+20 3 2983245 telepest

For some reason I've been plagued with cold calling telepests recently. This particular one (+20 3 2983245) offered the usual "press 5 to be ripped off" and "press 9 to try to unsubscribe which we will ignore" recorded message about claiming for an accident.

There was a very politely spoken and nice young man on the end of the phone. He seemed a bit perplexed and upset when I told him to f--k off and leave me alone. Good.

I don't know exactly who is behind this nuisance activity, but they were calling a TPS-registered phone from a number in Alexandria, Egypt. Offshoring fraudulent activity like this is quite common, but this is the first time that I've had to swear at an Egyptian. Perhaps the poor guy will consider doing something less scummy instead.

Update: unbelievably, they rang back again. This time I had a chat with another guy, and we had a discussion about my horrible industrial accident when my penis got caught in the shredder at work . There was blood everywhere, it was a real shocker for the other people in the office too. I asked where he was calling from, and he said Cambridge.. so I replied that it was odd that it appeared to be a number from Alexandria, and that he was a lying scumbag and please could he f--k off and never call me again. Oddly enough, he hung up.

01530 561700: PPI refund cold callers are also PPI mis-sellers

Quick version:  01530 561700 is a PPI claims company trading as ABC Claims Management, but the people involved have been directors of a firm fined for PPI mis-selling. If you really want to wind them up, say you were mis-sold PPI by a firm called Hadenglen.

Long version:
PPI refund cold callers are annoying, and are almost always dishonest scumbags who claim that you are eligible for a PPI refund, but in fact they have no idea about who you are and nor do they have access to your financial records.

But there's more to the folks calling from 01530 561700 than meets the eye. The claims management company calling from this number is called ABC Claims Management (abc-inc.co.uk) who quote an address of:

York House
Smisby Road
Ashby de la Zouch
Leicestershire
LE65 2UG

A look at the WHOIS details give a nearby address:
Domain name:
        abc-inc.co.uk

    Registrant:
        HADENGLEN PLC

    Registrant type:
        Unknown

    Registrant's address:
        Hadenglen House Marlborough Square
        Leicestershire
        COALVILLE
        LE67 3WD
        United Kingdom

They list the owner as Hadenglen plc. Unlike many PPI claims firms, Hadenglen knows all about PPI.. because it and its boss were fined £182,000 in 2007  for PPI mis-selling. Hadenglen is no longer authorised to sell mortgages and there is a proposal to strike it off the register at Companies House.

The telephone number is closely associated with Hadenglen, both ABC and Hadenglen share the same address of:
SMISBY ROAD
ASHBY DE LA ZOUCH
LEICS
LE65 2UG
..and of course, Hadenglen registered the domain name.

Of course, the real gotcha is that two of the directors of ABC Incorporation Ltd are Paul Butler and Richard Hayes who were both directors of.. you guessed it.. Hadenglen. Indeed, Mr Hayes was fined £49,000 for his part in the Hadenglen PPI mis-selling.

You could argue that poachers make the best gamekeepers, and the directors of a firm that was involved in PPI mis-selling might be the best people to make a claim. Or you might think otherwise. But why pay someone to do it (which could be thousands of pounds) when you can do it for free?

Update:  the scammers from ABC rang me again, and the woman calling identified the company but said she had never heard of her directors of Hadenglen.. which I very much doubt. I advised her to fuck off and leave me alone.

PPI scam: 0843 410 0078

Short version: 
If you're Googling this number to see who is ringing you, then the short answer is that it is a bunch of scammers trying to get you to make a PPI refund claim. If you end up speaking to a human, then you can either ask them to "remove and suppress" your number, alternatively you can just tell them to fuck off (as there's no real reason to be polite with them).

Long version:
Despite a massive fine handed out to some SMS spammers for pushing PPI and ambulance chasing spam, there are still others about.

One particularly common on is to be called with a recorded message about a PPI refund, and then being given the opportunity to press "5" to connect to an operator.

So, I got one of these today from 0843 410 0078, a number allocated to Jtec UK Ltd (although they are probably just the telecoms provider). It seems that this number block is stuffed full of telepests.

Now, this isn't just spam.. it's a scam. Firstly, I'm not eligible for any PPI refunds, but the scammers are encouraging you to make a fraudulent claim regardless. They're just interested in selling your lead on to the next level in this very seedy world of PPI refund claims.

My conversation with the lady scammer went something like this:

Me: So I'm due a PPI refund am I?

Scammer: Yes, our records indicate that you may be eligible for a refund.

Me: Oh yes? You have records?

Scammer: Yes.

Me: So then, please tell me what my name is.

Scammer: We don't have that information for data protection reasons. [Yeah, but you have my financial records and telephone number, so really you are lying, aren't you?]

At which point I got bored and suggested that the woman fucked off and never called me again, at which point she hung up. I really do recommend being rude to these people incidentally. If you can ruin their afternoon and make them feel shitty about themselves then it's a small victory, they are willing participants in the scam after all.

The problem is that the people working at lead generation at this level will NEVER reveal who they are, and by the time the PPI claim has gotten to someone higher up in the food chain then the lead has been laundered through several middlemen.

Registering with the TPS isn't always as effective as you might think. Mobile numbers seem to expire after a year and need renewing (don't forget, the TPS is run by marketers). If you are TPS registered and still get bombarded with PPI scam calls, then you can try filing an ICO complaint. Or you could try doing it this way. But please remember, if you can make the telepests upset for the whole afternoon then it might make them reconsider their bad career choices..

If you find out who these pests are, or come across any other numbers, please consider sharing them in the Comments. Thanks!

These other numbers appear to be related:
0843 410 2215
0843 410 2576
0843 410 4770
0843 410 0269 (claimed to be from a nonexistant company called "PPI Assistance")

This is the same scam, but may be a different outfit:
01277 509018