Stopping Robocalls

[Michael Schuch]

Only other option: waste their time. Which costs you some. My latest tactic: Call the toll free # they give you. Someone tried the Norton scam and simply listed a phone number. I rang it at least 27 times, let them impatiently say Hello? about 10 times, then they hang up. Pound the heck out of them. Took to about the 29th ring and Ta DA! I got blocked by the India scamming pukes.

Occurred to me that if you had a genuinely trustworthy group of individuals across the country that you could share that number with via a twitter connection per se, you could have hundreds slamming them with dead calls. Yah - I know - they just run a different number to fix the situation. But if you had a good collection of people spread far and wide, someone's gonna get the new one and start again.

Most Important if you take any such action: DO NOT SPEAK. If you say one word indicating that you are aware of who they are, the gloves are off and the expletives start flying from their filthy little faces. And they are vindictive, nasty little imps. However, saying nothing keeps them on the line - it could be a bad connection - maybe you're just an idiot (even better for them...) but they MUST keep up the fake patience and sincerity, as there's always a chance, you might still be the perfect target.

I know - best advice is not to answer, but some days, it's just the wrong day to poke me. SOMEONE's got to try something!

The "RoboKiller" Android app will automatically answer known spam calls on your phone with "Hello" in a random voice then waits for the callers agent to come on and greets them with some random phrase followed by other random phrases saying you can't make out what they are saying etc.. It records the callers reaction for your later amusement if you choose to listen to it. I used to use it but got tired of paying $25 a year for it.

If a spam call does get through to me I am interested in their scam but I have a caller on the other line so please hang on for a bit. Some of them will hang on for several minutes. Some even call back later at which time I very politely also happen to have a call on the other line...

[Jim Koepke]

If a spam call does get through to me I am interested in their scam but I have a caller on the other line so please hang on for a bit. Some of them will hang on for several minutes.

They might hang on longer if you tell them you were just in the middle of giving the caller on the other line your SS#.

jtk

[Michael Schuch]

They might hang on longer if you tell them you were just in the middle of giving the caller on the other line your SS#.

jtk

LOL! I will try that next time!

[Bert Kemp]

Im thinking let my answeeing machine play with them.
Machine.... Hello pause
Machine.... oh how are you Pause ect ect LOL

[David Hostetler]

Since I use my phone for work, I kind of HAVE to answer the thing. I get on average, and I kid you not, around 15 robocalls a day.

I have taken to trying to get to an actual caller, and questioning their cross species parentage.

Typically they hang up once the hear the word hamster.

However I did get one caller got furious at me to the point they were screaming at me at the top of their lungs while I laughed my tail off.

They abuse my number, I will abuse them.

I'd love some sort of AI to interact with these fools using Jean Luc Picard quotes. See if they notice...

[Bert Kemp]

its only noon and Ive had 8 calls already today the first one at 630 my time

[Jim Koepke]

One thing noticed recently is many of the robocalls disconnect after the third ring to avoid answering machines.

Many of these scam callers are using internet calling. After the person receiving the call says hello it takes quite a few seconds before the person on the calling end to come on the line.

Scammers calling my phone tend to have a city and state as the caller ID with my local area code. Other than my base station the handsets let my press off to stop the ringing. My solution is to lower the volume on the base station to its lowest level.

jtk

[Bob McBreen]

Congress could also modify the Do Not Call list to allow people to opt out for political & "charitable" calls but again to Mark's point, there is too much money for the politicians