Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

This morning my mobile was in a dead zone at work.

I had a voice message which roughly said the following, in a computer generated voice.

"Legal action is being taken against me and my home is being watch call this number XYZ, don't ignore this, call XYZ"


I deleted it, it didn't say my name or say a name of the caller.

In hind site I should have saved it and reported it to the police as a threatning call.

If you get this I would report it.

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

That's a pretty bad one! Report it anyway if you have the number.

I am not sure about anyone else but I've been getting a lot more spam calls recently. Usually one of those fake London area codes but when I pick up it's quiet.

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

A lot of VOIP phone numbers are 0208. My work number is 0208 and I'm nowhere near London. It wasn't me cold calling btw ;)

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

In what way was it "threatning" :confused:

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

It was threatening legal action

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

I've had those sort of calls perporting to be HMRC and to call a particular number immediatly or court action would proceed.

HMRC will never phone you out of the blue like that so I could be sure it was some type of scam.

Checking the number on a reverse lookup site came up as a scammer.

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

Yeah, that seems a lot more reasonable than "should have saved the number, then called the cops". Not only is that absurdly over dramatic but it is also entirely pointless and likely to waste resources. Assuming that the individual(s) responsible are even in the jurisdictional United Kingdom you don't have a criminal case to proceed with here.

If you tried calling the police, what on earth would you report the crime as?

---------- Post added at 17:47 ---------- Previous post was at 17:46 ----------

On what grounds / for what?

---------- Post added at 17:51 ---------- Previous post was at 17:47 ----------

Yeah, try taking that to court. "They threatened me with legal action".

Really think that will go anywhere? Take it to a police station and see where you get.

If the threat is that of lawful behavior (legal action in this case, ironically) then there is no criminal / penal resolution to the issue. He may be able to chase it up civilly but that is as far as it would or could go.

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

Why would I take it anywhere, I didn't receive the call, was merely helping Paul out, I never offered any opinion on the call. What I would say to David if he does get the police involved is the words harassment, alarm and distress will only ever enhance the complaint being made

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

Yeah I wasn't suggesting that you literally take it anywhere. I meant it more in the sense of "you'll see how fast you were laughed out of court is you claim that is a threat". (I didn't want to sound rude though. :p)

And yes, if he does get the police involved those words would trigger a more enhanced and urgent complaint, and response....and when the police see the issue at hand that the complaint is made over the pending rebuke over wasting police time will likely be more enhanced, too.

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

Ofcom takes a dim view of these sorts of calls and will happily receive a report.

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

I only answer calls from people in my contacts list . . all the rest get ignored.

If it is anyone genuinely needing to get in touch they simply have to send a text explaining who they are and the reason for calling. Even then I still have a choice of whether to talk to them or not :D

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

If I recognise the number then I take the call. Otherwise they get to talk to the answerphone if I haven't blacklisted the number.

IMO cold calling should be made a criminal offence on the company CEO that the call is being made for. A weeks jail for every call to run consecutively. :D

That'll put a stop to it.

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

The moral of the story is don't give your phone no out to all and sundry. I pity anyone with the phone no 01234 567890, as its the number I give to anybody that doesn't really need it.

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

Hey, thats my number !

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

Sorry mate ;)

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

If it is from a landline? (Just curious here, though it seems a good idea - your policy that is).

I usually have someone screen my calls for me (like my EA) though that gets expensive. (Paying the EA is one thing but the list of chargable work goes through the roof).

I think with most latest phones (both software and hardware) you can block individual groups of numbers that you do not wish to receive messages from.

---------- Post added at 19:22 ---------- Previous post was at 19:20 ----------

Yeah that is an option, too - let it go to voice mail / message bank etc...rather than the proposals, such as:

Advocating that CEO's of companies go to jail.

---------- Post added at 19:24 ---------- Previous post was at 19:22 ----------

That is the kind of civil recourse (that is available) that I am talking about.

It is a sensible way forward that does not include the crazy "throw them in jail" approach.

---------- Post added at 19:25 ---------- Previous post was at 19:24 ----------

Right...just a simple regulatory procedure. Takes a little effort and once you make your report most of the work is done by the regulator - this is what they are there for.

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

On my phone I have an option to 'reject the call with a message'.

I've never used it, but interested to know how much I could get away with for the message content ;)

To be perfectly honest, on rare occasions when I'm bored I will answer an unknown number and try to teach them some swear words . . that can be fun :D

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

What was the call / did you know who was behind it in the end?

Again, this really would have to depend upon the call - did they know who you even are only they could just be punching numbers onto a phone.

