Does anyone know of a way of barring silent calls?

Question

I have telephone preference service already, but this does not block all silent calls especially foreign ones.
Call rejection costs upto £4 a month which is annoying since these people are abusing the phone system.
I have heard the following works (To switch the service on, key *227#, cancel it with #227# or check it with *#227#) but does this mean you have to be a BT customer and have bought into their package?

Answer 1

Hi there. Firstly, the codes you list are for Anonymous Call Barring, to turn it on and off, so that will help with your problem. It is a service you have to request from the company you rent the line from (BT for example) and I believe it is free.However, some of the older telephone exchanges allow anonymous call thru, so it is not 100% successful.
Although you are registered with Telephone Preference Service , companies don't always abide by the list, or even have an up-to-date copy of it, so you will still get calls from less than professional companes. I still have to bluntly tell some callers that they are breaking the law (which they are) by calling a number which is on the list. Good luck.

Answer 2

A silent call these days is most likely an automated dialer from a sales company. THey have a list of numbers that they dial and when you answer they patch you through to an available operator. SOMETIMES there is no available operator so the call hangs and all you hear is silence.

BT do something called "Choose to refuse":
If you frequently receive unwanted or nuisance calls from a particular number, you can block that number from getting through to you. This ensures your peace of mind and, if later on you change your mind, you can lift the block and allow the caller to contact you once again.

Choose to refuse costs £3.35 per month.

BT advise you to register with the Telephone Preference Service (which you have done) but they then say if you STILL get silent calls to ring the following freephone number: 0800 661 441.

Answer 3

I heard this week that it is advertising companies and they are finding the best time to send a rep round


soon as you realise ikt is one of those calls you hit the '#' key 6 or 7 times

this is supposed to mess up the system at the other end so it does not know if you answered or not


AND FINALLY

when you get a call of someone wanting to sell you something, you say

"One moment please"

and put the phone down DON'T HANG UP then walk away.
If everyone does this then the companies will have to stop

Answer 4

If you know the number thats calling then BT can block it from ringing you. just tell them its a nuisance caller and they will help that is if you are a BT customer tho.

Answer 5

if your service is with bt then ring them and explain whats happening they will give you a number to ring and go from there. it does work i have had to do it myself as i was getting calls in the early hours and it has now stopped