Comments on: Is Deborah There? Is Bill There? Phone Scam Fail!

By: jorn

jorn — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 01:24:06 +0000

If I could port my number from Vonage to Google Voice I probably would, mostly because the latter does both manual blacklisting and automatic spam control and the former does none.

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By: Nils

Nils — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 00:25:39 +0000

I just reconnected our landline a couple of weeks ago, and bundled it with DSL to save a few bucks since the cable company made me mad.
Surprisingly enough they gave me the same phone number that we had a couple of years ago so I didn’t have to memorize a new number.

I mainly want the solid 911 service, service even when the power is out and reliable service for the baby sitters watching our kids. As much fun as it would be to play with SIP and have Asterisk as a PBX at home, I do enough work with VoIP at work, I’d rather not bring my work home with me.

So far, I did recieve the same call lefty did, but I haven’t heard from them in over a week. Other than that it has been the typical political and veterans groups that try to get a hold of us at random intervals. It would be really nice for there to a code (i.e. *69) you could punch in to block the number that previously called you and just block it at the telco. I’d pay $2 a month for that service.

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By: jorn

jorn — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 21:23:57 +0000

When you get these calls, HANG UP. Do not press any buttons. Do not respond in any way. Doing so confirms that you are a real person, and feeds the secondary business of the scammers which involves validating spam lists.

Report them to http://donotcall.gov Yeah, it’s a pain the ass and it feels like nothing is happening, but the agency is doing something, even if it pales.

Recently, I’ve been looking up who owns the number that’s calling me. For example, 651-796-1433 keeps robocalling me (illegal!) about some home monitoring bullshit for seniors. It turns out that bandwidth.com owns this as part of their phonebooth.com service. So, I’m filing complaints with them and shaming them online.

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By: sandy

sandy — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 23:26:02 +0000

Our biggest offenders are the “credit card services” scam and the “charity pick-up” hounders. We don’t pick up.

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By: S.B.

S.B. — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 17:53:21 +0000

I only give out my work number, never my home phone. When telemarketers call I tell them this is a work number and they need to take it off the list. It has worked like a charm for many years. I never get telemarketer calls at home any more.

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By: Tim

Tim — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 01:43:42 +0000

I haven’t had a land line in a while now; I’m cell-only. Furthermore, I never answer my phone if I don’t recognize the number and let it go to voice mail instead. That hasn’t stopped all of the unwanted calls, but it stops most of them.

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By: lefty

lefty — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 14:26:11 +0000

I used to avoid the fee for having an unlisted number by asking to have a false name printed in the phone book. There are 3 different names that I have used.

Cruz Meister
Lisbon Rampaige
Fred Trout

I always had a good laugh when I’d get a call for one of those guys, especially when they tried to offer “them” a credit card.

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By: Sandy

Sandy — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 04:32:26 +0000

Clyde, thanks.

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By: Mikeh

Mikeh — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 02:08:43 +0000

Most new cell phones contain gps data providing lat and long on any 911 call regardless as to if you have that gps turned off. I don’t own a cell phone old enough to not have that functionality, and I have some that are 6 years old. So it’s been up for a while. The key, even with 911 on a land line is you tell the 911 operator where the problem is. Almost more important that the reason you are calling.

I thought of one other thing. I haven’t had a listed phone number for probably 15 years. We always paid the fee for not listing our number. That right there cut down on the stupid calls.

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By: Clyde

Clyde — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 01:16:40 +0000

Sandy,

Hope this helps answer yor question:

http://www.fcc.gov/guides/wireless-911-services

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By: Sandy

Sandy — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 22:22:26 +0000

I am concerned about ditching the landline due to potential 911 calls. Does anyone know if cell phones are trackable for 911 calls yet?

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By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 18:54:03 +0000

Mikeh,

I think ours is $11/month. Maybe less.

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By: Mikeh

Mikeh — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 18:08:20 +0000

You can port your home number to google voice. To do it you have to perform a bit of a hack by porting your number to a cell service, and then porting the cell service to Google voice. Google voice has caller number only, no caller name, but you do get number. And many phones will look up the number in your directory and show you the name.

For me, the cable phone service was $40 a month. Not a big deal compared to my past $80 a month from Frontier, but still an amount I could put elsewhere in the budget. So I cut it. I now only have internet service from the cable company. (tv from satellite)

Now if I could just get my cell phone bill under control. I may need to switch to Tmobile because Verizon is just crazy expensive (IMNSHO).

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By: Mole

Mole — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 17:31:45 +0000

There are devices you can buy for around $100 that you can use to blacklist phone numbers and even area codes for your landline. I’ve considered getting one, but I’ve found that they must be installed ahead of the first phone in the house and you must have caller ID. Neither one of these is a big deal, but the drawback is that they intercept the caller ID information, so no other phones in the house will see it. If it wasn’t for that, I’d probably try one out.

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By: Mole

Mole — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 17:21:47 +0000

Here is how one guy (Tom Mabe) handles telemarketers:

http://howtoprankatelemarketer.ytmnd.com/

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By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 15:43:14 +0000

Mikeh,

Technically it’s cable, not a traditional landline. Up until a few months ago, The Wife didn’t have a real mobile phone or plan and she received many calls at home via that line. For the few dollars it costs, it’s not a big deal for us although I have considered dropping it.

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By: Mikeh

Mikeh — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 15:21:33 +0000

A land line, really, you, a technology type folk? My guess is that the scammers are redoubling their effort if they can identify those with land lines, as those will tend to be older folks that are easier to deal with. All my numbers are on the DNC registry.

A couple years ago, I switched from Frontier to cable for phone. The biggest down side to that is that at least 2 different people used to have the number I got from Charter because I was getting bill collector calls for one of them, and timeshare calls for the other one. I would also get recorded calls telling me to hold on because I’ve won! Usually with an overly excited voice, and sounds of steel drums in the background of the recording. So i hang up. Worst ones have always been the fax machine calling at 1am because someone decided my number was a fax machine.

About 4 months ago I cut out the pots line and went IP Telephony. These days, I spend about $2.50 a month for home phone. I use a Google Voice number for free LD (US and Canada), and an account with two SIP providers for E911 service (Redundancy).
I use an OBI202 which is a device I paid $60 for which works with Google Voice and SIP providers and gives me dial tone on the jacks in my house so my wife can use the large cordless phones we had. She didn’t like the idea of using a cell phone at home. The obi is a cool little device.

I too do not pick up calls from numbers I don’t know. A plus for the Android phones is integration with your google contacts, and if you have google voice, you can set up rules for those contacts. I don’t answer calls from people not on my contact list. I’ll listen in as they leave voice mail if I have time, otherwise I’ll see the transcription when it comes.

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By: w00dz

w00dz — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 14:31:07 +0000

I do get calls now and then. My cell is my only number (besides gVoice) and it’s listed in the DNC registry. Since I’ve had the number for the better part of a decade, it’s out there, since it is also tied to my old business..

I pretty much have a rule that if I don’t recognize the number, it goes into voicemail. If they don’t leave a message I don’t return the call. If they call again with no message, they simply get blacklisted and are unable to call again.

This method worked especially well for Metro Auto Glass to call out specifically, as I told them numerous times I did not need glass and to stop calling them.

I’ve gotten to a point in life where once the work day is over, I want to escape any communications device, and if you’re trying to call and sell me something, I just don’t pick up, because the innocent telemarketer doing their job doesn’t deserve the hell-spawn I’ve leashed upon many in the past.

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By: lefty

lefty — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 14:22:41 +0000

I was able to defeat the biggest scam of all about 4 years ago.

Having a land line.

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