They may also have the number if it has just been recycled / gone to you.

Was it an actual cold call. Also, they may not be from Switzerland, it may just be a spoof. (From a different area altogether).

Was the call just a cold call or did they actually say anything?

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

1. It is trivially simple to spoof a caller ID. If you don’t want to do it yourself there are ‘service’ providers online who will do it for you.
2. They don’t need your number; they can use a dialler to just go through every number until someone picks up.
3. If they are overseas, the TPS is irrelevant. Even within the U.K., the code of practice that governs TPS relates to sales calls, not ‘marketing’ or ‘research’.

I’m with BT and I use their call protect service, which has dramatically reduced the number of nuisance calls I get because BT know the numbers most commonly used by scammers and blocks them automatically. I also add numbers to my own block list if they are a call centre or a silent call, or one that hangs up on answer (often caused by a dialler that has managed to find more live numbers than there are agents available to take the calls).

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

Well I got the same message again yesterday.

So I'm trying to see if I can copy it to a mp3 type file.

Speaking to my sister (works in legal profession) and she said try the police.

---------- Post added at 17:53 ---------- Previous post was at 17:40 ----------

Call from 08216947567 - nothing comes up on google

Tells me to call 01618182418 - scam?

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

You will be wasting their time, there is no crime to report here. Given that she works in / is in a legal profession she should not be giving you incorrect / inaccurate (bad) advice like that.

There is no good reason that you should be pestering the police with this, at all.

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

I spoke to my son about this who said that if Hom3r feels at all threatened then he was actually given the right legal advice but saying that he also said that the police will more than likely do nothing other than maybe give the advice to block this number.

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

If it was anything like the call my other half just had several laws were broken, the number was 0203 807 4579

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

Laws that have appropriate regulatory resolutions. Civil violations are very different to criminal ones - difference between taking it to the cops and not.

If hom3r was personally threatened, that is one thing, but if this was commercial exploitation and he knew that there was zero actual unique threat to him, what crime do you propose that he reports?

Weenie, what does he report? The call...? The caller (who he doesn't know), the phone company...?

Even if a law is broken there is usually quite a lot of recourse for most things that have regulatory oversight, short of filing a criminal complaint / pressing charges.

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

It was trying to gain money with menace in the other halfs case, they told her that some one was coming round to remove goods today and that her bank account had been frozen but could they have the sort code and account number to transfer 3k out as part payment.

Imo all crime should be reported no matter how trivial or uninvestigatable they are as it's important they're in the figures, we don't want some poxy politician patting himself on the back for cutting police numbers and crime when all he's done is preside over people not reporting crime because at best all you'll get is a cad number for insurance purposes

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

Oh I didn't mean to imply that it was trivial but in as much as you do not go to your local police station about SPAM emails why should you do it about calls?

They are a nuisance but your spouse and you, along with Hom3r seem to be clear that this is a nuisance call given your comments in this thread ; are you going to report it to the police as such only that would be the most honest description of the events.

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

Chloé I totally appreciate what you are saying but if someone feels threatened then who do you suggest they report this to?

All I was stating that according to my son Hom3rs sister gave him the right advice if he felt threatened in any way.

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

They did know her address but she gave them nothing else. Name, address and phone number may well be enough to spook a lot of people into thinking it legitimate, it worried her enough to phone her bank.

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

Telling someone their house is being watched could be considered fairly threatening.

---------- Post added at 22:29 ---------- Previous post was at 22:24 ----------

Unfortunately, while technology has reduced the costs for us to call other people on the phone, it's made it dirt cheap, and easy for scammers to mass dial hundreds, if not thousands of numbers quickly.. It's cheap enough that they only need one or two people to fall for the scam to make a profit..

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

To be honest I don't see that as just "paranoia" and do totally understand your concerns here and feel like your OH is right to be safe (obviously, rather than sorry) but once you have re-assured her that it absolutely is not a legitimate call, if she were to go to the police (knowing that it is nothing but a nuisance) then you may well run the risk of making a false report if you claim otherwise. And if she admits to it just being a nuisance then it would likely be seen as wasting police time. A nuisance call does not warrant a police report IMO - just some friendly advice. :)

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

The bank is dealing with it now, they took all the info so the balls in their court now

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

The thing is, are you saying that he still felt threatened even once he knew that this was just a nuisance call?

If the whole thing has been explained, detailed etc, and the person knows that it is nothing more than a nuisance call then surely reporting it as a threat, contradicts all that?

Oh I know, though claiming that he still feels threatened when his own research and knowledge indicates that it was just a SPAM / junk mail style cold call kind of invalidates the "threatened" aspect, no?

