SAYNOTO0870.COM - Strange unwanted cold call

allegro

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Strange unwanted cold call
Mar 4^th, 2011 at 12:46pm

This one puzzled me. A friend moved house about a year ago. She did not take over the previous owner's phone number, a new number was allocated by BT. She opted for ex-directory at the time of placing the order and also registered with the TPS.

Today she got a call asking for the previous owner by name! The callers number was, of course "unavailable". I cannot see how her new number could be associated with the previous owner. Except possibly if XD numbers were leaked/lost by BT and the cold caller associated the address with the previous owner.

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sherbert Supreme Member Offline Posts: 2,011 Gender:	Re: Strange unwanted cold call Reply #1 - Mar 4^th, 2011 at 1:11pm Or your friend could have given the previous owner the new number
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bazzerfewi

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Re: Strange unwanted cold call
Reply #2 - Mar 4^th, 2011 at 6:37pm

People believe that there are two types of Directory Entries, you are either in the Phone Book, referred to as a
Directory Entry (DE), or Ex-Directory (XD).

There is actually a third category called DQR.

This stands for Directory Enquiry Request Only, and is only available via 118 voice services, or a licensed OSIS Bureau.

In order to get a DQR number you need to have both a name, and address. The logic is that you could not simply pick the phone number out of the phone book and make an unsolicited call, but the enquirer needed to know the name and address of the person that they wished to contact.

Because their names and addresses are not listed in the phone book some people believe that they are Ex-Directory when in fact they are DQR, this can cause confusion when a call is made to that number.

DQR (Directory Enquiry Request Only) via voice 118 service

XD (Ex-Directory) via voice services (no number given) this enables companies to retrieve your records from data providers and it is legal.

The only alternative is to change your entry to XD (X Directory) with this category your data will not be entered in the directory or in the Directory Enquiry 118 voice service

Contact your phone provider and request XD (Ex-Directory) unsolicitored calls will cease (But not DQR (Directory Enquiry Request Only)

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Dave

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Re: Strange unwanted cold call
Reply #3 - Mar 4^th, 2011 at 7:05pm

bazzerfewi wrote on Mar 4^th, 2011 at 6:37pm:

People believe that there are two types of Directory Entries, you are either in the Phone Book, referred to as a
Directory Entry (DE), or Ex-Directory (XD).

There is actually a third category called DQR.

This stands for Directory Enquiry Request Only, and is only available via 118 voice services, or a licensed OSIS Bureau.

This is interesting, I didn't know about DQR category.

As for the question of who it might be, could it be the police or another public body such as HMRC (if they have access to records even where the user otherwise opts out of DE services)?

Bazzerfewi, do bodies such as the police have access to phone numbers irrespective of the status of the XD and DQR flags?

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« Last Edit: Mar 4^th, 2011 at 7:09pm by Dave »

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bazzerfewi Supreme Member Offline Baz Posts: 580 Barnsley Gender:	Re: Strange unwanted cold call Reply #4 - Mar 4^th, 2011 at 8:15pm The answer to that is yes, the police and officials such as the government do have access to all telephone numbers. This is a matter of national security. I am not sue which groups do have access to this data and how far down the line it goes, but I am sure that there is a celebrity and official directory
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bazzerfewi

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Re: Strange unwanted cold call
Reply #5 - Mar 4^th, 2011 at 8:28pm

In reply to who else could it be

The most likely cause is that at some stage the number was given out for another cause may be somebody doing a survey or for a delivery, some companies do sell date or let other companies in the same group share the informationh

This will be stated in the Ts&Cs

Another explanation may be that a company purchased data for survey purposes, if it is stated that the information is for a survey with no sale involved all numbersh including TPS can be used

The only number that can't are XD Ex Directory as stated in my earlier post

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allegro

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Re: Strange unwanted cold call
Reply #6 - Mar 5^th, 2011 at 7:50am

Thanks for all your thoughts. She's definietly XD, not DQR. I've heard of DQR though not by name. The previous owner might have her number but it's difficult to imagine how he might have inadvertantly disclosed it. Possibly if a computer based address book was infected. The caller wasn't anyone official AFAIK so I think we can rule out police, HMRD etc. Most likely is abuse of the number given out to a bank etc, supposedly in confidence; she always selects any options for "no publicity".

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bazzerfewi

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Re: Strange unwanted cold call
Reply #7 - Mar 5^th, 2011 at 8:55am

It is just a matter of contacting your provider and upgrading the entry to DQR
It might have just been a miss dial - did the caller know any personal detail
The bank would not contact a customer without identifying themselves

Just a thought if a company uses an auto dialer it picks up numbers sequentially and in this case the caller would not have any personal detail. If it has just happened the once I shouldn't worry about it but I would definitely change your status to DQR.

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Dave Global Moderator Offline Posts: 9,902 Yorkshire Gender:	Re: Strange unwanted cold call Reply #8 - Mar 5^th, 2011 at 10:53am Names are available on the Electoral Roll. Hence with DQR, an individual could obtain the number.
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bazzerfewi

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Re: Strange unwanted cold call
Reply #9 - Mar 5^th, 2011 at 9:10pm

I see your point Dave and it is a while since I had cause to use the electoral roll data but unless the status entry has changed "Which I doubt" the telephone numbers are not published on this data and I also doubt very much if it can legally be complied

Baring this in mind I think the likelyhood of linking electoral data with telecoms data is very unlikely but not impossible

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