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.
Use Jolly Roger bot.
Text scams are on the uptick as well.
Have a whistle next to your phone. Blow the whistle into the phone when one of those scammers call.
Will blow out an eardrum, causing great pain.
They likely won’t stop but it is worth a try.
Also, do not answer any calls, if it’s important they will leave a message.
If a scammer call they won’t.
Not answering will eventually help stop the calls because your number will be considered inactive.
Because you answer you ensure they know someone is there and they will continue calling and will sell your active number to other phone scammers.
The Feds are useless; they are too busy finding ways to get Trump and people who won’t let their daughters shower with men.
“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.”
This would work.
Also, public execution of those who make phone calls from bogus caller id numbers.
My rule of thumb is to never speak to scammers, nor let their calls go to voicemail. I will answer, remain silent, then let the caller hang up. More times than not, this will stop the repeats after a call or two. I also do this because of the remote chance the call is actually legit.
I tried ignoring them and the number of calls increased.
I assigned a ringtone to friends and family and ignore the defaulted ringtone rings.
I then go and block all those unanswered calls and it seems to work.
T-Mobile many times will warn that it is a likely scam call.
Consider the federal “Do not Call” registry is a complete failure. Yet the program costs the taxpayers $200 million per year apparently employing bureaucrats who do nothing.
Yet the same federal government that cannot find and shut down these call centers scamming millions of citizens is daily using sophisticated high technology tools to spy at will on US citizens in violation of the Constitution.
The truth is, if the federal government wanted to shut down the scammers it could within a matter of a few days. The key question is, how much money generated by the call centers makes it back to Congress and “the big guy”.
I have a recording of a fax machine answering the call. I put the phone next to the speaker and hit play. Seems to have helped some.
The way the DSC names things the opposite to which they really are, the DoNotCall registry is probably in reality a “Call THIS number” registry.
Clever
Robots don't have eardrums.
LOL…
Your first mistake was answering a call from a number that you didn’t recognize. If it’s that important, they can leave a message. I rarely get a scam call.
Thus, I turned this nusicance into a vigilante-like hobby.
When the scammers call, I frequently let it go to voicemail. I have important things to do....like read Laz's posts or link to memes.
If I'm in a particularly good (or peeved) mood, game on. See, the longer I keep them on the phone, the less time they have to swindle elderly folks or good people who don't know any better. It's a small act of justice.
I will give them my name (often it's Graham Chapman or John Cleese, esq, but on occasion they'll be talking to Nigel Tufnell or John Bonham). My adresss is either 1313 Mockingbird Lane in Intercourse, PA or 1060 West Addison in Chicago.
Sometimes they haven't a clue they're being pwned and it goes on for minutes. Sometimes they curse me out and hang up. In either case, they stop calling me and someone's grandparent is spared.
There are people on Twitch and YouTube that make a living scamming the scammers. They're national treasurers.
Many websites have a “Are you a robot?” test.
Caller:
Your number is not on my contact list. What is my name?
My friend Don loves to talk to people. He’ll keep them on the phone like a cat holds onto a mouse.
Stop. Responding.
If you pick up the line or respond to a text, they know there’s a phish on the other end.
I go through occasional gluts, but they are ignored by the phone automatically anymore and none of them leave messages.
I fixed our scam caller problem cheap. I bought a $59 ATT wireless phone on Amazon. It came with a secure screening option. Anyone who calls must press # and say their name before the ringer goes off. It announces who’s calling. Then I have the option to accept the call or not. It has the option to add known phone numbers to an accept list that circumvents security. It blocks 100% of the automated calls.
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