Telephone caller screening devices

[Cat-tirement]

I just use Caller ID to screen calls. If don't recognize the number then I usually just don't pick up. Sometimes, even when I do recognize the number, I don't pick up.

This is my approach too. My phones also speak the caller ID info, so I don't even have to look for a phone, just listen.

 

[EastWest Gal]

Perhaps if we learned the office phone number for our Congressperson and gave that out, something might be done about it.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

 

[ERD50]

Perhaps if we learned the office phone number for our Congressperson and gave that out, something might be done about it.

...

Along those lines, my spam-block list is forwarded to the FCC DNC complaint line.

For Group TeleMarketers forward to 8882255322

It's just a menu system, so calls don;t take up anyone's time. I'm tempted to find a live person # in the department, and use that.

-ERD50

 

[Lakewood90712]

Short youtube clip on how sit-com character Ally Mcbeal handles telemarketers.

Sad thing, I'm sure the telemarketers hate calling us even more than we hate the calls.

 

[poorcarver]

If you ever have the "experience" of walking through a call center you will see the other side. That does not excuse the behavior, just puts a human face on it.

We have a special ring tone for friends and family and ignore all others.

 

[BluesWannabe]

I think this is similar to the way the spammers are getting around NOMOROBO - they just fake their caller ID with a random local number, or maybe even a number no one would want to block.

IMO, the crux of all this is that the DNC list has no teeth. If violators were put in jail and heavily fined, it would stop.

-ERD50

Yes, the dreaded U.S. Pharmacy robo callers do exactly this. Even with my Ooma community blacklist and Nomorobo, calls get through. I answer and put the phone on the counter, or pretend to be hard of hearing.

The callers for U.S. Pharmacy are probably (definitely) offshore, in calling center sweatshops. No way will they be jailed or fined... and a job's a job.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Yes, the dreaded U.S. Pharmacy robo callers do exactly this. Even with my Ooma community blacklist and Nomorobo, calls get through. I answer and put the phone on the counter, or pretend to be hard of hearing.

The callers for U.S. Pharmacy are probably (definitely) offshore, in calling center sweatshops. No way will they be jailed or fined... and a job's a job.

I have noticed (looking at the call list/voice mail on Google voice) that Express Scripts has called using about 4 different numbers. Thankfully, they have my "spam" number so I never get those calls.

 

[BluesWannabe]

I have noticed (looking at the call list/voice mail on Google voice) that Express Scripts has called using about 4 different numbers. Thankfully, they have my "spam" number so I never get those calls.

Interesting... When I was at Megacorp, Express Scripts handled the mail order prescriptions for our insurance plan. It would be really (ahem) inconvenient if the spammers used the same caller ID name...ugh.

 

[athena53]

If you ever have the "experience" of walking through a call center you will see the other side. That does not excuse the behavior, just puts a human face on it.

I know- they're just trying to make a living. If/when I do actually speak to someone I just politely tell them, "thanks, but I'm not interested" and hang up.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Interesting... When I was at Megacorp, Express Scripts handled the mail order prescriptions for our insurance plan. It would be really (ahem) inconvenient if the spammers used the same caller ID name...ugh.

I think Express Scripts is a HUGH MEGA pharmacy. They do all the mail order Tricare scripts and I imagine MANY, MANY, MANY other commercial insurance plans.

 

[unno2002]

You might start by putting her number on the do not call registry, to see if that lessens the sales calls.

https://www.donotcall.gov/

 

[ERD50]

I know- they're just trying to make a living. If/when I do actually speak to someone I just politely tell them, "thanks, but I'm not interested" and hang up.

I see no reason to be polite (but I just don't answer anyhow). They rang my phone, and disturbed me when I am on the DNC list. They are breaking the law. I do not need to be polite to law breakers.

Occasionally, I'm waiting for an important call, and the spammers can be tying up my line, so the call I'm waiting for goes to voice-mail, creating inconvenience and maybe worse if I call back and miss the person (or now they are on another call, another round of voice-mail tag ....).


Nope, that's like saying shop-lifters are 'just trying to make a living'. They are all breaking the law. The heck with them (insert more colorful language).

-ERD50

 

[Lakewood90712]

You might start by putting her number on the do not call registry, to see if that lessens the sales calls.

https://www.donotcall.gov/

Have been on the no call registry for years. Does reduce the call volume some IMO.Has to be renewed periodically.

