What do you do about these pests? I get a series of calls every night between 8 and 9. My answering machine announces the numbers and they are always the same. The answering machine answers, they hang up. Why call over and over and ... Obviously I'm never going to pick up. They just enjoy harassing people? Why do the phone companies let them get away wuth this? Should be easy for the companies to spot them. I get other calls in the mornings. All my friends that I asked have the same problems. Mine is an unlisted number.
I tried a Pro Call Blocker through Amazon but the instructions were terrible and it made several obvious errors. Returned it the next day. Anyone find a blocker that works?
There must be a better, more polite way to sell to (and cheat) people.
Same one calling? If so, you may be able to stop it by answering the phone and tell them to put you on their do not call list. Or just telling them you are not interested. The dialer may be programmed to call until they get a real person.
Many of the calls originate off shore and the phone company and government can do little to stop them. AFAIK, the phone company cannot just tell someone to stop a legal action just because some people are bothered by it. Even if they could, there would be a new number for the outgoing call in minutes.
We have ATT's U-verse and can block such calls, BUT only 20 of them so these A-holes keep faking new numbers. Once in a while, I'll answer (with caller ID blocked): "Federal Trade Commission. How may I direct your call?" This unexpected reply creates a pause on the other end before they start into their worthless spiel. "This is an office of the US federal Government. Who do you want to talk to?" CLICK!
As long as there are fools who respond to these folks, they will continue to try this tactic. Can you blame them? What's the downside: prison time? fines? No, just a "bad reputation".
Our "public" phone number is a Google Voice number that forwards to our "private" number from PhonePower. I don't think we've ever had telemarketer calls to our "private" number, but there is provision to block specific numbers at either point. BUT we keep getting calls from
-- seemingly -- the same telemarketers but with different phone numbers each time, all of them probably "borrowed" anyway; they don't leave messages on the answering machine We just keep adding more and more numbers to our "blocked" list.
As for telling telemarketers to put you on their "do not call" list or that you are already on the official list, I read recently that one such replied, "We'll call whoever we damn well please."
I don't even try as calling numbers are also forged and they just rotate through them.
Pisses me off that the phone company has to know who is doing it and our all pervasive government that only wants to protect us from terrorists don't help.
I tell people that I'm not worried about ISIS as much as my peace being disturbed by these bastards.
My impression is that these are little people working for little wages under terrible conditions.
The phone companies make money on this activity, so don't expect anything from them.
Last 3 times I counted, our ratio of telemarketer calls to legitimate calls was 5:1.
Do Not Call Lists are history - for reasons others may care to elaborate on.
So far, I see only two solutions that have promise:
- Crowd Sourcing: A third party intercepts all of your phone calls and makes a determination on whether they are legitimate. e.g. NoMoRobo Main downside appears to be cost: you have to upgrade your phone service to have CallerID and something called 'Simultaneous Ring'.
- Challenge-Response: You set up your phone service in such a way that a caller gets a message like "Press 1 for Sam, Press 2 for Sue, Press 3 for Jack...." and so-forth. People you know learn to press "9" or something to ring through.
The brass ring would be a gold list where the CallerIDs you specify ring right through.
AFIK, this approach requires you to change your phone service over to the right VOIP provider. I am about *that* close to doing this, but I have not yet gotten comfortable with the 911 issue.... 911 is *supposed* to work w/VOIP, but there are things between me and the correct 911 center that are not present with POTS and those entities are not perfect.
The third solution - which seems like it would work, but I would think has zero chance of being implemented - would be "Caller Pays" - like Euro cell phones. I call you, I get dinged for the cost of the call.... The nice-to-have would be the ability for me, the recipient, to press "*9* or something at the end of the call and have it billed to my own account instead of the caller's.
I get robo calls every day, so we've turned off all the ringers we can turn off, there's the main base unit that can't be turned off, and let the answering machine pick up. Occasionally, we'll check the caller ID in case it may be someone we're expecting a call from on that line. If it's important, they'll leave a msg and we'll call them back. I've started to even get robo calls in my cell phone, and haven't given that number out to anyone but family or the Drs office. So, if I don't recognize the number and they don't leave a msg, I block the number. It's weird how I can block numbers on my cell phone, but can't do it on a land line.
Your options are limited. The phone numbers displayed on your phone are almost certainly spoofed. The callers are trying to scam you, and will therefore not respect the voluntary National Call List, nor will they stop calling you even if you request it.
I've been keeping a list of all junk calls for the past 2 or 3 years because I was interested to see how often the same phone numbers were used, what telemarketing campaigns were out there. I found that most numbers were used only once, that others were used for a period of time
- usually no more than few weeks - and never used again. Frequency of calls seems to go in waves - for a few weeks I'll get several a day, then for a few weeks I may get only a couple a week.
Junk calls are pretty easy to recognize by their caller ID. If they say the name of a city, they are certain to be junk. If they are a long string of numbers, they are junk. This makes them easy to ignore when they do call, though of course just the ringing is a bother.
Many phone systems allow you to block a certain number of specific numbers. Mine, Comcast, has a limit of 25. This is only somewhat useful
- since the number will only be used for a short time, you'll use up your precious allotment on numbers that no longer need to be blocked. OTOH, if *all* your junk calls are from the same number and never any others, the blocking feature alone would be perfect for you.
Until recently I'd been simply ignoring junk calls, but if the same number called 3 or more times, I blocked them. I keep a manual record of when I blocked the number, and I remove the oldest ones when I need more space.
The volume of junk calls had gone down a lot but as of about a month ago it started going way up again. I've gotten tired of playing the game, so I finally resorted to a service I've been wanting to try for quite a while called "Nomorobo"
formatting link
It depends on your phone provider having a feature called "simultaneous ring". The feature lets you set up your main number to also ring at other numbers, like your mobile phone for example. In this case, you have it also ring at Nomorobo, who then checks the calling number against their national list of 'bad guy' numbers, and if it finds a match, it hangs up the call. When a junk caller calls you, your phone will ring once, then no more. A legit call will keep ringing as you would expect. It's free and non-commercial, and seems to be effective - I've had about a dozen junk calls blocked, two were missed, and no "real" calls have been blocked.
I hope that someday there will be an effective way to track down the actual scam telemarketers, but until then, this is the best practical solution I've found.
Just to clarify for those who don't know. Nomorobo itself is free except for businesses. In my case, (FIOS digitial phone), there were no extra charges, Simultaneous ring is part of the package.
I find it hard to accept that the phone companies have to allow phone calls with blocked or faked caller id. (Hey nomorobo just blocked a call as I typed this.) I don't see why Verizon or any other carrier allows faked originating numbers on their network.
Greatest thing since sliced bread. (Really, see my other post, I had a blocked call as I typed the response.) You hear one ring only. All it takes is hearing that one ring in the shower and you'll be very happy.
I think it is part of my VoIP Comcast home phone package but I've yet to use it. We screen by caller id.
I also have a business phone which while connected by FIOS is treated by Verizon like a land line and would cost $5 or so a month to block calls. Equal amount for caller id.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.