Beware the cold call

[Iowa Dave]

I got recurring calls for siding my house. I finally made an appointment for the local Representative to come out to see me and give me an estimate. He should have had a clue when he came down the driveway and saw that I live in a log house. But he got out anyway and introduced himself. I told him that it was obvious that he had come out for no sale after his company would not accept a no on the phone. He was sore having come about 15 miles one way. Even got more excited when I told him to get the hell off my property. He left and the calls stopped. Little by little I’m off of the lists. I’ve found that if you can push enough buttons to get a human and then use packinghouse kill floor language on them they quit.
Yes I know there are crazies out there. And as my dad reminded me, know the enemy. They do not.
Iowa Dave

[Craiger]

When I do not recognize the phone number or it's out of area. I answer the call in a aggressive voice, you've reached the desk of Craig Dresman. Since the computer doesn't recognize that before it sent on to the human it ends the call. If that's the we have some crews working in your area today I usually tell them I haven't lived in that house for 15 years now and I'm presently living in Washington state (I started this when I actually was living in Washington state) they usually apologize and say we won't call you again that lasts about four hours. I average 6 to 8 that make it through my email filters daily. My junk file is usually fills with 30 a day sometimes less sometimes more. I'm old enough to remember when we had a party line with three houses on it and when you received a long distance call it usually meant somebody died.

[Iowa Dave]

My grandma had the old crank telephone that hung in the wall and her ring was like “two shorts and two longs”. Of course nosy neighbors picked up their receiver as soon as she had an incoming call. My Dad’s big black Buick was not familiar to them as they drove by and they had to know who was visiting. The incoming call was usually my dad’s brother in law wanting to go hunting for a little while. They had a running exchange of insults that went back for years and were pretty good friends although competitive. So my dad would let loose with a few profane epithets and so would George. Then they would listen closely for the clicks of offended neighbors hanging up and laugh about it while my mom and.grandma would be embarrassed by their antics. So I come by telephone insults through genetics. At least that’s what I claim.
Iowa Dave

[Donna D.]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

My grandma had the old crank telephone that hung in the wall and her ring was like “two shorts and two longs”. Of course nosy neighbors picked up their receiver as soon as she had an incoming call.

They were called Party Lines for a reason. Every. Body listened in. Nothing was private on a Party Line!

[C&G in FL]

Originally Posted by Mike G

Like others have said: if you don't recognize the number, simply don't pick up. If it's genuine and important, they will leave a voice mail and you can call them back.

If EVERYONE followed this policy and nobody answered unrecognized numbers or blocked number calls, the callers would realize that all there efforts are going to waste and these calls would stop. Unfortunately, and I apologize to anyone I may offend, STUPID people fail to realize that answering these calls, easily identified by unknown numbers only encourage scammers and cold callers to keep trying and to continue bothering everyone. If a call is important, as Mike states, they will leave a message. And if an undesirable does leave a message, they will never know if you listened to their BS. Most of them are spoofed numbers anyway, so in most cases an undesirable could not get a call back. It’s all well and good to answer an unknown call with a “snarky” answer, but that really doesn’t discourage these idiots from calling others. The correct solution is to eliminate the audience by never answering.

[Donna D.]

I have kept my landline for the past nearly 30 years and now it's the number I give out anytime I need to sign up for something on the web, etc. I've disconnected the phone from the wall, so it doesn't even ring. The message is on the Xfinity server. I have a cellphone but am really picky about who gets that number. So far, with seven years on the cellphone number I get few scam calls and since it's an iPhone, if you're not in my contacts the phone won't even ring. YAY! And yes, I really do occasionally listen to the landline messages, if there are any, just to see if there's someone I need to contact and provide my cellphone number. I missed my dentist office... ooops!

This is the message that's attached to the landline phone and it's surprisingly very effective:

Listen carefully. This phone is NEVER answered.

IF you are a friend or family, call the OTHER number.

IF you are trying to sell me something or give me information, don't bother leaving a message as I won't call you back.

I regularly report to Nomorobo and have heard every scam in the book.

Add this number to your 'Do Not Call' list.

Have a nice day.

[Ron in BC]

I found that call display was a great invention but the biggest negative has been the ability to spoof your exchange. I've always lived in an area that had a distinctive exchange and when call display showed that exchange I'd answer the call whether I knew the caller or not thinking that they must be a local person calling me. Now my exchange is spoofed and I never answer a call unless the identity of the caller is know.


We now have a message to callers that asks them to punch in a random number. Robo calls can't do that. Friends numbers are put in a list and they don't have to punch in a number. Works quite well.


Ron

[cpaharley2008]

I answered the phone from spammers with "IRS, how can we help you......" they normally do not call back!

[Ooshkaboo]

Originally Posted by C&G in FL

If EVERYONE followed this policy and nobody answered unrecognized numbers or blocked number calls, the callers would realize that all there efforts are going to waste and these calls would stop. Unfortunately, and I apologize to anyone I may offend, STUPID people fail to realize that answering these calls, easily identified by unknown numbers only encourage scammers and cold callers to keep trying and to continue bothering everyone. If a call is important, as Mike states, they will leave a message. And if an undesirable does leave a message, they will never know if you listened to their BS. Most of them are spoofed numbers anyway, so in most cases an undesirable could not get a call back. It’s all well and good to answer an unknown call with a “snarky” answer, but that really doesn’t discourage these idiots from calling others. The correct solution is to eliminate the audience by never answering.

