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Telemarketers

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NutmegCT

NutmegCT

Great Pumpkin
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I've posted about this before, but maybe things have improved?

Before I rip the phone from the wall, and stomp my cell phone into the ground ...

How the heck do you guys deal with robo-telemarketers?

They fake their name and caller ID, so you can't call them back. You report the call to (your agency of choice), but the name and number you see isn't really the name and number that called. You answer the call and get silence, or a useless recorded message, or a worse than useless "take me off your calling list" that does no good.

Nothing works. Even read in the news that at least one USA company had created an off-shore subsidiary to allow telemarketers to legally fake their names and caller IDs.

Man, this is ridiculous. In one week I've had over 50 of these bogus calls, many of them repeat offenders. And real people email me, saying they don't use the phone anymore either.

The "do not call list" is for the honest guys; these telemarketers aren't exactly honest.

Do you guys get 50+ calls like this a week? (They're recorded in my caller ID log - date and time - but the name/number is usually bogus.)

Is there any reason to have a phone (land or cell) any more?

There's an easy solution: I'd gladly pay $10/mo to receive only calls from numbers I list in a "personal directory" (in other words, from people I know). But of course, there's no such option available that I know of.

Tom
 
We get a few a week, but I never take a call from a number I don't recognize (with caller ID), and especially from a 202 area code (where the message has often been political). We also have a "Telezapper" which plays a short tone at the start of any answered call that tells computer dialing systems that the number is no longer in service... and I think this has improved things a little (though it can be a problem if you want a computer-type system, like an airline, to call you back - then I disconnect it).
 
I believe some phones actually offer an option to not ring if the caller ID is not from a number in your directory. Of course that won't help if they figure out what numbers you will answer, but hopefully they aren't that smart yet. My first cell phone had this, not sure about any of the land line phones.

My rule of thumb is to not answer anything that doesn't show as someone I know. So far, all the telemarketers calling me have just had their ID blocked (or an obviously bogus number, like 666). But that's my cell phone, I dumped the land line many years ago. We now have an Internet phone (Vonage) at the house, but it's mostly for the wife & nurses; I don't use it.

One curiosity, although I cancelled the land line service, I still have a rotary wall phone in the garage that is still attached to the old line. Just never bothered to take it out. It doesn't even get a dial tone, can't call 911, appears dead. BUT, it has rung at least 4 times that I know of, with recorded messages from political candidates! Apparently, they are tapping in at the local exchange office level, and ringing every physical line regardless of whether it is "active" or not.
 
Very sad - and frustrating - that we have to take such steps to fend off the intruders. I think ten years ago I got maybe one nuisance call a week. Now it's 50+.

One tack: turn off the ringer, and just let the machine take messages. It won't stop the callers - but I won't hear them calling. Then I'll call back people I know.

I deactivated my cell phone message system one day after I activated it. Even tho' I hadn't made any calls yet, I received three messages from telemarketers in the first 24 hours. Now I only turn the cell on when I want to make a call.

Good grief.
 
Turn the tables...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBfsdkGeMc8

I sometimes turn into Phelucious Jones, blues singer extraordinaire. ;)

"Ever since you left me...I- aint- been- eat-in' nuth-in'- bu' catfish bones....:highly_amused:

( ya know, there aint nuthin' more worser than the catfish bone blues.:cool:)
 
NutmegCT said:
I deactivated my cell phone message system one day after I activated it. Even tho' I hadn't made any calls yet, I received three messages from telemarketers in the first 24 hours. Now I only turn the cell on when I want to make a call.
Click to expand...

Tom,
I have a cell phone for at least 5 years. In that time I've had MAYBE 3 telemarketer/pollsters call it. I wonder what the difference is?

Now, my land-line (which we recently deactivated) was a different story...

Keith
 
I get a lot on the old land line. Like Nutmeg I just turn the ringer off and let the machine take it, and periodically erase the contents. I read a story in the local paper at one time that said most telemarketers now operate out of Canada or the caribbean to avoid US restrictions.
 
MikeP said:
I read a story in the local paper at one time that said most telemarketers now operate out of Canada or the caribbean to avoid US restrictions.
Click to expand...
Could JP be making all the calls?
 
