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Spam calls - Freepers, how do you handle?
none ^ | 3/5/25 | Dad was my hero

Posted on 03/05/2025 5:44:39 PM PST by Dad was my hero

Over the last 2 and 1/2 weeks I've been getting about 3 spam calls per day. The numbers all show as local and they aren't the same so blocking one doesn't help. They all begin the same way, someone says "hello" and if I answer they start their spiel (a recorded spiel) about having sent me mail about medicare. If I hang up then the next one will be sometime in the next couple hours. If I don't answer it goes to VM and they don't leave a VM, still doesn't matter as I can expect another either that day or the next. Often I make the connection but don't say anything and eventually they disconnect. Still makes no difference. Some numbers not in my directory are from my wife's hospice provider so I am never sure if the call is from one of them. However if it is one of them they leave me a VM.

I haven't tried this yet but am considering, I have a compressed air boat horn in my garage and am considering going to the garage for the next one, making the connection then blasting it. Of course if it is one of her hospice providers It'll likely scare the hell out of them.

I looked at Robo Killer in the app store but it's $10/month. If it was $2/month I might spring for it but $120/yr seems excessive. But I am considering it as I'm becoming desperate (and pissed).

I'd like to hear from other freepers about what if anything they do or recommend. Thanks.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: spam; vanity
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To: Rurudyne

I had that happen a couple times. I was greatly worried it was me calling myself from the future. Didn’t think I wanted to listen to anything I would have to say about the future, I’d rather wait and see what happens. So didn’t bother answering.


141 posted on 03/05/2025 8:33:24 PM PST by Max_850
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To: SaveFerris

Oh lord, lol. I think that is super funny. AND also super serious.

That was a thought-provoking idea.


142 posted on 03/05/2025 8:41:47 PM PST by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2025... RETURN OF THE JEDI...)
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To: Dad was my hero

My phone usually identifies spam risk so I don’t answer. If I don’t recognize the number I don’t answer. If its important they’ll leave a message. No law says you have to answer your phone.


143 posted on 03/05/2025 8:41:59 PM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: Dad was my hero

Block block block, my friend. If you’re on a cell.


144 posted on 03/05/2025 8:43:59 PM PST by Bullish (...And just like that I was kicked off the Ping list.)
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To: Dad was my hero

We’ve been getting calls from people wanting to buy our house. Finally we started telling them, $3M in gold in an offshore account, and “Click”. They don’t call as often.


145 posted on 03/05/2025 8:46:29 PM PST by OrioleFan (Republicans believe every day is July 4th, Democrats believe every day is April 15th.)
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To: OrioleFan

“We’ve been getting calls from people wanting to buy our house. Finally we started telling them, $3M in gold in an offshore account, and “Click”. They don’t call as often”

I have been getting a lot of texts from those folks and the “unpaid toll tag charges.” I took the French taunt from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, put it in a Russian translator and text that back to them. That slowed them down a bunch. (^;


146 posted on 03/05/2025 8:54:10 PM PST by Clay Moore (My pistol identifies as a cordless hole punch. )
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To: taxcontrol

Where do i get that tone?


147 posted on 03/05/2025 9:08:42 PM PST by jdirt
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To: Clay Moore

I’ve been getting the toll spam text every few days. It’s obviously a scam because the number shown it comes from has a Philippines country code 2 digit prefix.

Pretty sure I haven’t forgotten to pay for my toll road driving in Manila.


148 posted on 03/05/2025 9:09:21 PM PST by John Milner (Marching for Peace is like breathing for food.)
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To: John Milner

Once this whole politicians scamming the citizens for Trillions of dollars thing gets tamped down a bit by the DOGE group, I’d love to get them over into the FCC and let them work on figuring a way to end Spam calls and texts.


149 posted on 03/05/2025 9:11:14 PM PST by John Milner (Marching for Peace is like breathing for food.)
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To: Dad was my hero

My spam calls are all about medicare, all Indians with common American names and all end at that point when I just hang up. Shame on the American phone companies for allowing these calls to look local when they are almost certainly n ot.


150 posted on 03/05/2025 9:20:41 PM PST by Midwesterner53
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To: Dad was my hero

If your not in my private directory you go in to voice mail.


151 posted on 03/05/2025 9:27:16 PM PST by Keyhopper (Indians had bad immigration laws)
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To: Some Fat Guy in L.A.

We have tried not answering the phone.....for months yet the calls still keep coming. We have been getting these calls for years. Mostly pushing Medicare advantage. Recently, as soon as a real person gets on the line, I continually ask them who is paying for all this free stuff they promise? They usually hang up on me. Then I lay the phone down without hanging up on our end. I will leave it off the hook for a good 30 minutes or longer. OR if I don’t say any of that, I holler in the phone...I hope DOGE defunds you! They hang up on that too. LOL

Yes, we have tried it all...saying they reached the local police, jail, store, etc. I have even put the phone up to my dog and egg her on to bark. Answering or not, those stupid calls still keep coming. Dozens per day, every day!

I did leave a suggestion on the DOGE site to please investigate where money comes from for all these Medicare scammer calls. Hopefully, one day soon, the funding will be cut off?


152 posted on 03/05/2025 9:30:39 PM PST by bohica1
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To: Dad was my hero

Set your phone to only ring, or messages to go through, for those in your contact list


153 posted on 03/05/2025 9:42:39 PM PST by boxlunch
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To: Dad was my hero

Those numbers being “blocked” could cause an issue because they may be real local numbers just being falsely used to show on the caller ID but did not actually come from those numbers at all. You could end up blocking legitimate calls.


154 posted on 03/05/2025 9:50:50 PM PST by Republican Wildcat
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To: RummyChick

Back in my day phones were for calling each other and not replacements for learning and real human contact. They weren’t used for sales harassment long before cell phones displaced land lines as we had a service (now useless) that put you on a Do Not Call list.

But I get to cheat. Those who know I can’t physically speak know to text me so all phone calls are blissfully ignored until I look at them. And laugh.


155 posted on 03/05/2025 9:51:49 PM PST by MikelTackNailer (Back in my day Tick Tock came from the clock - and we LIKED it that way!)
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To: taxcontrol

What’s an “answering machine “?


156 posted on 03/05/2025 10:05:18 PM PST by RitchieAprile (available monkeys looking for the change..)
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To: Dad was my hero

consider yourself lucky.

I get the same calls about 50 times a day...without exaggeration.
I have listed my number with the FCC and the Florida SoS. And
still the robots find me. All of whom have a distinctly Indian
accent.

I welcome any advice from FReepers short of changing my phone
number.


157 posted on 03/05/2025 10:07:34 PM PST by T. Rustin Noone
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To: Dad was my hero

HIGH DECIBEL SWEARING if a live person.

IF a robo call-—JUST HANG UP


158 posted on 03/05/2025 10:08:59 PM PST by ridesthemiles (not giving up on TRUMP---EVER)
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To: Dad was my hero

Bump for later


159 posted on 03/05/2025 10:32:41 PM PST by Bob434 (...Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana)
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To: Dad was my hero

Caller ID which gets announced on the phone speaker- if we don’t know the person calling, or haven’t requested info- we just let it go tk recording- if they don’t wanna say anything, oh well, must not have been important as far as we’re concerned.


160 posted on 03/05/2025 10:34:37 PM PST by Bob434 (...Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana)
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