I have been really busy. And when I am busy, those scam phone calls annoy me more than usual. Especially since I am probably the only person on the planet who doesn't have a cell phone, so I have to stop what I am doing and go answer the phone. About two weeks ago, being totally out of patience, I did something about them.
Typically, I get three kinds of calls. The first is the call that starts out with a cheerful voice passing the time of day but soon asks if I can hear them alright. What they want is for us to answer "Yes" so they can then use that recorded affermative reply for whatever nefarious purposes they have in mind. My solution was to remain silent. Someimes it took two or three minutes for them to hang up on me.
The second type of call was the one where they ask for me by name. No amount of hanging up, swearing at them or any other response ended those calls. So finally I used my sweet little old lady voice to tell them I was sorry, but I didn't know anyone by that name and they must have the wrong number. Took about a week for those calls to stop.
There have been an astonishing number of calls trying to sell me additional supplimental Medicare. Nothing worked to stop those calls. That is until I let them read their script up to the part where they ask if I am over 65 years of age, to which I replied, "Well, no I'm not. I am 40 years old." That's when those callers hung up on me.
It has been about a week and a half since I have received a spam call. It is lovely to be free of just another annoying thing. I won't claim that I have completely ended those calls, but so far, it seems to be working.
Good for you!
ReplyDeleteActually, it was kind of fun. :)
DeleteThat's funny! I don't have a landline because it costs us long distance to call anywhere other than my Mom's house and she has passed away. Literally, when the kids were in school, their school was a long distance charge. We got rid of it and only have cell phones. We are in the country, and I get spam calls on my cell, but our service warns us if it's potential spam.
ReplyDeleteI kept my land line simply because I am mostly housebound and didn't see the need for a cell phone. I suppose if I were still out ad about, chances are good I would have a cell just like everyone else. :)
DeleteYou're my hero! I feel (almost) sorry for the callers -- I'm sure they don't make many calls where the one they call "fights back" so to speak! We let all calls go to the answering machine; mostly they don't even bother to leave a message.
ReplyDeleteNot a hero, sbrgirl...Just a cranky old lady who has a very low tolerance for BS! And I admit to being easily amused. It was fun to mess with those who have a Pakistani accent and are named Jason or John. :)
DeleteAny suggestions on how to end annoying spam in my email inbox? I don't get the calls like you do but I certainly get a lot of junk/spam emails. Love your post! SJ now in California
ReplyDeleteThanks, SJ...I get junk in my email box as well, although not as bad as the calls have been. I haven't found a way to stop them except to report them as spam. Those that I have tried that with have been routed to the spam file. But mostly I just delete them. Good luck!
DeleteI need to remember these. Thank you, Vicki.
ReplyDeleteYou all be safe and God bless.
LindaG...I suppose it just amounts to getting so fed up that something needs to be done. Too bad that doesn't seem to work with government. God bless, my friend!
ReplyDeleteI too have a land line phone, and I get a lot of spam calls too. The way I deal with them is to block them while the phone is still ringing. There is a 'Block Caller' button on the handset that I push, and am asked, "Block call?" I press yes. Next time that spam caller calls, the phone will ring once, then stop. If I'm near enough to look at the i.d. it will read "Caller Blocked."
ReplyDeleteI'm getting more 'one ring' calls now than the ones I need to block. And the 'one ring' blocked calls are diminishing. HA!
BarbaCat
BarbaCat...Wish my phone had one of those 'block call' buttons! But any method used to stop the creeps from bothering us or scamming the elderly, is a very good thing.
DeleteWell, Glen, I gotta say you have nearly convinced me to get a cell phone. I will give it some serious thought. I do have mobility issues as in moving about at the pace of a herd of turtles, so perhaps having my phone close by would be a good thing. We shall see.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, this is me, wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving, even though I don't know if Canada has such a holiday. If not, you can share mine!