Spam Calls on My O2 Phone

[Anonymous]

Hi Guys

Some general feedback to O2 senior executives...

There's been a huge increase in "spam calls" from fraudsters, claims management companies and suchlike coming through on my phone recently. (I am registered with the telephone preference service.) I'd now say that three out of every four calls I receive are unwanted spam calls.

I no longer answer my landline because BT failed to protect its service from people like these, and I now perceive it as "the spam phone." Sorry to say, but I'm beginning to perceive O2 calls in the same way, and this is leading me to disengage from your service.

Just as Google has taken an incredibly proactive approach to cleaning up GMail spam, can I please encourage you to adopt a similar approach to controlling and eliminating these parasites from your network? Over the long term, they could drive you out of business. (Data access to the Internet is a commodity. Incoming calls from friends and family to a specific phone number are what bind you to a network, at least to some extent.) 

Thanks!

[MI5]

Check your marketing preferences in your MyO2 as they be all turned on.

[Cleoriff]

You will find them here once logged onto My O2 http://www.o2.co.uk/myo2

[Bambino]

@Anonymous This is a customer forum, not customer service, nor will any O2 senior executives see your post. Follow the advice above, also there are call blocking apps as well as what is probably built into your phone. Have you registered your BT and mobile numbers here: http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/index.html?

[MI5]

Truecaller will filter out spam calls for you automatically but it's not spam until they prove themselves to be, so you'll never stop everyone from getting them ever.

[jezza1234]

Agree with all replies here. 

Unfortunately registering with the telephone preference service isn't enough. The mistake that many peole make is this, you register for a new service on line and enter your telephone number, you order sometinhg on line and enter your telephone number, you give your local council your details including your telephone number see where this is going?

Now these organisations will not necessarily contact you direclty(becuaue youv'e opted out of their marketing news letters etc) but..................They will SELL your information to other organisations that you have no such opt out agreement with and they of course will then proceed to help you reclaim your PPI, claim for an injury you sustained in a "recent" car accident, etc etc etc

There is a very simple way that you can help yourself moving forward, if a website asks for your contact tel no and it is not essential that they have it(when was the last time Ebay called you, or Amazon?) merely type in the correct number of digits, as that is all the web form is looking for-a fixed length digit string.

Just put 01234 000000 and the website will accept it and they then won't have your number to sell to someone else.

O2 cannot stop these comapnies contacting you and as long as you have opted out of the marketing stuff in my O2, O2 wont directly contact you either.

I have been doing this for a couple of years since I was told about it by somone senior at a telemarketing company and I probably get a couple of calls every 6 months or so and once they come through Google the number find out who it is then block em! job done.

It doesnt stop the companies that use random number generators but stops the bulk of it. 

We tend to put a lot of personal information, including our mobile numbers on line, and once there they are technically in the public domain. Your mobile number is personal to you and you should decide who has the number not some faceless company that sells your information to make money.

So dont give it anyone on line unless absolutely vital.

Hope this helps

[Cleoriff]

I find it rather coincidental that we are having a lot of posts about spam or unwanted calls since O2 changed our marketing preferences without warning

[MI5]

Data protection laws prevent councils, ebay, amazon etc from passing on your details if you have explicitly notified them of such.
They will not sell your details to anyone at all.
The only way this happens is when databases are breached or companies deliberately alter the settings to suit themselves.
If however, you post your number on an open forum, such as we often see on here, you are most certainly asking for trouble as lots of companies have crawlers trawling the web constantly looking for active phone numbers.

[jezza1234]

Agreed Data prtotection rules are there and I merely used the companies as an example to make a point the main message within the post is entirely accurate however. BTW as far as councils are concerned you have to manually opt out on your electoral register form or contact the council to inform them that you do not want your detials made public(I.E sold to 118.com, 192.com etc) or other paying customers.

The article below although a little old is still very relevant and should hopefully make us all think.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1375066/Beware-company-websites-selling-personal-details.htm...

Rather than get into specifics the point is that if we dont put our numbers out there then people cant get them to market to us. simples....

[Bambino]

You forget, @jezza1234 that there are robocallers that just call every number in existence until they get a live one. We live in an age, unfortunately, where privacy is a luxury and no longer is a right.