Posted on 06/06/2022 5:12:21 PM PDT by Jim Noble
I recently discontinued cable TV, which also provided phone service.
I decided to get a wireline service, mostly because it works when the power goes off.
Problem: 99% of the calls are robocalls.
I looked into how to stop this, which (according to the internet) is expensive, difficult, and something about which the FCC and the rest of the State is powerless.
This seems absurd to me. Why can't this practice be outlawed, and its practitioners be executed?
I don’t answer either my landline or my cell phone, unless I recognize the ID. Since you can block numbers, it seems a bit harsh to execute robocall practitioners.
Lately I just answer and stay silent. After a while they hang up.
If you have a landline get a phone that has a built-in answering machine. Turn the volume of the ringer down to zero. When the phone rings you’ll know it by the light blinking for an incoming call, but there is no ring. Since all in-coming calls immediately go to voice mail, you can answer if it’s a call you want or ignore it if it’s a call you don’t want.
You can also do that if you have caller ID: If you know the caller, you can answer; if you don’t know the caller, you can ignore it.
I'm talking about my landline.
I've had my number since 1987.
I thought you had gotten a new land line.
I use RoboKiller. It is hilarious. It sets up a call where there are random responses. One sound like a Russian. Another pretends to be from Area 51 in a secure line. Another is a drunk. They record it for you for hilarious playback. BTW if the call in suspected spam it doesn’t ring your phone.
I bought the phone set with answering machine and call blocking but you have to keep up with it they keep changing their numbers ,LOL
Major Fines — The FCC has taken aggressive enforcement actions in recent years against telemarketers for apparent illegal caller ID spoofing and robocalling.
These included the largest FCC fine ever – $225 million – against Texas-based health insurance telemarketers for apparently making approximately 1 billion illegally spoofed robocalls...
a $120 million fine for illegal “neighbor” spoofing by a Florida-based time-share marketing operation
an $82 million fine against a North Carolina-based health insurance telemarketer
a $37.5 million fine of an Arizona marketer which apparently made millions of spoofed calls that appear to come from consumers
The FCC also proposed a $45 million robocall fine – the largest ever under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act – against a company that conducted an apparently illegal robocall campaign to sell health insurance under the pretense that the annual enrollment period had been reopened due to the coronavirus pandemic
Whenever I answer robocalls — and I seldom do — I always just shout “What?” repeatedly. The person on the other end always shouts back “Can you hear me?” louder and louder until they hang up. It’s actually amusing to hear their frustration.
Here is what I have done:
( Note ) These Robocalls are activated by your voice. When you answer and if you say, “Hello,” or some such, that triggers the Robocall machine to start talking.
Any call of a number which I do not know, and the called ID says, “possible scam/spam,” I simply answer the telephone, either landline or cell, and say nothing. After 10 - 15 seconds I hear a click, meaning that the calling number has auto-disconnected. That number never calls my number ever again. ;-)
I read the FCC 5/24 press release, and it hit one of my sore spots right away: "U.S. consumers received nearly 4 billion robocalls per month in 2020"
When I relate to any part of my government, I am not a "consumer". I am a citizen.
And my government should not be acting as a referee between a "consumer" and a "merchant". This mischaracterizes the problem.
Yes, it's old fashioned to be on a copper loop. Yes, I also have a cell phone, which accounts for 99% of my call traffic. But my landline works on a low-voltage circuit invented by Alexander Goddam Bell that stays on when the power goes off.
But I'm old fashioned because I'm old. The phone ringing is a signal to me - son, father, grandfather, doctor - that somebody might need me, that something might be wrong.
There's an FCC because the Congress decided, a long time ago, to regulate this form of interstate commerce.
Why should I have to spend time, spend money, buy new equipment, sign up for another non-functional quasi-governmental thing called the "no call list"?
I want my Congress to ban this and execute the offenders. Nothing less will do.
Mere execution is too good for them.
My number was ported to my cable provider before I reverted to a landline. It was an original New England Telephone/NYNEX number that went through various Congress bribers before my cable sojurn.
When I pick up the phone, there is silence, then a “blurp” sound. I never speak. I just hang up.
I should try the auto-disconnect after 15 seconds.
When we got locked down, we started getting 30 robocalls a day or more. Got one of these and they dropped to zero,
https://www.amazon.com/Effective-ROBOCALLS-Scammers-Telemarketers-Solicitors/dp/B019ERMS90
Take your fifth amendment right to remain silent.
If it is a real call someone will say "hello?"
If it is a robo call you will hear a "click".
Your number is now in their data base as a dead line.
After a bit the calls will taper off and stop.
Why can't this practice be outlawed, and its practitioners be executed?
My husband has the same question about identity thieves.
I have no good answer except that people would probably call you to whine about it.
No, do not reply STOP to spam texts. Now they know it is a legit #.
Take your fifth amendment right to remain silent.
If it is a real call someone will say "hello?"
If it is a robo call you will hear a "click".
Your number is now in their data base as a dead line.
After a bit the calls will taper off and stop.
Why can't this practice be outlawed, and its practitioners be executed?
My husband has the same question about identity thieves.
I have no good answer except that people would probably call you to whine about it.
What's that going to do for you? Anyone can spoof a number. Not to mention, probably every phone line already has it.
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