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Post by Handy on Jan 15, 2019 22:01:22 GMT -5
I get several annoying calls a day. I still operate my repair business so I feel obligated to answer most calls.
Today a supposed credit card company called me, I answered the call, listened briefly and then after I knew it was something I didn't trust or want, I said I charge $125/hr to listen to their sales pitch. I had to repeat myself and then the guy on the other end said "what the fuck, are you crazy." To which said "you are an ass for calling me."
I know that was out of form for me but I get so many annoying calls and almost every time I am working on something, have to stop to answer calls that might be a customer, I want to fight back. I am tired of being nice to scammers.
I watched several videos about scam calls. One guy was in the telephone business and made a device that answers robo-calls with a computerized program that strings the robo-call along by just inserting an UM or an OH when the robo caller pauses, just to waste the stammer's time. Other people just play dumb until the scammer hangs up.
Of course most people don't answer calls from out of area as it shows up on caller-Id. Most of the calls I get have fake local telephone numbers so I can't tell if the incomming call is new business for me or a scammer or annoying telemarketer.
Does anyone have a good to deal with nuisance calls other than not answering the phone or almost instantly hanging up?
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Post by baza on Jan 15, 2019 23:07:38 GMT -5
In my jurisdiction Brother Handy , the Gov run a thing called the "Don't Call Register" If you register on this service (and it is simple to do so) it bars your number from telemarketers from within the jurisdiction. That knocks down the level of nuisance calls by about 90% leaving me to deal with mebbe one nuisance call a week. I can live with that sort of volume. Perhaps the authorities in your jurisdiction run something similar to the "Don't Call Register" ? Addendum after Handy response below. Obviously the "Don't Call Register" does not work well in all jurisdictions. It does in mine. |
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Post by Handy on Jan 16, 2019 1:30:22 GMT -5
I and all of the people I know have registered with the "do not call" list. It does NO good. Even the callers from India know how to fake their phone number so it looks like a local number on my caller ID. In the mail I get solicitations to donate money to about 4 or 5 charities a week. Once or twice a week, it is ads for hearing aids or some prize I won if I would only take a test drive in a new car. I even get fake keys for said new car with a lucky number on the key for several thousand dollars off the new car. But I am lucky, I still qualify for a warranty on my 2001 car. My W gets several clothing catalogs a week so we don't have to go naked. OH, then there are the poor starving people and we can help them if we give $50 to the food bank 300 miles away. I was informed my computer tripped a virus error and if I would just log on, the Microsoft tech would fix my computer. I said I had a Commodore 64, (1982 version) and could the guy help me get rid of the virus I didn't know about. That went on for a little bit until I told the guy to quit scamming people. Other calls indicated I owed a lot of money to the IRS and was going to serve time in prison if I didn't pay with in one hour. After that the police will take me to jail ASAP. Then my electricity and then my phone was going to be turned off unless I paid by an Apple money card of some type, and my grand daughter was in jail but I could bail her out if I got a Money gram and gave the police the money gram redemption code.
Then there are the unfortunate people standing close to where the traffic light are with their cups of Starbucks coffee and a cardboard sing that says "anything helps - God Bless" Or will "work for food." I am twice their age and I work. There are help wanted signs all over town. Walmart will take almost anyone, even if they have to sit in a chair at the exit to say "Thanks for shopping at Walmart" as the customer leaves the store. The law indicates I am entitled to a good sum of money for each unsolicited call but nothing stops the scammers except not answering the phone and as a business owner my income starts with a phone call from a customer. Then there are some businesses that want me to buy my supplies and parts from them. Add on the local charities that are real but the telephone people get 45% of what they generate and I sometimes wish I could tell all of them to pay me for them being a pain in the ass. I know with the clothing catalog, once you buy something from one company, that company sells your name and address to other catalog companies. Charitable donations work the same way. Dip shits even try to fax me on my cell phone because I forwared my home phone to my cell phone a few times, then that fax service sold my business/home phone number to other fax spammers. I take my donation dollars directly to the food bank, the animal shelter, and the organizations that help people. All of my good unused items go to the GoodWill store. My recyclable trash goes to the appropriate recycle donation bin parked by the sidewalk on my way to my customers and the downtown area. The "do not call" list in the USA is worthless. I suppose after a person reaches a certain age the scammers think they are easy pickings. |
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Post by hopingforachange on Jan 16, 2019 12:07:06 GMT -5
The Google Pixel (1,2,&3) offer call screening. It helps cut down on the Spam dramatically.
