Posted on 05/15/2019 7:26:26 AM PDT by Sgt_Schultze
As robocall numbers continue to skyrocket, the FCC is fighting back, proposing new ways for phone companies to crack down on unwanted calls. NBC’s Tom Costello takes a look at a new tool that can hopefully keep your phone from ringing.
Click here to watch the video report
If I represented the rap coalition of America, your idea would be fully supported.
On my VOIP phone, when I block a call, the next time they call, my software sends a ‘number disconnected message” which their software recognizes and then removes my number from the lists. Between Nomorobo and that technique, I get very few bad calls.
Last election cycle the phone rang at about 10pm. I don’t know about most people, but for us that’s very late, and can only mean bad news from our friends/family.
Not this one, though. It was from some political poll. I don’t even remember which one. I just know at that hour, having already been asleep, I grabbed the phone w/o looking at the caller ID.
This woman starts into her questions, and I stopped her, asking if she knew the local time where she was calling. Yes, she said, We like to call later at night because there’s a better chance people will be home.
So I asked her why not call at 2am when even MORE people might be at home? Then I said it was a little late to be calling and maybe had she called before 8pm that w/b better and elicit more honest responses. She told me as a political poll they didn’t have to follow the 8pm rule like other telemarketers. I tried to explain it wasn’t a matter of rules, it was a matter of decency.
Then I hung up on her.
We use this with very good results:
The factory setting is to allow all calls & you block the ones you don’t want - you can block by area code, area code/exchange, or area code/exchange & as many of the last 4 digits as you want to use.
We were getting unpredictable calls from all over the US so I used the option to BLOCK all calls. Then I “invited” our local area code and any relatives that are out of state. Within our area code, any calls that are annoying are blocked by exchange or 1-4 of the last digits, that specific number or even by ‘name’. We get very few calls .... I see the ones that are blocked and it’s up to 10 a day sometimes.
The slobs show you a false number. Blocking the false number is illogical, because it’s a false number. I get numerous calls from my area code and my local exchange, and most are fake, but I don’t block those. I let them go to voice mail and then determine if they are worthwhile or not.
A “white list” is as useless as the “do not call list.”
The other day I got so many fake calls within 3 hours that I set up my voice recorder, and wrote down a spiel that I will use in responding to the call. I will ask them for more information, and then give them false information about me. I will pretend to be half deaf, and misunderstand what they are saying, and ask them to repeat it, thus annoying the hell out of them. I will record the entire call and then post it for friends to laugh over.
I would go for public execution of offenders.
It’s gotten so bad on my cell that I leave Do Not Disturb on. Only my contacts get through.
If we have a law to prevent thee calls and we seem unable to enforce it than we need technology to prevent it.
Basically, if you don’t leave a message, you aren’t getting a call back.
I have told this to people but they just don’t get that blocking does no good. I’m with you. Do Not Disturb all the way.
I use Nomorobo for $20 a year. It is pretty good but not perfect.
sheana wrote: “I have told this to people but they just don’t get that blocking does no good. I’m with you. Do Not Disturb all the way.”
I must have received 20 calls from some one wanting to save me money on the interest on credit cards. Really funny, I never carry a balance.
I would get a call and then block that number. A day or two later I would get the same call from a different number. Rinse and repeat. Do Not Disturb works.
Thanks to you both for your replies. :)
https://www.texastribune.org/2019/05/08/telemarketing-texas-house-fake-caller-id/
Texas is taking steps to make it illegal to fake your caller-ID.
companies selling apps to identify who is calling, or selling apps to block unwanted calls, are almost certainly the ones doing this, relying on people’s curiosity, or anger. Who else would have a vested interest in this? Don’t reward them by buying the apps, just ignore the phone calls from anyone you don’t know.
Not everyone has the time to do this, but my way of dealing with it is to listen all the way through, punch the buttons until I get a real person on the line, then lay the phone down and let them talk until they realize they are talking to a counter top. It wastes their time and since someone did actually answer the phone they don’t pass the number on to some unknown list. It does not stop the calls, but it does keep the number of calls down to the same callers, and i’m getting only 2 or 3 a day.
I expect Texas will find it to be unenforceable.
It is terrible here in Canada as well. About 4 times from same 844 number. I was tricked into a call from my area code where the caller said “Wow, I got a real person this time”, but the more I engaged in the call the more suspicious I became that this TOO was in fact a robot talking to me. It was from MADD Canada, apparently. They then sent me to their financial team to take my donation, and I think the person there as well was a robot. I even went to look for my wallet and came back and the “person”, said “Hello, are you ready to give me your credit card number”. I then hung up getting a bad feeling about the call.
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