It's gone too far...

[Magnum Man]

so lately I'm getting 3-5 junk mail phone calls per day... my office phone forwards to my cell, so I have to be nice until...

this morning my phone rang at 4:00 in the morning, with a junk phone call... Tax relief services if I recall correctly, as they are one that call every day, at least twice... since I'm an emergency recall number for our work, & the contact for the alarm service, I can't just shut off my ringer... maybe I can go back & ban that number... but it seems they switch numbers & steal local phone numbers, so I'm not sure what I can do... I lost an hour of sleep today... & I'm more tired than usual, in my mid afternoon slump...

 

[GaryE]

Here, they dupe a number in your area code, often close to your own number. It changes with every call. I just got one.

 

[Magnum Man]

they are even doing texts as well... those get tiring also, but, I can, & do shut off the alarm on in coming texts, with the exception of Mrs.

 

[Fishmanic]

report them to the proper authorities...phone spamming is against the law

 

[jaylach]

so lately I'm getting 3-5 junk mail phone calls per day... my office phone forwards to my cell, so I have to be nice until...

this morning my phone rang at 4:00 in the morning, with a junk phone call... Tax relief services if I recall correctly, as they are one that call every day, at least twice... since I'm an emergency recall number for our work, & the contact for the alarm service, I can't just shut off my ringer... maybe I can go back & ban that number... but it seems they switch numbers & steal local phone numbers, so I'm not sure what I can do... I lost an hour of sleep today... & I'm more tired than usual, in my mid afternoon slump...

Are you registered on the do not call list? If not do so. I'm on the list and might get a call once in 2 weeks or so. Being on the list makes it illegal for telemarketers and such to call you. It doesn't stop all as charities and political calls will still come through. Nor will it stop calls from other countries or off shore.

National Do Not Call Registry

Register your phone number to report stop or block unwanted, annoying,telemarketing, spam calls, robocalls to the FTC

www.donotcall.gov

 

[Essjay]

We get those calls in the UK as well. Since most of them are operating in a different country, the Telephone Preference Service doesn't apply (that's the UK's 'don't call' service) and there's little the authorities can do to stop them.

If I don't recognise the number I let it go through to the answering machine. If it is someone I want to speak to I can pick up the phone.
Two today, the first at 9 am, let it go to the answering machine and they hung up as soon as the message started. That one hasn't been reported yet on 'who called me'.
The second after lunch, they hung up at the end of the message. That one has been reported on 'who called me'. Messages saying -
"you are using xxx internet illegally, press button #1"
"Amazon has charged extra for prime, use button #1 for a refund"
"your bank has authorised £££ to Amazon and a person abroad, press button #1 if you didn't send these amounts"

At least these two rang after I was awake.

 

[Lcc86]

Appreciate this doesn't solve the issue completely but I put my phone into sleep mode overnight when only certain authorised numbers from my contacts can get through to me. That way anything unimportant doesn't disturb me but in the event of an emergency family can reach me.

 

[jaylach]

If not minded this has reminded me of a bit of a humorous call from a phone spammer... Ya, I have a bit of an odd sense of humor at times.

Years ago I'd get constant calls from a group that named themselves as "Microsoft Windows" claiming that a problem had been detected with my system and that they needed me to permit remote access to resolve. This was before I registered with the no call list and would just hang up. One morning they called at a bad time... for them. I was a bit bored and there was nothing that I needed to do so I decided to 'play' a bit. I played the innocent victim role for about 20 minutes even making my voice quiver a few times while side stepping actually giving remote access. Of course the caller thought that he had found an easy mark but I could hear frustration each time I side stepped allowing the remote access. After the about 20 minutes I went back to normal voice and something like, "Look, you called the wrong person. I used to run my own computer business and happen to have 5 awards from Microsoft. I also happen to know that there is no legit outfit that would make such a call. At least I wasted 20 minutes of your time which you didn't use to rob another person.". There was a pause and then the caller said something like, "In that case it sounds like you don't need our service." and hung up. Never did get another call from them and it was a bit of a hoot to mess with them.

