I may be just a grumpy old man but

[The Daring Dufas]

No sane person would want to interfere with emergency services and personally I would feel pretty bad if I was responsible for someone getting hurt because I tied up 911 service but there are other government numbers like the non-emergency number HeyBub said he used. O_o

TDD

[Stormin Mormon]

The cops jailed him for false reporting?

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

.

It's sort of like the guy who told the police his infant was in his car when it was stolen. The cops pulled out all the stops to find the guy's car but no child was found. He told them that if he hadn't told them his kid was in the car, the police wouldn't have done anything more than file a report. HeyBub's ploy may be similar, the authorities won't take action unless it affects them directly. O_o

TDD

[Kurt Ullman]

I use my fax any more mostly outgoing and then on a couple of times a month, so I use my regular phone line. I have been known to keep the fax plugged in, answer the phone without saying anything, and if no response of an obvious junk response, I hit the fax machine, they get a signal and (hopefully) take me off the list.

[Stormin Mormon]

Have you read the Watchtower, lately?

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

.

A little less drastic is the "Have you found The Way" gambit. Have you been saved? Are you right with Jesus? "Yeah, verily, sayeth the Lord....." etc. ;)

nb

[DerbyDad03]

Let's recap...

HeyBub listed 3 options:

1 - 911 2 - Police non-emergency 3 - Rat Abatement bureau

You said:

"HeyBub's ploy may be similar, the authorities won't take action unless it affects them directly"

I assume you'll agree that the first 2 of HeyBub's (BTW, he's winning again) suggestions should never be used. Even the Police non-emergency staff have more than enough to do without fielding calls from telemarketers or political parties because people like HeyBub are giving their number out.

Now, as for the Rat Abatement bureau, do you think they would be considered an "authority" that can/would take action against the robocalls? Not any more than a water district, a parks and rec department, a public works department or any other non-emergency department would. All you would be doing is annoying them instead of being annoyed yourself.

Seems to me that there are a couple of numbers that could be used:

1 - If you really think that sending the calls to an "authority" would help, then use the number of the Federal Trade Commision (1-877-FTC- HELP) since they manage the National Do Not Call Registry. Using any other agency's number, non-emergency or not, is not only a waste of time and resources, but makes the offender just as bad, if not worse, than the telemarketers themselves.

2 - Compile a list of robocall numbers from your call log and use them. Let them call each other. ;-)

[HeyBub]

Yes

Personal anecdotes or possibilities have no place in any decision process.

You make a good point, though, about 911 being possibly overburdened. That may very well be true in your neighborhood. In mine, the 911 operators have a lot of crossword puzzle time.

[clare]

Pay at the pump required the ZIP code - Canadian postal codes not accepted.

[clare]

Affirmation

[clare]

Tried several ov them in both (IIRC) indiana and michigan. Didn't work. American Zip codes are numbers only - cannot enter Alpha characters on a numeric keyboard - so the postal code with extra zeros was a non-starter.