Not Another Scam Call Thread!

[easysurfer]

...
Scammer: So do you have any PCs running Microsoft Windows?
Me: No. But I suppose I must if you are calling me...
Scammer: (Finally cluing in) Why would you waste my time like this?
Me: To prevent you from harming people during the time we have been talking. And I will happily waste your time whenever you or your cronies purporting to be from Microsoft Technical Support call.
Scammer: (Swear words)...hangs up.

You're welcome.

That's hilarious .

 

[ERD50]

As much fun as that is, I'll just say this works:

https://www.amazon.com/Tel-Sentry-Automatic-Blocking-Election-without/dp/B00U1PPWDO

People that want to talk to you, the very first time they call, do need to call once, then call back. But I've had no problem with family, doctors' offices, mechanics, etc. They listen to the automated message (I have it configured so my phone doesn't ring), hang-up, call back, and my phone rings. The next time they call, my phone rings right-off...no muss, no fuss.

PS: Don't pinch pennies on the 1.0 version. Get the 2 or (I suppose) the 2.2. Mine is a 2 and it's great.

How does it handle the 'robo calls' that you want? Like reminders of a dental appointment, etc?

It's true though, a 'black list' doesn't work anymore. The scammers have been rotating fake caller ID #'s, often pulling names & numbers from your local area (maybe the # they just called?), so tools like NOMOROBO are no longer effective.

-ERD50

 

[ERD50]

Help is on the way, this just in from Reuters -

AT&T, Apple, Google to work on 'robocall' crackdown | Reuters

Anyone want to start a pool on how many hours it will take the scammers to find a new way around whatever rules get put in place?

Well, if they can really lock down caller-ID spoofing, they may be onto something. But I am skeptical as well.

Our home phone is gone for good. Wow, peace and quiet.

Don't expect that to last for long. Why should a spammer care if they are calling a cell or landline? I've been getting a few spam calls on my cell phone.

-ERD50

 

[REWahoo]

I get several spam calls a day on my cell phone but the "Mr Number" app catches 95% of them on the first ring and sends them to voice mail.

 

[mystang52]

The "IRS" never did follow up with me on my serious delinquent tax issue. But now I have a new problem: yesterday, "Kevin Mason" left me a voicemail that I am now in trouble with "The US Treasury."

 

[easysurfer]

How does it handle the 'robo calls' that you want? Like reminders of a dental appointment, etc?

It's true though, a 'black list' doesn't work anymore. The scammers have been rotating fake caller ID #'s, often pulling names & numbers from your local area (maybe the # they just called?), so tools like NOMOROBO are no longer effective.

-ERD50

On the Sentry call blocker, if you know the number of the 'robo call', then as long as that number is on the 'whitelist' then the number goes right thru. In fact, I just had a dental robocall a couple days ago.

 

[growing_older]

I got a call from the Windows Technical Department. I really yelled at them for the aggressive install tactics of Windows 10 and told them they owed me a new computer. They stayed on the line for quite some time as they tried to tell me that they weren't responsible for that but that they were the "Windows Technical Dept" for real.

 

[aja8888]

Don't expect that to last for long. Why should a spammer care if they are calling a cell or landline? I've been getting a few spam calls on my cell phone.

-ERD50

As with REWahoo, Mr. Number is my friend.

 

[easysurfer]

Well, if they can really lock down caller-ID spoofing, they may be onto something. But I am skeptical as well.



Don't expect that to last for long. Why should a spammer care if they are calling a cell or landline? I've been getting a few spam calls on my cell phone.

-ERD50

I expect that a lot of the callers don't even know if they are calling a landline or number but probably just dial randomly hoping for a sucker to fall for their line.

For my landline, before owning that Sentry call blocker, I'd get about 10 calls a day, some repeats. Now, sometimes go an entire day without a call (there is still one ring then hang up so I know when they try).

For my Android mobile, I have an app that as long as my phone is on (which I leave on all the time -- except when driving) any call not on my contact list automatically gets hung up on as I don't care to have to check my voicemail only to have a scammer message.

 

[23window]

I just tell the Microsoft scammers that I run a Linux.

