Yet more telemarketers...

As I suspected, there is no solution for those of us who may receive important calls from numbers we can't know in advance and don't want our call log and voice mail filled with junk. Yes, they do leave messages now. Just ignoring it is a poor solution, playing along with witty answers is an even worse one.
 
johngalt said:
As I suspected, there is no solution for those of us who may receive important calls from numbers we can't know in advance and don't want our call log and voice mail filled with junk. Yes, they do leave messages now. Just ignoring it is a poor solution, playing along with witty answers is an even worse one.
Click to expand...

I'm only 68 yo, so I may be missing something. If you ignore an important call, they will leave a message, and you can call them back immediately. I don't understand why that's not a reasonable solution. I get important calls all the time. They leave a VM and I call them back.
If they don't leave a message, how important was the call.
 
I have found that virtually all of the unwanted calls I get on my cel phone (usually at least two per day) are shown as coming from (210)452-xxxx. And xxxx can be anything between 0000 and 9999. Obviously they are spoofed numbers. I just don't answer any incoming calls from (210)452-xxxx. I would think that the various phone and carrier companies could do something to prevent number spoofing.
 
df06 said:
I'm only 68 yo, so I may be missing something. If you ignore an important call, they will leave a message, and you can call them back immediately. I don't understand why that's not a reasonable solution. I get important calls all the time. They leave a VM and I call them back.
If they don't leave a message, how important was the call.
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It isn't a reasonable solution because I don't want to be constantly bothered by my phone. So just turn it off, you might say.

My call log is limited to the last 100 calls, I don't want it to be flooded with spam, so that it pushes important calls off the list. They have been leaving voice mail, which I then have to go in and delete to avoid it filling up.

I don't want to turn my phone on, only to see if full of junk that I have to clean out the next time I use it. Since they leave voice mail, I would have to check them all to see if any are important.

I pay for a phone for my use, not theirs.
 
With today's computer telephone switching all the spam and spoofing calls could be stopped but as long as it creates money for the telephone companies it will go on. IF you stop and think about it all these calls would not exist if they were not making money. It would seem that there are people gullible enough that do answer and participate that foster the problem. Part of this game is on their shoulders.
 
The OP is correct in the fact the calls have not stopped even though the deadline has came and gone. I get them also. Anything on my home phone (and I still have a land line) that caller ID doesn't show to be in directory or unknown is not answered and goes to recorder. Pure telemarketer garbage. If the calls come to my cell phone and they are not in the contacts the call is not answered and if a legitimate message is not left on voicemail the caller is blocked. I too am on the state and national do not call lists and nothing seems to help. The telemarketers have learned all sorts of tricks and scams and are most difficult to deal with.
 
When I get those calls I fall back on my Marine Corp's vocabulary and they hand up fast and dont call back.
 
This REALLY irks me.....

My wife is somewhat 'generous' when talking to people who call or come to the door. Her name is Dawn.

The phone rings, I pick it up and say hello. A guy says cheerfully, "Hey Dawn?!

I could say, "What the hell are you doing calling my wife?" but instead I just say, "What makes you think this is Dawn?" and hang up.
 
The answering machine screens the calls. If it's important the caller will
leave a message. The ID tells me if someone I know called but didn't
leave a message. The phone always rings right in the middle of the
punchline on your favorite TV program. (Murphy's Law)
 
Home phone has caller ID and voice mail functions. Cell phone has caller ID and voice mail functions. If I don't recognize the number I don't answer the call. If the call is legitimate I will receive the voice mail signal, review the message, and return the call. No voice mail means the call wasn't important enough for me to bother with.

Occasionally a call will get through to me. If it is a telemarketer or scam caller I usually just click off, but sometimes I will play with them as long as it amuses me to do so. "Before we continue I will need your credit card number and security code, just to verify you are who you say you are, and so I can do a little on-line shopping later" (no one has fallen for that one yet, but it does throw them off their little scripts).

My basic rule is that it is my telephone, not their telephone, so I will not allow them to control the use of my telephone.
 
We get several calls a day from unknowns. It's gotten to the point where I'm blocking entire area codes, even my own. They use (spoof) our area code and exchange in hopes we will answer thinking it's a relative or neighbor. Ha, we don't have any friends, relatives, or acquaintances in our area code.

We started getting these unwanted calls in 2009, right after we moved here and got a new number. I added our number to the national DNC list, but it had no effect. The Do Not Call list is for legitimate businesses, and doesn't slow down the charities, debt collectors, political calls, or scammers.

In fact, I am convinced some of them use the DNC list as a source for legitimate numbers.
 
The way I look at it is these calls are a form of harassment and you should be able to deal with them any way you want. I will either not answer or if I do answer I'll wait for a real person to get on the line and then blow my cop whistle into the phone.
 
I'm with the just don't answer group. If I don't know the caller I don't answer, let the voice mail feature take care of them.
 
They sure seem stupid. Wasting that time calling people that will NEVER do business with them. You'd think the computer would figure it out.
 
I have a landline we rarely use. It has an answering machine. Any call on that phone rolls to VM we never answer.

On the cell if it's unknown I don't answer. Depending on the mood I'll press 1 and talk to a rep. I love screwing with them. Sometimes I pretend I'm hard of hearing. Other times I just feed them the wrong information. That really pisses them off. Time is money, I figure if I tie them up it's costing them money, and I get some satisfaction. Seems to work at least for a few weeks.
 
rwsmith said:
Ii can't not answer the phone. I get a good many legitimate calls that I don't recognize. A lot of them are doctor calls or business.
Click to expand...

Are they so critical that you can't wait the minute or so it would take to let voice mail screen the call?

I used to be a telemarketer and I can assure you that the easiest way to get them to quit calling you is to quit answering the phone when they do.

It doesn't happen over night. I quit answering unknown numbers about 5 years ago and I'm down to maybe 3 a month.

Yelling at the telemarketers does no good they'll make sure you gat called all day long
 
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