For some, myself included it can become a great inconvenience to miss certain phone calls. For example one municipality I deal with has many calls totally blocked, these calls can determine whether a person can move in or not. Another government agency determines how a person’s rent is getting payed, or it could be a background check. Possibly be a furnace repair needed in the cold or sewer line needs cleaning, the techs all have their own phone numbers.

On and on, it can really delay things by missing these calls. I just answer as I feel needed as a person should be able to do. Life’s not as simple as you might think, and neither are people.

[Mike G]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

I answered the phone from spammers with "IRS, how can we help you......" they normally do not call back!

I think I'll borrow off of that one, next time my brother calls. "Internal Revenue Service, how may I tax you?"

[Chasing Trials]

Originally Posted by YakRV

If we don’t recognize the number on caller ID we don’t answer. Figure if it’s legitimate they’ll leave a message. They almost never do.

That's what I have always done.



The Ex vehicle warranty has been the worst for me(which mean Toyota sold my number after recall work done, as it was a private sale). 1st was putting my email/# out for Assisted Living info looking for my parents 12 years. Took about 3 yrs to clear them out! I still have Drs & Dentists asking for my S.S. #!!!? I look at them, & say You do NOT need it, & I haven't given it out in over 10 years! I just think of all the old places that do have my S.S. sitting in some file for ANY fly by night office help to go through..........

The latest # I haven't answers for over a year(same #). I answered not looking, expecting a call. Want to buy my house! I haven't even finished building it!





But dropping the Land line, & NOT giving your cell# unless you HAVE to, is the best thing you can do.

[Carmel Clown]

I send all unknown callers directly to voicemail. The only calls that “ring” my phone are those in my contacts list. If I am expecting a call from someone not in my contacts l turn that feature off until the call comes through and if I expect to hear from them again, I add them to my contacts.

[rubicon327]

I know it’s a minor inconvenience but for those that get a lot of random calls but want to keep a landline ask your phone company if they can make you a new number. A brand new phone number not recycled. Then only give the number to family and friends. We never get a scam call because they don’t know the number exists.

[Mike G]

I'm not sure any "brand new" (never been used before) phone numbers exist. Do they? Well, maybe... if a region gets a brand new area code, then there would be new phone numbers. Otherwise, I think they are all recycled ones.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by Ron in BC

We now have a message to callers that asks them to punch in a random number. Robo calls can't do that. Friends numbers are put in a list and they don't have to punch in a number. Works quite well.

This is a free phone company service (I assume that Ron and I are both using Telus, but other companies likely offer it), and it works well if it is available (I have one VOIP line for which this is not offered).

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by Mike G

I'm not sure any "brand new" (never been used before) phone numbers exist. Do they? Well, maybe... if a region gets a brand new area code, then there would be new phone numbers. Otherwise, I think they are all recycled ones.

Not sure about all areas but my local company was able to make one for me. What started it all was they had changed our number inadvertently and we started getting tons of scammer and collections calls. Once we figured out what had happened our original number was gone. I was so pissed they gave me the choice of three brand new numbers.

[chesaka]

This happened to me when I had Robokiller on my phone after being inundated with political calls at election time. I missed the call from the furnace technician and had to reschedule the appointment.

[CE Vogel]

Originally Posted by YakRV

If we don’t recognize the number on caller ID we don’t answer. Figure if it’s legitimate they’ll leave a message. They almost never do.

This is what I do, but I still get waves of spam calls about once a week. Of course, they're all spoofed to my local exchange. I think some robocall computers think voice mail is someone answering.
I got one last week I hadn't seen in years: a 'Government Official' envelop in snail mail. Inside were dire warnings my new home warranty was about to expire. I've lived in this house for 40 years.

[LarryB.]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

...
This is the message that's attached to the landline phone and it's surprisingly very effective:

Listen carefully. This phone is NEVER answered.

IF you are a friend or family, call the OTHER number.

IF you are trying to sell me something or give me information, don't bother leaving a message as I won't call you back.

I regularly report to Nomorobo and have heard every scam in the book.

Add this number to your 'Do Not Call' list.

Have a nice day.

GREAT APPROACH, I love it !!!

My son had an app on his cell phone that, for numbers not on his “white list”, the app would answer the call and engage the caller in conversation while converting the conversation into a scrolling text display. If it wasn’t a spam/robo call he could interrupt the “conversation” by picking up he call.

One call went on for about 5-6 minutes before the spammer .. finally gave up.

Here is an interesting newscast/podcast about one such app.

[h2owmn]

Myron--A couple years ago I got a call from someone saying he lived in my area, that he got my number from Escape (maybe posing as looking for an ambassador) and asking if I wanted to sell. I directed him to the forum. It was kinda weird.