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.
SheepWhisperer wrote: “A number of years ago, I created a voice mail greeting using a video such as this...”
My voice mail message is this: “You have reached my voice mail because you are not in my Contacts List. If you are a telemarketer sellomg life insurance, Medicare Advantage plans, Home Warranties, or extended car warranties, pleae press 9 to be added to my Do Not Call List. If your some one else, please leave a message and I may return your call if it seems important.”
Ahhh, yes!! I DO have a brother somewhere!
The hardest part for me is keeping a straight face or, keeping my wife from laughing out loud..
Tom Mabe rules with the “homicide scene” prank on YouTube!
Yup. We really don’t need a landline. I had to get one while I was still working. The phone rang constantly. This system put a stop to it. Some of our friends get frustrated and hang up. We call them back.
“My new technique is to talk to them in an obscure foreign language.”
Now that sounds like fun—I am thinking Gaelic might work.
But—according to Wikipedia I would have to decide which one of the six dialects to use.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaelic
;-)
Many websites have a “Are you a robot?” test.
Caller:
Your number is not on my contact list. What is my name?
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
some phone services have do not ring/answer callers not on your contact list
this setting has reduced my spammers to about zero
The Indian spam I loved were the ones telling me my car warranty expired. Then after expressing my horror, I’d get to tell them my cars are a 67 Camaro, a 57 Bel Air and a 49 Chevy pickup. And that I was eager to renew my warranties.
They called over and over.
Says he talks to them. If a person speaks he can blow-out the bad guys ears.
That is because they are. Most are based in India and want to steal your money with various scams. This guy and a few others make a living out of scamming the scammers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJOWiWFNlzA
Stopped calls to me.
My phone number (‘you’ it says) has won the publishers clearing house 2.5 million dollar prize.
They left a call back number and everything.
Only if there is a human on the receiving end. Useless for robo calls.
Years go I had the greeting on my answering machine that said,
“I bought this machine so I wouldn’t have to talk to anyone I don’t like, leave a message and if I don’t call you back guess what”
Last year, I “cleverly” hired a very well known film & TV character actor to do a custom voice intro for me and my company. It’s funny and memorable, but it backfired because telemarketers call twice in a row just to hear it again or play it for their friends.
$700 a month on com services?
Start solving your problem by being less accessible and changing your phone numbers.
So, you think the telephone system has a wide dynamic range, huh? It doesn't.
People who rely on the Feds to take action are a major part of the problem.
I remember when I was first issued a company cell phone, about eighteen years ago. I had been carrying a personal phone but only ever received calls from less then a dozen people. So I got rid of the personal phone and used the company phone exclusively.
It was such an annoyance to be working on a problem and have the phone ring, only to discover that it was a robocall inviting me to listen to some sob story or buy some crap.
So I adopted the same strategy I had previously employed with my personal phone of only answering the thing if caller ID showed it to be a legitimate caller. The strategy worked well. I routinely advised coworkers and customers of my policy and assured them that I would take their calls - as long as I knew it was them. The coworkers that blocked their number from caller ID would need to leave a message and I would promptly respond.
One day my boss overheard me advising a coworker of this policy and had a cow. She told me that I must answer all calls. I replied, "Just because a phone rings doesn't mean that it must be answered" and explained my policy of ignoring blocked callers but responding to messages and reminded her of how she had never received a complaint because all of my customers shared my antipathy to spam callers. She expressed her reservations but allowed me to continue my cell phone policy. That policy was unofficially adopted by most of my crew.
The problem started in earnest when cell phones appeared. They are the bane of civilization. Perhaps they are the Biblical 999 or 666, whichever. ;-D
> People who rely on the Feds to take action are a major part of the problem. <
I see your point. But the huge majority of these scam calls are actually criminal in nature. So it is not unreasonable to expect the government to take some sort of police action against them.
There are guys on YouTube who are jamming those call centers, and disrupting their operations. Maybe the Feds could spare a few agents from spying on us and do the same.
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