[Chloé Palmas]

Originally Posted by weenie

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

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?

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

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:

Abusive calls

Malicious, abusive or threatening calls, whether from people you know or from strangers, are a criminal offence.
Immediately call your phone company and ask for their nuisance or malicious calls team.

If the caller is making direct threats to you or your family and you believe those threats to be real and immediate, you must call 999 straightaway.
If you believe that the threats made are not immediate, then you should call your local police station (101 from any landline or mobile phone).

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:

Immediately call your phone company and ask for their nuisance or malicious calls team.

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

Then:

If the caller is making direct threats to you or your family and you believe those threats to be real and immediate, you must call 999 straightaway.

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:

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

Followed by:

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

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:

If you believe that the threats made are not immediate, then you should call your local police station (101 from any landline or mobile phone).

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.