Could be. Might be worth just PMing me your banking information now and see if they stop. Worth a try.... ;)
 
We too have been frustrated by these calls, which seem to come in spurts. We do not have caller ID on the land line, so if I have a minute or two to put into the call, I let push the number for a live person, and then either let them listen to music on my end by setting the phone by a computer speaker, ask the to hold "for the Attorney General", or when in a bad mood, I yell obscenely at the person who has taken the call. It does not reduce the calls, but it makes me feel better.

We are not getting Tom's 50+ calls a week total on two cells and a land line, but some days we can get 10 calls.
 
Our cell service allows me to block numbers, so the telemarketers get me one time from each number, then I block them. It's only somewhat effective because some companies autodial from numerous numbers.
 
Keith_M said:
Tom,
I have a cell phone for at least 5 years. In that time I've had MAYBE 3 telemarketer/pollsters call it. I wonder what the difference is?

Now, my land-line (which we recently deactivated) was a different story...

Keith
Click to expand...
Unless you have given your cell phone number to a company, charity or political party that does business via telemarketing or is part of a partnership that does it, your cell number is private and is not made available to anyone you don't give it to. Telemarketers CAN occasionally stumble on a cell number by using a robot dialer but that's rare since they are not allowed to auto-dial cell carrier prefixes. There are no public databases for cell numbers.
 
"Our cell service allows me to block numbers"

Same here, as well as the ATT land line. But are you actually blocking the caller that just called you? Or are you just blocking the Caller ID number that shows on the phone?

" but that's rare since they are not allowed to auto-dial cell carrier prefixes"

But that's only for USA-based telemarketers. There's no restriction if the telemarketer isn't subject to USA law.

This is getting interesting!
Tom
 
And these folks will "mung" here return number. After caller ID, I've tried to call them right back and you'll always find "this number is no longer in service" (and it never was).

There was a time a few years ago when I was getting calls from country-code 44 (England). Well, we have friends and family there so I was inclined to take the call only to find out it was a telemarkers. One time I asked the guy where he was physically located and he said "Atlanta!" When I asked him why he pretended to call from England, he didn't have clue what I was talking (and for all I know it was routed through the UK).

There's no beating these guys but to ignore a number you don't recognize.
 
Some months ago I was working with a head-hunting firm regarding a job. The firm is located in Alexandria, VA. A couple of days after submitting my resume I got a call on my cell with a Toronto area code so I didn't take it. When I listened to the message they left I found out it was the head-hunting firm. When I returned the call I inquired about the Toronto area code and I was told they buy cheap phone service that is routed through Toronto. Here's a case where the call was legitimate but I didn't take it since no-one I know would be calling me from there.
 
The whole 'telephone' concept is really changing with the advent of VOIP. Take for example Google Voice. You can set up a phone number, using pretty much any area code you want, that will ring your computer, ring your cell phone, ring multiple cell phones, or go to voice mail depending on who the caller is. You can make phone calls to anywhere in the U.S. for free and overseas calls are pretty cheap.

I have no financial interest in this (I wish I had financial interest in Google), but I do use my Google Voice number for some things. It seems to work fine, and it never gets telemarketing calls. The days of having a paid land-line are rapidly coming to an end. We got rid of ours a few months ago and have never missed it.
 
The only reason I still have a land lind was it was just as cheap to keep it with the bundle as to have only internet access. But you're right, modern telecommunications is completely changing the old model and someone from even as recent as the 1980s wouldn't recognize the anything anywhere model of today. And we might not recognize what our children and grandchildren are using if we were transported 20-30 years into the future.
 
BustedKnuckles said:
since they are not allowed to auto-dial cell carrier prefixes.
Click to expand...
No such thing anymore. "Number portability" says you can have any prefix for your cell phone.
 
Keith_M said:
Take for example Google Voice. You can set up a phone number, using pretty much any area code you want, that will ring your computer, ring your cell phone, ring multiple cell phones, or go to voice mail depending on who the caller is. You can make phone calls to anywhere in the U.S. for free and overseas calls are pretty cheap.
Click to expand...
You can also worry about whether it will work next month.
https://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/04/google-voice-future-uncertain/

[I'm one of the millions of Google Reader users that will be cut off shortly, because there aren't enough of us.]
 
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