Nuisance phone calls
 

I don't know where this post actually belongs, so I picked the top category.

I am sick and tired of the constant barrage of nuisance phone calls. Every day I get several calls from vendors wanting to lower my credit card interest, eliminate my school debt, provide me with home security, insure my financial security, and, my favorite "This is not a solicitation call, but for the small, small sum of '$XX' " I can extend the warranty on my truck, reroof my house, and have my grass cut forever.

Really, folks, why do we have to put up with this stuff?, and it is getting worse!

There's an app for that
 

Agreed! If they're coming in on your cell phone, I've had very good success with the RoboFence app, and there are others too. Just pay close attention to the setup instructions.

It's funny you mentioned this. Just today I received a call about lowering my CC rate. So I pressed 1 and got a live voice. I asked him if he could hold on for just a minute and he said yeh yeh no problem. I then said that the local Police Department need to pick up on the other line. So please give them a minute. LMAO, He couldn't get off the phone fast enough. :cheers:

Camp Guy, I hate that too! You mean you haven't got the one saying you recently stayed at their resort blah blah blah??? I have blocked a lot of the numbers from our cell phones but they still come in. And they have several different numbers.

This might help
 

I get several of these calls per day. Blocking the numbers does not help because their systems generate different numbers that appear on your caller ID.

The "do not call" list does not help. Telemarketers are required to consult the list BEFORE making the call. Most don't.

In 2016 the FTC reached a settlement with "Rachel from Card Services" and distributed the funds from the settlement to people who had lodged complaints.

This was their scam: According to the FTC, Life Management Services swindled people out of their money by offering two types of phony debt relief: credit card interest rate reduction services and credit card debt elimination services. The company promised lower interest rates or government funds to pay off debt, and asked people to make initial payments ranging from $500 to $20,000. But almost no one got the help that was promised.

I got a "Rachel" call last week so how did that work out?

I am in favor of Capital Punishment for these people and robo calls should be outlawed altogether.

Just don't answer any call that you don't recognize the number....

This! Our inexpensive Panasonic house phone verbally "announces" incoming calls. If we don't recognize the number, we don't pick up. To date, no junk caller has ever left a message.

I don't answer any calls unless they are in my contacts. Just let it go to voice mail. If it's important they will leave a message. Not many cold callers leave a message. You can add any number to the "do not call registry". It doesn't filter them all out but it helps cut them down to a minimum.
I also have a land line and when I'm ordering anything or filling out anything I use that number because we never answer it. It goes right to voice mail.

I let my fax machine answer all of their calls. I only have a landline because it is cheaper to keep it (Comcast bundle). Anyone that knows us calls our cell phones. I do have to use the fax machine on occasion, so I leave it set up.

What's a "fax machine"? Oh wait, isn't that some 20th century technology that has zero relevance today? :rolleye2:

This is a silly thread. Obviously don't answer any calls you don't recognize. If it's that important they'll leave a message or get in touch with another way. Cell call, text or email.

Because of the increase of these calls over the past year or so, we registered (again) our home phone and both cell phone numbers on the do not call list. I think it was a big mistake. We are getting more calls than ever on all three lines. It is almost like it's a guide to who shall we call next. We are seeing a dramatic increase in spoofed numbers, indicating that they are regular numbers from 603 or even the same cell or local exchange, rather than the former 8xx exchanges or "(insert your favorite state)" showing in the caller id.
We have also seen an increase in voicemails, usually more than one a day on at least 2 of the 3 lines. Only benefit is that we no longer have to think about our password(s) to get into voicemail. 😕
Like others, don't recognize the number, don't answer. Just thank goodness for unlimited calling.
Dave

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Here's what I do...
 

"If you want to lower your interest rate, press#1"...So, I press #1 and then put my phone down. I assume the rep that gets the call is monitored as to what % of their calls turn into sales. This lowers the success rate. I know it penalizes the innocent rep trying to do their job, but it is an incredible disruption when I get these calls.

