Scamming telephone calls

[Just the facts ma am]

I no longer use a smartphone because I choose not to pay $80 a month to have a personal advertisement portal on me at all times. I carry a flip phone for emergencies @$25 per month. A couple of times a year I wish I could use Uber but that is my only regret.

At home I use landline phones that do not need an internet connection. You plug these into prebuilt sockets in the walls of your home and the circuitry requires no computer/modem connection and no service calls over the decades. I even have an analog phone with no power source that will still work in a power outage. The disadvantage is that you cannot use digital means to block selective calls.

The landline telephone companies have a few internet features but they stopped expanding or innovating these years ago, as of course it made no economic sense. I can go online and block 10 numbers, which was useful when you had a personal stalker, but ineffective in the time of local number spoofing. They do have call forwarding which is nice when you go on vacation.

 

[Scout]

I have a business that has a website.

I hate these ****ers.

 

[The Big Ragu]

I went to bed last night @ 9:30, because I was going to be waking up at 4:15. I usually don't keep a phone in the bedroom when I got to bed, but for some reason last night, it was sitting on the side table. At 12:40 am, the phone rang. Foreign number. Says "Czechia." As someone who is not a great sleeper, something like that can throw me way off. There was a chance I was up for good. Luckily we both fell back to sleep quickly.

When I first saw it, I thought it was a call from Chechnya. Which would have been a total WTF? It was actually the Czech Republic. Can't imagine what the scam was. Don't want to find out.

 

[MisterCreosote]

We got a landline because the “triple play” was cheaper than just cable/Internet.

We haven’t given the number to anyone, yet the ****ing thing rings constantly — probably a dozen times a day. We’ve had it for a year and haven’t answered it a single ******* time. We put it in my mother-in-law’s room because she still thinks it’s the 1970s.

In 2018, if it’s not my wife or my kids’ school, there’s practically no reason to ever answer the phone, landline or otherwise.

 

[ChrisLong]

I have a land line through the cable system, Cox in this case. When the calls started, I talked with them and asked if I was in some sort of directory. Yes. OK, please take me out of the directory. It costs $1 a month to not be in the directory.

 

[MTM]

We got a landline because the “triple play” was cheaper than just cable/Internet.

We haven’t given the number to anyone ...

We're in the same situation, but fortunately, the phone doesn't ring much while we're home, maybe once a week. We plugged a phone into the wall when we moved in 18 months ago, and it didn't even work. Then, about a year in, it rang with a call from a scammer.

The only time I've used the line was when I couldn't find my cell phone so I called it and listened for the ringtone.

 

[PaperDoll]

I can't remember the last time the ringer on my landline was on. My personal cell ringer isn't usually on either. The work cell rings most often, and that's when the scammers get me because I never know if that random number on the other side of the country might be relevant.

But when the same Iowa number called four times in two days, I reported it to donotcall.gov ... not that it matters.

I wonder who believes a recording saying you don't have health insurance, or that there's a warrant for your arrest, or that your account is going to collections. I usually say "I am on the national do-not-call list. Don't ever call this number again" like the recording was listening.

 

[Huggy]

The scam calls claiming to be from the Canada Revenue Agency claiming there is as warrant for your arrest if you don't have your lawyer call back immediately are pretty prevalent up here these days. I hang up on everyone but the guys claiming to be from the Microsoft office and my computer is sending error messages. I play along until I have had enough and scream in the guy's ear that I have a Mac.

 

[MTM]

My mother's live-in caregiver fell for the computer scam and it was a nightmare. They received hundreds of phone calls until they changed their number and she basically had to get a new computer and change all her accounts.

The heavily-Indian accented caller threatened to have her arrested and thrown in jail if she didn't pay whatever it was they were after and now, a few years later, we still tease her about being imprisoned in New Dehli and whenever we're deciding where to eat, someone will bring up Indian food.

 

[Spartan Squad]

My number is one off from a vet in the same county and I routinely get calls from people who dial the number wrong. I got used to ignoring calls from certain prefixes so when the scammers started, I treated them just the same. Honestly everyone who needs to get ahold of me are either in my contacts already or they leave a message. There are a few exceptions when a local prefix pops up because it's less likely they're calling by mistake. It depends on my mood

 

[playthrough]

I keep getting a call to "extend my car's warranty," I have played along a couple times and they think I drive a Chevy Malibu. I have never owned a Chevy. So I tell them that and they ask me what I drive, offering insurance on that instead. I tell them something like a 1932 Duesenberg or other classic that won't show up in their database, then they get mad and hang up.

 

[Batman]

I keep getting a call to "extend my car's warranty," I have played along a couple times and they think I drive a Chevy Malibu. I have never owned a Chevy. So I tell them that and they ask me what I drive, offering insurance on that instead. I tell them something like a 1932 Duesenberg or other classic that won't show up in their database, then they get mad and hang up.

I've gotten a couple of those, and the cards in the mail warning me that my car's warranty -- complete with the make and model of my vehicle -- is about to expire and I should get their shady extended warranty.
I just laugh, because the car they're saying I desperately need to get extra protection on is a 2018 that I bought in May.

 

[Just the facts ma am]

Meh, it would seem that there would be a simple technological solution to this problem. Rather than excluding ever expanding lists of scammer phone numbers, create a small list of phone numbers that would immediately ring through to your telephones, i. e. relatives, friends, HOA, police etc. The other numbers would not ring on your phone but you could pull up a ongoing email alerts of the messages you recieve from the non-authorized calls.

Allow temporary call through rings using a simple menu system of people you would temporarily want to call through to you, e.g. contractors, exchange students, real estate agents etc.

 

[TigerVols]

You are a fool if you answer an unrecognized call...you are just telling the flies you are real, and inviting them and 100s of their friends to come buzz you.

Half of all mobile calls are expected to be scams in the near future.

Here’s why you’re getting so many spam phone calls

 

[Buck]

One of my cells is my work cell.
Answering it comes with the job.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

I will paraphrase what I posted before: Do Not Disturb is your friend.