Tele-marketers

J

JOhnH

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
May 20, 2009
Messages
15,163
Location
Florida
Display Name
Right Seater
Home Airfield
KOMN
This started when we got a new portable phone for the house. That may or may not be a coincidence.

We now get several calls a day from various numbers where the caller acts like they don't know they got an answering machine.
They will say "hello, hello, hello,
Or "Hi, john? John? Are you there?
Or some variation.

I have called my number from a couple of other phones and there is no mistaking that the outgoing message is a recording asking for them to leave a message.

Is this some new scam that started around the time I got my new phone, or could my phone be misleading the telemarketers computers making them think someone answered?

This might be the straw that convinces this dinosaur to ditch the land line. But I like having a number I can give to people or businesses that I don't want bugging me on the cell and that lets me screen their calls better.
 
We have a landline at the beach, it was cheaper to get the cable and Internet with the phone than without. I don't know the number and I don't think we have a phone hooked up down there. :D These new phone scams are basically electronic "voices", I get them on my direct line in my office and on my cell phone. I block the numbers on my cell and just hang up of the office calls. It's a PITA! :mad2:
 
Mason said:
Get a cheap VOIP solution and dump the land line. But I still get junque calls on VOIP.
Click to expand...

I use a MagicJack for that. The answering machine recording is a SIT tone followed by the old pay phone message that a 25-cent deposit is required.

Not that it stops scammers and telemarketers from calling, mind you. I get dozens of calls every week, and all of the callers know my name. I suppose some of them got the information from legitimate businesses that promised not to share it, but lied; and others probably got it from one of the many data breaches I've been caught up in.

Whatever the case, I'm glad that I decided years ago that that would be the only number for me that anyone except my family and friends would ever have. It's spared me a lot of aggravation.

Rich
 
I too have been plagued by nuisance calls and telemarketers, I registered all my lines on the Do Not Call List, and report all unwanted calls. It has taken awhile, but all my nuisance calls seem to have stopped!
 
Tom Mabe
Roy D. Mercer
 
Do not call list does help a little.

But yeah, aside from a business I don't see a use for a land line, sure not a non VOIP landline

Google voice is a great tool for filtering calls too
 
For the past 30 days or so, I get a call on my cell from a different area code every single day, and it always starts with a recorded message. "Hi, this is Sharon, your google advertising specialist" or something similar. And then it goes into how they can put my business on the top of all search pages. But I don't own a business. Next time, I may just screw with them and go thru all the steps until they ask for a credit card and then I'll pretend like I thought it was for something else. Kill some time at work.
 
I recorded the male "Siri" saying this and have it ready when answering a suspected TM call....

"I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking to sell me something, I can tell you I don't have money, but what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you"
 
When telemarketers call I just hand the phone to my two year old. That way it's entertaining for him and for me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Yeah, IF I even answer when they begin I set the phone aside and go about my business for 3-5 minutes, then hang it up. I need to get rid of the damn thing anyway, never use it.
 
I got NOMOROBO which pretty much catches all of these. I get a dozen or so intercepts a day. Any other numbers I don't recognize I let ring through to voice mail. These things almost never leave a message. If my MESSAGE WAITING light doesn't come on I just go on.
 
I get these on occasion. Sympathetically telling them that my number is on the do not call list gets rid of them fast.
 
steingar said:
I get these on occasion. Sympathetically telling them that my number is on the do not call list gets rid of them fast.
Click to expand...

you must get different telemarketer scum. Telling the morons who call that my number is on the (completely useless) do not call list doesn't get rid of them.
 
Bob Noel said:
you must get different telemarketer scum. Telling the morons who call that my number is on the (completely useless) do not call list doesn't get rid of them.
Click to expand...

Not only that, but you'd be lucky if you actually get a hold of something animate on the other side in my experience.
 
I stopped being cheap and got caller ID on my land line. If I don't recognize the number and if it is out-of-state I don't answer. Then I google the number. If there have been complaints about it I block it. I do the same thing with my cell phone.
 
Everskyward said:
I stopped being cheap and got caller ID on my land line. If I don't recognize the number and if it is out-of-state I don't answer. Then I google the number. If there have been complaints about it I block it. I do the same thing with my cell phone.
Click to expand...

have you seen the trick of the callerid being your own number?
 
Bob Noel said:
you must get different telemarketer scum. Telling the morons who call that my number is on the (completely useless) do not call list doesn't get rid of them.
Click to expand...

I guess. I'll happily hang up on them, but it feels better when they hang up on me.
 
When I get one of those 880, 888 numbers I like to answer: "OK, the job is done but there is blood all over the place."
 
Despite your assumption we don't have universal cell phone coverage. My house in NC has crap for coverage on any carrier (certainly not ATT, Verizon, T-Moblie, or Sprint). Further my wife works in places where there is NO cell coverage (she's in the basement of a museum).

I've got a magic forwarding number (it's an 877 number but that's largely obsolete). That rings our various landlines and wireless devices. Still that doesn't prevent the scumsuckin bottom dwellers from disregarding the LAW (or the scumsucking politicians and others sucking at their tits like the political survey companies who wrote them selves an exception in the law).
 
Bob Noel said:
have you seen the trick of the callerid being your own number?
Click to expand...
yep, that and more ... I just don't answer the phone if the number doesn't match an entry in my address book - both home and mobile.

another new one on my mobile is the voicemail that shows up and the phone didn't ring.
 
JOhnH said:
This started when we got a new portable phone for the house. That may or may not be a coincidence.
Click to expand...
Yes, that is likely no coincidence and it sounds like you got a recycled number. Been there, can't do anything about it.

JOhnH said:
This might be the straw that convinces this dinosaur to ditch the land line. But I like having a number I can give to people or businesses that I don't want bugging me on the cell and that lets me screen their calls better.
Click to expand...
Absolutely, ditch the land line. Don't pay the dinosaur company (AT&T) $50/month when VoIP is free, FREE, FREEEEEEEEE! :)
And as others have said, the VoIP provides filter calls easily and give you tools to add filters yourself.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top