Spammy spam spam

[Critique]

Also, I use my personal mobile for work as well, so loads and loads of people have my number, I wish I'd had the foresight to buy another sim or cheap phone for work, it's too late now.

I was offered a work mobile at the end of 2019 but turned it down because I didn't want to carry two phones with me (and neither my own network or the one work used offered eSIMs). A few months later I was rather regretting that, with work calls (and worse - WhatsApp messages) on my personal number, and the genie being out of the bottle with everyone having my number now.

Strangely, very little actual spam though.

Inversely, I really had to fight to get a work mobile and I've regretted it ever since!

Firstly, it's an Android, the likes of which I haven't used since I ditched my HTC One for an iPhone back in 2015. As someone quite well embedded in the Apple ecosystem, it took me a while to get to grips with Android again in general - everything is done slightly differently compared to iOS, which is fine but just not what I'm used to. It's also one of those cheaper Samsung Galaxy devices so feels a bit underpowered, with the UI often quite slow/laggy.

The death knell though, as far as I am concerned, is the fact that having two separate devices is just a bit more of a faff than having one. I originally tried to get into the habit of only having my work emails, calendars etc on my work mobile, but having to switch devices to quickly check a Teams chat rather than just switch apps on my personal phone takes a fraction too long. It's hardly an albatross around my neck, but also having to remember to charge it, take it with me when working away from my desk, turn it on in the mornings etc eventually adds up to being vaguely irritating.

The absolute ideal would be to upgrade to a dual-sim iPhone (I'm on the X which still works very well after a good three and a half years of service) and have my work number on an eSIM. Even then though, my employer doesn't offer eSIMs and very few networks seem to offer them on SIM only deals (I'm on GiffGaff).

Whilst it would still mean using my own phone to do work things, I think it'd be that little bit easier and, considering the amount of phone calls I've been getting on National Insurance fraud of late (ah yes, I've managed to bring this back on topic), it'd mean I could safely judge what phone calls I can ignore and which ones I should probably pick up!

[all new Phil]

I was given a work phone last year and it’s been a revelation. It’s so nice to leave it at home on my day off and not get disturbed when I’m out, when previously I was forever getting calls and emails coming through to my own phone. I strongly object to work worming its way into home life unless it’s on my terms.

[Laura-1]

It's sad that we have to feel the need for second sims just because of spammers, these days we have so much amazing technology yet it seems eradicating this spam is a long way off, apparently they send it to hundreds of numbers and even if they only hook one person that's a good result - so I guess it doesn't cost them much to set up whatever gadgets or software they use to do it with,

My mum is in her 70's so she has an old Nokia phone, pre touch screen era and doesn't have a block function so she saves all the spammers to the phone book under... don't answer 1, don't answer 2 and so on, she's got over 40 lol, groups of them are numbers that are the same apart from the last two digits are different, some of the landline numbers happen to have the same area code as she does which is one of the reasons she often answers in case something has happened to someone she knows,

@Critique a dual sim phone is a great idea!

[WillPS]

It's sad that we have to feel the need for second sims just because of spammers, these days we have so much amazing technology yet it seems eradicating this spam is a long way off, apparently they send it to hundreds of numbers and even if they only hook one person that's a good result - so I guess it doesn't cost them much to set up whatever gadgets or software they use to do it with,

My mum is in her 70's so she has an old Nokia phone, pre touch screen era and doesn't have a block function so she saves all the spammers to the phone book under... don't answer 1, don't answer 2 and so on, she's got over 40 lol, groups of them are numbers that are the same apart from the last two digits are different, some of the landline numbers happen to have the same area code as she does which is one of the reasons she often answers in case something has happened to someone she knows,

@Critique a dual sim phone is a great idea!

I suspect the ones with the last two numbers different are a 'legit' call centre - so either your Mum isn't on the TPS list or she is ignoring a call from one of the companies she deals with, not that that's necessarily a bad thing. I was with SSE for a short period earlier this year and they rang 3 times a week to let me know they had smart meter installers in the area - it became tiresome so I blocked it.

[Laura-1]

It's sad that we have to feel the need for second sims just because of spammers, these days we have so much amazing technology yet it seems eradicating this spam is a long way off, apparently they send it to hundreds of numbers and even if they only hook one person that's a good result - so I guess it doesn't cost them much to set up whatever gadgets or software they use to do it with,

My mum is in her 70's so she has an old Nokia phone, pre touch screen era and doesn't have a block function so she saves all the spammers to the phone book under... don't answer 1, don't answer 2 and so on, she's got over 40 lol, groups of them are numbers that are the same apart from the last two digits are different, some of the landline numbers happen to have the same area code as she does which is one of the reasons she often answers in case something has happened to someone she knows,

@Critique a dual sim phone is a great idea!

I suspect the ones with the last two numbers different are a 'legit' call centre - so either your Mum isn't on the TPS list or she is ignoring a call from one of the companies she deals with, not that that's necessarily a bad thing. I was with SSE for a short period earlier this year and they rang 3 times a week to let me know they had smart meter installers in the area - it became tiresome so I blocked it.

That's a good point, I remember at the time googling some of the numbers but didn't find anyone else reporting them which is odd because usually sites like WhoCalledMe seem to have reports of most of them.

Here's a few of the spammers that use similar numbers:

07594 113 372
07594 113 325
07594 113 347
07594 113 647
07594 113 855
07594 113 848

(If posting these breaks any rules feel free to remove)

[allwillbewell]

I was given a work phone last year and it’s been a revelation. It’s so nice to leave it at home on my day off and not get disturbed when I’m out, when previously I was forever getting calls and emails coming through to my own phone. I strongly object to work worming its way into home life unless it’s on my terms.

As soon as I leave the building I turn mine off. God forbid someone got my personal number, unless they were from my team the number would be blocked.

[Martin Phillp]

It's sad that we have to feel the need for second sims just because of spammers, these days we have so much amazing technology yet it seems eradicating this spam is a long way off, apparently they send it to hundreds of numbers and even if they only hook one person that's a good result - so I guess it doesn't cost them much to set up whatever gadgets or software they use to do it with,

My mum is in her 70's so she has an old Nokia phone, pre touch screen era and doesn't have a block function so she saves all the spammers to the phone book under... don't answer 1, don't answer 2 and so on, she's got over 40 lol, groups of them are numbers that are the same apart from the last two digits are different, some of the landline numbers happen to have the same area code as she does which is one of the reasons she often answers in case something has happened to someone she knows,

@Critique a dual sim phone is a great idea!

My mother got a Nokia 105 4G last Christmas and she can block spammers on it despite being a basic phone.