111 Calls
Posted: January 26th, 2018, 11:43 am
Do you routinely block 'International' phone calls?
Towards the end of last year I started to receive plenty of 'International' calls, the usual variety of 'phone pests and scammers. Our phones do offer a call blocking facility but not for International calls. Consequently I connected a USB modem to a Raspberry Pi and used it to disconnect incoming 'International' calls. This seemed reasonable since I don't know anyone from outside the UK who is likely to 'phone me.
This worked well and almost as an afterthought I decided to arrange for the Raspberry Pi to email me each time it disconnected an 'International' call, so that I could keep a record of the number of calls (over 30 during Dec 2017). This might have saved my life...
Earlier this month I became unwell and Mrs RC called the NHS 111 system for advice. In case you have not used this service I will mention that one usually gets put through to a call handler who may advise the caller to call 999 or more likely wait to be called back by a doctor.
A few minutes later as I was waiting to be called back by a doctor I happened to notice email from the Raspberry Pi informing me that I had just received several 'International' calls. Fortunately I realised that it was likely to be the 111 doc returning my call so I disconnected the system and several minutes later a doc called and mentioned that they had tried twice previously but had been disconnected. It had never occurred to me that a 'local' call from the NHS might identify itself as 'International'.
As it happened, something bad happened to me shortly after arriving at A&E. Without wishing to over-dramatise the situation I will mention that had I been delayed a few more minutes and the bad thing happened whilst my wife was driving me to hospital I might not be here to write this.
Anyway, I have written to my local Clinical Commissioning Group suggesting that they get their telecoms provider to append an actual geographical number to whatever call system they use. I believe this should be possible.
I just thought I'd mention it here just in case other Lemonistas also block 'International' calls.
RC
Towards the end of last year I started to receive plenty of 'International' calls, the usual variety of 'phone pests and scammers. Our phones do offer a call blocking facility but not for International calls. Consequently I connected a USB modem to a Raspberry Pi and used it to disconnect incoming 'International' calls. This seemed reasonable since I don't know anyone from outside the UK who is likely to 'phone me.
This worked well and almost as an afterthought I decided to arrange for the Raspberry Pi to email me each time it disconnected an 'International' call, so that I could keep a record of the number of calls (over 30 during Dec 2017). This might have saved my life...
Earlier this month I became unwell and Mrs RC called the NHS 111 system for advice. In case you have not used this service I will mention that one usually gets put through to a call handler who may advise the caller to call 999 or more likely wait to be called back by a doctor.
A few minutes later as I was waiting to be called back by a doctor I happened to notice email from the Raspberry Pi informing me that I had just received several 'International' calls. Fortunately I realised that it was likely to be the 111 doc returning my call so I disconnected the system and several minutes later a doc called and mentioned that they had tried twice previously but had been disconnected. It had never occurred to me that a 'local' call from the NHS might identify itself as 'International'.
As it happened, something bad happened to me shortly after arriving at A&E. Without wishing to over-dramatise the situation I will mention that had I been delayed a few more minutes and the bad thing happened whilst my wife was driving me to hospital I might not be here to write this.
Anyway, I have written to my local Clinical Commissioning Group suggesting that they get their telecoms provider to append an actual geographical number to whatever call system they use. I believe this should be possible.
I just thought I'd mention it here just in case other Lemonistas also block 'International' calls.
RC