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My FIL says this to anyone who wants some thing over the phone: " i don't do business over the phone, if you want to talk business, come to my house, and ill see what its about ".... CLICK.
Tell them they will have to come to your office to talk to you. Then give them the address for the nearest police station.
Yes this! I dont understand why people answer calls from telephone numbers they do not know. It Starts there.
I always answer my phone, that's what I have one for. The last unknown number I answered was the Division of Elections telling me my absentee ballot had been returned. Now I have my ballot and will be able to vote. An unknown number doesn't fill me with terror. If it's a spam or scam call, I'm a big boy and I deal with it. I've never understood this aversion to answering a call from an unknown number. What did people do before caller ID and answering machines?
Thank you for one of the most valuable posts I’ve seen here, or actually anywhere. Tip number three was especially informative. I wasn’t aware that you could set up an online account with Social Security. That makes good sense.
Given the incessant attempts to steal money (I get multiple calls each week) it seems like a large percentage of the population is trying to steal money from the other part of the population. Sometimes I ask these clowns how they manage to look at themselves in the mirror in the morning. Sometimes I ask them if their mother knows what they are doing for a living. Either question results in a quick hang up.
At least there is caller ID. If I don't know the person making the call, I simply don't answer. After they hang up, I put their number on auto-block which sends to voicemail. If they don't leave a voice mail, I leave the number blocked, and don't have to deal with them ever again.
Two other pieces of advice
1. Watch a few episodes of American Greed on CNBC -- you won't trust anyone after doing so
2. Don't pick up your home phone for any reason. Let calls go to voice mail, you can return the calls later if you want to. An added benefit is it stops telemarketers in their tracks. I only answer calls on my cell phone.
I always answer my phone, that's what I have one for. The last unknown number I answered was the Division of Elections telling me my absentee ballot had been returned. Now I have my ballot and will be able to vote. An unknown number doesn't fill me with terror. If it's a spam or scam call, I'm a big boy and I deal with it. I've never understood this aversion to answering a call from an unknown number. What did people do before caller ID and answering machines?
Calls from unknown numbers don't "fill me with terror" either and I doubt that many, if any, others feel fear at all. lol The problem with them is that they are very annoying. When you get at least 10 calls a day and often more, as I do, it is really very annoying. I usually don't answer, but sometimes I do. Sometimes, my cell phone gives me the option to respond by a pre-printed text. I'm not sure why I get that option sometimes, but not all the time. Anyway, one of the options is to text, "I'm on my way." So I will respond with that, or one of the other options.
One time that I answered, it was the scam about the windows computer where they try to get you to go to a website that gives them control or access to your computer. I wasn't busy and felt like messing with him and wasting his time. I thought, if I can keep him on the phone for a while, then that's less time for him to try to scam someone else who might fall for it and I was in the mood to play around with him, so I did. It was so hard not to laugh, because no matter how ridiculous I got with him, he wouldn't give up.
I started talking about my dog and how I had been trying to teach my dog how to turn on my computer and after my dog learned how to do that, he kept turning my computer on, but he wasn't able to learn how to turn the computer off, and other equally ridiculous things like that. I asked him if he could help me train my dog to do other things on the computer. Then I rang my own doorbell and had him wait because someone was at my door. I kept him waiting for about 10 full minutes. When I came back to the phone, he was still there! I started talking nonsense about my dog some more, I asked him to talk to my dog over the phone and explain to my dog, what to do, etc. I finally got bored with the whole thing and I just hung up.
He was the most persistent person I've ever talked to and he must not have been very bright, because otherwise, he'd have realized that he didn't stand a chance with me and he would have hung up.
As to "What did people do before caller ID and answering machines?" I don't think that these types of scam calls were all that common prior to caller ID. I don't remember ever getting scam or unwanted calls until about 10 or so years ago.
I always answer my phone, that's what I have one for. The last unknown number I answered was the Division of Elections telling me my absentee ballot had been returned. Now I have my ballot and will be able to vote. An unknown number doesn't fill me with terror. If it's a spam or scam call, I'm a big boy and I deal with it. I've never understood this aversion to answering a call from an unknown number. What did people do before caller ID and answering machines?
An unknown number doesn't fill be with terror either, far from it. However, personally I've learned that 9 out of 10 times it's someone trying to sell me something and 100 percent of the time, I'm not interested so I do both of us a favor and not answer it so no one is wasting their time.
Caller ID is a marvelous thing and allows us to make choices as to whether or not answering a call is probably worth our time.
I think some elderly people (not you) are so lonely to hear a human voice, they answer all calls just to have someone to chat with.
I always answer my phone, that's what I have one for. The last unknown number I answered was the Division of Elections telling me my absentee ballot had been returned. Now I have my ballot and will be able to vote. An unknown number doesn't fill me with terror. If it's a spam or scam call, I'm a big boy and I deal with it. I've never understood this aversion to answering a call from an unknown number. What did people do before caller ID and answering machines?
So the Division of Elections can't leave you a voicemail? I got a phone for legitimate communications. If they refuse to leave a voicemail or send me e-mail, then it wasn't important to begin with. By answering the junk phone calls, you are simply encouraging their behavior. If they never get to speak to anyone on the phone, they would give up on it. Don't answer unknown calls. In fact, there are services now to block them.
So the Division of Elections can't leave you a voicemail? I got a phone for legitimate communications. If they refuse to leave a voicemail or send me e-mail, then it wasn't important to begin with. By answering the junk phone calls, you are simply encouraging their behavior. If they never get to speak to anyone on the phone, they would give up on it. Don't answer unknown calls. In fact, there are services now to block them.
Since I actually answered my phone the issue was resolved within a minute or so. Have you ever tried calling a governmental entity back after they left a message? Good luck with that. You'll have to spend some time explaining why you're calling. Then you'll get transferred. Then you have to explain everything all over again. And then you get transferred again. Been there, done that. It takes about three or four individuals before you get the right person.
When I had a landline I would tell telemarketers that I don't accept solicitations over the phone and to remove my name and phone number from their list. By the time I gave up my landline I hardly ever received a telemarketing call. Now that we use smart phones exclusively we hardly even get telemarketing or scam/spam calls.
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Great topic
