"Do Not Call" Registry. Is It A Joke?

The do not call list here mostly works, though there are ways around it.

 

The DNC list didn't work for me. It almost seemed like I got more telemarketing calls after using the list. Some people started spoofing numbers too. We got rid or our LAN line and but I still get some telemarketing calls on my cell phone. This morning I got one with a recorded message in
Spanish.

 

Sometimes I wish I could shoot ink through the phone like they did in a Laurel and Hardy movie. Mostly, I don't answer calls if I don't recognize the phone number.
Been getting telemarking calls with local area codes lately. I have answered a couple of times thinking it might be someone I know. I wonder if that is a new tactic. Unscrupulous people have learned to spoof numbers so what you see might not be the real number they are calling from.

 

Getting a new number and getting whoever's been giving yours out is the only way to make it stop. Store discount cards and promotions at the register and all kinds of seemingly harmless things put your number out there to be sold over and over.

 

Have you recently made a big purchase, or perhaps changed banks or something? Generally call centers buy lists of people who have recently made a big purchase or at least one that is related to the product they are pushing. Banks just sell lists of all their new customers, as do any subscription service(s) you may have recently signed on for.

We got the same thing a while back when we opened a new account at a different bank. I also got sick of being bombed on my land line so I started engaging the callers and giving them 2 chances to accept my refusal of their offer. If they continued to push I would tell them in my best drill instructors voice to get the eff off my MF'ing phone and don't ever bother me again. Most got the message rather quickly but a few persisted so I started having a bit of fun with them. One was a company wanting to sell me a wireless security system with 24 hour monitoring. I told them thanks but I already had a security system I was happy with so they offered to replace my existing system. I told them good luck with that, anyone they sent out to my house would be eaten by my four rotties that had been trained by a Mexican drug lord to eat any human not feeding them. They asked if I could cage them while they worked and I said absolutely not, I never caged my security system. Those that hung in after that I would simply keep them on the line as long as possible, them remind them they were paying for the call and I was never going to buy anything from them.

We still gt the random call but they are few and far between.

You can always capture the number they use and report them for harrassment, but most of the scammers spoof the numbers so it's usually a dead end, but occasionally you get lucky and light a fire under them with the FCC.

 

Sure, but 10 to 15 calls a day? For me it'd be worth the hassle of telling everyone my new number.

 

Oh, go on, live dangerously...

 

The IRS called. They wanted your phone number because they are going to sue you.

 

I don't feel obligated to treat telemarketers in a civil manner whatsoever.
You can also use it as an opportunity to have fun. You can try and keep telemarketers on the phone as long as possible ask leading questions and stall, stall, stall. When you get bored start acting bat guano crazy. Put the phone down and tell them you will be right back, wait a few minutes and if they are still there pick up the phone and say "Excuse me a minute." Hold the phone away from your mouth and yell "GET OFF! GET THE MACHETE!" Then move the phone back to your mouth and say calmly, "Ahh, what were we talking about? Oh, excuse me a minute. FIRE THE DRUMMER!"
I'm sure you get the idea.

 

I get about 5 a day and it drives me crazy! And I am on the registry... So I vote yes, it is a joke.

 

Yeah! I've gotten those IRS calls as well.

OK. I was getting two or three calls per day from the same outfit.
The scrips were the same just that the phone number came up different each time.
There is not much you can do.
First thing NOT to do is press [number] to be removed from the list.
That is essentially you making contact with the calling robot which then gives them the OK to "call you back."
It will void your efforts at using the DNC registry.

The FCC Do Not Call list may only provide temporary relief. Note that I said MAY. And that relief MAY be months away.
If you go to their website, they have the instructions for filing with the Do Not Call Registry.
I find it much easier to do my own income taxes than to navigate this thing.
You are required to amass a monumental amount of information that you have to accumulate over weeks and months.
Then submit it on line to the FCC.

In my line of work, I'm pretty familiar with how the FCC works, or more to the point doesn't work.
I jumped through all the hoops and apparently passed the test.
It took several weeks for the calls, not to stop, but trickle down to a lower rate before eventually stopping.
Then all was well for a couple or three months.
Then it all starts up again, but not as frequently as before.

I think what happens is the calling robot gets a slap on the wrist that is effective for a short period. Then they are limited to the number of calls they can place over X period of time, for X amount of time. Like a prison sentence, they get time off for good behavior.

From my line of work, I know that the FCC puts DNC pretty low on their priority of things to deal with.
So, if you don't have a life, and you can't play your bass after your heart attack that was caused by the high blood pressure caused by all those annoying calls, and you are one who is prone to do your own tax returns, by all means, KNOCK YOURSELF OUT. Because that's about the most that will come of it. You'll knock yourself out.

You'd be better served in having the neighbor kid down the block set up a pirate radio station, then call and report him to the FCC. When one of the two nationally poised Tiger Teams swoops in to bust the kid, get on their case about the annoying phone calls.

 

That's fun too, if you're in the mood.
One time I just kept responding with, "Uh, I don't understand the question."
Never waivered, never said anything else. They eventually hang up. But it is only a small, short lived victory.

 

Maybe you could say "What did you say?"
When they repeat say "I'm sorry you will have to speak up, I can't hear you."
When they repeat it again repeat what they have said very slowly and wait for an answer.
Then you could hold the phone away from your mouth and say "Honey do we want a timeshare in Milpitas?"
Then you could change your voice and say "I don't know dear where is Milpitas."
Come back to the phone and say "Where is Milpitas?"
When they answer say "What did you say?"
When they repeat say "I'm sorry you will have to speak up, I can't hear you."
When they repeat it again repeat what they have said very slowly and wait for an answer.
When they answer hold the phone away and say "Honey, he says it is minutes from beautiful silicon valley."
Change your voice and say "Is that in the mountains?"
Come back to the phone and say "Is that in the mountains?


Repeat...

 

I pick up the phone, check the caller ID and if I answer, I say hello and count "Thousand-ONE" then hang up if they don't speak.

If they're not ready to talk when I say hello, then they're auto-dialing me and I don't need to talk with them. I hang up before the call goes connects on their end.

 

I am on the DNC list, but I started getting more calls as soon as I signed up.
I use an app called Blacklist PRO on my cell phone. Once I get a bogus call, I add the number to the blacklist and it never rings my phone again.

 

I have two land lines...they're both now digital so I don't think you can call them that any more...but one has always been unlisted and the other not.

The unlisted one gets virtually no spam. The listed number, a fax line, gets tons...until they get tired of hearing the fax high pitch tones. Fortunately it's upstairs so we don't hear it.

We started getting up to 20 calls a day on the fax line after we switched to Verizon.

Robo dialers that keep calling get blocked.
Also, when a human is calling, I ask them to take us off their call list.

I renew the do-not-call registry every couple of years. There are a some exceptions to it(related companies can call you) but IMO, there is no down side to registering.

Overall, we're down 99% on the number of calls we receive or get through. There is one company that rotates numbers so I continue to block them because they always have the same prefix. We screen calls so most do not leave a message. I block those too.

 

Yes, it's a joke. worthless if not enforced.
Ive lost count of blocked phone numbers.