Effectiveness of actions to reduce harm from nuisance calls in Scotland
Research commissioned to analyse the impact of actions set out in the Nuisance Calls Commission action plan, and to examine the outcomes of past interventions.
Annex E: Evidence on consumer attitudes to nuisance calls
As well as the annual landline nuisance call diary survey (2013-2017), Ofcom has commissioned many omnibus surveys to monitor consumers’ recalled experiences of nuisance calls in the four weeks preceding the survey. In the March 2015 and December 2015 Consumer Concerns Surveys, respondents were asked about their behaviour in relation to nuisance calls, the answers to which provide useful evidence for this paper. Some of these are reproduced here for convenient reference.
Q.30A Does your main home landline phone have caller display?
March 2015: 47% yes, 52% no; December 2015: 48% yes, 51% no.
Q.31 If you have it, do you usually look at the caller display before deciding whether to answer your phone?
| March 2015 | December 2015 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home phone | Mobile | Home phone | Mobile | |
| Always | 62% | 60% | 61% | 62% |
| Sometimes | 22% | 17% | 23% | 17% |
| Never | 15% | 23% | 16% | 21% |
Q.32 How often do you receive calls that you want e.g. from friends, family or companies that you want to speak to?
| March 2015 | December 2015 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home phone | Mobile | Home phone | Mobile | |
| Every day | 35% | 58% | 36% | 60% |
| A few times a week | 36% | 27% | 34% | 26% |
| A few times a month | 12% | 6% | 12% | 6% |
| Less than once a month | 6% | 3% | 7% | 3% |
| Never | 9% | 6% | 9% | 5% |
Q.34 Are you aware of call blocking technology i.e. a device or service to block\ stop unwanted calls on your landline phone?
March 2015: 65% Yes, 33% No; December 2015: 68% Yes, 30% No
Q.35 As a result of receiving unwanted calls from companies or organisations, have you, or someone else in your household, done [either of] the following?
a) Signed up with\ put your landline number on the Telephone Preference Service ( TPS)\ do not call register:
b) Got call blocking technology on your landline - i.e. a device or service to block\stop unwanted calls on your landline phone (e.g. a TrueCall device, a BT call blocker phone, services provided by your landline provider like anonymous call reject, incoming call blocker or last caller barring) / Used settings (if available) on your mobile handset or downloaded an app to block calls)
| March 2015 | December 2015 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home phone | Mobile | Home phone | Mobile | |
| Signed up with TPS | 21% | 7% | 21% | 7% |
| Used blocking technology | 9% | 10% | 9% | 10% |
| Neither | 71% | 83% | 71% | 82% |
Q.36 And when you receive an unwanted call from an organisation or company on your home landline phone do you ever report it to an official organisation (e.g. Ofcom or the Information Commissioner's Office) or your landline provider?
| March 2015 | December 2015 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home phone | Mobile | Home phone | Mobile | |
| Always | 2% | 1% | 1% | 1% |
| Nearly always | - | - | - | - |
| Sometimes | 4% | 2% | 4% | 2% |
| Rarely | 6% | 3% | 5% | 3% |
| Never | 78% | 78% | 80% | 79% |
| No unwanted calls | 8% | 13% | 7% | 13% |
Q.37 When your phone rings, which of these do you REGULARLY DO in order to avoid\not have to answer unwanted calls from companies or organisations?
| March 2015 | December 2015 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home phone | Mobile | Home phone | Mobile | |
| I rely on my answerphone to take a message | 14% | 8% | 14% | 9% |
| I do not answer the phone to numbers that I do not know | 14% | 29% | 13% | 31% |
| I do not answer the phone if I am not expecting a call | 11% | 11% | 10% | 12% |
| I do not answer the phone at certain times of the day and\ or evening | 9% | 5% | 9% | 7% |
| I do not answer the phone to numbers that I recognise but do not want to answer (e.g. a utility company - we do not mean friends or family) | 6% | 14% | 6% | 13% |
| I switch ringtone down\off so I am not disturbed by unwanted calls when it rings | 3% | 7% | 3% | 6% |
| I unplug my landline phone so you do not receive calls on it/ I only have my mobile phone switched on when I want to make a call or am expecting a call | 2% | 2% | 3% | 2% |
| I let it ring and do not answer | Not asked | Not asked | - | Not asked |
| Other | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% |
| None of these (I always answer the phone when it rings) | 47% | 37% | 48% | 37% |
Q.38 Why have you not done anything to try to avoid unwanted calls from companies or organisations on your phone?
| March 2015 | December 2015 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home phone | Mobile | Home phone | Mobile | |
| Haven't thought of doing anything | 22% | 21% | 20% | 19% |
| I do not get enough of these calls for it to be necessary | 17% | 18% | 18% | 18% |
| Too much hassle | 15% | 17% | 17% | 16% |
| I don't know what to do to stop them | 10% | 10% | 10% | 8% |
| I do not mind receiving these types of calls | 6% | 5% | 7% | 5% |
| I don't think anything would work | 6% | 8% | 7% | 8% |
| I do not get any unwanted calls | 6% | 12% | 8% | 15% |
| I am worried about missing an important call | 5% | 5% | 7% | 7% |
| Technology or services to stop them is too expensive | 4% | Not asked | 2% | Not asked |
| Other | 7% | 2% | 5% | 2% |
| Don’t know | 10% | 10% | 9% | 9% |
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