I once got my daughter a phone from CW. As part of the process I needed to give them my mobile number - it was a show stopping requirement. About 3 months later I was getting spammed by an autodialler 3 or 4 times a day. The dialler never connected when answered. Calls were always different numbers, never blocked, but always UK based mobile phones. I phoned back and discovered that the recorded message I was put through was for a Telemarketer. But there was no way to stop them. I was already registered with the telephone preference service (TPS) and so should not be getting unsolicited spam marketing calls.

One day, out of the blue I answered the number and there was someone on the other end of the line. I then went through a difficult conversation where I attempted to get out of them why they were phoning me. I found out, (1) the company was called something ridiculous like the "phone delivery depot for your provider" and they were trying to sell mobile phone contracts by using that name when answering calls "Hi this is the 'hone delivery depot for your provider'", I kid you not. He even claimed to be from my mobile provider at one point (no he wasn't, I'd already checked that when I attempted to get them to block the calls.) (2) the guy on the other end of the phone knew quite a bit about me, so had access to data from a third party. (3) it was a total phishing exercise and they were trying to get fees for reselling the customers new fixed term contracts to them after they had become rolling monthlies.

After laying in to him I finally got the route of the data. "We get a lot of our leads from Carphone Warehouse." BING!! The moral of this story is, always read the fine print. I probably in haste missed a tick box or ticked the wrong box - or the girl serving me "helpfully" did it for me on their computer system without asking. Carphone Warehouse are a scummy company, with bad practices, and best advice is to avoid at all costs!