I’ve done this on occasion especially with Dem political operators.
I just use my block phone number feature and because i don’t live my life through the phone i turn it off most of the time.
I’d love to read it but not going to subscribe to the wall street journal.
If I am in the right frame of mind (eg. being called during dinner), I will sometimes ask how I get rid of the blood stains in the carpet now that the body has been disposed of. Quite often they don’t hang up right away. More like stunned silence.
I use nomorobo to block calls. It works by stopping the calls after one ring - calls from unknown callers. And it does work. Sometimes the occasional robo call gets through but then you just text nomorobo with the caller ID and the phone number of the caller and they will block it the next time.
The numbers are spoofed so that many appear to come from my local area code so blocking them doesn't work. They rarely come from the same number twice.
Got a spam blocking app. That only catches about one in five numbers.
Finally I went to the trouble of Whitelisting my contact list. Here's how you do that.
1.Get a silent ring tone.
2.Set the silent ring tone as default.
3.Set no vibrate as default.
Now the hard part....
4.Go through your contact list and set each contact its own ring tone other than default.
There Whitelisted!
Problem....If someone from a business says that they will call when, for instance, a product comes in. You have to make sure that the number that they will call from is in your contact list otherwise you'll never get the call.
Second problem....when I'm in the car the car's bluetooth connection has its own ringtone so the spam comes through although without contact information so you'll know what it is.
ATT has an app that catches many of the spam robocalls and shows a alert when the phone is ringing....my wife often answers the unknown caller calls with, “Police department, fraud division, how may I help you?”. She gets a kick at all the quick hangups...I sometimes engage such a caller in conversation and ask lots of questions just to frustrate them....I usually don’t bother picking p but there are times when I’m expecting a not-in-my-contacts call and have no choice....when they ask if I’m so-and-so, I respond with, “Who am I speaking with and what is the purpose of the call...”then hang up while they’re trying to figure out how to respond....not as satisfying as loading a AARP envelope with bulk materials to increase their postage charge but it’s something.
I’ve had incredible fun with telemarketing callers. I mean, really....
Best ever was the guy who imitated a homicide detective to a spam caller. Epic
A deeply voiced, slow and moist, “What’re ya wearin’?” usually gets rid of ‘em.
Caller id and the “do not call” list are now completely useless. The callers display a fake number, not their real number. The fake number is often that of a known business. I have received calls showing the number of the SSA, ATT, my cell phone, numbers belonging to real humans in the vicinity with the same exchange as me.
It serves no purpose to block these. You’re blocking the real owner of the number.
I favor public execution of the violators.
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!
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?
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.
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.
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