 

[scrabbler1]

Just the other day, I received the same robocall from "Bridget of Card Holder Services" 10 minutes apart on both my cell phone and my landline! Those people need to be put out of business for violating the toothless do-not-call law. How can this be a decent business model, calling and annoying the same people over and over and over who have absolutely no use for this so-called "service?" I have gotten 2 or 3 calls a week from these people for the last 5 years! And now they are starting to invade my cell phone even though I have given that number out to maybe 10 people.


I don't see the phone companies doing anything about it because they make money off these robocallers dialing and redialing thousands of calls every day.


To the OP, hilarious story about beating the scammers at their own game. But I have no real desire to stay on the line with them other than to yell at them and let them know I know they are scammers.


My cell phone has caller-ID but often when I look up the phone number it displays it gives me some individual (not a business) who lives halfway across the country so it is probably just a spoofed number and not really worth the wasted effort to report them as a do-not-call violator.


It's just maddening how my phones are little more than receptacles for this endless stream of garbage. I'd say 95% of the calls and texts on my cell phone are junk and 70% of them are garbage on my landline. It has come to the point when my phone rings and it is NOT a scammer or spammer I am genuinely surprised!

 

[skipro33]

When a telemarketer calls, I have my wife answer the phone. She tells the caller to speak to her husband, me, if they don't ask for someone like the head of the house or something like that. I take the call and when I discover it's a sales call, I start yelling at my wife so the caller can here. I get loud. I get violent. She cries. She screams. I say I'm going to get a knife and cut her. She screams more. I keep at it and she stops screaming. I then hang up the phone.

We don't always do this, but enough times it's gotta scare the crap out of some of these callers and we have a good laugh after.

 

[growing_older]

After you murder your wife while they are listening in, do they at least put you on the do not call back list?

 

[skipro33]

After you murder your wife while they are listening in, do they at least put you on the do not call back list?

I don't know. So many calls now use a fake call-ID, I can't tell if the same place calls me back or not.

The funniest part of the ruse is when I fake slap the wife, striking my hands together and making a loud SMACK!!. Then she knocks over the counter stool. For good measure, this excites the dog and he starts barking and growling. Thinks it's a game.

I've got another that I use when it's just me. When they call, I pick up the phone, and quickly interrupt them, speaking in a hoarse whisper and fast so they can't get in a word edge-wise;
"Dude! You shouldn't call here! I did it! There's blood everywhere! I can't find where she hid it though and I've looked everywhere. Oh man, I need to get out of here NOW!" Then I hang up.

 

[rdy2go]

Maybe something will finally get done -

Apple and Google join 'strike force' to crack down on robocalls | The Verge

Apple and Google parent company Alphabet have joined a coalition of more than 30 tech companies and telecoms focused on combating automated phone calls, according to Reuters. Called the "Robocall Strike Force," the group is led by the Federal Communications Commission, which held its first hearing on the subject today in Washington, DC. Robocalls include both prerecorded messages from misleading phone numbers and automated text messages.

 

[rdy2go]

Maybe something will finally get done -

Apple and Google join 'strike force' to crack down on robocalls



Apple and Google parent company Alphabet have joined a coalition of more than 30 tech companies and telecoms focused on combating automated phone calls, according to Reuters. Called the "Robocall Strike Force," the group is led by the Federal Communications Commission, which held its first hearing on the subject today in Washington, DC. Robocalls include both prerecorded messages from misleading phone numbers and automated text messages.

 

[mickeyd]

I occasionally receive calls from a guy that sounds Indian. After he mentions my "computer" I say: "But I have no computer Mr. Microsoft. I don't understand your call." That usually gets him confused. Once he actually argued with me and insisted that I had one.

 

[travelover]

I occasionally receive calls from a guy that sounds Indian. After he mentions my "computer" I say: "But I have no computer Mr. Microsoft. I don't understand your call." That usually gets him confused. Once he actually argued with me and insisted that I had one.

AT&T called me to sell me a different phone service and I stubbornly maintained that I didn't have a phone.

 

[sengsational]

On the Sentry call blocker, if you know the number of the 'robo call', then as long as that number is on the 'whitelist' then the number goes right thru. In fact, I just had a dental robocall a couple days ago.

What I do is log onto Ooma and get a list of inbound calls...maybe once a month. Any legit looking caller ID numbers get verified and added to the white list. So we get robo calls from the pharmacy, library and such.