Calls made by IPSOS Mori aren’t covered by the Telephone Preference Service, because it’s not “marketing” but “research”. So what’s the stopping you making calls on a “research” basis when it could just lead the interviewer to recommend a service based on those “research” questions?
Now I’d love to be able to tell you how a IPSOS Mori telephone “research” call goes, especially as all our calls are recorded, but they hang up when you answer and on reviewing these calls, some of them last for just one second. I do believe there was some regulations about call centres making sure that they had enough call centre staff to deal with all the outgoing calls that they make, in this case, IPSOS Mori are not on the other end of the line.
Presumably nothing is being done about the loft insulation scam, because they’re calling to check you have a roof, which around here are largely flats so the calls have been annoying as hell.
Since IPSOS Mori magically seem to call when I’m having my supper, I thought I’d share the phone numbers that I know they use, because I’ve been called by them.
(0131) 301 2940
(0131) 561 4532
(0203) 056 2412
(0208) 863 4433
(0289) 592 2166
Update: (0131) 507 0036 is also one of their numbers.
Another Update: 02896 205 134
Third update, they have identified their numbers on this webpage
You could just let your answering machine answer it, or something you could say is that your ex-directory and registered with the TPS, neither will stop the calls they make, but can make you feel a little bit better.
I have a ring-tone for family members and friends so I know if there’s even the point in taking my phone out of my pocket.
If you have a number which is not listed here, please contact us so we can add it.
We’ve also been told that IPSOS Mori carried out research to see how effective the TPS was … Oh! the irony!
I’ve also read that they could write to you with postal surveys too, if you able to scan the envelope front and back (mainly to see the return address and any logo on the front) we might be able have them returned to sender unopened because people will have seen the envelope here 🙂
How I get rid of telephone scams and IPSOS Mori
Now I divert all of my calls to a mobile phone, specifically an O2 Mobile. I also have the Wotcha app, available from largely growing database from https://www.who-called.co.uk/ The app identifies any scammer but any that get through, I just add to the phones contacts and know to ignore the call the next time. However, because all the calls to that mobile come from landlines, I can say with 100% confidence that all the calls that I get are scammers. They usually get a hello, sometimes I don’t answer the phone in English, with some rude racist comments, but hey! Wales is in the UK, so you’ve got to expect some Welsh calls, especially if your calling me and it’s passed the 5th call of the day and not even lunch time yet.
This site isn’t sponsored by who-called and there are other options available, such as TrueCall, which I’d love to say more about, but on my phone, it seems to have reset and wants to know my phone number again, so I’ll try and update this page when I get around to doing that. Also if you have any recommendations for any other “call identification systems” please email oftel.org.uk@gmail.com I’m hoping there are several options which can have it’s own page on the site in the very near future.
O2 have voicemail, just like any mobile network available in the UK. But they have a useful service called O2 Call Alert which basically plays a message similar to the “The person you are phoning can’t take your call, we will send them your number by text to let them know you’ve called.”
IPSOS Mori as well as the regular scammers “know” the O2 voice (including the regular 901 voicemail voice) and usually just hang up. If the scammer thinks they’ve called a landline, they might be confused as to why they are getting a message for a mobile phone. I allow all these calls go to O2 Call Alert and I would recommend you do the same. Rarely do they wait for the entire message and hopefully you could be “struck off” their cold sales list.
Unfortuntely because some calls are from IPSOS Mori’s various numbers and some are from scammers and the recordings are similar, i.e. VERY short, it’s difficult to know if the reason is the “AI robot” of scammers or it’s IPSOS Mori fault. I’ve yet to speak to an actual person from IPSOS Mori.