Cell phone and "unknown" numbers

[NYlakesider]

In my household I guess we just do not give the cell phones their just respect.

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.

 

[65-2x2]

If you aren't on my call list, you just as well not bother calling; I don't answer. After several years of that, I very rarely get scam calls.

 

[grover99]

Use the setting on your phone so that if the number is not in you contacts, it is blocked. Rarely do scammers leave voice mail.

I do that but I am starting to see more voice mail left. Then I have look and hit the trash button.

 

[soFlaNative]

Android phoned won't let me trash more than one call at a time.
The delete, report spam and confirm routine leaves something to be desired.

 

[prairieviper]

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.

 

[rbmac52]

I never answer a number I do not recognize. EVER. If the caller has something important to say, that's what voice mail is for.

 

[Smoke]

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.

 

[Rudi]

Sometimes I mess with them, but mostly let the machine do it.

 

[Rustyt1953]

If I were to print out every comment from every phone scam thread since I joined I could wallpaper my house.

 

[65-2x2]

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.

 

[Smoke]

We strung him along for what must have been a couple of weeks eating up his time.

You weren't just eating up his time.

This is the bottom line for me, I have never answered the phone on an unknown number and not had it be a waste of my very finite time.

 

[65-2x2]

You weren't just eating up his time.

This is the bottom line for me, I have never answered the phone on an unknown number and not had it be a waste of my very finite time.

It was more entertaining than watching reruns of Magnum P.I. Besides that, in that timeframe land-lines had dials and did not display incomning call numbers.

 

[DWalt]

I can’t call it a scam, but recently I have been receiving calls, voice mails, and texts from callers wanting to buy my house. No idea why they think I might want to sell my house. The callers do know my name, phone number, and address, but that information would be easy enough for them to find.

 

[TX-Dennis]

I can’t call it a scam, but recently I have been receiving calls, voice mails, and texts from callers wanting to buy my house. No idea why they think I might want to sell my house. The callers do know my name, phone number, and address, but that information would be easy enough for them to find.

I even get post cards from those folks.

House listings are in pretty short supply here, but in SA the listings seem to be pretty saturated, so I'm not sure why they're doing that there. SA is a bit of a buyer's market right now with prices falling a little and lots of homes for sale. Hope that turns around soon enough since I bought a home there in February that I intended to only keep for a couple of years. My son is living there, and as far as I'm concerned he can stay as long as he wants to. It or the money it sells for will be his eventually anyway. I guess when he moves on I will have to decide whether to sell it or keep it as a rental. Doubt I will ever live in it. My wife freaks out on the multi lane freeways. Ours here are only two lanes each way, although one is currently being expanded to 3.

 

[Smoke]

Besides that, in that timeframe land-lines had dials and did not display incomning call numbers.

But you still kept picking up the phone and you still kept extending the conversation.

 

[BigBoy99]

I would like to learn some very nasty phrase in the Indian dialect I could say to these foreign spammers!

 

[STCM(SW)]

My family, friends , Doctors, repair places, and such have a unique ring. The default ring gets ignored.

 

[Smoke]

So I've mentioned that I don't respond to calls from people who aren't on my list. What I've noticed is having not done that for several years. I don't even get two or three of those calls a month. I've also noticed that several of them never even ring they just go straight to voicemail

 

[Telecaster]

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.

That’s a lot of work. I just don’t answer the call.

 

[65-2x2]

But you still kept picking up the phone and you still kept extending the conversation.

In the days before caller ID, you picked up the phone when it rang... Indeed I did continue the conversation, because both my wife and I found it entertaining to string the scammer along, I thought that I explained that.