*bleeping!* robocallers

[SongsOfDragons]

I've stopped using our landline. Everything that announces they will stop these bastards doesn't work. And they've - 'they' coming up on caller ID as 'International' or 'Withheld' - started calling before 8am, after 6pm and now not only on Saturdays but on Sundays! We use it either for outgoings or we tell people to ring twice, then hang up and call again, this being the signal for 'this phone call is worth answering'.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Greetings, friends. Do you wish to look as happy as me? Well, you've got the power inside you right now. So, use it, and send one dollar to Happy Dude, 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield. Don't delay, eternal happiness is just a dollar away.

One dollar for eternal happiness....mmmm...I'd be happier with the dollar.

[Rock Lobster]

I hate when they call when I am trying to sleep! I have to go to bed early as I get up at 4 am for work and they call me while I am in bed! Then I panic when it rings at that time cause people who know me would not call at that time unless it was an emergency. So i have to pull my heart out of my throat and put it back in my chest and try to fall asleep again. I feel so violated by these idiots. At least with caller ID I don't have to pick up the phone. I hope they are forced by a judge to test out new Lego's at the Lego factory with their bare feet!

[protege]

Luckly we have not had the Windows one yet BUT I now gues I can have fun with them if they ever were to call when I am home and awake.

I got the Windows one this past Saturday morning. Someone with a very thick Indian accent tried to tell me that "for the past few weeks, your Windows has been generating lots of errors." He couldn't tell me what those errors were, or even what version I was running. So I hung up on him.

I knew it was a scam--part of my job involves protecting my employer from scammers. I spend a good deal of time reading up on them.

[raudf]

Unlisted blocks don't work either, because the number shows up. I've thought about getting selective call refusal from my phone company and putting my new phishing buddy on it, but they haven't called in couple of days. *shrug* And 800notes and Whocallsus/me are all on my bookmark toolbar so I can just snag, type and decide to let the machine get it.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Unlisted blocks don't work either, because the number shows up. I've thought about getting selective call refusal from my phone company and putting my new phishing buddy on it, but they haven't called in couple of days. *shrug* And 800notes and Whocallsus/me are all on my bookmark toolbar so I can just snag, type and decide to let the machine get it.

800 notes is bookmarked and I'm signed up for that site as well. It's come in quite handy since the first of the year when I started getting those types of calls. Some of the more fun ones (and I would put these on speakerphone so my Mom could listen in on some of these Nobel Prize Weeners) such as saying they were either attorneys or one particuler one claimed to be calling from the California State Attorney's office and threatening me with arrest - after 5 pm on a Friday night and saying I'd appear in front of a judge the next morning.

He couldn't answer me when I asked him if he was going to put cops from California on a plane and send them to North Carolina, not to mention it was Friday and courts here are closed on Saturday. Hung up on the guy when he started stammering.

Went back, checked Caller ID and saw that the same number had called 12 times since 12:30 that afternoon (it was almost 7 pm my time) so IMO that warranted a complaint filed online with the FTC.

Which, even though I have filed at least 4 complaints within a month's time (between Jan and Feb of this year) that doesn't even stop these callers. They can simply use a similar number (one of two digits off) and call you right back and harass and hound you again.

And with the spoofing, the way I understand it to work is that even though the call says it's from Texas or California (for examples) it may in fact originate elsewhere (such as overseas.) The TrueCaller app I use on my iPhone is a good tool, but even with that it doesn't block the similar numbers from coming through your cell phone. You have to manually add each suspicious number that shows up on your call list.

[Rock Lobster]

I am an American who knows basic Dutch. I should talk back to them in the Nederlands taal!