Unwanted Calls

vkhosid said:
That's an absurd notion....That's like cutting someones hand off for shoplifting (not really an equitable comparison, but you get my point). There's nothing wrong with being proactive in a sales position. Anyone who says otherwise has never worked sales/retail.
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Mh, so someone who has never broken into someone elses home wouldn't be in a position to comment on burglars ?

All cold-calling for sales purposes should be illegal. Your right to make a living doesn't take priority over my right to be left alone.

In MD I can squeeze $5000 out of anyone who sends an unsolicited fax. This has cut down on the spam faxes from legitimate businesses.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Telemarketing is what I was referring to specifically. Yes, posting illegal flyers in a neighborhood is going to go poorly.

Basically there's very little enforcement of telemarketing calls that are in violation of the law. Even if they made them 100% illegal, what would the punishment be? And what's the probability of getting caught? Then, what's to prevent foreign countries (who aren't subject to our laws) from calling you? I actually got a call from Egypt the other day. It was probably a telemarketer.
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Egypt? Were they selling pyramids with an ocean view? :D
 
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weilke said:
Mh, so someone who has never broken into someone elses home wouldn't be in a position to comment on burglars ?

All cold-calling for sales purposes should be illegal. Your right to make a living doesn't take priority over my right to be left alone.

In MD I can squeeze $5000 out of anyone who sends an unsolicited fax. This has cut down on the spam faxes from legitimate businesses.
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Absolfreakinlutely!
 
Everskyward said:
I don't answer unknown numbers either, but I have gotten numerous messages that start out with some woman adjusting her headset...

This is the transcript.
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It's a predictive dialer. They pretend they were having headset trouble because the call is placed to you before the agent is on the line. The system tries to guess at how many people on average will answer and puts the agents on line just in time, after it dials more numbers than they have agents.

In my telecom life, the slimiest prick I ever met was a guy who started at a predictive dialing company installing their gear. Most of us have standards and won't touch that crap with a ten foot pole. Even if it meant we didn't eat that week.

murphey said:
Start calling and faxing your congress critters and complain. Keep up calling and faxing. At some point, they will get the message.

Keep calling. Keep emailing. Keep faxing.
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Congresscritters either have roughly 300,000 people per critter or 3 million each to "represent" in the Senate. They've had better equipment to handle bejillions of calls and know how to ignore them better than any of us. Calling or faxing? They don't care. That's just another day at the office for their phone systems and pools. You'll get a nice form letter back in about a month if you're lucky.

BigBadLou said:
Ever since caller ID spoofing was discovered...

Welcome to the world of capitalism where crooks have been given the upper hand. :)
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Discovered? CID was never secure. Ever. It can't be. Reason: Businesses spoof CID all the time so they're able to route you back to their main 800 or whatever "lead" number they want inbound calls going to. Otherwise in setups (like ours at our call center) you'd get the direct dial number for the agent, and they're not likely to be there or be available when you call back. Spoofing is a built in *feature* of CID. The number that's not spoofable is the billing number, and that's for the carrier.

As far as "crooks have the upper hand", well... I guess. I mean, nobody promised you only calls from people you know when you got a phone number or anything like that. There's filtering services if you want that.

Our carrier at the office had CID spoofing blocked (as a good carrier should) on our trunks until we proved we owned the numbers we wanted to spoof. Local trunks, we wanted our 800 to show on outbound calls to customers from the agent's desks but not from normal desks, and they blocked putting an 800 number outbound on our CID until we called and had them check that said 800 was ours and routed to us. Took a whopping ten minutes to get the block lifted, but good carriers do actually do it.

Problem is, there's a lot of bad carriers or just cheap carriers who can't afford such things.

You could always have the Bell System back if you like. Broke the system up horizontally, so it just reverted to three major players vertically and now they're buying up TV and cable. Don't think Judge Greene's plan worked out too well.
 
JOhnH said:
I got that call yesterday. I tried to talk over her to say stop and put me on their do not call list but she either pretended not to hear me, or she was a a robot.
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Robot, because if I answer a number I don't recognize, I won't say anything. Then I hear.... Hello..?? (wait a couple seconds) Oh, sorry (laughing) I was having trouble with my headset.....
 
Zeldman said:
Robot, because if I answer a number I don't recognize, I won't say anything. Then I hear.... Hello..?? (wait a couple seconds) Oh, sorry (laughing) I was having trouble with my headset.....
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Yup. That one's a dialer that listens for signs it's a live body and not a voice mail before playing the auto-spiel. Some are smart enough to wait for the beeeeeep...
 