I am not saying that the fears may not be genuine but let's have a look at Ofcom's page on this:

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-tele...s-and-messages

All but the final option state to contact wither Ofcom or the ICO site.

The final option is for Abusive calls:

Okay so let's look at this in part...firstly, was this an abusive call? I would say that this could not be deemed "abusive" as it does fit into other categories. (VM left / message etc) but let's say (for the SOA, that it is). So let's look at this a little deeper:

First step to take:

What everyone has primarily advised, to begin with. Correct? (This works with varying degrees of success according to everyone here).

Then:

So having thought about this through the length of this topic / his own admission that it was a cold call, Hom3r has ascertained that this is not a real threat, correct?

If he believes that it is a real threat (and immediate) then it is a different matter but he has figured that it is not.

Now the reason I left out is immediate is because it is clearly not an immediate threat to say "threatening tone on a cold call" when the operator asks "what is your emergency?". So we are all agreed that it does not warrant a squad car dispatch, correct? So that is why I did not put in bold that word.

Now...we are clearly not detectives here but the first thing that I could see in this thread is:

Followed by:

Now on the assumption that this really is happening in real time do you do either of the following options, and if so, which:

1. Try race home and call ES for help due to imminent threat.

2. Nonchalantly make thread on internet forum about potential possible outcomes to said event (potentially unfolding in RT).

So primarily, this is either happening in RT and requires a potential SWAT team or is not and can be dealt with, with relative ease.

Which brings me to the final part of the statement / advice from Ofcom:

So we have established that they are not immediate but through the process of this thread the OP has discovered that it was a nuisance call.

There are clear statutory guidelines on how to deal with that...unless you think that the threat is real, in which case go to your local cop shop.

Throughout this thread, he has ascertained that the threat is not real or is hyper paranoid - the comments in this thread seem to (persuasively IMO) show that this is just a NC / random CC.

Either the advice that you are either been given here (either his sister / your son etc) is (in good faith) not accurate, or Hom3r / you have not told your respective party the whole amount of info given here in the OP. Which is probably not even the whole of it but either way I can't see how going to the ops will achieve anything - if anything it is an in between step that hinders the one set of folks who can step in and do something sooner ; the regulator.

I don't doubt that your son / Hom3r's sister have the best of intents here but I do not think that they are correct on whether or not this would be seen as a credible threat leave alone the distinction between a threat and threatening tone.

I mean that with no disrespect to you, I just disagree with the premise / interpretation. :)

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

I said I spoke to my son about this who said that if Hom3r feels at all threatened then he was actually given the right legal advice but saying that he also said that the police will more than likely do nothing other than maybe give the advice to block this number. Now please note (if Hom3r feels at all threatened then he was actually given the right legal advice) the main wording here is feels at all threatened.

You nor I know for a fact how Hom3r feels and once again if he at all feels threatened then he has every right to go to the police.

As previously stated FYI Chloé I would not usually reply but you seem to think I was saying to report the call when really if you read the post I was simply stating that if at all Hom3r was feeling threatened then the advice his sister gave him was the correct advice! Never once did I say report the call and for one final time this is what I said Now I really do hope that you now finally realise that I was referring to if Hom3r felt at all threatened then he was actually given the right legal advice.

Maybe it's a legal thing to advice someone who feels threatened to report it to the police, I know if I felt threatened then that's where I would go, maybe Hom3rs sister is wrong in this advice, maybe my son is wrong with agreeing with this advice, maybe I'm wrong also and your right Chloé :shrug:

Now I have looked through the posts where did I state report the call, I think you will find that I was saying Hom3rs sister gave him the right advice if he felt threatened in any way :gpoint:

Also no disrespect to you.

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

Glad we got there in the end!

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

The phone rang earlier today.

It was a robot that said something like "This is your internet provider, your connection has been compromised. We will assign you a new I.P. address to fix this at not cost to yourself. Please press 1 to connect to a technician".

I hung up of course. It makes a change from "Andrew" calling me from India....

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

Now that caller ID is FREE on VM i never answer the phone now unless i know the number.

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

Likewise. I have free caller ID on my public BT line and if I don't recognise the number or it is witheld or spoofed then they get to talk to the answer machine.

If you don't take cold calls you're less likely to be scammed.

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

OOh... I didn't know that... will have to set it up... :tu:

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

It should show up in your myvm.

Re: Cold call with a threatening tone.
 

Robot phonecall just now (number withheld)

"This is BT Internet Technical department. Your internet connection is about to be disconnected due to non-payment of your bill. Please press 1 to connect to our billing department.."