicitors LLP, experts in handling mis sold timeshare claims, to tell you exactly what to say to a cold caller so they never phone you again!
The most frequent cold call types
There’s a few different types of cold call, so let’s take a look at the most common.
Figures show that around 6 million calls and texts come from pensions, payment protection insurance (PPI), and insurance covers cold calls, making these the most common types.
Companies saying they are injury claims specialists or holiday sickness claims experts accounted for 895 million calls and texts.
Those over the age of 65 found themselves experiencing the majority of the calls — posing the question: are companies like this preying on older people who are likely to be more vulnerable? Here are a few tricks you can use to combat cold-calling…
Make them waste their time
Salespeople have time targets to hit, so wasting their time is sure to remind them not to call you again. They call to get you instantly on board with some product or service that they’re selling, but telling them you’re not interested at the start of the call won’t achieve anything. They will first mention the product that they are selling and you must act interested at the start, they’ll start their sales patter and after they’ve put the effort into doing that — just admit that you’re not really interested and admit that you were just wasting their time. Remember that they have targets — they’ll not want to ring your number again!
Calls may be recorded for quality and training purposes…and more
Try using this pre-prepared script. Say something along the lines of: “Hello, just to let you know that I will be recording this phone call as you’re not complying with the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations of 2003. This legislation has been put in place to help restrict marketing methods through cold-calling, unsolicited texts, emails, and faxes”. The good thing about this trick is that they’ve probably ended the call after the first sentence. Don’t be afraid to try this one!
No money here
Cold callers want your money, nothing else. Tell them that you’re an un-discharged bankrupt and they will put the phone done quicker than you could imagine. By saying this, you’re telling them that you are unable to obtain credit beyond a certain limit without informing the creditor of your status. Of course, this does not exist in your case — but they don’t know that.
Behind bars
This one works for different scenarios. Obvious timeshare scammer telling you you’ve won a free holiday? Tell them you have a travel injunction against you and your passport has been revoked. Or that you’re in custody awaiting your trial and plan to plead guilty.
Practice your second or third language!
As they are dialing a UK number, they will be expecting to hear English. Don’t conform to what they want! If you can speak another language, try doing that, and as they won’t be able to understand what you’re saying, they will hang up. If you don’t know another language, make it up and this will leave them even more confused than what they originally were.
Soon, you’ll have a no cold calling zone in your house! It’s also a good decision to block their phone number, however as they change frequently — this not be a viable option. Some phones have the ability to put callers through an answer machine first, where they have to notify the person they are ringing who they are and then press several buttons. Cold-callers will not want to go through this much effort.
Do you get fed up with cold callers?
