The scourge of unwanted phone calls
Jul 1st 2018, 7:23 pm
#16
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Joined: Feb 2010
Location: Temecula, CA
Posts: 4,759
Re: The scourge of unwanted phone calls
Interesting ideas, thanks.
Jul 1st 2018, 10:51 pm
#17
I still dont believe it..
Joined: Oct 2013
Location: 12 degrees north
Posts: 2,777
Re: The scourge of unwanted phone calls
SPAM calls and faxes are a real pain.
On my cell, I don't answer any call from a number I do not recognize. To beat the spoofed caller ID that has them calling (or appearing to call) from a 'local' number (the first 6 digits of your own cell number) I have a cell number that is for a city about 20 miles from me that I deliberately picked as I don't know anyone there and have no business dealing there. If I see a call from any number with the same first six digits as mine I know it is a scam. I was getting 3 or 4 "This is 'Abigail' I'm calling because you recently stayed in one of our hotels..." trying to sell me something.
For those that call my hospital number we have a fake extension set up that plays a ringing tone for 2 minutes then dumps them to voicemail, which is simply deleted each evening. Every phone in the hospital has a button called "David's SPAM" that these calls are dumped in to. So, if the receptionist or staff member gets a marketing call they just hit a button on the phone that sends it to a 120 second announcement that is just a recording of a phone ringing, the caller thinks they are being put through to an extension, and we waste their time as they are wasting ours. For repeat callers I add a rule to the PBX that plays a disconnected tone.
For those companies that insist on sending junk faxes after we 'opt out', our fax to email service captures the fax and a mail rule on our fax email account deletes the email. Legitimate and whitelisted faxes are printed automatically.
It is annoying to have to employ so many levels of 'defense'.
Some creative people are using bots to fight bots:
This is NOT a real person answering the call, just a collection of prerecorded prompts played to the scammer. I believe the system just waits for the scammer to pause taking then plays a 'response' each time that happens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSoOrlh5i1k
On my cell, I don't answer any call from a number I do not recognize. To beat the spoofed caller ID that has them calling (or appearing to call) from a 'local' number (the first 6 digits of your own cell number) I have a cell number that is for a city about 20 miles from me that I deliberately picked as I don't know anyone there and have no business dealing there. If I see a call from any number with the same first six digits as mine I know it is a scam. I was getting 3 or 4 "This is 'Abigail' I'm calling because you recently stayed in one of our hotels..." trying to sell me something.
For those that call my hospital number we have a fake extension set up that plays a ringing tone for 2 minutes then dumps them to voicemail, which is simply deleted each evening. Every phone in the hospital has a button called "David's SPAM" that these calls are dumped in to. So, if the receptionist or staff member gets a marketing call they just hit a button on the phone that sends it to a 120 second announcement that is just a recording of a phone ringing, the caller thinks they are being put through to an extension, and we waste their time as they are wasting ours. For repeat callers I add a rule to the PBX that plays a disconnected tone.
For those companies that insist on sending junk faxes after we 'opt out', our fax to email service captures the fax and a mail rule on our fax email account deletes the email. Legitimate and whitelisted faxes are printed automatically.
It is annoying to have to employ so many levels of 'defense'.
Some creative people are using bots to fight bots:
This is NOT a real person answering the call, just a collection of prerecorded prompts played to the scammer. I believe the system just waits for the scammer to pause taking then plays a 'response' each time that happens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSoOrlh5i1k
My voip provider gives users each a virtual pbx, one extn is 166 the marketing call extn - it plays a very amusing message about us being too busy dealing with other telemarketers so they are unlikely to ever be answered but you are welcome to wait , meantime heres some of our annoying adverts.
Try adding SIT tones to the beginning of your answerhhone message - the 3 ascending tones generated by switches in error, causes a lot of diallers to note the no as in permanent error.
On the web theres a counter marketing call script - they use scripts - so can you - really infuriates them.
If you sell diallers as i used to, you know your customers [mbna by the way are globally one of the biggest] and when you get a call try asking the person to hit pf9 - thats the permanent exclusion from the callung list on a lot of dialler setups.
Jul 2nd 2018, 5:36 am
#18
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Joined: Dec 2015
Location: california
Posts: 6,035
Re: The scourge of unwanted phone calls
I get very few nuisance calls on my cell phone and those who know the number are either relatives, friends or people who need to know it. I turn the ringer off on the landline phone until 7 at night. I used to have some standard answers to nuisance callers before that. One was:
"Thank god you called. I did what you told me to do but there's blood and guts all over the place. You gotta get over here" if it was a female caller "You have reached Marty's whorehouse. If you are looking for a job press 1 or press 2 and leave a call back number"
Both got quick hang ups
"Thank god you called. I did what you told me to do but there's blood and guts all over the place. You gotta get over here" if it was a female caller "You have reached Marty's whorehouse. If you are looking for a job press 1 or press 2 and leave a call back number"
Both got quick hang ups
Last edited by dc koop; Jul 2nd 2018 at 5:38 am.
