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The last time I visited my retired relatives, I was a little bit surprised at the number of calls that they got which seemed to be targeted towards seniors. I answered one or two for them, and I remember one where a guy was trying to sell some call alert service or something like that. He was coming off like if he had just been on ten cups of caffeinated coffee in the last hour.... scary. I asked them how they put up with that stuff, and they just laughed.
Do you get those types of calls, and how do you deal with them?
I get an amazing amount of telemarketing phone calls even though I am on the do not call list. For the past three years I have stopped answering any calls that show up being from a long-distance telephone number. I check Google to see who is making the call just in case it was really important.
If Google shows that the number is from a telemarketer, I use my cell phone to block the telephone number.
If anyone really needs to reach me they can leave a message.
Or if you're bored, make a game of it and see how long you can keep someone on the phone. Ask for more details, what happens under various scenarios, could you repeat that last part again, etc. Sure, it's a little mean, but less mean than calling up people during dinner to sell them some useless service.
We no longer have a landline, only cell phones. I rarely get unsolicited calls but did get a recent call asking me to take a quick survey. I declined and after ending the call, hit recent, info, and scrolled down to choose block that number.
If you are on the do not call list and still get calls, you can report any calls you do get on the above web site.
One thing I've learned is if you answer the call and it's a robo call, and then just hang up, they will call you back at least 3 more times. Anytime I do answer and it is a real person, I interrupt them immediately and ask to be taken off their list.
We're on the DoNotCall list, have an unlisted landline # that we're very careful to whom we give it, and we still get spam calls all day everyday, especially in the weeks leading up to elections. Campaign/political calls are exempt from the Do Not Call list and regs.
We keep the ringers turned off on our landline phones from 9a to 6p; few spammers try to call outside those hours. The phones we have allow us to block up to 30 numbers in addition to all calls coming from unidentified callers.
Anyone who needs to reach us during daytime hours has our cell #'s which for the most part are blessedly free from spam and in addition let us assign a default silent ring tone to any callers not on our contact lists. We want to keep our landline because we've had the same # for 30 years and we prefer using it rather than our cells to make outgoing calls when we're at home.
With all that we've managed to reduce the spam callers to a non problem, other than during election seasons, when political calls come in well into the evening hours.
The donotcall.gov is garbage as expected. They robocall you from a different number every time. The useless phone companies will not let you block them since the phone company sells the service to the robos. I want a block wildcard that lets me block ALL 800 *, ALL anonymous *, ALL unavailable * etc. Adding individual numbers is useless. I also want a call interceptor that asks the caller to type in a specific code in order for the phone to ring. Show me that product and I will buy it in a second.
Yes, get these calls almost every day and usually more than 2 a day. We have called, written, and asked to be taken off "call lists" for years. We have our numbers on the DNC list, as well. Doesn't matter how many requests I make; I remain on the same solicitation lists for years (and then I guess the lists get sold to others, who sell to others . . . )
The only thing that has worked for me with some of these repeat offenders is telling them that I am a renter and Mrs. Anifani no longer lives at this address. Or that Mrs. Anifani has died, lol.
Those tactics usually work.
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