Telemarketers

These darn telemarketers are getting smarter all the time. Half of them are using AI and voice recognition to try and have a conversation. I wish I understood how they spoof caller ID.How do they spoof a local phone number from a call center in India?

I’ve figured out how to get most of the ones from humans to quit. I have fun with them and get them to hang up on me. Sometimes even the AI calls will hang up on me. I don’t raise my voice or use cuss words. They hangup in about 10 seconds and most don’t call back. We have gone from having a dozen calls a day to 2 or 3.

The quickest and easiest way to get them to hang up on me is to ask them for their name, then their last name and then I ask if they mind if I record this call. There’s only been one telemarketer that said OK to being recorded. But, when I said that I recorded the last time their company called and you agreed to put us on your Do Not Call List they too immediately hung up on me.

I think it’s really interesting that they’ve programmed the AI robocallers to hang up if it thinks it’s being recorded.

I’ve really been amazed that the political ads and vote for me spam calls haven’t started yet.

SuperDave1959 wrote:

I’ve really been amazed that the political ads and vote for me spam calls haven’t started yet.

I must be getting yours. I get text and phone calls on my cell number.

The simplest solution – just don’t answer. I haven’t answered a call from an unrecognized number in at least a decade. If it’s a genuine call, they’ll leave a voicemail. And if it’s spam, they rarely leave a message or call again. It’s so strange to think that it wasn’t all that long ago that the rotary phone in the kitchen world ring and we would all just answer it – no worries about caller ID or knowing who it’s from! My how times have changed.

Sharon wrote:

The simplest solution – just don’t answer. I haven’t answered a call from an unrecognized number in at least a decade. If it’s a genuine call, they’ll leave a voicemail. And if it’s spam, they rarely leave a message or call again. It’s so strange to think that it wasn’t all that long ago that the rotary phone in the kitchen world ring and we would all just answer it – no worries about caller ID or knowing who it’s from! My how times have changed.

Whats changed is the pursuit of the almighty dollar. People are all becoming like wbores and politicions, they will do & say anything for a buck.

Very sad times.

I was just complaining on this to my daughter and her friend last night. Asked if they have been receiving stuff as well, they hadn’t which is good they must only target the voter crowd. Political parties texting, calling, same for surveys, it’s non stop. Really biased questions that just really urine a guy off too.

Running a small business there is no off button. Sometimes I run to other side of job site when the phone rings to see who it is, Verizon has this new spammer program which works pretty good, but ya still have to stop what you’re doing to go check it out. And there are still of plenty of local numbers that don’t show up as spam so you have to answer, it is what it is.

Election can’t get here soon enough.

Sharon wrote:

The simplest solution – just don’t answer. I haven’t answered a call from an unrecognized number in at least a decade.

That’s what we’ve done for the past 10 years or so too.At least they don’t call before 9:30 am or after 9 pm. But the sheer volume of calls has become ridiculous. We would get 3 or 4 calls a day from each spam shop for Extended car and home warranties, there’s a payment about to be charged to a credit card and Police and Fireman benevolent funds, not to mention all the spoofed calls caller ID said were from weird cities all over the country, in state and local towns. That has to be some kind of AI selecting all those spoofed city names and numbers trying to target your location. These people would not go away and stop calling even when asked to be put on their Do-Not-Call-List. Blocking their phone numbers stopped working about 2 years ago. Now they just keep changing their phone numbers.

I got tired of all that and decided to stop being the prey and go on the offense. So far it’s working pretty well. Plus it’s kinda fun to get them off their script and hang up first.

Deuces wrote:

Running a small business there is no off button.

Good point. I didn’t think of those using their cell phone for business purposes. You kinda have to answer unknown numbers then. That sucks!

We never answer any of the phones unless we KNOW the caller. If its important they’ll leave a message.

My Verizon Google Pixel 3 has eliminated 99% of robo and scammer calls. I love it

Sharon wrote:

The simplest solution – just don’t answer.

When people build high end homes, they expect their builder to answer the phone. Additionally, I work with vendors internationally, and contractors all over this country. My “work day” as far as phone calls goes amounts to almost 20 hours a day at times. Not a simple solution.

Then to look at these pita companies and their freakin email blasting crap. I had 2367 emails yesterday to inform me that Biden and Trump are both worthless pieces of crap and I can get pills cheap to Enhance my sex life.

I’ve had telemarketers tell me they live in the states. It’s pretty common. Once they tell me where they live I’ll ask them a specific question about the area they’d know. The last one said she was from Syracuse, NY despite clearly having a very heavy accent. I asked her what color the man is who’s the mascot for the college there and she hung up. I figured anyone that just moved to Syracuse would know it’s the Orangemen. I like to ask them stuff like that and have a little fun with it.

If I’m really bored I’ll put them on speaker so I can keep doing whatever I’m putzing around with and then try to keep them on the phone as long as possible. Whenever they ask for my card number or personal data I don’t want to give I’ll redirect and ask a question looking to clarify some aspect of the goods or service they’re selling. A half hour is about max and usually it’s fifteen minutes or less before I go, “I have no intention to buy and quite frankly wouldn’t want it even if it was free. I just wanted to waste some of your time and see how much you liked it.”

I did keep one guy on for over an hour once but usually I’m not that bored. It is amazing how excited they get when thinking you’re a total schmuck looking to buy what they’re selling and how frustrated they start getting when you start redirecting the conversation over and over again when they’re asking for your card. It’s also pretty comical.

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He used to record telemarketer calls and play them for part of his comedy routine

It is very simple to set the phone number for Caller ID on the sending side. Just a piece of data in the software. as a programmer I have worked with call center systems integrations.

Tell them they sound hot and ask what they are wearing.

When these idiots started with the spam and scam calls a few years ago I kept a horn on canned air next to the garage phone. I’d let them start their spiel and lay the phone on the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket and give them a six second blast, then hang up.

Tried letting everything go to voicemail – didn’t help.

I called century link’s “customer service” about blocking this crap. Their call center is “off shore” and apparently their techs are either robo scammers or sell numbers to them because the number of calls went WAY up after that. (This also happened after a customer support call to a different company, so probably not a coincidence…) I got fed up with that crap and cancelled my land line, and it’s been SO peaceful since.

I got 3 calls in 1 hour this morning telling me my Google listing is unclaimed. I usually get only 1 a day about noon.
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I got a call “Hi Grampa.” the other day. I don’t have grandkids.

Next time they call I will say things are bad. My rent is behind and my truck just broke down. Can you send me some gift cards?
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When I get a call from Apple or Microsoft I say:

Did those dang grandkids screw up my computer again?
Do you have kids? Most say yes, thinking they are bonding with me.
Do you want them to follow in your footsteps as a thief and a liar?
Do you hope they grow up to be criminals and steal from honest people?
Do you hope they go to prison one day?

By then, I and talking to myself.
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Others scammers I tell I am interested but I need to turn the stove off and I will be right back. I come back 10 minutes later and see if they waited.
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My buddies line is “I like cheese. All kinds of cheese. Cheese on my Pizza. Cheese on my cheeseburger. Even cheese on a cracker is good.”

Some say “I get, goodbye”. Other have no clue and just keep on their spiel until he asks them how long they would like to talk about cheese.