Originally Posted by Pulaski

Companies sending junk mail consider a 2% response rate to be good. I wonder what the response rate for cold calls is? .... I now ignore most calls I don't recognise, and hang up on others when I realise they just soliciting business/ donations.

Originally Posted by Lion in Winter

Some people are operating a fraud, some are not. The country they are calling from and the accent of their English is irrelevant. To conflate such callers with "illegals" is exactly the kind of unpleasant and half-baked tactic that has become so popular in Trumpland. It would be better to not indulge in it.

All major companies with a customer service element that you can call at any time, day or night, operate calling centers in many countries that you access through a local number. I mean, you don't expect to actually dial India yourself, do you? Credit cards, Amazon, banks, etc. etc. all do this. Many of the staff have "heavy accents" given that English is not their first language. This does not, in and of itself, mean that the operation is fraudulent or dodgy nor that the people on the phone are "illegal".

Originally Posted by dc koop

Okay lets refer to illegals as "immigrants". We're not supposed to call them illegals any longer in California. They broke the law by crossing the border without going through border check and overstayed their temporary residency period and took jobs but they're not here" illegally", they're "immigrants" just as I was when I came her legally. That should clear up the confusion regarding nomenclature

All I have to say about tele callers is that they're a bloody nuisance heavy accents or not. Already the last six weeks I have entered 30 phone numbers on my block caller list and there will be still more to block I'm sure. I think my home should be inviolate from casual calls from people trying to sell me stuff I neither need or want. Telemarketing should be made illegal.

Originally Posted by dc koop

All I have to say about tele callers is that they're a bloody nuisance heavy accents or not. Already the last six weeks I have entered 30 phone numbers on my block caller list and there will be still more to block I'm sure. I think my home should be inviolate from casual calls from people trying to sell me stuff I neither need or want. Telemarketing should be made illegal.

Originally Posted by zzrmark

Accents? Aren't you the lucky one! Mostly, I seem to get recorded messages.

Live callers were usually trying to speak to x defaulter (I presume), not usually the same one. Initially, I used to think it fun baiting these callers but that grows thin at the rate of three a day. ....

Originally Posted by zzrmark

Accents? Aren't you the lucky one! Mostly, I seem to get recorded messages.

Live callers were usually trying to speak to x defaulter (I presume), not usually the same one. Initially, I used to think it fun baiting these callers but that grows thin at the rate of three a day.
More recently, I've taken to doing what I should have done in the first place. Not answering and blocking the number. The number of spongers/chasers appears to have dropped considerably.

PS. Telemarketers/cold callers/paper wasters/Trump should all be rounded up and shot.