That is all very true paws, but in all the phone scams in the UK, I have never heard of any physical contact, often (as said above) they are made from another country, and in the UK there are opt out options, where you can enter your details on a register, and then those who use cold calling are no longer allowed to ring you, in fact I think they can be done for it in the extreme, mind you this is just genuine cold calling, not scams, but when you get such calls here you simply state your opted out, or ex-directory to not get such calls, then ask them to remove you from their list, and by law they must comply.
But again only non scams would comply, but due to these options cold callers are using a new system to get round it, they are simply using random diallers, so they never know any details, except for the fact you answer the phone, this can be easily proved if they can't give you any of your details, such as name.
IMHO the dangerous ones are those who come to your door, and these can be seriously dangerous, even for those not so vulnerable such as the elderly etc, and as soon as these people get their hooks into you then your done, and these you don't mess with, and even the phone ones you don't swap insults with, just say your ringing the police and hang up if it gets to that stage, but phone scams are gutless chancers, who are too lazy to do any form of research, in other parts of the world this may differ, and if in such an area your bang on the money, get off the phone as soon as you know it's a scam, but if in doubt then defo just hang up and ignore them.
Here are some UK sites you can use to opt out from various phone, email and postal mail registers which should help seriously reduce these things, they may take a month or so to get up to full speed, as it can only act from the date you start them, they can't stop stuff already in the system, but again only law abiding places will comply, but within these there is a host of info and advice.
Personally you can google me to the end of the earth, I am so security aware you wont find me anywhere except from my username, but to add a major source of where these people get your details from, they are from not looking at the check boxes in online forms etc, so those unaware need educating in watching out for the small check boxed etc that nearly always get sold on to generate more income for that marketer or the like.
The Information Commissioner’s Office is the UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest
The Telephone Preference Service (TPS) is a free service. It is the official central opt out register
Rules on email marketing, What do they mean for individuals?
Royal Mail's Door-to-Door Opt-Out
Stop your junk mail! (theres a bit of crossover with the previous link with this one)