As I am writing this, Kim Komando just came on the radio complaining about robo calls.

Now, for junk mail, I take it all and stuff it in the postage-paid return envelope after removing my name and any other identifiers, and I mail it back to them. Cost them postage both ways with nothing in return.

I wonder if there are robo calls in Iran? North Korea?

I understand what you're trying to do but the purpose of not answering these calls and reading junk mail is that it's a waste of time. You just waste more time by doing these things but if it makes you feel better then go for it. You aren't deterring anyone by doing this.
I just don't answer calls that I don't recognize and I just throw junk mail away before I even get in the house with it.
I do have this problem at work though because being in business I need to answer all calls. If it's a sales call I just hang up. I have no time to waste playing games with them. That's just more of a waste of my time and time is money.

unfortunately criminals don't pay any attention to that.

I read online someplace that if you have a young child in the house hand the phone to them and tell them it's Santa calling. :D

Otherwise I don't answer or just hang up and block the number or say "hang on a second" then set the phone down and leave it for a while.

It isn't always easy for vulnerable seniors to just ignore these incoming calls. Our 96 year old Dad had both hearing and vision issues that prevented him from seeing or hearing a caller ID announcement or display. We signed him up for NOMOROBO and it worked perfectly on his land line and was free of charge! We just had to teach him to always wait for the phone to ring a second time before answering because all junk calls are intercepted after only one ring! I'm pretty sure it's also available for cell phone numbers, but it may not be free.

I also think it's an age thing. The older you are the more scam calls you get. They try to prey on older people that may be living alone and might be experiencing early signs of dementia. It's pretty sad but that's the world we live in today. If you have elderly parents you have to educate them just like you did with your children.

Age Thing
 

Must be why we are receiving so many of these calls. We have caller ID. If we do not know who is calling, we do not answer. We check for voice mail messages regularly. ⏳

I stopped getting term life insurance junk mail by wrapping up several pounds of drapery weights and mailing them to the sender using their postage paid cards attached to the heavy package.

Not so fast. Some of your government's classified agencies still consider FAX more secure than email for a variety of reasons and it is not uncommon for them to rely on FAX rather than a scanned and emailed document.

(This message will self destruct in .....)

Moving "nuisance" to the other end of the call.
 

Now that I'm retired, I am available to take lots of unwanted phone calls. I used to be polite, realizing that the person calling was just doing his/her job. Gradually, rudeness crept in. Now, it's a game. If it's a human caller, I generally announce that we're on "a recorded line". That frequently gets an immediate hang-up (and they don't call back).

Another fun one is to ask the caller "What credit card will you be using"? When they express confusion, I come back with "I charge $35 for the first 10 minutes and $10 for each additional 5 minutes." I don't let them change the subject. As of now, nobody has given me a card number.

My favorite though, is the guy who calls from "technical support" (or "Microsoft support" or "computer support'), ostensibly because they've "detected a virus" on my computer. I take on the persona of a put-upon consumer who is waiting for the return of his computer and berate the caller with demands for its immediate return. "You guys promised you'd have it fixed two days ago! What's the hold-up. I don't want excuses... where's my computer..."

The latest thorn in my side is the "interactive" robocall. These actually attempt to engage you --rather convincingly-- in a conversation. They will even answer your questions in a somewhat reasonable fashion. So far, I can reveal their mechanical origins by asking "Excuse me, but what is 3 plus 5?" They'll answer, but never with "8" (or any other number). Despite what the pundits say about the dangers of artificial intelligence, I fear that undetectable robocalls are truly the greatest menace to civilization.

Damn I thought it was just me. I had registered on the do not call list many years ago and had noticed it has gotten pretty bad the last year or so. I figured I needed to reregister. When I tried to it said I was already on the list. Hasnt helped at all. I know when it is voting season I'll get those and those are allowed but the non stop sales are annoying. I too dont answer any I dont know and luckily they pop up on my tv so I dont have to move to see whos calling this time. I only have a landline cuz my cell coverage is spotty. My answering machine almost never has a message from these but when I look at the missed call list i'll have the same number a dozen times. WTF? I'm in the same boat as an above poster in that for both my home and cell I dont answer any I dont know and if they need me they will leave a message.

