That’s one way to beat phone pests... play dead!

SCORES of people have contacted The Mail on Sunday to reveal their experience of nuisance calls, following last week’s report on the plague of telephone pests.

Calls relating to internet shopping giant Amazon top the charts for fraudulent contact.

But other issues raised by nuisance callers relate to supposed broadband disconnection within 24 hours, loft insulation, suspicious credit card transactions and an arrest warrant about to be issued for non-payment of taxes. One scam caller even claimed to be from ‘Westminster Police’. Rhod McGregor receives between six and ten nuisance calls a day. He says most calls disconnect as soon as he answers. Rhod adds: ‘Other calls we answer have a recorded message purporting to be from Amazon, Visa or our bank, saying fraud has been detected. It then asks us to “press 2” to speak to a call handler.’

One man by the name of Peter says he received six calls in three days last week, all relating to either

Amazon or eBay, which are not known for making outgoing phone calls to individuals’ homes.

Readers have also shared their own tips for tackling the problem – with one woman going so far as to fake her own death. Christine, from Oxfordshire, spent a day telling telephone pests that the woman going by her name had died. She says: ‘I have not had a cold call since – I have obviously been deleted from some database they all use.’

Others have reported success wi t h c a l l - s c r e e n i n g services offered by their landline providers, such as BT Call Protect, Sky Talk Shield and TalkTalk CallSafe.

Reader Ken Clarke uses TalkTalk CallSafe. He signed up to the free s ervi ce because hi s l andli ne number was regularly confused with those belonging to local businesses. He says: ‘Any callers are now connected to an automated voice which asks for their name. Most nuisance callers are discouraged at this point.’

Those who remain undeterred must record a short message identifying themselves. Ken’s phone then rings and upon hearing the recorded message he can decide whether to allow the call as a oneoff, add the number to his list of approved contacts, or reject it.

He adds: ‘It is simple to set up. I speak as a septuagenarian who depends on grandchildren to guide me through the complexities of computer usage, and who looks for the easiest way out of any problem.’

For more information visit the ‘ stop getting nuisance calls and texts’ section at citizensadvice.org. uk/consumer.