primitives deal with telemarketers

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018318704

Oh my.

SeattleVet (832 posts)    Thu Feb 28, 2013, 02:21 PM

Dealing with illegal telemarketers

We are on the Do Not Call list (since the week of its inception) yet the telemarketer scammers have decided that this doesn't really apply to them so they keep calling. If the FTC would get off their butts and deal with it (there is supposed to be a $1500 per call fine involved) it would put an end to the annoyance real quick, but in the meantime I have developed a method that keeps any live caller from ever calling again. (Note that this does not work with the more prevalent robocallers, but at least it's a start!)
 
When my caller ID shows something like "Toll Free"; "Restricted"; an obviously fake identification like 'V7173k309'; or a name that shows it's a marketer of some type, I turn on the scanner so there are radio messages in the background, then I pick and answer the phone with, "North precinct, telemarketing fraud division. How may I help you?"
 
Today's caller just quietly hung up. I don't expect to ever get a call from them again, for some reason.
 
In the past I have gotten: "Oh, no!"; "Ooops!"; "Crap!"; "Oh, shit!" and a few other amusing responses just before they hung up.
 
Note that I *never* say that is the police department. Lots of other entities have precincts, too! They just assume that they have reached a number that they never want to reach again.
 
For the robocallers I just add their number to the blacklist (I use an Ooma VOIP phone system) and never hear from that number again.

hobbit709 (25,108 posts)    Thu Feb 28, 2013, 03:24 PM

3. I just say"Please hold while I transfer your call to the FBI"

"Click" and they never call back again.

DFW (12,774 posts)    Thu Feb 28, 2013, 05:08 PM

4. I heard of a great line to use if it's a live caller

Ask them for their name and home phone number. They inevitably ask why. You answer, "so I can call you at all hours of the day and night and try to sell you things you neither want nor need."

kcass1954 (1,592 posts)    Fri Mar 1, 2013, 12:10 AM

5. Y'all are way too nice. I scold and lecture, and get nasty if I need to.

When my son was little, I'd put him on the phone and say "tell the lady about Pokemon."
 
I'm done with that being nice shit, though. I no longer care if I offend someone who's breaking the law. I've had several who want to argue with me about whether I'm even on the dnc list. My language tends to get a little colorful with those idiots.
 
I had one blowing up my phone recently (I only have a cell, no land line). Day and evening, every day of the week, for a good 6 weeks or so. These calls always came from the same number. I finally answered.
 
"I don't know who you are or what you want..." and the man tried to interrupt. I continued, "I'm speaking right now, or this conversation is over," and he shut up.
 
"I don't know who you are or what you want, but here's how it works in my life. Despite the fact that this number is on the do-not-call list, a bunch of telemarketers have decided that I'm fair game. I no longer answer my phone unless I know who is calling. If you need to speak to me, you call my number and leave a message telling me who you are and what you want, like a civilized human being. If I determine that you do indeed have business with me, I'll return your call, at my convenience. Are we clear???" He very meekly muttered, "Uh uh, yes." And I hung up. Haven't heard from them since.

pipi_k (15,556 posts)    Fri Mar 1, 2013, 09:28 AM

9. The trouble with trying to report these numbers is that they keep changing.

We'll get calls here from one number for a bit, then that number doesn't call anymore, but another one does. When I do a Google search, it's always the same sources for the different numbers.
 
Security systems. Chimney cleaning. Lowering credit card interest. etc., etc.

Same theme, different numbers.

Letting the answering machine pick up doesn't do any good, as they keep calling till they get a live person to pick up. Even then, there's often nobody on the other end until they call a few more times.
 
That's when I get out my 3,000,000 dB whistle and let them have it.

A few places that were calling from the same number never called back again.

The ones calling from different numbers...doesn't matter to them. They'll just wait a while and try again from a different part of the country.

athena (901 posts)   Fri Mar 1, 2013, 09:43 AM

10. You do realize ...

that political organizations and charities are not covered by the do-not-call list, right?
 
When I was making phone calls for the Obama campaign, some people treated me with great contempt and anger, as if they were dealing not with a volunteer but with a paid telemarketer. They would lecture me, hang up on me, tell me to take them off the list, etc. What they didn't realize is that a political organization does not have to take you off their list just because you asked them to do so. In fact, many people refused to tell me who they were, which meant that I couldn't mark them as anything other than "not home." Sometimes, the husband of the person I was trying to reach would answer and would refuse to let me speak with his wife, once again leaving me no choice but to mark her "not home". Of course, "not home" meant that another volunteer would call her later. It would have been much more effective if they would simply identify themselves and state that they supported Romney. That would have greatly reduced the probability that we would call them again.
 
Others, often liberals, thought they were being clever by not answering unidentified calls. Once again, all that accomplished was that more volunteer time would be wasted trying to reach them. Simply answering and telling us that they were planning to support Obama would have been much more effective.
 
I understand how annoying it is to receive such calls. I find them annoying myself. However, being rude to the caller does not accomplish anything useful.

[Freeper]

My phone has this neat little feature, if I don't recognize the number I hit a little button that says "decline call".

[Ralph Wiggum]

My phone has this neat little feature, if I don't recognize the number I hit a little button that says "decline call".

Ignore works too. If they leave a message, then it might be worth responding to.

[thundley4]

My phone has this neat little feature, if I don't recognize the number I hit a little button that says "decline call".

If I don't know the number I hit the ignore call button too.

[I_B_Perky]

Now I take a little different tack. I like messing with them. I specially like the polls. I guess if you answer a poll once then you get on the poll list cause I get them all the time. I especially like the polls that want opinion about national politics. The questions are always liberally skewed so I have fun. The last one I played a real stupid fool, kept asking the gal to repeat cause I didn't understand the question. Then when she asked what my education level was and political bent I told them PhD and liberal.   

Then I asked her if she wanted to go out with me.   

Life is just too daggone short not to have a little fun.