Every number that you find in our community is classified according to the type of call. Through different types of call, our users can easily recognize to which category the number belongs to. But sometimes the different call types might be confusing. You might sometimes be wondering whether a certain number should be categorized “Telemarketer” or as “Aggressive Advertising”. To avoid any kind of confusion and to show the clear differences between the caller types, we would like to give an overview of every single caller type that we have at tellows. But we won’t just explain what the term means, we will also give you some tips if you perhaps receive these types of call.

1. Trustworthy Number

Trustworthy numbers are phone numbers which don’t harm or bother you. Usually you even already know the person and the company who is behind the number and you are certain that the caller doesn’t have any harmful intention.

amazon driver who arrived 20 min early phoned multiple times, i at first did not answer because i didn’t know the number then looked on this site and realised he was early. thanks

2. Sweepstakes, Lottery

In this case the caller would tell you that you had won in any kind of lottery. Sometimes they’d tell you that you have won a certain amount of money, sometimes you might be told that you’re getting a holiday trip, shopping vouchers, etc. The only remained question is, whether it’s indeed a real lottery or just a fraud.

Tips: You should always consider at first, whether you had participated in any lotteries in the past and whether there’s any cost that you had to pay for the lottery. In a real and trustworthy lottery, you usually wouldn’t have to pay further costs, especially if it might seem like a suspicious amount of money. In many cases of frauds, the caller would ask you to transfer money for transportation cost or they might ask you to make a subscription where you also had to pay.

We had a call from this company saying we had entered a sweepstake and we had come through to the final dozen.They said we might be lucky as we had made it through to the final draw and they were expecting a big win. So if we were lucky enough to win a large amount of money we would have to pay a tax for them to release the money to us. He started asking questions how much savings we had – when he realised we didn’t have any and that we said we hadn’t heard the Western Union Bank he rang off!!!

3. Debt Collection Company

The calls might be from different kind of companies, such as telecommunication services, lotteries, email services, internet portals, or shipping dealers. We would be informed that we still had unpaid debts that we have to pay in a short period of time.

Called me demanding that I or my solicitor call them back. They said do not ignore this message or prepare for the legal consequences. I was very suspicious so I googled the number and it told me it was fraud.

4. Aggressive Advertising

Sometimes we receive telephone advertising, although we never agreed that we would like to be called by phone. The company even tries to reach us over and over again, even when we have clearly rejected the offer. In this case, it is an aggressive advertisement. In the case of permitted telephone advertising, a customer relationship must exist between us and the companies. The companies have to get our written or (also) verbal consent to the acceptance of telephone advertising.

Trying to sell Electricity/Power plans to our business address. We don’t have a business! Persistent callers, all with slightly different numbers. Trying to find out what provider you use. Would ignore

5. Survey

Survey can be conducted in person, by telephone, in writing or through an online questionnaire. Although calls for market and opinion research can annoy us sometimes, they do not constitute as unauthorized telephone advertising, according to the Federal Network Agency. It is only considered not allowed if the caller intended to make an advertisement at the end of the call without any prior notice.

Name of company was something or other polls. Caller had a heavy Asian accent and I think he has called many times before for different companies. Said he wanted to ask me only four questions about my use of brands but his first question was to confirm my address, at which point I hung up.

6. Harrasment Calls

This type of calls might be harassing people because of different kind of reasons. Sometimes you try to reach back to the calls and the number suddenly doesn’t exist anymore. Sometimes they call you many times and when you answer it there’s no sound.

Pre recorded computer message about how my internet would be ceased within 24hrs due to it having been compromised from several IP addresses.

7. Cost Trap

In the case of cost traps, we receive an invoice for unrecognizable reasons, which we have to pay. These include, for example, a bill for a service, a subscription or a mobile phone contract that has allegedly been made over the telephone. A cost trap also includes callers who want to send you a very expensive product for free, but you have to sign up for a cheap service before. Frequently, callers also tried to get our “yes” through their systematic questions. The call is recorded and then manipulated so that it looks as if you agreed to sign a contract.

Tips: Never give any personal information through the phone, especially when you are not 100% sure of the caller! You can always tell them that you will call again and check for the trustworthiness of the number first at tellows. If there’s not enough information that you need, you can also call the official number of the mentioned company and ask whether the number that called you can be trusted or not.

Claim to be calling from financial conduct authority FAV with a PPI refund. They want personal details and bank details. Don’t give them

8. Telemarketer

A telemarketer is usually a call center that reaches its customers by phone. Most call centers call to make an advertisement for the new offer, a survey for customer satisfaction, or to offer customer service for technical problems (help desk). Of course, it is also important here that they do not call us without our permission. It is often enough to just give a letter of rejection for further calls to the company if we do not want to receive calls anymore.

Unsolicited marketing phone calls from a company who doesn’t seem to be aware of or care about contacting numbers registered with the TPS.

9. Ping Call