Many domestic telemarketers blatantly violate the law, and offshore firms don't have to comply. Lot's of loopholes.

This is compounded , IIRC by the availability of every number on the no call list by simply purchasing the no call data from the government , knowing these are "good" phone numbers.

 

[Amethyst]

Does your mom use a land-line or a cell?

We use a land-line phone with a standard voice-activated answering machine. As soon as our electronic butler comes on, 95% of telemarketers and robocallers hang up. After 4 rings, genuine callers begin to leave a message, and one of us picks up (if we recognize the caller ID screen, we'll pick up before the message is left).

In your instance, your Mom would simply wait until your beloved voice begins to speak, and then she'd pick up.

Amethyst

 

[athena53]

As soon as our electronic butler comes on, 95% of telemarketers and robocallers hang up. After 4 rings, genuine callers begin to leave a message, and one of us picks up (if we recognize the caller ID screen, we'll pick up before the message is left).

This is decent partial solution but you have to be someplace near the phone so you can hear the message if you want to pick up. I agree, though- few spammers leave messages.

 

[Rosie]

Does your mom use a land-line or a cell?

We use a land-line phone with a standard voice-activated answering machine. As soon as our electronic butler comes on, 95% of telemarketers and robocallers hang up. After 4 rings, genuine callers begin to leave a message, and one of us picks up (if we recognize the caller ID screen, we'll pick up before the message is left).

In your instance, your Mom would simply wait until your beloved voice begins to speak, and then she'd pick up.

Amethyst

We do almost the same as Amethyst, except we turned the ringer off on our landline phone, and our answering machine greeting (which we likewise do not hear at our end) requests the caller to please leave a message.

Like Amethyst, probably around 95% of the calls we receive hang up without leaving a message; we only notice those if we happen to see the incoming call indicator on our phone/answering machine console light up (and boy, there are days when it lights up a lot). If we don't happen to be in eyeshot of the machine, we're blissfully unaware of the intrusion.

We have the volume turned on to hear the caller's message, so, on the rare occasion it's a call from someone who bothers to leave a message and with whom we'd actually like to speak, we can usually answer it before the caller finishes the message, or, simply call him back. If it's not, we just hit the delete button after the message finishes recording. Easy-peasy.


(Granted, this might not work in the OP's situation, a disembodied voice might be startling for her. Unless maybe he could program the phone to ring only w calls from specific numbers?)

 

[easysurfer]

I see no reason to be polite (but I just don't answer anyhow). They rang my phone, and disturbed me when I am on the DNC list. They are breaking the law. I do not need to be polite to law breakers.

...

-ERD50

Sounds like you subscribe to the "What are you wearing?" to get them to hang up. Just don't get carried away and call them back saying that

My mind is now trained with my call blocker that 1 ring then intercepted means unrecognized caller. More than one, then the caller is someone I previously allowed. Now I can brush me teeth without dropping everything on a first ring and acting like Pavlov's dog.

 

[Lakewood90712]

Does your mom use a land-line or a cell?

We use a land-line phone with a standard voice-activated answering machine. As soon as our electronic butler comes on, 95% of telemarketers and robocallers hang up. After 4 rings, genuine callers begin to leave a message, and one of us picks up (if we recognize the caller ID screen, we'll pick up before the message is left).

In your instance, your Mom would simply wait until your beloved voice begins to speak, and then she'd pick up.

Amethyst

It's a landline. Cell phone would fix 98% of the issue.

See is from the pre wwII generation , very tech adverse . My older brother tried to get her to use a 'jitterbug" cell phone, she wouldn't touch it.

She just lets all calls go to an answering machine, most robo call systems know it's an answering machine just hang up, and call again in the future . The political candidate recorded messages (spam) always leave a message . She doesn't review them for days.

I'm sure I will be even more stubborn if I make it to 85.

 

[easysurfer]

It's a landline. Cell phone would fix 98% of the issue.

See is from the pre wwII generation , very tech adverse . My older brother tried to get her to use a 'jitterbug" cell phone, she wouldn't touch it.

She just lets all calls go to an answering machine, most robo calls just hang up, except political candidate recorded messages (spam). Doesn't review them for days.

I'm sure I will be even more stubborn if I make it to 85.

