Of course, vulnerable people are not the only ones to be bothered by nuisance calls. It surprises me that a government that wishes to appear so pro-active and a PM who seems constantly to echo Edward VII's 'Something must be done' haven't found a way of tackling this. Instead it's left to the victims to shell-out for the necessary technology to block them, possibly along with other calls that are probably 'innocent', maybe important.
It's pathetic!
What would you suggest? I think the whole business is very difficult, as I found out with my neighbour, who had already shelled out many thousands on the lottery scam. Although there was no dementia she was very naive and firmly believed that this million pounds would be forthcoming if she just paid another £4k for 'tax'. Even the police were powerless - I did consult them - but she would not make a complaint and was horrified at the mere thought of involving them, such was the relationship these b*st*rds had built with her over the phone.
One thing I gathered was that a lot of these scamsters' or nuisance callers' 'leads' come from databases created when people phone in to enter 'competitions' for Wordsearch, or similar - all your details very conveniently provided at God knows how much per minute. My neighbour had been addicted to these, and consequently her details had presumably been put on what they quaintly call a 'suckers' list' and sold on. So that is something to bear in mind, for anyone with a relative who likes doing these, or who has in the past.
I don't know about anybody else, but since we registered with the telephone preference service we get far fewer nuisance calls, though for many years I have been very careful not to dish out my phone number to anybody who might conceivably misuse it. I am positive that charities pass details on to each other. I support a few, and often get by post begging letters from charities I have certainly never given my details to.
I quite agree that nobody should be obliged to shell out for TrueCall or any other such system, but until there are measure in place - what? - it does stop all but 'trusted' callers, certainly for those with dementia who will never remember not to give out details or pay anything over the phone.
The trouble is that anyone who is up to no good will take no notice of rules or laws, and a lot of these dodgy organisations are in any case based overseas, where UK law cannot touch them.