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.."