Zeldman said:
Robot, because if I answer a number I don't recognize, I won't say anything. Then I hear.... Hello..?? (wait a couple seconds) Oh, sorry (laughing) I was having trouble with my headset.....
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This is a common scam apparently, according to my findings on Google, but this is fitting. :lol: .albumtemp.JPG
 
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I used to get these calls. I'd be fine with sending any number I don't have in my contacts to voicemail (texts from unknown numbers already get pushed to a separate folder)) but Apple hasn't added this feature. Fortunately, iOS 10 allows apps label and/or block calls, so scam-number databases can be used to do the filtering work for you. I use Hiya.

Easy, but I don't have a landline.
 
I can't find my copy of Bill Gates ( 1995? ) book "The Road Ahead". No he didn't get everything right. Don't want to start a bash fest on him.

Seem to recall his solution was email based but why not phone calls also?

The idea is you set a cost for someone to contact you, can even have a scale for different times of day. Say I want $1.00 to answer a phone call. If it is family or friend I can waive the charge. If it is a junk call I get my buck.
OK, so the phone companies don't like this because they make $$ on the junk callers. Fine, let the phone company have a cut of my price. It is not about the $$ for me, it is about the $$ for the junk callers.

Like @flyingron, if they don't leave a message they didn't really want to talk to me.

You can call me Luke, you can call me Doug. Just don't call me late for dinner.
 
I don't answer my phone unless I see the name of the person calling, so they have to be in my contact list and my contact list is pretty small, I check voice mail once in a while if I have nothing else to do. So doesn't bother me, other than my butt vibrating at odd times. People who are in my contact list rarely calls me, cuz they know I don't answer. They will text me if they really want my attention to something. Yeah, I am anti-social.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 
I never answer calls from unknown numbers any more, except... I'm selling my plane, and don't want to miss any calls about that.

I saw a great idea to kill spam email, in some form would work for phone calls too. Spammers send out many thousands or millions of emails, the idea is to charge some fee for each email (or call) after some number larger than any individual person would make, like the first 500 or 1000 calls per month are free, then $1.00 per call after that. Allocate the funds collected to some worthy cause. Of course it would never be implemented.
 
There is an email going around. It talks about pork shoulder meat, with ham meat added, salt, water, modified potato starch as a binder, sugar, and sodium nitrate as a preservative.

Don't open it, its spam.....:frown2:
 
There's a new scam going on. You answer and the first thing asked is can you hear me. Your YES reply is recorded and used against you when they say you agreed to buy whatever they are selling. Then there's the so called IRS agent sending the police to your door unless you pay the back taxes you owe. And we've all heard from the Microsoft tech who claims you've been infected with a virus and can I take over your machine to fix it.
And just this week, two prime time shows featured hijackers who put ransomware on machines and force you to pay to get your system back.
For every technology, there will be someone who will find a way to use it for no good except his own.
What I think is the FCC should make the caller to a cellphone pay for the airtime.
What I think is the mobile companies should do a better job screening out the trash.
What I think is the government should make spoofing Cid a crime, especially if it is used to commit a crime.
What I think is I'm not answering unknown callers any more.
 
vkhosid said:
There's nothing wrong with being proactive in a sales position. Anyone who says otherwise has never worked sales/retail. HOWEVER....
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I can have a beer with a Democrat. I can have a beer with a Republican. Heck, I can even have a beer with a Libertarian.

But I can't have a beer with a salesman.

Don't know a lot of people who can.
 
lurkerLuke said:
I can't find my copy of Bill Gates ( 1995? ) book "The Road Ahead". No he didn't get everything right. Don't want to start a bash fest on him.

Seem to recall his solution was email based but why not phone calls also?

The idea is you set a cost for someone to contact you, can even have a scale for different times of day. Say I want $1.00 to answer a phone call. If it is family or friend I can waive the charge. If it is a junk call I get my buck.
OK, so the phone companies don't like this because they make $$ on the junk callers. Fine, let the phone company have a cut of my price. It is not about the $$ for me, it is about the $$ for the junk callers.

Like @flyingron, if they don't leave a message they didn't really want to talk to me.

You can call me Luke, you can call me Doug. Just don't call me late for dinner.
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In many countries, calling a mobile number is "caller pays". Want to reach me mobile, you cover the bill.

But a book on the future of tech by a dude who stole or bought out other companies for most of his, probably isn't going to be all that accurate, as history has shown on that book.
 
Ryanb said:
The amount of telemarketing callers I receive on a daily basis seems to be increasing. For each one I block, 3 more replace it, so what's the deal with this? I never remember this being such a nuisance. Anybody else get this?