Well, at least she has an answering machine. For some, even that is too techie .

 

[athena53]

Thanks again for the Nomorobo idea, nash031! I set everything up but was concerned when I called our home number from my cell phone and got a busy signal. I reversed everything (very easy). A few hours later I tried again and this time I allowed some time for the new settings to work their way into the system, and incoming calls went through fine. Last night we got a call from Hilton Vacations. It rang once and then disconnected. I think we've got it!

 

[freebird5825]

I just use Caller ID to screen calls. If don't recognize the number then I usually just don't pick up. Sometimes, even when I do recognize the number, I don't pick up.

Ditto. I rarely use the landline myself. It is handy for me for occasional calls in cases where I do not want to share my cell phone number.

We get a fair number of robocalls, always ignored. The most persistent ones he will answer and tell them to remove us from their calling list.

Our land line is still existent only for the free long distance and Mr B's tax service clients to leave audible messages and for his frequent faxing needs. It is a low cost part of the Time Warner bundle we have for internet, cable and home security. I added his name to the account so he can deduct a portion of the landline and internet cost as a legitimate business expense.

If I want quiet in the living room area, I will turn off the ringer on the kitchen extension. His office extension stays on audible ringer 24/7.

Low tech solution

 

[sengsational]

I use a call blocker on my landline which can be set up to only allow certain phone numbers (whitelist), and by default screen calls not on the whitelist.

You could put in your "Presidents Red Phone" numbers as the whitelist to ring through. All other numbers get screened.

Amazon.com: SENTRY (V2.0, NEW) Dual Mode Call Blocker. Block 100% Robo Call, Spam Calls. Great improvements over SENTRY Original: Electronics

The way I got the blocker set up is if accepted/whitelisted number, the phone rings as usual. Otherwise, rings once and the Sentry blocker takes over.

The Sentry 2.0 is fantastic. It just started getting sold on Amazon a few weeks ago. $50 (don't get the previous one for $40).

We went through our cell phone contacts and Ooma call logs and made a list of legit inbound numbers. I entered those numbers into the whitelist (tedious, but not horrific).

If a legit someone that's not on the whitelist calls, they hear a message to press zero. If they do that, the Sentry box "rings" (not your phone, so your answering machine can't take a message).

Every inbound call is logged and tagged as a whitelist number, a blacklist number or not tagged. For the non-tagged, it's simple to add the number to either the whitelist or blacklist.

I have it connected "serially", so my phone is completely silent unless the caller is on the whitelist, and then the phone rings normally, the answering machine works normally.

When the phone rings now, I run over and pick it up because I know it's someone I know.

 

[Ready]

I had a Verizon land line for many years, but the last few years I had it I got a spam call at least once every fifteen minutes, day and night. I finally got rid of it and switched to a free Google Voice phone number. The only thing I had to buy was an Obitalk box for about $40.00. Other than that, the service is completely free. And, I haven't had one spam call in two years now.

If I did eventually begin to get some spam calls on the line, all I would have to do is change the phone number and start over again. It's really a fantastic solution.

 

[timo2]

a cell phone allows one to program different rings for different people. If she had a cell phone with a ring just for you, that would be the only thing she would have to answer.

 

[easysurfer]

The Sentry 2.0 is fantastic. It just started getting sold on Amazon a few weeks ago. $50 (don't get the previous one for $40).

We went through our cell phone contacts and Ooma call logs and made a list of legit inbound numbers. I entered those numbers into the whitelist (tedious, but not horrific).

If a legit someone that's not on the whitelist calls, they hear a message to press zero. If they do that, the Sentry box "rings" (not your phone, so your answering machine can't take a message).

Every inbound call is logged and tagged as a whitelist number, a blacklist number or not tagged. For the non-tagged, it's simple to add the number to either the whitelist or blacklist.

I have it connected "serially", so my phone is completely silent unless the caller is on the whitelist, and then the phone rings normally, the answering machine works normally.

When the phone rings now, I run over and pick it up because I know it's someone I know.

The Sentry 2.0 does it right for screening out the robo, telemarketing calls, but letting the legit ones come through.

Connecting "serially" do you still get caller id? I know some brands seem to work and pass the caller Id, while others do not. My case is the latter do I connect "in parallel" got get the caller Id, but one ring.

Funny, this very moment as I type, I just got a one ring call