New Telemarketing Trick (Page 2): I actually love calls like that. (When I am not busy!!) My record for keeping someone on the line is one hour, seven minutes. I want to beat that...

bemused_bystander Loc: Orkney Islands, UK

I actually love calls like that. (When I am not busy!!)

My record for keeping someone on the line is one hour, seven minutes. I want to beat that record!!!

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

jerryc41 wrote:

The phone rang a few minutes ago, and it showed th... (show quote)

Jerry, I had someone call me about "issues with my credit card". He called my cell phone and started asking questions. I refused to answer and told him that ANY problems I have, I deal with my bank or the CC company directly. He tried to claim that he worked for the card company but didn't know who my card company was. I hung up on him and called the number back from my cell phone. It was a house in the Philly area and the woman had no idea what was going on and initially thought I was trying to sell her. I explained that I was "redialing" the number that called me and that she might want to be aware that someone was using her number for apparent illegal activity. She appeared to have no over-seas accent and was female and the original caller was heavily accented probably non-Asian but sounded African or Middle Eastern male. Misused a lot of words and was supposedly calling from New York City even though it was a 215 area code on the phone number ID.

nimbushopper Loc: Tampa, FL

Very irritating indeed! Haven't you ever gotten a call with the caller ID displaying your own home number? I have many times, it seems the spoofers are able to use any number they want, so many of them use a local number because people will pick up quicker. I agree there ought to be a law against this, but that's not happening.

photoman022 Loc: Manchester CT USA

I pick up even for spam calls because if I don't do it the answering machine will. Do I pick up and hang up almost immediately or do I keep pressing the "skip" button on the answering machine? The first option seems to work best for me. Oh, if I get a live person on the spam call, I yell as loud as I can into the phone. My wife is now used to my yelling.

randave2001 Loc: Richmond

dpfoto wrote:

I answered one in a very quiet voice, "He's dead, but there's blood EVERYWHERE!". I don't know why they just hung up.

John N Loc: HP14 3QF Stokenchurch, UK

We've had a few like that over here as well. I'm wondering whether they have bought a U.K. landline no. and use to forward the unwanted calls.
My STD code stretches over a good area, but last time I looked it didn't include India.

Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

jerryc41 wrote:

The phone rang a few minutes ago, and it showed th... (show quote)

I found a perfect solution. We never use our home phone any more. Anyone who knows us calls us on our cell phones. Including schools and anyone who needs to get in touch with us. I took an old Fax machine and hooked it up and set it to pick up on the first ring. You can't believe how this has eliminated all the telemarketers. Now the home phone hardly rings except from my 80 year old parents who "always call the house first just in case we are home". Lol

sourdough58 Loc: Maine

I am thinking about going back to my pager and an unlisted cell number, spammers never bothered my pager. that would cut my number of calls a day in half.

dpfoto Loc: Cape Coral, FL

When I get mail addressed to "Resident", I write "No one here by that name Return to sender". I don't know if the sender has to pay the return postage or not... and really don't care. ;)

Camlane Loc: North Carolina

Jaackil wrote:

I found a perfect solution. We never use our home phone any more. Anyone who knows us calls us on our cell phones. Including schools and anyone who needs to get in touch with us. I took an old Fax machine and hooked it up and set it to pick up on the first ring. You can't believe how this has eliminated all the telemarketers. Now the home phone hardly rings except from my 80 year old parents who "always call the house first just in case we are home". Lol

Why do you pay for something you never use?

salmander

I once got a call, on my home phone, that the caller ID had my name and number on it. Another time, there was no name, but the number was 1234567890.

Most telemarketing callers use phone banks. A computer calls numbers randomly, and when someone picks up, the call is transferred to an agent. This usually takes about ten seconds. When an actual person is calling, they usually respond with 2-3 seconds. So when I hear the blank space, I say "Hello, I can't hear you." (In case it's someone important who can't get through.) Then I wait a couple of seconds, and say "I'm going to hang up now." (So if it's someone important, they'll know the phone has a problem.) I do this within about eight seconds, so the telemarketer doesn't have a chance to talk to me, and anyone important will try another time or another way. Of course, they are almost always telemarketers. I am a self-employed carpenter, mostly retired, so a lot of calls I used to get on a regular basis were strangers calling me for work. That's how I started this method.

peterg Loc: Santa Rosa, CA

Jaackil wrote:

I found a perfect solution. We never use our home phone any more. Anyone who knows us calls us on our cell phones. Including schools and anyone who needs to get in touch with us. I took an old Fax machine and hooked it up and set it to pick up on the first ring. You can't believe how this has eliminated all the telemarketers. Now the home phone hardly rings except from my 80 year old parents who "always call the house first just in case we are home". Lol

I sometimes use a fake-fax app on my iPhone. I answer my landline and play the fax sounds. Sometimes, I'll answer by saying "Tech Support" with a phony business if asked. Most of the time, I don't answer. If it's important, they'll leave a message. The big mystery is that they always know when I'm eating dinner!

berchman Loc: South Central PA

salmander wrote:

I once got a call, on my home phone, that the call... (show quote)

Unless I'm waiting for someone to call back, I don't even bother picking up. If it's important they'll leave a message. Otherwise, I pick up, say hello, and if I don't hear anything within a couple of seconds I hang up.

Dan Mc Loc: NM

I just play with them...sometimes I can tie them and their "managers" up for 30 - 45 minutes. It is time away for them from calling an one else, maybe even those gullible old folks.

pdsdville Loc: Midlothian, Tx

I had one that showed my own phone calling me. Kind of a clue something wasn't right.