'I understand you were involved in a road accident that wasn't you fault...' Motoring editor Andy Russell knows he not alone in wanting to cause these nuisance callers personal injury!

Eastern Daily Press: Nuisance calls about fictitious or minor accident claims are a big source of annoyance for right-minded people. Picture: photolibrary.comNuisance calls about fictitious or minor accident claims are a big source of annoyance for right-minded people. Picture: photolibrary.com (Image: Copyright 2010 photolibrary.com)

Virtually every day a work colleague is getting unwanted calls about an accident he is supposed to have had.

You know the sort – 'We understand you were injured in an accident that wasn't your fault...'

Well, he did have a minor collision, no one was hurt and the biggest dent was his pride because it was his fault. Even so, apparently there is a £1,500 payout waiting for him to stake his claim.

After telling the persistent callers this every time, his patience is wearing thin and the polite responses have long gone.

He's also pointed out they are one of the reasons everyone's insurance keeps going up, urged them to stop calling him and now just hangs up.

Do they have access to insurance claims to get contacts or are they just throwing a hook in the water and hoping a fish will bite? I remember once saying I hadn't had an accident, or been hurt, only to be told it might have been a relative or a close friend. Maybe it was someone who lives in the same country! Talk about desperation.

I've also had a similar call on my mobile phone recently – the first for a long time. I have a theory it's because with Christmas coming, and all the extra expense, these unwanted, unscrupulous callers are hoping for easy pickings.

They seem to have stopped calling my landline since I registered online with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) free opt-out service not to receive unsolicited sales or marketing calls although I still get recorded PPI calls and even a few in summer starting 'Now the winter is here' and encouraging me to do something like trade my windows in... I'd given up listening by then.

All these nuisance calls once got me into trouble.

On our old phone, nuisance calls showed up as 'International' on the display but, with family in Australia and often speaking to them at weekends, I always answered it.

One Sunday morning, after four such nuisance calls in the space of an hour, the fifth time it rang I assumed it would be another recorded message and vented my anger by picking up the phone and rudely telling them to 'go away'.

Imagine my embarrassment when a voice on the other end said: 'That's no way to talk to your aunt!' Fortunately she saw the funny side when I explained.

My elder son plays them at their own game. If he's got nothing else to do when they've finished their scripted spiel, and ask what injuries he suffered, he tells them... in graphic detail. Being medically minded as a dentist, he comes up with all sorts of long-winded descriptions until, bewildered by the even bigger idiot on the other end, they hang up on him because he's wasting their time!

And my younger son, when asked if he is in, will tell them he just happened to answer the phone but will go and find the person they want, leaving the phone on the worktop while he carries on with what he was doing before being disturbed.

Mind you, if anyone knows a surefire way, or what words you have to tell them, so they stop calling, please let me know.

Email me at motoring@archant.co.uk