What household item can I use to make a record loud noise into the phone?

[Terry]

I have had it with being polite to this company. I have asked them to put me on the do not call list. I have my number on the national do not call list. I have reported the number to web site. They still call.

At first, they were calling with a number that would come up on the caller ID. Now they call with unknown caller. It is from some consumer credit company. They give a recorded message and press 1 to find out how to lower your rates.

I wait until an operator answers. When I politely ask to be put on the do not call list they hang up. One guy was polite, and said he would add my number to the no call list.

They still call.

[JoeSpareBedroom]

Have some fun with them.

[Bob F]

Prosecute

Bicycle "air" horn. Loud whistle Bang phone mic on table

Bob

[JoeSpareBedroom]

Boating stores sell aerosol handheld horns. Holy shit. The OP had better have some serious hearing protection. Even outdoors, they hurt.

[EXT]

Most of these people work in sweatshops outside the country, very often in India, the "do not call list" means nothing, hurting the person's ears won't help, the next one will take over when the computer assigns your number to him. I find an answering machine helps, when we see an 800 type number or blocked caller with unknown number we let it take the call. In fact the machine will cut off a blocked caller with an unknown number and force them to respond to the answering machine immediately. They hang up immediately.

In fact one called right now as I type this reply. We get about 10 to 20 a day, nothing you can say or do will stop them, so we don't even bother to talk to them.

[ransley]

Pay the bill, or change the number, if your innocent file in small claims.........

[clot]

We have the same problem. Though I've registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) here in the UK, we continue to get calls from overseas - predominantly mainland Europe and US, though also from India. Due to the time difference between UK and US, I now will not respond to any calls between 18.00 and 21.00 hrs UK because most are from "Investment Advisors" in the US - I just leave the ansafone to do its thing! India - it's usually first thing in the morning - but I've gone out to work. Europe - during my daytime but I'm at work. My main problem now is taking a day's holiday and being at home!

[Frank]

Not a lot you can do as most are probably off shore. I get faxes from Cancun for vacations. Getting more junk faxes than real faxes, I keep machine off line.

My attitude is to try to waste their time and money. I call back 800 numbers because it costs them as does any time you spend cussing them out. If I have a lot of spare time, I feign interest. I've also told operators to get a legitimate job where they do not annoy people. If we all did this, economics would cause them to cease.

For the solicitors like charities that are allowed to call, my standard answer is that I am retired on fixed income and cannot afford to give.

Also, I refuse to answer surveys.

Always assume anyone that calls you that you do not know is lying to you ;)

Frank

[JoeSpareBedroom]

Got fax software on your computer? Schedule it to call their 800 number every 60 seconds from the time you go to bed till the time you wake up.

[Bob F]

Before the do-not-call-list, I had my answering machine message start with the tones that you hear when you dial a disconnected number. "Beep-boop-beep - delay - hello- please leave a message". Supposedly, the auto dialers mark the number as invalid and remove it. It did seem to make a significant difference over time.

Google for sit.wav. I easily downloaded it, and just played it through my computer speakers as I recorded the message.

Bob

[jmagerl]

Google telezapper. $19.99. Or place the sit tones as the first thing on your answering machine. IF you have a caller ID compliant modem, there is also software that will recognize out of area calls and play the SIT tones for you.

There are also gadgets that intercepts all phone calls and the caller has to enter in a password to be let thru. IF you didnt give out the password, tough.

[AZ Nomad]

moron. You can't make the sound at the other louder by being louder at your end. It is like thinking that you can turn a 60's VW bug into an F1 racer by dropping an anvil on the accelerator pedal.

About all you can do with such harassment is get a new phone number.

[JoeSpareBedroom]

Ummm....that's not true.

[Larry Bud]

Obviously that's not completely true. A regular volume voice will sound louder than a whisper. But it's true that there is a certain amount of dB compression on that the signal goes through. IOW, the dynamic range of the telephone is fairly low.

[Terry]

Moron? Read what you just wrote and then go f*ck yourself.

[Tony Hwang]

When they call just hang up

[terry]

No speaka da Ingleesh; eh? With that in mind next time I'm in the Middle East I must learn som phrases in say, Persian or Swahili. Problem is the calls might be coming from a country where they understand those languages! Hmm! And I don't really want to buy voice message service!

[tom]

[Tater]

you can't. all phones got decibel limiters on them. scream as loud as you want, but it only comes out their end at a certain volume.

tell them that you answering them is a service, billable at $1000 per minute, 3 minutes minimum. (make sure to record this), send it to a lawyer and have the lawyer send them a bill.

[AZ Nomad]

I read the subject line, moron.