Actually, if you have a persistent caller such as above, playing such a game as I did above may well stop the calls. Also it can be a bit of fun.

 

[Fishmanic]

If you have a fire alarm handy, when they start talking, hold the fire alarm to the phone and put it in test mode. Wear headphones or earplugs so the fire alarm doesn't hurt your hearing. That may prompt them to take you off their call list.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

I always ignore these types of calls but my husband LOVES messing with them, even if they've phoned a friend in his company he will often take their phone and speak to them. He makes me cry with laughter, he tries to put on as many accents as he can and the absurd situations he makes up for them are just hilarious. My personal favourite was when they called to let us know that we were in an accident and were entitled to compensation...hubby playing along confirmed and was asked to recount what happened, he described the craziest yet believable story that went on for ages and when he was finally asked how badly he was injured he explained that he had died the person on the phone was so confused as Mr Barnicles had been so sincere and realistic that you could visualise the cogs turning in their brain trying to work out what was happening. Did he die and been resuscitated? "No, I'm dead...and I'm sitting right behind you..." ....they disconnected after that but gave us a good laugh anyway

 

[MuddyWaters]

when he was finally asked how badly he was injured he explained that he had died

WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER! This is the BEST! Your husband is top notch in my book LOLOL!!!!

 

[Ceez]

so lately I'm getting 3-5 junk mail phone calls per day... my office phone forwards to my cell, so I have to be nice until...

this morning my phone rang at 4:00 in the morning, with a junk phone call... Tax relief services if I recall correctly, as they are one that call every day, at least twice... since I'm an emergency recall number for our work, & the contact for the alarm service, I can't just shut off my ringer... maybe I can go back & ban that number... but it seems they switch numbers & steal local phone numbers, so I'm not sure what I can do... I lost an hour of sleep today... & I'm more tired than usual, in my mid afternoon slump...

 

[WhistlingBadger]

I mess with them once in a while. The best one I've probably ever done was the guy from India offering me student loan forgiveness. The man was very sympathetic as I expressed my gratitude, told him how hard it was living with all these debts, I'm so thankful for your company and I really hope you can help me, blah blah blah. I strung him along for about five or ten minutes. He finally asked me straight up how much I owed. "Um, let me look. Can you hold on a second?"
"Of course, sir."
I set the phone down for two or three minutes while I did something else. "Are you still there?"
"Yes, sir. How much do you owe?"
"About three dollars and seventy five cents. Can you help me with that?"
The guy started cussing me out and demanding that I never call him again. My work here is done.

 

[Colin_T]

I used to get a lot of spam calls and phishing msm text messages when I was on the Optus network (in Australia). I even tried a number of different companies but they were on the Optus network too and I continued to get them with the other companies. I eventually changed to the Telstra network with a different company and no more spam or unwanted calls from China. Having people call at all hours of the day or night and dribble on in a foreign language annoyed me and I regularly waited until they finished talked before saying "What the fuplie are you talking about, speaki English". They normally hung up after that.

Some of the text messages were interesting and lots were impersonating the federal government. I had some that said I needed to click a link and update the details on my mygov account. I didn't have one of those accounts. Another had similar stuff but one of the words was spelt incorrectly. I had one sent to me saying Hi Natasha, we need you to upgrade your mygov account. Well, my name isn't Natasha so fuplie off.

Maybe change to a different company or network, but definitely report it to consumer protection and your phone company.

 

[GaryE]

We have a no call list in Canada, but as for everyone else, the calls don't come from here.
I was really annoyed at one call, as a woman pitched a scam at me. It was tailored to catch out elderly people, maybe with early dementia, and it was well presented. I listened, and when it ended, was asked if I had any questions. I said I knew it was tough to make a living, but was it easy to be a thief? There was a pause of maybe ten seconds, and she said "No. It really isn't."

I don't think I've had one with a human on the line for several years. It's all robocalls now.