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UNKNOWN NAME UNKNOWN NUMBER

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NutmegCT

NutmegCT

Great Pumpkin
Bronze
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How do you guys deals with these nuisance calls?

I get home, find four calls waiting. Caller ID for each one says "unknown name", or "unknown number", or both.

Over the last seven days, 32 of these little gems - five on my cell.

Of course, no message is ever left.

If there's no number shown, you can't report them to anyone.

If you happen to answer, you get five seconds of silence, then "click" when they disconnect.

If there is indeed a number shown, if you call back to "request removal", you're validating your number. And of course, unless it's 800 or 888, you're paying for the call.

Other than disconnecting land line and cell service, what do you guys do?

Edit: *77 (anonymous call rejection) doesn't work for these, as they're faking the caller ID info. And you can't "block" a number that's hidden.

Thanks.
Tom
 
I don't answer. That's what voice mail's for.
 
I like the ones that when you answer them there is 20+ seconds of dead air, then some one comes on and tries to talk to you- at that point i talk to the phone like I can not hear them...Hello? any one there? can you hear me?.........Hello??? WTF!! #$%(*&....then keep quiet and see how long I can tie up their time.....for the next guy..ya know?



m
 
Unfortunately the do not call list in the USA isn't working well now. I'm on it, but get almost daily calls from "cardholder services" (credit card scam). Try and get them to stop calling and they just hang up. Numbers are from all over and probably spoofed.
 
Got texts at 2:30 A.M, prank crap from a kid I know on drugs. Cost me ~$25 cause I don't have it on my plan. tried saying it was somone else. Goes w/ the territory. At least I was already up.
 
I just changed my cell number because of the same thing. My last 4 numbers were 9200, too easy to pop up on the auto dialers. A number made up with all different numbers is better, less intrusion. If someone calls me and they don't answer on my first response, I hang up, if it's a bogus message, I delete it. Nothing else to do unless you know the number, then call the phone company and have it blocked. There are a lot of lottery scams out there and a lot of them text. Most company's charge extra for text messages. Have them blocked also.
You can use a screening service, but their rates aren't cheap. PJ
 
20 seconds of dead air.
You actually wait that long?
 
Telemarketers autodialing cellphone numbers is illegal, as is spoofing their caller-ID number. Legit telemarketers <span style="font-style: italic">do</span> abide by the national do-not-call-list and those that are calling <span style="font-style: italic">for</span> charities have to take you off their call-list for that charity if you ask them. Failing to comply with these federal laws can <span style="font-style: italic">and do</span> result in hefty fines - legit marketers will avoid breaking those laws but if they do <span style="font-style: italic">report it!</span>

That leaves the rest of the slime and foreign callers to contend with. ACR <span style="font-style: italic">should</span> block anonymous calls (that's what it's for). Call your carrier and complain if it doesn't work.

For smartphones/cellphones something like Mr Number can help <span style="font-style: italic">a lot</span> if the problem is an has reached epidemic proportions for you. You can block numbers any number of ways. There may be other apps that do something similar.

My problem hasn't been legit telemarketing <span style="font-style: italic">sales</span> calls. It's been charities, surveys, and a handful of "extended business relationship" (EBR) calls. The EBR calls should be killed with one request to not be called again, but sometimes that's wishful thinking.

I've quelled the ringing phones by using a google voice number. All my phone numbers eventually route to that number, two of the numbers simul-ring directly to my GV number and my cellphone rolls over to it for voice mail. When I get a survey/telemarketing call that number gets added to a long list of numbers that immediately get answered with a special number. On my cell phone<span style="font-weight: bold">*</span> the calls shows up like this:
i-2zHmxsm-S.png


Since I started doing this my unwanted calls have dropped off to almost nil.

If you want to go whole-hog with phone control you can do a 100% switch to Google Voice and tell it to only allow the numbers you specify to ring your phones, while forcing all others to go to voice mail. Or you can customize when "all" numbers are allowed to ring your phones...and so on. It gives you complete control and it works - for free.


<span style="font-size: 8pt"><span style="font-style: italic">* Yes, it's still illegal for telemarketers to call cell phones - but I have multiple numbers that forward to my cell phone, so those calls do end up sneaking to my cell sometimes</span></span>
 
Scott - that is a great idea. Hadn't even thought of Google Voice.

Phone was silent all Sunday until 6pm. Then three more of the dreaded Unknowns called. Then four today (Monday) before noon, and another at 5pm.

Say, with Google Voice, if a caller is shunted to Google voice mail, does voice mail tally a call, even if there was no message left?

In other words, if I switch to GV, I don't want to have multiple "empty" voice messages to check. Thus, if someone actually leaves a message, I'd find it. But if GV also tallies a voice message even if there's none left, it's just one more thing to check.

Thanks.
Tom
 
DNK said:
20 seconds of dead air.
You actually wait that long?
Click to expand...

It often took that long for our son's calls from Afghanistan to go through, and that number never showed up on our phones...

Now that he is being reassigned to a base in Sussex England I don't think we will need to hang on that long.
 
My wife has a stock of mini air horns she has for the local high school football games. so being my sweet self I have them positioned around the house for nuisance calls...answer and if it merits....it gets a nice blast. May not work but sure makes me feel good>>>
 
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