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I see you got a call from @azblackbird on there. Why didn't you answer?
 
We now have magic jack for the house, the only tines it rings are when the wife calls or our parents. Never had a spam call. Seems to be working well. We have had it for a year. Cross my fingers.
 
I do a very good job of imitating an automatic response system when answering a call from a number I do not recognize, and the calls rarely continue. I idly wonder whether, when that result obtains, there might be some possibility that the number is removed from that list?

When I answer, I allow a pause of about a second, then in a forceful but controlled voice (you who know me, know that "forceful voice" is not a stretch for me!), say, "Hello. Thank you for calling. (pause) Enter your access code now." Usually, that ends it, but if it continues (and it might be talking), I follow with "Enter your access code now." After that comes "Goodbye (click)."

May just be entertaining myself. But (again, known well to my friends here), I am easily amused.
 
Mtns2Skies said:
+1. I never used to get them but they started a few months ago. And now I get atleast one a day.
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Really? I remember getting them fairly often three years ago. They've definitely gotten worse in the last year or so though. At work I turn on airplane mode and leave it there even if I'm not in class, so I can't be sure how many I get. But on weekends and days off I often get 5-7 per day, sometimes more, and occasionally MUCH more.

And I'm another person who has a cell number from another state. Most of the junk calls are from "my" area code. I never answer them unless they show up on caller ID as someone I know. I've yet to get a junk call to my cell phone from the area code I live in now... but I'm sure it will eventually happen as I've gotten a couple to my "landline" (actually a cell connection), which has a local area code.
 
So this week, same day, I get a cell phone voice message and a text from local dealer that services my truck. They want to buy it. Their used availability is low. It's bad enough I get marketing emails from them.

Ok, so they have my number/email so they can call me about repair issues or to tell me my truck is ready.
Time to complain about using it for marketing.
 
It's bad enough that the robo calls have a recording behind them, no real person.
 
BillTIZ said:
So this week, same day, I get a cell phone voice message and a text from local dealer that services my truck. They want to buy it. Their used availability is low. It's bad enough I get marketing emails from them..
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I would call back and say sure, I am ready to sell my truck. I will sell it for the exact same amount I paid you for it.
 
Sometimes, when I am in a sporting mood, I will answer a telemarketing call just to eff with them and waste their time.
 
Some time ago I bought some gold coins from a nationwide dealer. I started getting catalogs in the mail, flyers, and emails. Fine. Then I started getting phone calls. I told them if the calls continued I would never purchase another thing from them, ever. The phone calls stopped.

The same thing happened with Omaha Steaks. With the same results.
 
Magic Jack solved most of these problems for me almost 10 years ago. It's the only number that I give to anyone other than immediate family, trusted friends, and a very few companies in whose case it's to my benefit for them to have my cell number. For example, USAA has my cell number because it would save me a few steps if I had to use my cell phone to report a claim.

Other than those few trusted entities, everyone else who demands my phone number has only the MJ number. It's also the only phone I use when I call anyone who doesn't have my cell number, just to make sure it stays that way. The call quality is always adequate, though usually less than stellar, with good QOS settings at the router. One might say that it's consistently mediocre, which is more than good enough for people to whom I really don't want to talk anyway.

I use the "Call Control" app to block calls made directly to my cell phone, which I suspect are randomly-dialed most of the time. It's the only call-filtering app I've ever used that actually works most of the time and doesn't create more problems than it solves. I've been using it for years. The app itself is free, but there's a subscription fee for the real-time database.

Other than that app, I generally avoid installing phone apps or signing up for text alerts. My criteria for deciding whether or not to install a company's app are the same as those I use for deciding whether to give that company my cell number. It's pointless to have a "special" MJ number to protect my cell number, and then signing up for text alerts or installing some app whose permissions would give the publisher access to that information anyway.

Rich
 
I don't live in the US anymore, but before we moved, we ported our home number to a MJ so we can call the kids, or vice versa. Luckily, I was able to buy a cordless phone which has a "night mode" where it won't ring between whatever hours you set up for it. I still get sales calls to the phone, and my game now is to answer it and let them try and sell me whatever service it is they are trying to sell me. Solar panels, lawn service, pest control... whatever. I'm always interested and ready to buy, I ask a lot of questions and seem really interested. Then when they are setting up the appointment, I give them my foreign address. I had one get really annoyed and incredulous, basically calling me a liar, because I had a US number with a US area code. I had to explain to her about internet phones. And actually, the pest control company was one we had used in the past, and was just reminding me about their Spring service. I stopped her right away and told her that we had sold the house, etc. She was cool about it, and said that she'd take me off her list. We'll see if living overseas has any appreciable effect on the number of calls.
 
biplanebob said:
Sometimes, when I am in a sporting mood, I will answer a telemarketing call just to eff with them and waste their time.
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Try this: Answer the phone and with a strained voice say, The job is done, but there is blood everywhere...... hang up.
 
