Posted on 12/25/2018 4:25:50 AM PST by sodpoodle
With phone spam on the rise, a plucky band is fighting back with practical jokes, air horns and inane conversations about spaghetti
When he gets a robocall, Robert B. Eckhardt doesn’t necessarily hang up. If he isn’t too busy, Dr. Eckhardt, a professor of developmental genetics at Pennsylvania State University, stays on the line and asks random questions, such as, “Do your parents know what you’re doing?”
If he can string the caller along for 10 minutes, Dr. Eckhardt considers it a minor victory in the war against telephone spam.
Most people get annoyed by calls from telemarketers or scam artists. Some try to get even. One tactic is to play dumb. Another is to ask callers to spell their names and drag out the process, trapping them in a futile conversation for as long as possible. (“Is that L as in Lima, Peru? Or L as in Lima, Ohio?”)
James Haefele, a management consultant in Oxford, Conn., subjects suspected scam callers to a blast from his air horn or puts his wisecracking teenagers on the line. When it comes to unwanted calls, he sees two choices: “I’m either going to be mad about this or have some fun with it.”
Despite Do Not Call lists, the shrieking of obscenities and other defenses, rogue calls have only been growing. YouMail Inc., a provider of voice mail and call-blocking services, estimates that robocalls in the U.S. increased to 5.1 billion in November from 2.8 billion in December 2017. That’s nearly 16 calls last month for every single person in the country.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
We have found a solution to the taped/computer (ie non-human) spam calls — via youtube, play the “disconnected line” signal/message. After you hit a few of the taped calls, the spam calls stop.
My mother-in-law has a way with human spam calls... she starts gibbering in “Chinese” such as wing-wow ye-how(modulated low to high pitch). I suppose you could learn an insult phrase in Hindustani and use that!
I understand, but it works for me. I’m pretty selective about who I want to talk to on the phone. My favorites list only covers maybe a dozen people/necessary businesses.
Answer phone.
Put phone down.
Ignore caller until they hang up.
Replace phone.
We can thank the whores we sent to Congress in both political parties for these increased calls.
I wonder how much money was stuffed in whores Ryan, Pelosi, Schumer and O’Connell’s campaign treasure chests to allow these idiots to hsrats us?
Public execution of the violators? Torture them to death on a live interactive video stream. Let the audience submit suggestions for their tortures. Do it under medical supervision so they live a long time.
I’ve actually gotten spam calls in (apparently) Chinese.
If only my life was that simple!
Yes, they set up the law so that political calls are not subject to the federal do-not-call list. And once they get your number, it will be passed around to every other politician of the same party. They won’t leave you alone, and Ted Cruz’s organization is the worst of them.
If everyone would talk to these creeps and waste 5-10 minutes of their time the number of calls would drop off dramatically in a few days.
I get the “Free Vacation With Marriott” calls almost every day. Sounds like they are Mexicans. I respond: “My name is Billy Bob”, “Do i need a passport to go to Mexico?”, “Is this connected to Costco?”.
When they get to the part of their spiel where they talk and won’t let you get a word in edgewise just set the phone down and walk away.
Or if you have the time let them get to where they ask for your credit card info. Tell them to hold on while you get your card (they will). Then give them a number but change a few of the digits.
NICE!
Since I learned they do not call if you won the lotto and you must buy a ticket first...
Turned off ALL notifications, not concerned about the latest anything from The Goog. Ringer off.
If I see the screen flashing I might look, a blue LED blinks for incoming text. With the phone face down, as good as off.
But I will move to your method for the wife and kids.
Good idea.
I use the Do Not Disturb setting on my Android. If you are not in my contacts list, your call does not get through. You can leave a message if you want. If you are a “friendly”, I will put you in my directory for next time.
Best so far is Robot Killer.
Blocks most calls, then uses answer bots to waste their time. This is all recorded and hilarious.
"Ohhhh...you're trying to SELL me something!
I thought you were just another bill collector!"
My brother-in-law keeps it going until a real person comes on and then asks them if they realize that they have called a CIA office and that their number’s being traced right then. They hang up right away.
His other favorite one which is actually pretty good is he strings them along for a minute and then says oh I’ve got to get that phone call on the other line then he lays the phone down and takes a shower and goes about his business and comes back about a half an hour later to see if they’re still on the line
I have my landline through a company called ITP and it’s a VoIP service. It has pretty sophisticated call blocking capabilities and it’s pretty effective. However it isn’t perfect. It’s the spoofed local calls that are really impossible to block. But since my landline is actually a business phone and I don’t do business locally, I never answer local calls I usually just reach over and flick the ringer off. If it happens to be somebody that does have that number they can leave a message.
So wasting his own time on them is a win? Just hang up. And there’s a couple of good sources of blocking.
“Public execution of the violators? Torture them to death on a live interactive video stream. Let the audience submit suggestions for their tortures. Do it under medical supervision so they live a long time.”
Hey! You stole that idea from me!
I’ve done that. It took some time but was well worth it.
Our answering machine advises, “If you’re not a solicitor or a politician, we’ll call you back.”
I have to
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