You must be really bored in retirement. If I have to resort to this type of behavior in retirement I'll go back to work. :(
At least I will get paid for my consultation/conversation.

I agree that it has gotten much worse and the Do Not Call List seems to be pretty much useless. I have filed complaints with the Feds several times, to no avail. What I have noticed recently is that the spoofed numbers now often appear to come from a number with the 253 prefix, which is my exchange. On several occasions the spoofed number actually had a name associated with it which I recognized, but the number was not that of the named person I knew.

I have seen the same thing. They know people aren't answering so the somehow get a number, with a name, to come up that you recognize and those I get caught on. They must be able to hack your phone for names and numbers that you have answered before. Thankfully those are scare but I'm sure more of the scammers will get this technology soon.

I find it pretty amusing that they are calling an old retired person about his overdue student loans.....REALLY? :)

Has anyone else been harassed by SIRIUS after your subscription ran out?

Sometimes when I get the right call, maybe something that pertains to my computer having a virus I tend to have fun with it. I will follow the keystrokes they tell me to a point, then i'll say I messed up and closed the window and they will start again. All the time pretending to be concerned about a computer virus. I try to string them along as long as I can. One time I actually got him to laugh when after not getting the computer to respond the way he was telling me I finally asked "Should my computer be on"?? he laughed then hung up. Sick amusement I know.

I like that.

I'm most certainly not advocating for telemarketers but at the end of the day these are poorly paid low skill people trying to make ends meet. No need to be cruel about it.

As I stated in a prior post, just don't answer the phone!

I have no idea where you get that infromation but these are not the low paid customer service people calling . These are VERY highly compensated sales people capable of closing on unsuspecting easy marks.
They are knowingly breaking the law calling you and don’t deserve kindness.
Treat them well and they will keep calling

Roll your eyes all you want, but fax machines still have a purpose. And as I stated in my post, I still have the need to use mine once in a while. And you may not believe it, but we have a fax machine that is still being used where I work.
To clarify, both my fax machine at home and the fax machine at work is not a stand alone fax machine. They are 3-1 print/scan/fax machines.

So $26K/ year is "highly compensated"?


https://money.usnews.com/careers/bes...arketer/salary

We receive on average a half dozen junk calls every day on our landline number, even though we registered it with the FTC's "Do Not Call" list years ago. Recently a good number of these junk calls have shown an "875" exchange, which is correct for Alton where I live, but the following four digits are fake. (Faking the numbers Caller ID displays is easy and it is a technique often used by scammers.) For 99% of these calls, no messages have been left.

Interestingly, however, we have received several calls this year from the "IRS" that have included messages. The spiel usually goes that a warrant for our arrest has been issued due to non-payment of taxes, and that if we don't call a certain number immediately we will be hauled off to jail and our house will be confiscated. The voice is computer-generated and is quite ominous. I have yet to call the provided numbers and so far, at least, I haven't been handcuffed and taken away in the back seat of a cruiser.

About a year ago I ordered a call blocking device that plugs into a telephone jack. Since then, when we receive a call from a number we don't recognize and no message is left, we simply press the "Blacklist" button on the call blocker unit. From that point on if the number calls us again, the phone only rings once and then the call is automatically disconnected. This unit works well, but we continue to get junk calls from new numbers on a daily basis.

To follow up on the local number spoofing issue. I just got a call with a name and a 253 number on caller ID. I answered it and it was Resorts International. An automated recording which prompts you for answers. A profane answer resulted in a hang up. Usually, I just delete the caller id info, but this time I called the number back and asked the person who answered if this was the number for Mr. "Jones" and it was. Told the woman who answered that their number was being spoofed. Further intrigued, I checked the name on the Moultonborough Tax site and they live not far from me. An on line search of the number shown on the caller ID matches the name.

