Getting tired of telemarketing scams...
- Thread starter ZZman
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This same subject came up a few months ago and the replies seem to be all the same. I guess that means it's a good topic. My reply will be the same also.
When the "Do not call" national law came into being many years ago, it was great. The telemarketers, or at least most of them, seemed to obey and left us along. Funny how the politicians excluded themselves from the law, but that's nothing new. Now I think the telemarketers actually read from the list and call the numbers that are signed up on the list. At least they do to my number. We wife is a stay-at-home computer programmer, so she is the one who looks at the caller ID and rejects it. Yes, we've also had our number spoofed and had our very own name and number give us a call!
Here's what I propose: Whenever my telephone number rings, the entity calling me automatically has to put $.05 or maybe $.10 into my bank account. This would be hard, cold cash, not a credit or an IOU. This idea is not to make me wealthy, but to de-weathitize (LOL!) the telemarketers. Since the phone companies love the telemarketers and have never done anything to stop them, they would be responsible for this. The idea is this: If I make a couple of calls a day, the nickle and dime won't hurt me. If the telemarketers make 250K calls a day, it WILL hurt them, enough to stop them. To the people that say it could be it wouldn't work, I believe the old 900 or 975 prefixes worked just fine.
Anyway, it's just a thought. We no longer answer our phone. The important people in our life text us or email us.
When the "Do not call" national law came into being many years ago, it was great. The telemarketers, or at least most of them, seemed to obey and left us along. Funny how the politicians excluded themselves from the law, but that's nothing new. Now I think the telemarketers actually read from the list and call the numbers that are signed up on the list. At least they do to my number. We wife is a stay-at-home computer programmer, so she is the one who looks at the caller ID and rejects it. Yes, we've also had our number spoofed and had our very own name and number give us a call!
Here's what I propose: Whenever my telephone number rings, the entity calling me automatically has to put $.05 or maybe $.10 into my bank account. This would be hard, cold cash, not a credit or an IOU. This idea is not to make me wealthy, but to de-weathitize (LOL!) the telemarketers. Since the phone companies love the telemarketers and have never done anything to stop them, they would be responsible for this. The idea is this: If I make a couple of calls a day, the nickle and dime won't hurt me. If the telemarketers make 250K calls a day, it WILL hurt them, enough to stop them. To the people that say it could be it wouldn't work, I believe the old 900 or 975 prefixes worked just fine.
Anyway, it's just a thought. We no longer answer our phone. The important people in our life text us or email us.
It's not 100% effective, but this is the strategy I am currently using that blocks nearly all such calls. I use a free Android app called Extreme Call Blocker. It updates its block list regularly from the FCC "spam" database. It also allows you to block any individual number, area code, or prefix. On top of that T-Mobile offers spam blocking on the network. You have to opt in, but I believe they may be the only mobile carrier offering this free service thus far. I think I'm down to about 1-2 calls per month making it through which I just add to the block list in Extreme Call Blocker.
I am pretty sure that the scumbags will find workarounds eventually, but for now things have quieted down. It's sad that we have to expend any energy on this at all. There may truly be those who just don't answer, hang up, or play games with the scum over the phone, but the truth is that NO ONE wants to get these calls. I would have to be pretty bored to want to have a poorly paid call center denizen in another country hang up on me.
I am pretty sure that the scumbags will find workarounds eventually, but for now things have quieted down. It's sad that we have to expend any energy on this at all. There may truly be those who just don't answer, hang up, or play games with the scum over the phone, but the truth is that NO ONE wants to get these calls. I would have to be pretty bored to want to have a poorly paid call center denizen in another country hang up on me.
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