TELECOM 247

This message acts as a topic header for what I hope will be a series of
regularly updated postings covering what I know about Silent Telephone
Calls.

David Hickson

SILENT CALLS - THE FACTS - 21 MAY 2005

I offer some of what I know about Silent Telephone Calls, as the
situation stands today.

I do not attempt to deal here with cold calls in general, failures to
respect the TPS, recorded messages, premium rate scams, rogue diallers
and the many other related issues.

WHAT IS OFCOM DOING ABOUT IT?

On 2 May 2005 Ofcom used its powers under the Communications Act 2003
for the first time to take action against MKD Holdings Ltd (known as
Kitchens Direct) for making Silent Calls. This was in response to a
complaint that I made and continue to pursue.

There is a good piece of video that was broadcast by the BBC on 5 May.
This describes what silent calls are, covers the action taken in this
case and includes a contribution from me.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/video/41110000/rm/ 41110237 silent vi.ram

If you are interested in this case there is lots of stuff on the web.
It is not over yet, so keep watching!

This case has thrown many aspects of Ofcoms policy into question
(notably the 5% issue). There is much to say and do about this.
Clarification should emerge shortly.

Ofcom is accountable to parliament. A number of MPs are involved in
putting pressure on Ofcom over the way in which it is dealing with this
case and the issue in general. If you believe that your MP would like
to, or should, get involved, then contact them.

WHAT IS A SILENT CALL?

The phone rings, you pick it up, you may hear a little click, there is
several seconds of (rather menacing) silence, the line goes dead.

WHY DO THEY HAPPEN?

It could be someone deliberately trying to upset you! .. but far more
likely ..

Those making lots of outbound calls use equipment known as
predictive diallers to avoid their operators taking time in dialling
and waiting for you to answer, getting engaged tone or being connected
to an answering machine or service. They aim to keep their operators
busy busy, speaking to people all the time.

The computer equipment dials the numbers and only attempts to put calls
through to an operator after a person has answered. If, when this
happens, all of the operators are busy it gives you a period of silence
before closing down the call.

Clever mathematics is used to work out how quickly the computer should
do the dialling. No matter how clever it is, it cannot predict exactly
when each operator will be ready for the next call or how many of the
currently ringing numbers will be answered.


Perhaps we should feel sorry for those who used to try to upset people
by making silent calls - it does not work so often now!

BUT WHY SILENCE?

I am still waiting for an adequate explanation for why a telemarketing
company would want to make people scared of answering the phone. Any
silent call to your home is unpleasant. Those who have not yet learned
the most likely cause are left to wonder who it is that might want to
upset or frighten them.

A brief recorded message giving the name of the caller, a contact
number and a brief apology would seem to me to be the obvious
alternative. A five-pound credit on your phone bill as compensation
could be better, but a polite purely informative message would probably
not be any more of a nuisance than the call was likely to be anyway.
(It would certainly be better than one of the proposed alternatives -
expecting you to dial 1471 and then pay to hear the message.)

Many claim that transmitting a recorded message is illegal. I believe
that this is based on a misunderstanding of various regulations and I
am now trying to get this resolved. But hang on a minute, silent calls
are illegal, as the case against Kitchens Direct has shown. Even if
both are illegal, why choose the option that creates the greater
nuisance?

WHAT CAN I DO TO STOP RECEIVING SILENT CALLS?

Look at the next question also.

If you want to stop getting these calls yourself try registering your
numbers with the Telephone Preference Service at www.tpsonline.org.uk.

This should stop all cold calls, including more worthy activities such
as charity appeals, and you will not ever be able to de-register your
number. Once every useful UK number has been registered, then all cold
calling will go underground and offshore and be totally un-regulated.
So take a moment to think, before probably going ahead and doing it
anyway.

It will take up to 28 days to work and may not stop everything. Most UK
companies do respect the list, as they face serious penalties if they
do not (this is not actually administered by Ofcom). There are mixed
reports about the effectiveness of the TPS as a way of stopping silent
calls to you - some say it resolved the problem completely, others say
it made no difference.

Do not bother with Silent CallGuard, very few companies use this. I
have not heard any report of it being effective.

You may be offered other services for which you pay, such as Caller ID
display, Choose to Refuse and Anonymous Call Rejection (ACR). Each of
these has advantages and disadvantages that should be weighed on their
merits, as well as having a direct cost.

The only comment I will offer is to be careful of ACR - a lot of
perfectly honest calls are made without giving a number, and this is
often beyond the control of the person making the call. A friend
calling from their workplace or from abroad, calls from many businesses
such as employment agencies and even calls from anyone at the BBC are
examples of those you could miss with ACR in place.

WAHT CAN I DO TO STOP SILENT CALLS BEING MADE?

If you (perhaps also) want to do your bit to see Ofcom take action
against those who are making Silent Calls to you, for the good of
everyone - follow these steps. Please jump on to step 10 when you have
had enough.

This applies only to the UK and calls made by, or for UK companies -
Ofcom cannot act against companies outside the UK.

1. If you know the name of the company making the calls.

Go directly to step 8, do not ... etc.