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Post by Handy on Jan 16, 2019 12:22:40 GMT -5
Baza
Addendum after handy response below.
Obviously the "Don't Call Register" does not work well in all jurisdictions.
It does in mine.
I wish our USA "do not call" thing worked as well as yours.
The law says telemarketers can not call cell phones but the cell phone area is beginning to receive more and more calls and texts related to selling crap and scammers.
My land line is actually voice over the Internet so I was thinking my Internet provider where all of the telephone traffic goes through, would offer call screening but they don't.
Several of my friends disconnected their landlines because of so many telemarketer and scam calls. I even changed my cell phone number once because of the number of telemarketer calls I was getting. I lost some business when I did the number change so that is something I couldn't afford to do very often.
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Post by obobfla on Jan 16, 2019 21:41:38 GMT -5
Best response to a sales call I´ve heard
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Post by Handy on Jan 16, 2019 21:59:59 GMT -5
Comical, especially the homosexual part and trying to hint that the telemarketer might have his gay lover.
I once said I was on my way to the emergency room.
I guess my main problems are, I expect people to be honest and nor scammers or pests.
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Post by Handy on Jan 17, 2019 4:24:46 GMT -5
17 mins 40 is a long time. My limit is only a couple of minuets. Like you say, until they are swearing at me and I rarely do that. I just wish people could do enough to eliminate the 3 to 5 calls a day that I sometimes get.
Unless they recognize the incoming caller's number, some of my friends just make every call they receive, go to their answering machine because of the telemarketing and scam calls. It wasn't like that 25 years ago. People change cell phone carriers and get new telephone numbers sometimes. They could keep their old number if they would pay the ~$25 fee to port their old number to the new phone. With 4 phones in the family, it gets expensive to keep the old phone numbers.
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Post by h on Jan 17, 2019 9:55:54 GMT -5
I'm on the Do Not Call registry too and it doesn't work. Most of my scam calls are pre-recorded threats of legal action if I don't call them back and pay a fine, verify my identity, refute a claim against me... All garbage and all from hacked numbers because if I call the number that called me, I get a confused local that has never heard of me. It is rarely an actual person anymore. If it ever is, I ask for their company name and address and report it to the authorities. There's a website in the US for reporting scammer calls so you can submit their names and phone numbers and any pertinent information from the interaction.
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Post by javba on Jan 17, 2019 15:34:43 GMT -5
Yes, folks - there's a Shi** Ton of robo calls. I have several nos forwarded to my cell for "continuity" and "updates" i.e. from previous positions. Man it's a fuckfest. TBH I DO NOT attend any calls I do not know - so there's 80% calls to Voicemail already. Do not call website and phone service are down because of the federal shut down but they're not effective. Best so far is Google call screening. Though I am 100% android - I do not Pixel - so I'll have to wait till that can be available. But LONG answer SHORT - Google Pixel is the way to go for this nonsense.
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Post by lessingham on Feb 4, 2019 4:38:36 GMT -5
Must be the season, I have had more scam calls this January than in ages. Apparently my broadband is to be cut off, porn has been found on my pc and I have had umpteen car crashes. I would say you have to be stupid to fall for this but apparently one of our prime ministers turned up at an event with his winning lottery ticket asking for the car he won.
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Post by javba on Apr 4, 2019 19:06:23 GMT -5
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Post by northstarmom on Apr 5, 2019 7:06:58 GMT -5
I wordlessly hang up and block the minute I realize a call is a solicitation.then I go back to whatever I was doing. Easy peasy.
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Post by Handy on Apr 5, 2019 13:44:14 GMT -5
Stopping Some Unwanted Robocalls and Texts
I followed a link in the above web address to my Cable TV-Internet-phone service. Their website is difficult to navigate because the words used in the on-line instructions do not match the words on the internet website service features and control page. I did manage to activate the "nomorobo" on-off control but I never found the page to turn or off the other voice features so I called. The guy I talked to took a few seconds and made the changes I requested. Calling got more done in a few seconds than the hour I spent on the Internet going in circles and finding myself at a dead end or back to where I started.
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Post by lessingham on Apr 5, 2019 16:47:32 GMT -5
According to my son, it is our fault for being old. As more and more young folk absndon land lines it is only old fogies who have them. Hence the phone scammers are frenzy feeding on fewer and fewer land lines, so we get tbe dozens of calls a week
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