Cell phone and "unknown" numbers

Engineer1911

Engineer1911

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In the past 2 weeks I received 7 calls from 'unknown' numbers. Being a very untrusting soul, my responses have varied from 'good bye', sarcasm, or vulgar profanity (DHS caller with distinct India accent). I have settled on an answer that works 100% of the time. In a very soft, cordial voice, "Hello, sheriff's department non-emergency number, how may I help you?" causes immediate termination of the call by the caller in about 4.3 microseconds. There are no 'follow-up' calls later. I label the number as Ign01 thru Ign10, shorthand for Ignore. when a label is full, I use the next available. Apparently Ign01, 02, and 03 are full.

In today's contentious social climate, no one wants to talk to the deputy sheriff.
 
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I got that many today.
Who they - what they?
Bets the Hell out of me!
If I don't know them, or think it's somebody I want to talk to,
I don't answer!
 
LVSteve said:
Yep, this is how communication is done today.
Click to expand...
Funny how I never have a message from a scammer.

Today I screened a call. Elderly lady left a message. I Google her phone number. Called her back, I will be looking at a Marlin 336 Centennial, and an all original flintlock. Awaiting pictures of the flintlock.

Like a fox.
 
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Engineer1911 said:
In the past 2 weeks I received 7 calls from 'unknown' numbers. Being a very untrusting soul, my responses have varied from 'good bye', sarcasm, or vulgar profanity (DHS caller with distinct India accent). I have settled on an answer that works 100% of the time. In a very soft, cordial voice, "Hello, sheriff's department non-emergency number, how may I help you?" causes immediate termination of the call by the caller in about 4.3 microseconds. There are no 'follow-up' calls later. I label the number as Ign01 thru Ign10, shorthand for Ignore. when a label is full, I use the next available. Apparently Ign01, 02, and 03 are full.

In today's contentious social climate, no one wants to talk to the deputy sheriff.
Click to expand...
That doesn't work around here, I'm sad to say.
 
The problem with blocking the number is that a lot of scammers will spoof the number that the call is coming from. That means you are not blocking the actual number that they called from, just a random number that they picked for the caller-ID to display.
 
In my household I guess we just do not give the cell phones their just respect. :LOL:

My wife never has the phone on in the car unless she is using it. Example coming home she will call and say something like be home in a 1/2 hour you need anything at the store? I say no we hang up and she turns the phone off again. She does not have voice mail enabled so its rather difficult getting her phone.. Cell phone is not on at our house as reception is sporadic at best here on the side of the mountain! We still have a LL at the house as it is the most dependable in power outs and other problems. LL phone is on 24x7 answering machine and if your a nuisance call it is not picked up.

When asked for your cell as just about every organization does she simple says do not have one.
 
If you aren't in my contact list, as far as I am concerned, you don't exist and therefore I do not answer. I block those numbers as well. Speaking to scammers not only allows them to know it is an active number but there is always the possibility of them using AI to clone my voice and use it for some scam.
 
I'm going to say the same thing that is every time this topic comes up. I'm just going to cut it really short this time.

Way back in the last century when I worked is it telemarketer I had no control over who I called. All my outgoing calls went through a robo dialer.

If I understand the way it was explained to me the robo-dialer dialed random seven digit groups of numbers in a given area code. If I call the given number a certain amount of times with no response the number was dropped from the roster and not called again.

Oddly enough I got a robo call while I was typing this response.

Bottom line I don't answer my phone for unrecognized numbers.
You do whatever works for you.
 
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Sometimes I mess with them, but mostly let the machine do it.
 
Back in the 80s my wife and I had a long running conversation with a tele-scammer on our land line. The caller was (if I remember correctly) a Nigerian Prince who was trying to buy and import some very valuable horses. (yea, and monkeys may fly out of my butt) We strung him along for what must have been a couple of weeks eating up his time. When we grew tired of the game, and laughed at him to his face he became enraged that somone would scam him. We still laugh about it.
 
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