2. If there is a number given by dialling 1471.

You may want to spend some money by calling them to find out who they
are. Whether you do or not - go to step 8.

3. If 1471 cannot give a number.

You are going to have to do a bit of work, be sure that you are up for
it. If you are not, go to step 10, now or whenever you change your
mind.

4. Speak to the Nuisance Call Bureau (NCB) of your telephone service
provider.

Ask them to enable the call tracing facility on your line.

They may need some persuasion. They can only do this for a limited
number of lines, and must deal first with those who are receiving
genuinely malicious calls. If you have been getting a regular pattern
of silent calls, would reasonably expect to get more and intend to
proceed with a formal complaint to Ofcom, then they should provide this
facility.

The trace facility will only be provided for a limited period of time,
perhaps one month. Be sure that you would expect to receive calls that
need to be traced whilst you are in and ready to do the trace during
that period. Make this clear to the NCB - they also want to see Silent
Calls stopped and will be keen to help someone determined to do what is
necessary to make this happen.

You must understand that they will not reveal the detail obtained from
any trace to you, not the name of the company, nor even the number.
They will reveal both to Ofcom.

The trace will only be applied to calls that you want traced, they will
not be making a list of everyone who calls you.

Calls from overseas will not normally give a useable trace. Every call
from the UK definitely will.

5. Once the trace is enabled, you will have instructions about how to
operate it.

This will be a series of numbers to dial after each call that you want
to be traced has finished. Follow the instructions and keep a note of
the date and the time of each traced call. Remember to do the trace
immediately, before you make or receive another call.

6. You will need to speak to the NCB about each trace.

This is necessary to confirm that they have retrieved usable
information. They may also tell you if they recognise the number as one
from which lots of traced silent calls are made - this is very useful
information.

They will not tell you the number or the name of the company.

Make a note of the reference by which they have recorded the
information so that you can refer Ofcom directly to this record - this
will normally be your number and the date and time that they have for
the call.

7. I warned you.

8. Congratulations to those who came here directly - you are very rare.

9. Make a complaint to Ofcom.

You can telephone 0845 456 3000.

You can try to do this through www.ofcom.org.uk.

IGNORE any messages or indications that Ofcom does not handle this type
of complaint. LIE, if that is still necessary to get through the
system, but apologise later for having done so necessarily. I am told
that these apparent obstacles will be removed shortly.

Give Ofcom all the relevant information that you have. Any information
held by your telephone service provider will be revealed to Ofcom on
demand. If the callers number belongs to a different provider, then
Ofcom will go to that provider to get the name and address.

Demand that Ofcom obtain all the available evidence for this case by
retrieving all relevant information held by all the telephone service
providers about this company.

Ofcom has limited resources; it will use these wisely by only
investigating those companies about whom it has the most evidence.
Anything you can tell Ofcom about the company may help.

Ask Ofcom to keep you informed about the progress of your complaint. I
hope that you will not have to go through what I have gone through in
order for them to take action.

10. Step 9 may not be necessary.

At my instigation, Ofcom recently received a summary of the records
from the BT NCB covering all the companies with the most cases of
traced silent calls from the last few months. I hope that this will
keep the Ofcom team busy in pursuit of what are likely to be the worst
offenders. Once all these have been dealt with, they can have an
updated list from BT and from the other telephone service providers as
well.

This does, of course rely on enough people doing the traces covered in
steps 4 - 6, for all the major offenders to be identified.

Isolated individual reports about particular companies that cannot be
matched with the extensive evidence held by the telephone providers
will continue to be collated and retained by Ofcom until these amount
to sufficient evidence to warrant an investigation. This has not
happended yet.

Once Ofcom starts an investigation it can obtain the full history of
the calls made by this equipment. It does need not a complaint to cover
every silent call made. With Kitchens Direct, my complaint detailed
only 2 traced silent calls, BT had evidence of more (perhaps dozens),
Ofcoms investigation reported 1.5 million in a three month period.

Ofcom tell me that they want more complaints, and who am I to
discourage those who want to go along the trail that I, and perhaps
others, have cleared.

The very best of luck to you.

David Hickson

P.S. Some of the above is likely to be clarified or to change over the
coming weeks. This note is dated, as it is likely to need revision
shortly.

I will try to keep in touch with any postings to this thread.

This is not true.
You can be pretty anonymous with a PAYG SIM,
and if that is to expensive for a Call Centre, there is always VOIP

--
Graham.



%Profound observation%

Please accept my apologies for an inappropriate posting.

I am trying to get it removed.

David

Please accept my apologies for an inappropriate posting.

I am trying to get it removed.

David

David Hickson wrote in message
news:1116693087.659742.157170@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

Stright from the TPS Website

If you have been troubled by calls where the phone rings but on answering
there is no one there, you may wish to register your number on the Silent
Callgard Service on 0870 4443969.

These calls are generated by automatic dialling equipment which dial more
numbers than there are operators available to take the calls.

Please accept my apologies for an inappropriate posting.

I am trying to get it removed.

David

Please accept my apologies for an inappropriate posting.

I am trying to get it removed.

David