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.
“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”.
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?
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.
Precisely why all calls to my phone that are not from my contacts list go directly to voice mail. If the call is important, they will leave a message. Telemarketers won’t take the time to do that.
BTW, I’m getting a lot of calls selling extended car warranties. Some even on a car I disposed of over two years ago.
What you really meant. If not, it's still a great idea.
We have phone service through the cable company - I’ve noticed for quite a while now, when a number shows up, it often has “Scam?” before the number.
The cable company aside, we use a “Smart Call Blocker” system phone. A lightning strike knocked out our phones and we had to get new ones - bought some wireless phones from AT & T that came with “Smart Call Blocker”. Since most calls are computer dialed, they cannot respond when the SCB instructs them to press the # sign if they are an invited family, friend or business. The phone does NOT ring until the # sign is used. Very occasionally, a real (scam) person will be on the line & will use the # sign ... I would say, at most, we maybe get 6 of those a year, if that, & they go to the answering machine when we don’t recognize the number.
If we are leaving a message for someone to call us back (like a doctor’s office), I will tell them that if they get the SCB, just press # to get through and they don’t have any trouble reaching us.
If a number is in your address book or on an “allowed” list, it rings right through, no # needed. We can also block up to 1,000 numbers - have rarely used it since scammers change numbers constantly.
This is a VERY effective system - we are not bothered by scam calls.
For VoIP/SIP calls, it is up to the phone service provider due to new regulations which I beleive need to be in place by June of 2023 (the date keeps changing). Search for more info on Stir/Shaken. And while this regulation will not specically stop those calls, it should identify them in the caller ID as ‘spoofed’ or ‘spam’ or something similar. A ‘spoofed’ call is a legitimate number hijacked by the robo caller and often changes. Where the ‘spam’ is usually the same number or origination point used repeatedly for robo calling. Robo callers purchase a list of numbers to use so that is also why the numbers change for the same spam call as they purchase them in bulk. The gov has now said the phone service providers must address these calls going out of their system via subscribing to a 3rd party gov entity to recieve a ‘token’ which identifies the service providers calls as being legit. It is now up to the service provider to verify the usage of their numbers. IMO, it’s a bassackwards way of combatting spam and robo calls, but that’s the government for ya.
1. On Federal Do Not Call List, just get more calls.
2. AT&T wants money for an app to reduce robocalls. Requires AT&T ActiveArmor Advanced for $3.99 per month!
3. Phone companies sell phone numbers lists to telemarketers. I have called small telephone companies and spoke to them about buying numbers to use.
So apparently Robocalls are not the only Scam in the process..... Federal and Phone companies also are in on the problem. Feds get another department funded, Phone Companies another source of revenue. Almost makes you wonder who really is behind this?
I agree 100%.
You will shortly be hearing the libertarian argument that these are private companies, and that you have been given a number to call by an overactive government to get on a “don’t call” list, and if that doesn’t work, take the time to write a complaint letter to the FCC.
Stopping this piecemeal destruction of the US interpersonal communication system is ABSOLUTELY within the scope of the national government. That the Congress will not act to control this is, I presume, that they are being bribed.
Good post.
It could be stopped overnight by legislation and phone company technology.
Why isn’t it?
Because then it would also block robocalls from politicians and charities.
We are in a zero trust scenario. Block all numbers until you know it is trusted. Then add it to your contacts list.