Nuisance phone calls
 

The new one I get is I answer and they say “I just got a call from this number” and I say I didn’t call you and they hang up. I think they are checking if it’s a live number so they can sell that info.


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Medicare nuisance calls
 

Since I was starting Medicare coverage in Sept., I have been getting at least 5 or 6 nuisance calls per day all with my local 772 exchange #. At first I didn't answer the calls as the caller ID showed a # but no caller name. Doing reverse lookups, I could see that all these numbers belonged to people in town, but no one I knew and no messages were left. I finally answered one of these calls and there was a recording telling me it was Tom calling, and said he was calling since I had expressed interest in a Medicare supplemental plan. Yes or no? When I responded No, the call ended. These calls started in July and are still going. Like DRH I have a device on my landline to consign these numbers to a REJECT list. The phone still rings once but then disconnects. I must have at least 100 rejected numbers all from the 772 exchange. I add at least 2 or 3 new ones daily.

The ONLY reason fax machines have a "need" is because people (luddites) have failed to embrace 21st century technology. There is virtually ZERO need for a fax. Paper is yesterday. Embrace and learn technology.

Yes, we get that one all the time too. And the problem is, a couple of times I ignored it and it wasn't them. I may or may not answer. I would hate to not answer one of my customers and I certainly don't know all their numbers.

Why do they keep calling?
 

My thought is that it is only because "it works!" that these calls keep coming. Everyone says they hate them. Everyone says they never buy anything. But if "everyone" really did hang up and never buy anything, the industry would not continue to use this method. Somebody is buying, somebody is listening; we just need to educate people to simply hang up! Because, if "everyone" did this, robo calls and things like this would go the way of the door-to-door fuller brush man.

An excellent point. Still don't understand why anyone would answer a call from an unrecognizable #.

I think everybody’s situation is different. For me my office routes my calls to my cell phone so there would be no way I could tell if it was a client or a telemarketer. I’ve been getting calls where they leave 3 minute voicemails about Jesus lately too.


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There are many reasons. I advertise rental properties and boat slips so a substantial number of calls are from numbers I don't recognize. I would rather take the call and deal with it than spend a substantial amount of time listening to voice mail and playing phone tag later on. I find that many people call during a break from work and cannot take an incoming call.

I don't know where your calls are coming from but most of the ones I get are from people with their feet in the sand and their camel tied to a palm tree outside their tent. That is why the US telemarketing laws are not stopping them. And for any calls from the US, if these are truly "poorly paid low skill people" anyone helping to support them is keeping them down. If these "annoy the public" telemarketing jobs did not exist maybe the bottom feeders would find it necessary to learn some skills and look for real jobs that pay more.

Some of the most annoying nuisance calls I ever got was from people all over the country who were looking to rent a house I own in Northern NH. I do not own a house in northern NH. Apparently the lady who owns it had put my cell number on the vacation rental site. Everybody that called I asked if they ever got her right number to please remove my number from that site. It drove me crazy for a year and a half. I emailed the site and they told me I had to call. I called and had an extended wait and forget that. It apparently has finally ended. (fingers crossed)

New Scam Call?
 

Since about July I have been receiving calls from the same person, saying he has a “very important message for me.” The number to call to get that very important message is an 800.900 number. From what I have determined 900 nunbers are pay per call numbers and if I were to call or click on it, I could be charged big bucks. Has anyone gotten that one? Very persistent and keeps calling. Sounds like a new scam to me.

Thanks for the advice, I will take that into consideration :rolleye2:

I disagree with that. They both have a purpose and in my business i use both. Also as i do my fax is paperless. My incoming faxes go to my mail box.


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We too use fax at the office. You’d be surprised how many people still prefer fax over email.


