Telephone harrassment-how can it be stopped?

[Retief]

Well, you may have heard this before and you may feel it a little cruel but it is probably guaranteed to put off some of these telemarketers

Telemarketer Calls Murder Scene Sound Clip and Quote

SHAME ON YOU!!!!! OMG, I am just cracking up here. This is incredible, I have to try this myself.

And the ending .....

Oh, Tony, Tony, Tony ........

 

[Ella Gaines Daniels]

I have the same problem!!! I enjoyed reading all of the responses.

 

[SteveK]

We live in an area where we don't have caller ID on our landline, and a cell doesn't always work well at our house. If I get a marketing call from a real person, I simply tell them I'm busy, and that if they will kindly give me their credit card number because I charge $3.95/minute for my time. They have always hung up, and never called back.

 

[NEF Said]

We only have a cell phone. If I don't recognize the caller, I don't answer. Then, I add them to my contacts under the name Zspam and assign a silent/no ringtone, so I never hear the call. I can put numerous numbers on the same contact.

I figure in most cases, if they want to get ahold of me, they'll leave a voice message. If I'm expecting a call from someone, and I happen to get one From a spammer, once I say hello, if I don't immediately hear anything, I know it is a nuisance call. If I get a person, I ask the, to add me to the do not call list. Malicious or not, they're getting placed into my spam contact.

A bit more expensive, but, if you need a land line for an alarm system or medical purposes, you can always pay for one, and turn the ringer off on any attached phones. Esssentially, using it for all outgoing only calls (not giving it to people as your contact number).

For me, I found that AT&T didn't have great cell signal at my home, but Verizon did. My neighbor uses AT&T and has some device to improve his signal at home (not sure if it ties to wi-if or what).

I haven't used the Google number, but friends have and like the call screening it provides.

 

[OHcorgis]

I too have NOMOROBO on my land line and it works great! One ringydingy and they are gone. And it is free. You can also get it for your cell, but there is a $20 per year charge.

 

[rcooper]

I do get some calls but not many.When a telemarketer calls I recognize them and tell them to take me off of their calling list.If they persist I get very rude.They are being rude to me so why shouldn't I be rude to them..Not many call again.It is the recordings that I can't do anything about.I don't have caller ID.

 

[Palouse]

And it gets worse by the day.
NyTimes had this: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/03/business/phone-ringless-voicemail-fcc-telemarketer.html

 

[Naptown]

In my experience the do not call list worked for a year or two but unsolicited scam calls (IRS pretenders etc) are frequent. I suppose if you are trying to scam people you're not particularly worried about complying with a list. When I get unrecognized calls on my cell I let them go to voicemail. If they don't leave a legit message I block them on my cell. We generally ignore our landline.

 

[SteveK]

Perhaps there are some other advantages to living in a remote location! The telemarketers, and scammers don't find us, or don't think we are worth calling. I get a call every few weeks that isn't someone I know. I hang up immediately. We don't have caller ID, but the worst calls I get are those made by accident by someone close to me, who sits on their phone or somehow calls me and all I hear is some background noise often with some music. I got one from a cousin, and one from my wife in the last 24 hours.

 

[Retief]

And it gets worse by the day.
NyTimes had this: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/03/business/phone-ringless-voicemail-fcc-telemarketer.html

I left my comments with the FCC just yesterday. They have been posted, but so many came in after mine from yesterday I can't find mine

One comment I left was that if my voice mail boxes all get full because of this garbage, and someone can't leave me an urgent, important or emergency voice mail, then who is responsible?

Of all groups, the Republican National Committee say it is a free speech issue.

As that old time band leader my Great Grandad used to tell me about, Lawrence Welk, would say:

"Wunnerful, wunnerful ....."

 

[Bikinchris]

Yes, they aren't actually calling from that phone number. It's a call originated on a computer somewhere in the world. When I had a land line, I used an answering machine and turned the ringers on the wireless phones off in the bedroom as well as turned them way down so they wouldn't wake me late at night. I have often wanted to use an old tape recorder with the "Not a working number" tone and announcement. I bet that would take you off their caller register.

 

[Palouse]

Well, there is this: Man Accused Of Making Millions Of Robocalls Faces Biggest-Ever FCC Fine

 

[Baywing]

Yes, they aren't actually calling from that phone number. It's a call originated on a computer somewhere in the world. When I had a land line, I used an answering machine and turned the ringers on the wireless phones off in the bedroom as well as turned them way down so they wouldn't wake me late at night. I have often wanted to use an old tape recorder with the "Not a working number" tone and announcement. I bet that would take you off their caller register.

I tried the service disconnect tone.....didn't work.

 

[Baywing]

I got home yesterday to find my entire voicemail box filled with the same robocall, over and over again. Apparently, I'm going to be arrested by order of the IRS for some sort of violation. Of course, I can call a number and probably pay someone to correct my indescretions.

 

[crazy]

At this point, I would advise essential contacts to contact your cell number only, and put the home line in deep sleep for a while.

 

[rick_reno]

Well, there is this: Man Accused Of Making Millions Of Robocalls Faces Biggest-Ever FCC Fine

I got some calls from this fellow with those vacation scams. Blocking didn't work, they use another number. With 97M calls in 3 months, I'd like to know what his profits were? How deep into his pockets will $120M go?

 

[midocr]

I've been getting tons of calls from numbers I don't know. About two weeks ago, I checked the Do-Not-Call website to make sure I was registered. I am. I also noticed, they have a way to report unwanted calls. I spent about 15 minutes entering complaints for 10-12 of the numbers calling me. Over the last 2 weeks, the number of calls I am receiving has gone way down. Don't know if the reports had any effect or if it's just coincidence.

 

[Baywing]

The calls seem to go in cycles. I get the same call several times per day but when my phone was out of service a few months back, the benefit seemed to be that those calls stopped. Wrong, they just started up again. The Do Not Call List is all but useless. I wouldn't be surprized if some of the scumbags are actually using the list for numbers to call!

 

[pictureted]

I get calls frequently - both the Microsoft Support and IRS lawsuit ones. I always indicate to them that I think they are criminals and should enjoy a good stay in jail, along with the various unnatural acts that could include. I just hang up on the others.