Me too same here. When I first got my cell I had many years of never being bothered, because that kind of stuff was in land line land. No more. The last few months it has really ramped up. I don't know if they are getting my number from lists because now I give it out to everyone I do business with, or if it's just a robotic auto dialing of random numbers, but I am ****ed. I put them on block list, but that doesn't help, there are always new numbers.
 
Rushie said:
Me too same here. When I first got my cell I had many years of never being bothered, because that kind of stuff was in land line land. No more. The last few months it has really ramped up. I don't know if they are getting my number from lists because now I give it out to everyone I do business with, or if it's just a robotic auto dialing of random numbers, but I am ****ed. I put them on block list, but that doesn't help, there are always new numbers.
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Seriously - check out Hiya. Same experience here until I installed that app.
 
Zeldman said:
Try this: Answer the phone and with a strained voice say, The job is done, but there is blood everywhere...... hang up.
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You think the robot is going to care?
 
Everskyward said:
I don't answer unknown numbers either, but I have gotten numerous messages that start out with some woman adjusting her headset...

This is the transcript.
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I've gotten those calls before, as well. They never say what resort I "stayed" in, either. I've run out of patience with them and just tell them I'm not interested.

I forget the name of the application I ran, but it intercepts a lot of nuisance calls at home. We have Comcast VOIP and anytime a call is intercepted the phone rings once, with caller ID saying "Incoming call". If we're watching TV the number and purported CID comes up on the screen. But, one ring and they're gone. We never answer the phone on the first ring. If there is a second ring, then we go for the phone.

And don't get me started on the people (and I use the term loosely) who write spam programs for PCs. That ought to be a capital offense.
 
I used NoMoRobo for a long time until I recently switched from Verizon (Frontier where I live) to Brighthouse (Spectrum where I live). Unfortunately, NoMoRobo doesn't support Spectrum as a provider...weird.

So right after the switch instead of getting a single ring and it going to nowhere, I'm getting all these stupid calls again. I'm seriously just considering dropping my landline. Hardly anyone calls it anymore and its just an added expense.
 
Caramon13 said:
I used NoMoRobo for a long time until I recently switched from Verizon (Frontier where I live) to Brighthouse (Spectrum where I live). Unfortunately, NoMoRobo doesn't support Spectrum as a provider...weird.

So right after the switch instead of getting a single ring and it going to nowhere, I'm getting all these stupid calls again. I'm seriously just considering dropping my landline. Hardly anyone calls it anymore and its just an added expense.
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Until recently, Spectrum was Charter. We are now under Spectrum, but set up NoMoRobo when it was Charter and it works well for the landline. You might try setting it up using the Charter name.
 
WindWalker said:
Until recently, Spectrum was Charter. We are now under Spectrum, but set up NoMoRobo when it was Charter and it works well for the landline. You might try setting it up using the Charter name.
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Nice...will try that when I get home. How does anyone keep track of who buys who? I need a spreadsheet just to keep track of who owns my telephony equipment these days...
 
Caramon13 said:
So right after the switch instead of getting a single ring and it going to nowhere, I'm getting all these stupid calls again. I'm seriously just considering dropping my landline. Hardly anyone calls it anymore and its just an added expense.
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I dropped the landline about 3 years ago. Haven't missed it. I never gave out the number except for work, and had it unlisted, yet I still got the calls. Anyone that called on that number knew to use the one ring hang up, then call back routine.

I do miss the ring. It was a mid 50s phone with a ring that would wake the dead.
 
Zeldman said:
I dropped the landline about 3 years ago. Haven't missed it. I never gave out the number except for work, and had it unlisted, yet I still got the calls. Anyone that called on that number knew to use the one ring hang up, then call back routine.

I do miss the ring. It was a mid 50s phone with a ring that would wake the dead.
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Bluetooth, stereo attachment, turn stereo volume up, you can wake an entire house full of people. Ha. Noooooo sweat. ;-)

Frankly though, other than me being somewhat "on call" for my line of work, I think my late father's advice is more important every year...

"I never answer the phone after 10PM. It's never anything good, and I'll be better prepared to deal with it in the morning anyway. Nothing to do but worry about it and get a bad night's sleep if you answer it anyway."
 
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