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I,too,found a message on my land line that there was a warrant out for my arrest due to unpaid IRS taxes and I needed to call right away.
Having heard of this scam,I got my 120 dbl boat air horn and dialed up the number.
After engaging him in conversation briefly,I put the horn right against the mouthpiece and let him have it....so much fun

:laugh::laugh::laugh: I would love to have seen his face!

That is hilarious. Gonna give it a try. [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]


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I understand that some people prefer fax over email/scan/docusign but fax is no longer NEEDED and requires a land line-another anachronism. People do what is comfortable for them. It took a while for the car to replace the horse and buggy too.

In 5 years no one will be using fax just like very few will reading books vs e-readers although admittedly this will probably take longer than it should. Old habits take a while to expire.
Consider brick and mortar stores Vs online shopping. Obviously the latter is taking over.

It's progress and that is a a good thing. Embrace or get left behind.

For my clients and vendors it isn't a matter of old habits but they feel it is much more secure to send a fax over a land line then to an e mail and not having to worry about security breeches from your email provider.

It was far louder on your end than on his end.

Umm...

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Telegrams were popular at one time also.

My pic didn't post, but a search of print vs. ebooks brings up some interesting data.

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My pet peeve isn't as much with telemarketers if are live. It's the robo calls, especially the ones that repeatedly tell me tomorrow is the deadline and they call three times next week.
Remember, older folks still trust the phone and get tricked into lots of things from friendly voices.
Like the one that opens with "This is Emily on a recorded line. Can you hear me OK?" You say "Yes" and they now have a rewcording of you agreeing to buy or do something.

GOOD NEWS

Today, I received a legal notice about participating in a settlement from a class action lawsuit against Monitronics. I just have to return the form and I may get some sort of settlement. Monitronics and authorized dealers were hit for both live and robo calls to lines on the "do not call" list.
Happens more often with SEC violations. Got a notice of settlement a couple of days ago. The broker will be sending me a check for $6.75. Obviously a big class.

I got that notice too but even some of those are scams also. It didn't come from a court so I didn't register my info and I will gladly take the $6.75 loss.

The ones I see from the SEC don't come from courts, they come from court appointed administrators, or from law firms trying to establish the class. Scams could be possible, but I don't think they'd use the name of an actual company or other information readily checked online. In this case, if you Google "Monitronics lawsuit" you will see the case and a $28MM settlement. If you threw the mailer away, the rest of us will share your $6.75.
The point really was that sometimes the law works and the penalties are big enough to draw attention in marketing circles.

1. Fax does not require a land line.
I can send and/or receive a fax from my computer. Digital on my end of course but not necessary on the other end.

2. Land lines are far from an anachronism.
Imagine if Walmart went to a cell service only phone system. In Gilford (for example) my calls drop once I am 10 feet inside the building. How well will their Cell service fair. And once I drive down the hill towards Shaws it is hit or miss if I get service so that does not work for Shaws either.

Sure Walmart can solve that issue if they choose to spend the money, but they have 3500+ stores in the US alone. One can only imagine the cost to solve that problem.

It might be digital at your end but you are sending it to someone who has to send it via landline to who you want to receive the fax. Maybe efax?

Than again maybe something new has has been developed that I don't know of.

There is some confusion about what constitutes a land line.

Many people now consider their VOIP phone to be a land line. Your voice is transmitted over the Internet instead of through the traditional hard lines installed in homes. VoIP has features that are similar to landlines, but also many differences that keep it in a class of its own.

People who purchase the cable TV, internet, phone packages from companies like Metrocast or Comcast often refer to their VOIP phone as their land line.

You are correct. This is why many alarm companies prefer traditional land lines over VOIP provided by the cable company. The line is not lost when power goes out and the battery back up fails.


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Yup. "Progress". Not always wonderful. :laugh:

Call Screeners
 

Has anyone tried the Sentry Call Blocker? Their ad seems too good to be true!

https://www.amazon.com/SENTRY-Screen...ct_top?ie=UTF8