For a while I have had good luck with an iPhone app that blocked solicitors, but no longer. Now they are changing numbers to ones not on a block list. Tonight I got eight calls each from a different number in the same area code and every call was from the same solicitor. Calls were back to back within minutes of each other. Normally I don’t answer my phone unless I know who it is, but I am on-call this week for work and can’t tell if a call is from work phone or not so I have to answer. I seriously hate phone solicitors; especially those who use deceptive calling practices.

Roughly 80% of the calls to my business line are spam of some sort. I typically have to pause doing work that I'm charging for to answer these BS calls.

With me, its some assholes who are determined to help me with my car warranty issues.
For a car I have not owned in years. Multiple calls, all from local Yoop numbers. 5 or 6 a day.
Second runner up in the robo caller competition: The student loan relief assholes. I have not been in a college classroom in 40 years.

Every single one... I mess with them.


If everyone else would do the same, they would stop.

Fuck with them. Tap into your inner creativity. Give them what for...

Block lists are useless as they spoof the caller-id to make robo calls look local. The only solution I've seen is "Do Not Disturb" on iphone/android where calls not on your contacts go directly to voicemail.

For landlines, I'd love to find an answering machine that answers calls by asking the caller to press a number to continue. Only then should the phone ring so a person can hear it. That would block robo calls and prevent the owner from being disturbed by the constant ringing calls of robo callers.

Better yet for landlines, why can't there be a device that will only allow calls that have been entered on a white list? Cell phones can limit calls to those on contact list which effectively is a white list but we have far more scam calling on landline.

Ridiculous.

Just "fix" the dag-gum caller ID system so it can't be hacked or numbers spoofed. Then blocking databases become easy and effective.

Why is this not being addressed?

quote:

Originally posted by bryan11:
Block lists are useless as they spoof the caller-id to make robo calls look local. The only solution I've seen is "Do Not Disturb" on iphone/android where calls not on your contacts go directly to voicemail.

For landlines, I'd love to find an answering machine that answers calls by asking the caller to press a number to continue. Only then should the phone ring so a person can hear it. That would block robo calls and prevent the owner from being disturbed by the constant ringing calls of robo callers.

I use the below. Anything you don't allow has to go through an onboard answering system. You don't actually have to add it to call block. It will show they called but the phone doesn't ring. This allows you to check and see if you actually need to call someone that you forgot to put on your allow list. Robo calls haven't got around it yet. My landline is so much quieter.

https://smile.amazon.com/AT-CL...nd+answering+machine

Blocks
Unknown numbers and callers who are not on your list of welcome callers are played a screening message and required to press a key and/or record their name. If they don't, the call is ended. This means robocalls never ring through even once.

Allows calls through
Callers that follow the instructions are allowed through. The phone now rings for the first time. If you've selected to require callers to record their name, you'll hear the recording when you pick up.

You choose to answer, save, block, or send to voicemail

I keep getting calls from a casino/resort and they have a rotating phone number, too. I quit bothering to block them after the fourth.

quote:

I keep getting calls from a casino/resort and they have a rotating phone number, too. I quit bothering to block them after the fourth.

Hmmmm. That is interesting as the local casinos are into very targeted marketing. I do not get any mail or solicitaions because I do not gamble. When gambling first became legal the marketing was not targeted, but it is very focussed at present. Most casinos have more sense than to alienate people.

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:
Ridiculous.

Just "fix" the dag-gum caller ID system so it can't be hacked or numbers spoofed. Then blocking databases become easy and effective.

Why is this not being addressed?

No kidding. This should be illegal, maybe it is, for telemarketers to change their caller ID info to call people using fake numbers to appear like a local caller to get you to answer it. I don’t understand why the FCC is not addressing this.

quote:

Originally posted by StorminNormin:

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:
Ridiculous.

Just "fix" the dag-gum caller ID system so it can't be hacked or numbers spoofed. Then blocking databases become easy and effective.

Why is this not being addressed?

No kidding. This should be illegal, maybe it is, for telemarketers to change their caller ID info to call people using fake numbers to appear like a local caller to get you to answer it. I don’t understand why the FCC is not addressing this.

Simple. The telcos make money selling our info to the telemarketers. They have a lot of power with the FCC, especially lately.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

quote:

I keep getting calls from a casino/resort and they have a rotating phone number, too. I quit bothering to block them after the fourth.

Hmmmm. That is interesting as the local casinos are into very targeted marketing. I do not get any mail or solicitaions because I do not gamble. When gambling first became legal the marketing was not targeted, but it is very focussed at present. Most casinos have more sense than to alienate people.

They’re definitely targeting the wrong guy, as I don’t gamble. I did go to Vegas once five years ago but for the shows and auto sports.

We have Panasonic phones with a call blocker. After you block a number, if they call again, it rings once then stops. Recently, we have been getting multiple calls that come up "Bayonne, NJ" on caller ID. Like many, it is a recording about health insurance but they must be using multiple lines, that all show Bayonne because as soon as one is blocked, another shows up showing the same ID.

quote:

Originally posted by KevinCW:
Every single one... I mess with them.


If everyone else would do the same, they would stop.

Fuck with them. Tap into your inner creativity. Give them what for...

My approach also. They get either my collard green recipe, or a long story about my days as a Jerry Lee Lewis impersonator. Which, of course, is how I wound up as a parapalegic with burned hands.

Two days ago my phone rang with the display showing a number with my area code. Underneath it, the caller-id just said "Russia."

I'm not a member of the Trump administration, nor do I work for Fusion GPS. Wonder why they were calling me?

I did not answer the call. No message left.

quote:

Originally posted by hudr:

quote:

Originally posted by KevinCW:
Every single one... I mess with them.

If everyone else would do the same, they would stop.

Fuck with them. Tap into your inner creativity. Give them what for...

My approach also. They get either my collard green recipe, or a long story about my days as a Jerry Lee Lewis impersonator. Which, of course, is how I wound up as a parapalegic with burned hands.

Try some of Abe Simpson's stories. "One trick is to tell em stories that don’t go anywhere – like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on ‘em. “Give me five bees for a quarter,” you’d say. Now where were we? Oh yeah – the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn’t have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones…"