Posted on 01/21/2023 5:30:06 AM PST by owainG31
Yesterday I broke the current household record for war dialer phone scammer calls at 61, the previous record was Thanksgiving Day 2022 with 60. All of these calls are using forged caller IDs and basically unblockable because the numbers change every call. While I originally just ignored them, I went through the usual Lenny Bruce phases of coping, from talking to the callers (almost exclusively from India but with names like George, Ralph, Gladys and Candi) to pretending I myself was Indian or Chinese, to telling them I was going to give their call history to IBI. All that happened is they've recycled my number over and over again to the point I had to install a call sentry system and turn off all my ringers.
But now the game is different. I want to know why the phone companies aren't puting in a callerID validation system to stop all calls coming from a forged number. I could care less about phone-based advertisers starving. The insurance brokers who hired these ass clowns to sell upgrades to Medicare should be arrested for telecommunications fraud and castrated.
All the phone companies have to do is this: set up a verification process which blocks the incoming call until an encrypted cookie is sent back to the source number and returned to the destination number. The whole process takes maybe one nanosecond. Numbers which don't return the cookie are deemd to be fraudulent and the call is dropped.
But apparently the phone companies don't care what their account holders are being subjected to, and meanwhile the little monkeys running these operations, which have called me anywhere from 6am to 1030pm with repeated calls if I dare answer, are just happy as clams. They're even claiming their from the US Government.
My strongest possible suggestion is this: pass the law barring forged caller IDs, make the phone companies take action, and hunt down these insurance brokers and throw them in jail for perpetrating a denial fo service attack on telecomm infrastructure. I spend about $700 a month on combined services, cell, home and internet access, and now it's become more of an annoyance than an inconvenience.
It seems to increase the # of calls, maybe by providing scammers with a list!
Do you have a landline of smartphone?
I formerly used a call blocker unit ... that got nuked by the lightning strike as well. When we bought the new phone with the SCB, I was still thinking I’d have to buy another additional call blocker unit (Digitone) and I was more than pleasantly surprised at how effective SCB was.
I don’t think people realize (I didn’t) how many of the calls, virtually 100%, are dialed by computer ... robo calls. SCB answers & with no # forthcoming from the computer, the call gets a hang up AND your phone DOES NOT RING! It’s pretty wonderful, actually. I highly recommend the Smart Call Blocker system - just push a couple of buttons on the ‘menu’ to set it up. You’ll probably have numbers in the ‘phone book’ on the phone ... those automatically get through. You also have an “allowed” list that can get through, too. Any REAL person just has to press # ... you can set it up where they have an extra step to pressing # & that is to give their name, which is then announced when the call goes through. We don’t do the extra step & have had no issues ... rarely (couple times a year tops), someone we don’t want to talk to presses # and we just let them go to the answering machine.
Yikes! That's more than a car payment. A car payment for a luxury car at that.
I have no landlines and no cable TV. Nor any streaming services except what comes with Amazon Prime. I can get pretty much any content I want with high speed Internet and a Roku box. I also have a mobile phone with unlimited data. Total is around $250/mo.
If you have a desktop and install a cheap modem and use a splitter to plug in LL phone line to it, and install Phone free 1.39 (I have it) then you can set it to zap and not notify you of spam calls. Plus it can keep a record of all incoming calls. One reason i use Windows, thank God.
Verizon is my carrier, and I use their call filter. I have it set so that the only calls that ring, are those in my contacts. It blocks most other calls, and it silences questionable calls, which I then go in and block manually. I finally got rid of my Spectrum land line earlier this year. Despite using their call filters via my online account page, I’d get nothing but spam calls. Had turned off the ringer a few years prior as all I got was spam calls on it. I’d kept it because I figured my monthly bill would be cheaper because I also had internet and cable from them. When I cancelled their cable and the home phone in May, the representative told me that had I cancelled my phone service, my bill would have actually gone down. When Spectrum took over Time Warner, their customer service went to hell.
I stopped the phone scammers and spammers dead in their tracks.
I do not have a phone, neither land line nor cell.
I answer the phone and don’t say anything. I then set my phone aside without hanging up. Sometimes I forget all about it for hours before finally hanging up. Since doing this, my spam calls have been reduced by quite a lot. I have no idea why this has worked for me. It was suggested to me by a friend.
You COULDN’T care less. Could care less means exactly that.
PS: just don’t answer numbers you don’t recognize.
I registered with the Federal “Do Not Call” registry very early in its inception. Not only did it not stop the volume of spam calls, their number increased exponentially. I had to wonder if some Federal employees were not on the take to actually give your name (and thousands of others’ names) and number to the spam call centers for a nice fat bribe.
All your stated points are very true.
I never answer a call from an unknown number.
I have a friend that enjoys blowing an harmonica into the ears of telemarketers. It drives his dog crazy but I think it’s worthwhile.
Thank you!
“I COULD care less is so annoying.”
What would be funny is if they synced the tones and you would send them an annoying fax. Not sure what it would say. But something like sign this and I will talk to you for $10 a minute. Payable immediately at @paymetotalk
You’re getting so many because you keep answering them.
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