Cold callers con thousands each year – we must fight back

The authorities are yet to catch up with the misery these intruders cause – from irritation to outright massive fraud

Cold calling can be stressful and inconvenient (AFP/Getty)

Judging from the response to our campaign against the cold callers, the authorities are yet to catch up with the misery these intruders cause – from irritation to outright massive fraud when they can gain access to bank accounts.

Time and again the Telephone Preference Service has failed its users, and the problem seems to be the responsibility of nobody in particular. The Financial Conduct Authority cannot act because the service is not regulated by it, nor does it need to be.

Ofcom is similarly constrained by its terms of reference. The police are powerless too, as a telephone call is not in itself a crime, so long as callers are not also stalking their victims, which (in the legal sense at any rate) they are not.

Only when it is too late – when a trusting, vulnerable or gullible person has been robbed – can anyone take action, and then it is usually too late.

There have been some heavy fines levied on some of these operations, but new ones spring up as fast as other rogues are closed down. Britons take billions of such calls every year, and there is no reliable guide as to how much householders lose. The crimes that result are more than likely under-reported.

There are things we can all do while we wait for the authorities to take more decisive action. Simply ending the call is a start – but, as readers have told us, it can be more satisfying and more beneficial to wider society if the cold callers themselves are driven to distraction by a persistent and awkward respondent. Maybe one day someone will actually succeed in defrauding a cold caller.