How do companies get your phone number?

[ian_83]

The other night I got a call.

"Hello, I'm calling from blabla agencys and I understand you were in an accident in April?"
"Well sort of."
"That's great because we beleive we can get you injury compensation."
"Well I wasn't in the car, it was parked in the street, I was in the house."
"Oh right, so you weren't in the car?"
"No."
"Sorry to bother you."

Where the hell do these people find out I was in a crash and where did they get my home number? I'm not saying my insurance company sold on the details, but how do they know I was involved in an incident and my details but not the fact the car was parked in the street with no one in it? No wonder insurance prices are flying up!

[Guy]

Companies sell on your details.

[30psi]

Companies sell on your details.

Yep, even some of the insurance brokers sell it on, which then in turn encourages claims against the insurer that are on their panel.

[ian_83]

Bastards

[SX Sam]

A lot of it comes from online Surveys and Questionaires you fill out on websites.

We buy loads of data, the company will have been told by the data provider that you have been asked to be contacted in regards to making a personal injury claim. Data providers are all rubbish, they tell you all the data you buy wants to be contacted regarding something you are doing, but this is rarely the case.

[Lou_Lou]

They guess.

I've had texts / calls saying they can get me compensation for my accident.

I haven't had a car accident

They just try their luck I guess, as someone at some point will bite

[danny-mac]

We constantly get random calls from people trying to sell stuff. I've now stopped answering calls that come up as "secret" or "out of area".

I've enrolled with TPS but it doesn't seem to stop them.

[Jem]

Well here's the answer

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/

Simply register your number on there, it only takes a minute, and you won't get any more marketing calls. If you do they will be breaking the law

Then if you do get a marketing call you can have some fun

Me: Hello
Call Center: Hello I've calling you to day from Dodgy Company Dot Com, blah blah blah......

Me: I must stop you there, and before you carry on you should know that this number is registered with the Telephone Preference Service and by calling me you are breaking the law, how would you like this conversation to proceed?

Call Center (you can hear them thinking 'Shit, fcuk, shit, fcuk!', some instantly hang up, others politely say they will remove your details from their system and hang up others with a 'I'm crapping myself!' tone say): Ummm, ok...............I'm very sorry, this is serious, we wont call you again (and hang up very quickly).

[Jem]

We constantly get random calls from people trying to sell stuff. I've now stopped answering calls that come up as "secret" or "out of area".

I've enrolled with TPS but it doesn't seem to stop them.

How long ago did you enrole? IIRC it takes a couple of weeks or so.

[SX Sam]

They don't guess Lou, all data call centres ring must be opt-in data. You must have agreed to be contacted by a third party, or filled out some sort of survey online with your number. Anything where you have opted to be contacted. Cold calling is now against the rules, so you can't just pick up a phone book and ring through it, the customer must have opted in to be contacted.

And thinking call centres shit them selves when you say your on the TPS is also a joke. I run a call centre of about 60 people, and the amount of people that say there on the TPS all day, and then say there going to take you to court, blah blah, is quite amusing. It really doesn't scare any call centre workers. We actually have a TPS option on our systems, so if they say they are on the TPS, we click that and it they will not be contacted by us again.

[Lou_Lou]

I mean the guessing about having an accident part..

I've never been in / had a car accident (touch wood!) so never had it logged anywhere that I have! So that part of it they are obviously trying their luck with as a lot of people will probably have had at some point.

[SX Sam]

I mean the guessing about having an accident part..

I've never been in / had a car accident (touch wood!) so never had it logged anywhere that I have! So that part of it they are obviously trying their luck with as a lot of people will probably have had at some point.

Sorry, I thought you meant guess the number

To be fair, that call centre will have been sold a data set, and the data provider will have told them that all of the leads want to be contacted in regards to making a personal injury claim. Half of the time, its the data providers fault, not the call centres fault. Data providers are all scamming tw*ts

[danny-mac]

How long ago did you enrole? IIRC it takes a couple of weeks or so.

Years ago, then i recently tried again and it said we were already on the database.

[Jem]

And thinking call centres shit them selves when you say your on the TPS is also a joke. I run a call centre of about 60 people, and the amount of people that say there on the TPS all day, and then say there going to take you to court, blah blah, is quite amusing. It really doesn't scare any call centre workers. We actually have a TPS option on our systems, so if they say they are on the TPS, we click that and it they will not be contacted by us again.

As I said, some will politely apologise, say they will remove your details and hang up. And I suspect this is how your staff would react. On the other hand some call centre staff, normally the less UK based sounding ones, do seem to have a brown trouser moment.

[Matt Grr]

How long ago did you enrole? IIRC it takes a couple of weeks or so.

Yup, there's a 4-6 week update cycle.

In answer the original question, it is simply companies selling your personal information. Its pretty hard to get away from as almost every set of T&C's will have a section about them sharing your details with their "associate companies". In other words, you have to agree to it to get the product or service in the first place.

Selling data is big business

[Dare]

I read everyone of Ian 83's posts in David Mitchell's accent, makes for some fun reading

[Draven]

been registered on TPS for about 5 or 6 years now

currently getting three or four calls a day again
i've never had a car accident but have had the claim for blah calls also

most of the call center staff, if you ask what company they are calling from will not tell you the name of the company that is actually running the calls which means you cant report them for performing an illegal cold call

[SX Sam]

It's the data providers that are in the wrong, not the call centres.

The data providers are meant to check all data against the TPS and take out any leads that are in the TPS. However, some of them do not do this, in fact the majority of them don't do this. This is not the call centre's duty to check leads against the TPS, its the data providers duty.

[Scottie]

It's the data providers that are in the wrong, not the call centres.

The data providers are meant to check all data against the TPS and take out any leads that are in the TPS. However, some of them do not do this, in fact the majority of them don't do this. This is not the call centre's duty to check leads against the TPS, its the data providers duty.

It is you making the call though, you committing the offence

[Aitch]

Data providers are all scamming tw*ts

And personal injury compensation companies aren't?


Who are the real idiots though - the people selling the duff info, or the people who are buying it despite knowing full well they are being scammed?