So I've been sitting here waiting for my doctor to call. And the phone keeps ringing with all sorts of scam artists trying to con me out of my meager retirement. So when they tell me they're "Phil from USmedicaid" I respond with "you're a liar". To the best of my knowledge, there is no such entity. And with his heavy foreign accent, his name probably isn't "Phil".

When I was young, many decades ago, I was taught that I should be polite on the phone. But I think that is an outmoded concept. There is no reason to be polite to a liar or someone who probably isn't telling me the truth. I wish they hadn't called at all. Do I have any responsibility to be polite to interlopers who are trying to scam me?

No, you don't have any responsibility to be polite to people trying to run a con on you.

Nor do you have the obligation to answer the phone if Caller ID shows it's nobody you know.

If it's important, they'll leave a message.

Have some fun with them .... try to order a pizza. Like YOU called THEM.

THEM: This is Phil from USMedicaid, may i speak with rburg?
YOU: Yes, I'd like to place a take-out order. One Large pepperoni deep dish pizza, extra cheese.
THEM: Ummmm .... is this rburg?
YOU: Hey, let's switch this to delivery. How long will it take? Last time I ordered pizza from you it took over an hour!

You can still be polite, but try to confuse them at the same time.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:
Nor do you have the obligation to answer the phone if Caller ID shows it's nobody you know.

Exactly. Chastising them and calling them a liar might make you feel better, but realistically, will have no effect on their actions. Don't waste your time even answering their calls.

The Indian and Pakistani scammers all seem to go off into "I fuck your mother" and stuff like that, once you make it clear you know it's a scam. No, it hasn't happened to me because I never answer a phone call unless I recognize the number, but you can find tons of that stuff on youtube. When they start in with "I fuck your mother" tell them "I hope you have a shovel, because she's in the ground."

Them: "I fuck your daughter!"

You:"I don't have a daughter. I have a dog, though. You wanna fuck my dog?"

Them: "I come to your house!"

You: "I shoot you in the ass."

Them: "I send police to your house!"

You: "I'm on vacation."

why are you even answering these calls?

if it's someone i know their number goes in my contacts.

if its not -- no answer.

----------------------------------

I've started to tell them they're going to hell for lying, cheating and stealing, and that they should go talk to their priest, preacher, witch doctor, or whatever for forgiveness.
.

The problem is it’s sooooo hard to get human to screw with these days. I kinda miss it. I have had slow days where I drug the poor “Microsoft Rep” along for an hour playing the tottering old helpful idiot. Drove them crazy.

I did recently get a human and before they got their third word out I simply said “I just want to be clear. I hope everybody in your shit hole country gets Ebola and dies”. TOTALLY threw them off their game. They just stammered for a few seconds trying to find the words and finally said “why would you say that?” and hung up on me.

In years past I would speak softer and softer and softer in hopes they were cranking their headset volume to hear me and then I hit them with an air horn.

I have “ordered pizza”, “screamed there is so much blood please help me” and generally had fun with the humans.

Now a days it’s all computers and I just block them.

Of course that probably why there is a “Warrant for my arrest” in Saint Thomas.

If you are not in my contacts list you go straight to VM hell.

Usually I don’t answer numbers I don't recognize. Sometimes though, I will try out my Slovak on them. I don’t say nice things to them in that language. My Slovak probably blows goats, but those dirty fucks of course have no idea, all they know is they are expecting an English speaker and are getting some weird ass sounding shit that never, ever yields anything productive. I savor their confusion, irritation and or disbelief.

My new to me S20 alerts me of scam calls coming in, not sure how but it has been 100%

I normally don’t answer if it’s not in my list. But occasionally I do cause it might be the school nurse on her cell or what not….

“Police department Detective Mike, how can I help you?”

If it’s a live person they usually hang up.

"Yes, this is RichardC. Please hold on a moment."

*horrible moaning/groaning/stifledscreaming noises* ... *sound of flushing toilet* * Muffled * That'll little bastard won't bother us again, honey*

"Thanks for holding, this is Richard C. May I help you?"

I generally won’t answer call I don’t recognize the number.

However that being said I once ignored phone calls I didn’t recognize for 20 minutes only to realize they were strangers and firefighters at the scene of an accident trying to get a hold of me because of a loved one involved. Fine line.

Your cell phone provider may have an app that sends suspected spam calls straight to voicemail. The scammers never leave messages. Those apps are wonderful. And like most people, I don't answer calls that don't pop up as someone I already know.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
Your cell phone provider may have an app that sends suspected spam calls straight to voicemail. The scammers never leave messages. Those apps are wonderful. And like most people, I don't answer calls that don't pop up as someone I already know.

Verizon has an app, but you have to PAY EXTRA for it to do much more than basic blocking of spoofed numbers. If they can block more spammers by charging you for it, clearly they can be doing more to solve the problem.

quote:

Originally posted by SIGnified:
I generally won’t answer call I don’t recognize the number.

However that being said I once ignored phone calls I didn’t recognize for 20 minutes only to realize they were strangers and firefighters at the scene of an accident trying to get a hold of me because of a loved one involved. Fine line.

If it's important like that, they should leave a voicemail.

Ya gotta admit, though, it might be fun to talk with a guy in Pakistan named Vijayjay.

Switched from Verizon to T-Mobile, they have a ScamShield app you get with the service with basic options, you can upgrade to Captian America Shield Level or something like that for a fee.

If you have an iFone you can simply turn on the Silence Unknown Callers feature that sends all unknown callers to your voicemail...

The only problem with this feature is if you get calls for business from different numbers not in your contacts, or when we redid the kitchen, vendors and delivery people you don't have the number for in your contacts. But you can turn it off during that time so they get through.


Link to silence the bastards