We're talking about two different things here. First is genuine telemarketers, to whom you can say "You shouldn't be calling me, my phone is on the barred list"; second is people working for criminals, like those ones who say they're calling from Windows about your computer - a neighbour of mine, elderly too, rang me one day to say he'd had a call like that and it dropped as soon as he'd given them his credit card number, and how should he call them back. I screamed "CANCEL YOUR CREDIT CARD NOW!!!" and then ran down the road to his house to explain why!

There are lots of those scams; another crowd here in Ireland rings claiming to be from your bank and saying there's been some worrying activity on your account. They then start to ask you for your internet banking password, account number, etc. Another friend rang me having got one of those, and I told her to walk down to her bank and ask them if the call was from them. The people in the bank were very pleased to get the heads-up about this criminal activity.