Jul 2nd 2018, 11:49 am
#19
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 6,848
Re: The scourge of unwanted phone calls
I never confirm that I am Mrs. Englishmum.....and I put on my best posh telephone voice and tell them I am a visitor from Great Britain � ����� ����.
They always end the call quickly � ����
They always end the call quickly � ����
Jul 2nd 2018, 1:58 pm
#20
Deep in the woods of CT
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 7,002
Re: The scourge of unwanted phone calls
I usually never answer unless I know the number, but it came up looking like a UK number on the ID the other day so I picked up, just in case. The person said, "Is this the lady of the house" -- always a dead giveaway! -- so I said, "Who wants her?" The person responded, "Oh, you'll do." Really flattering, eh? Of course, the receiver immediately went down with a crash.
Jul 2nd 2018, 3:06 pm
#21
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 6,848
Re: The scourge of unwanted phone calls
I usually never answer unless I know the number, but it came up looking like a UK number on the ID the other day so I picked up, just in case. The person said, "Is this the lady of the house" -- always a dead giveaway! -- so I said, "Who wants her?" The person responded, "Oh, you'll do." Really flattering, eh? Of course, the receiver immediately went down with a crash.
Jul 2nd 2018, 4:53 pm
#22
Senior Moment
Joined: Nov 2003
Location: NYC
Posts: 5,008
Re: The scourge of unwanted phone calls
My aging parents get these constantly on their landline in the UK. It drives them bananas, but there doesn't seem to be anything they can do about it. They are on the Do Not Call list as well, not that it makes much difference. The amount of elderly people who have been conned out of thousands or who have been talked into giving away all their money to charity is infuriating.
Jul 2nd 2018, 5:12 pm
#23
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Joined: Jun 2008
Location: Virginia
Posts: 129
Re: The scourge of unwanted phone calls
these phone calls will change the way people communicate.
A decade ago or two, people would say 'hello' and ask for you / someone when they rang you.
Now, all you get is silence, where the caller is waiting for either an old persons or a woman's voice before talking their sales speil.
If no one says anything when I pick up the phone i just put it straight down, simple.
and with i-phones you can block any number, just push 'i' next to recent calls and 'block caller'
I will keep blocking them and putting the phone down until they have run out of telephone lines.
A decade ago or two, people would say 'hello' and ask for you / someone when they rang you.
Now, all you get is silence, where the caller is waiting for either an old persons or a woman's voice before talking their sales speil.
If no one says anything when I pick up the phone i just put it straight down, simple.
and with i-phones you can block any number, just push 'i' next to recent calls and 'block caller'
I will keep blocking them and putting the phone down until they have run out of telephone lines.
Jul 2nd 2018, 5:17 pm
#24
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Joined: Jun 2008
Location: Virginia
Posts: 129
Re: The scourge of unwanted phone calls
Jul 2nd 2018, 5:21 pm
#25
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Joined: Jul 2008
Location: Portlandia Metro
Posts: 7,425
Re: The scourge of unwanted phone calls
I use the "should I answer" app on my cell phone. For landlines it is more difficult.
Jul 2nd 2018, 9:47 pm
#26
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Joined: Jun 2012
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 91
Re: The scourge of unwanted phone calls
One of the side effects of moving across the country, from Boston to Seattle, and not changing my mobile number is that it makes it easy to screen the majority of spam calls. As they try to use a call ID with the same area code as the phone they are dialing, I know that anything with a Boston 617 area code which isn't in my phone book will 99% of the time be spam. Something local to me now in Seattle which I don't recognize usually is a legitimate caller. I work in sales so screening all my calls isn't really a viable option.
Jul 2nd 2018, 9:55 pm
#27
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Location: Bay Area, CA
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Re: The scourge of unwanted phone calls
I'm starting to get more and more, after a relatively long spell of peace. As a self-employed consultant with several customers (and referrals), I really try to be responsive on the phone, thus ignoring a call is not something I like to do; yes, people can leave a message but that's not good 'customer service'. Also, I like to take a nap during the day these days and the call itself is the problem, not whether I answer it or not ....
Is it the general consensus that these callers are from overseas these days and thus not paying any attention to 'do not call' lists?
I've answered several recently, and they all seem to have a pre-recorded greeting saying something like 'this is your credit card company and don't worry this is not a collections call ... ' ... I stayed on the line for the heck of it, and got a non-English speaking person! You'd think, if they were going to go to the trouble of making these calls, that they would make more of an effort to actually make sense to a caller! If they are targeting non-English speakers, why bother with an 'English' intro? The mind boggles ....
Is it the general consensus that these callers are from overseas these days and thus not paying any attention to 'do not call' lists?
I've answered several recently, and they all seem to have a pre-recorded greeting saying something like 'this is your credit card company and don't worry this is not a collections call ... ' ... I stayed on the line for the heck of it, and got a non-English speaking person! You'd think, if they were going to go to the trouble of making these calls, that they would make more of an effort to actually make sense to a caller! If they are targeting non-English speakers, why bother with an 'English' intro? The mind boggles ....
Jul 2nd 2018, 10:03 pm
#28
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Location: Portlandia Metro
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