21–30 of 92 posts
I find that 99% of spam calls (at least for now) can be eliminated by simply not answering any numbers that match the first six digits of my own telephone number. I don't know why telemarketers decided this would be a good strategy to increase conversions, but it certainly makes things easier for me.
Answer the phone when they call and conference in the Jolly Roger telephone bot http://www.jollyrogertelco.com The bot will waste the telemarketers time, which is the most expensive thing that these companies are paying for. Do this enough times and the calls drop off rapidly.
Even the ones that have options to hit '2' and add yourself to the do not call list are not only not adding you to any do not call list, they are confirming there's a human listening and increasing the call frequency. I just had that call 5 minutes ago, after attempting to opt-in to their do not call list twice this week.
I find that 99% of spam calls (at least for now) can be eliminated by simply not answering any numbers that match the first six digits of my own telephone number. I don't know why telemarketers decided this would be a good strategy to increase conversions, but it certainly makes things easier for me.
There are apps like Extreme Call Blocker (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.greythinke...) which you can set up to send everything not in your contact list straight to voicemail.
Also you could use something like Should I Answer (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mistergrou...) which will show you if a caller is spammy based on a huge database of crowd-sourced ratings.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
did not help.
please file FCC complaints
Each one requires a detailed form to fill out on the FCC site which I send off into the oblivion only to have the call volume go unchanged (or increase). Sorry, tragedy of the commons and all, but it's just not worth it to me to take the time to do this.
On my iPhone, I've been using Hiya to help, and it's been pretty good so far.
I have this, but recently "local" spam callers have been getting through a lot more. I don't know if they're spoofing or buying up blocks of numbers but most of them have "valid" caller ids in Hiya.
In US, you could register your phone in Do Not call list from Federal Trade Commission - https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0133-cell-phones-and-d...
That doesn't help. I'm on it, and I regularly get spam calls that are all conveniently from my area code and a similar exchange code.
Relevant quote from FCC Chairman Pai: “Which is the ultimate solution, I think, to this problem, which is to find a call authentication standard.”
And there’s no timeline when that’ll happen. So buckle in, we’ll be here a while.
People say this just confirms you are a real person, but I'm pretty sure they haven't tried it successfully for months the way I have. I still get calls of course, but it's a couple a week and not from the same parties over and over and over.
I registered on the US national do not call list a decade ago. I'm not sure how much it helped over the years, but in the last few years, the phone calls illegally ignoring that list are increasing like crazy. All the telemarketer strategies are changing too, to get around whatever blocking method you have. They're spoofing random local numbers now, so you can't use your phone's number blocking feature. They're hanging up and calling back later to avoid time wasting. They're offering fake do not call lists to confirm a human is listening. I think it's hopeless, my only strategy now is just decline any call not in my address book. If it's someone who needs me, they'll leave a voicemail.
I've registered with Do Not Call and I don't answer calls beginning with my 6 digits. The next steps would take too much effort.
I don't like accepting something I find repellent, but I have other priorities and I'd rather happily work on them than angrily be distracted.
Meanwhile, I'm working on cutting my incoming junk paper mail. I downloaded PaperKarma, but it doesn't work (it takes pictures but fails to upload them). I emailed them two bug reports but no response. Does anyone know what I can do instead?