"Spam Risk": When I get most phone calls, my caller ID indicates, "Spam Risk." I pick up and hang up. Occasionally, I'll take a chance and answer. Then I get someone trying to sell me...

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

When I get most phone calls, my caller ID indicates, "Spam Risk." I pick up and hang up. Occasionally, I'll take a chance and answer. Then I get someone trying to sell me something or a politician asking for my vote. It's too bad companies are allowed to make random phone calls. Sure, it provides jobs for people, but that's no excuse.

I have a great call blocker that no longer blocks calls. Well, it does block my phone when I call home, but it doesn't block unwanted calls. It's the CPR 10000. If you have a recommendation for a good blocker, I'd like to hear about it.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

I have Cricket service, and it automatically does it for me; it gets about 90%. And, it lets me call home.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Robo calls:

"This is your utility company....".
Really? Which one?

"This call is from AT&T, your internet service provider.....".
AT&T is not my ISP.

Country Boy Loc: Beckley, WV

I read that often people/companies make spam calls and keep track of those answered and the time and sell the list to companies that want to make sales attempts to numbers where people are home. It may work against you to answer even if you don't speak, you send the message that you are home.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Country Boy wrote:

I read that often people/companies make spam calls and keep track of those answered and the time and sell the list to companies that want to make sales attempts to numbers where people are home. It may work against you to answer even if you don't speak, you send the message that you are home.

Even if an answering machine picks up. The line is a working line.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Country Boy wrote:

I read that often people/companies make spam calls and keep track of those answered and the time and sell the list to companies that want to make sales attempts to numbers where people are home. It may work against you to answer even if you don't speak, you send the message that you are home.

The alternative is to let the phone ring ten times.

Toby

jerryc41 wrote:

When I get most phone calls, my caller ID indicate... (show quote)

I have and AT&T Model CL82407 and it is excellent. It is now 3 years old so there may be a newer model.
It has several settings. I have it set to let phone ring 1 time then it answers with message “robo calls to this phone are being blocked if you are a real person push # on your phone for the call to go thru”. It blocks 25-50 calls every day. I very seldom get a live person solicitor.
The people who I want to receive calls from are programed into the phone and their calls automatically pass thur. There are several other options which I do not use since the above works so well.
I am generally not a fan of AT&T products, but this phone is great. It cost about $50-60 and came with 4 extensions if I remember correctly.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

jerryc41 wrote:

When I get most phone calls, my caller ID indicate... (show quote)

I heed my land line's warning and ignore "Spam Risk" messages calls. I guess I have enough discipline to not be forced to pick-up. Also we do not give our land line number to more than a very few for emergency use, and they know if we don't pick up to call on one of our Cell Phone numbers. The land line with is really a free feature of our ISP service is for our emergency out going use.

You should be able to change your ringer to only 3 or 4 rings. We don't have voicemail on our land line so the scammers probably can't tell if they got a valid number or not. And from what I see where I have lived most scam and advertising calls are robo calls done by automatic dialing machines. So you are likely not being rude to anyone or depriving anyone of a job. One no one should really be doing anyway. Don't let technology control you.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Jerry, the negative side of call blockers is that the spam callers can change the number that shows up as the originating number of the caller. Block that number and you'll get the same sales call from a different number. They are all, most likely, using VOIP phones and those allow that sort of programming. Trying to block those calls is like playing telecom whack-a-mole.
--Bob

jerryc41 wrote:

When I get most phone calls, my caller ID indicate... (show quote)

Grey Ghost

The best blocker I know of is simply to ignore the call if you don’t recognize the caller ID. If the caller needs to talk with you they can leave a message and then you can decide whether or not to return the call.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Toby wrote:

I have and AT&T Model CL82407 and it is excell... (show quote)

That's a nice feature!

How would/does it go to voicemail? Or can it not do both?

rmorrison1116 Loc: Near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

I have not had a land line for many years. With cell phones, why bother to continue paying for phone service we don't need. My phone identifies potential spam callers and gives me the option to report and block them. I have the phone set to ring 4 times before going to voice mail. If I get a call from a number I don't recognize, and they don't leave a message, I usually block them. I only get a few spam calls per week that I have to decide on blocking or just ignoring, the rest are automatically blocked. It's just a phone, not rocket science.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

rmalarz wrote:

Jerry, the negative side of call blockers is that the spam callers can change the number that shows up as the originating number of the caller. Block that number and you'll get the same sales call from a different number. They are all, most likely, using VOIP phones and those allow that sort of programming. Trying to block those calls is like playing telecom whack-a-mole.
--Bob

Right - unfortunately. When that call blocker was working, it was great.

Just Shoot Me Loc: Ithaca, NY

You guys still have land lines? Not trying to be facetious here but I dropped my land line about 14 years ago.
All I got on it was robo calls and wrong numbers. Why pay for something that I don't use.
I guess it has it's advantages to some but the wife and I have iPhones and that's all we've needed since.

Ron

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Just Shoot Me wrote:

You guys still have land lines? Not trying to be facetious here but I dropped my land line about 14 years ago.
All I got on it was robo calls and wrong numbers. Why pay for something that I don't use.
I guess it has it's advantages to some but the wife and I have iPhones and that's all we've needed since.

Ron

Yes.
Land line works when cell phone battery dead or tower out. (Backup phone)
Land line works during a power outage (We have one "plain" phone.)
911 knows exactly where I'm located.
We have no bells & whistles on the land line ,local only, $30/month with taxes.

Maybe someday we'll ditch it.