Scam/Robocalls

No doubt they will. Just like people who pay dealer markups which encourages the markups, there are those who fall for the evil and often ridiculous scams which keeps them profitable. I know a guy who paid cash for his house many years ago. He's in his 80s now. Thanks to chasing after that pot of gold, he now has no savings, has the house financed to the hilt, and has completely squandered his and his family's future. And yet, he keeps giving them money in the impossible hope that this time he'll actually get that box full of gold coins and other valuables.

 

i didn't realize it, but now you mention it, i think our scam calls have slowed down recently too.

i wish they could end it forever, drives mrs. b crazy

 

I gave up the land line many years ago for cost and the inability to block scammers. It made no sense to spend $30/month for a scammer call line.

Now I have a cell phone, $70/month, and only answer calls from my contacts list. The others go to voice mail. BTW, my cell phone does not go into my bedroom, nor computer, nor TV.

Bob Wilson

 

I have my own business and they call all the time. I have been able to get verizon and google to recognize the scam calls and automatically block them. The ones I really dislike are the scammers that call my wife's phone. They will tell her things like I am being sued and haven't returned their calls. Or, they act like they are a sheriff looking for me so they can "server papers". The nerve of these idiots is unreal. They will tell my wife anything to put fear in her and to try to get more data about me.

 

Should probably do what bwilson4web did but can't bring myself to do it.

Our home line is probably 75% scam calls and25% legitimate calls.

Fail to understand what they expect to gain from cold calling and irritating a person at home they don't even know - there must be a pay off but I can't imagine from who

The favorite scam calls in our area;

Lower your Spectrum or AT&T bills
Do you want to sell your house?
I'm from Medicare do you ....
Are you suffering from pain ...

I have a blocking device and click to block any call labeled scam likely but the peopole will then hand dail a spoofed number at times to get you to answer.

I am a recipient of Medicare and Social Security. Both agencies send you notices throughout the year that they will never call you.

Who does business with these people?

 

We got rid of our land line in 2006. But I don't waste my time with voice mail. I return missed calls from people I know and anyway, people I know almost always text first to see if it's a good time to talk. Because that's what I do for them.

We still pick up unknown numbers because you never know which doctor's office is calling. Each one seems to use several numbers. Most times, thanks to our spam blockers, they are legit.

Still, my wife gets several calls a day from people wanting to know if I want to sell our house. Boneheads! If we wanted to sell it, they would have been able to see that in the multi-listing. Picture it! A couple sitting on the front porch, cell phones in hand, and one says to the other. "I wish we could sell this place; why doesn't someone call and offer to buy it?"

 

I kept our landline mainly because it is more convenient and cheaper than a cell line for all voice calls. Our area no longer has copper line telephone service, so it is now VoIP. It cost only $13/mo including unlimited domestic long-distance and some international calls. I can block numbers or caller or screen calls. If I am out of the house, I can transfer incoming calls to my cell phone. I can also use my cell phone APP to make phone calls via WiFi as if I am calling from home. Since I rarely use mobile phones outside of the WiFi range, my mobile phone has pre-paid SIM that costs only $3.30/mo. Total $16.30/mo for both landline and mobile numbers.

If you switch to VoIP landline service, most providers include apps to block and screen calls. They are not 100% effective, but nothing is. We still use the handset with an answering machine and screen calls before picking up a call that comes through the app screening. In most cases, we only answer calls from whitelisted numbers. Others all go to the answering machine to be screened. But still, the spoofed call can be a problem. This is true whether it is a landline or mobile.

 

If the cell phone 'contacts' filter worked on a land line, I could go back if not too expensive. But like @John321 points out, the available blocking systems did not exist. I even investigated a semi-automated call answer system:

• "Please enter the phone number of the extension you wish to call."
• "All calls are recorded for quality purposes."
• "Can you hold please?"
• "At the sound of the beep, leave your name, phone number, and message."
• "We can not answer the phone at this time and will call you back at <number>."
• "Please leave your name, number, and time to call back."
• "Put this number on your don't call list."
• "Enter 1 for Espanol, enter 2 for Farsi, enter 3 for Nihongo, enter 4 for Celtic, ... enter 999 for English"
• "Marcie I have a court order forbidding any contact or phone calls,"
• Disconnected phone tones
• Insanity car sound:
• Screaming baby or toddler sounds
• Severe static noise over "We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please call again."
• Organ music background, "Have you found Jesus, our Lord and personal savior? ..."
• Audio from Adolf Hitler speech ... the bombing one.
• Badly played, elevator music
• Kazu head-banging music (i.e., "Brown Sugar" "Proud Mary" "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida")
• Bag pipes
• Dark Side of the Moon with a "click" repeating the last seconds
• . . .

The possibilities are endless and amusing. BTW, I know how to build or buy a two-wire telephone interface and software to make this happen.

Bob Wilson

 

The screening calls on the landline works for me. We don't pick up calls from numbers we don't recognize. The system already blocks all calls without a caller ID, neighborhood spoofed calls, and suspected scam calls. Only numbers that get through the first automated screening will ring our phone. It has the Caller ID including the area code identifier. If the number and area it is called from are not someone we know, then I just let it ring and let the answering machine take the call. I don't know anyone in Arizona who would call our home number, so, if the number is from Arizona, I don't answer. If the caller is legit, then the caller will leave a message in the answering machine. If it is an important call, I can pick up the phone while the answering machine is recording the call and start a conversation. Or just call back immediately. Scam/Robo callers NEVER leave messages on the answering machine. I mean NEVER!

 

Too much manual intervention for my taste.

Bob Wilson

 

You can make whitelisted calls only, if you want to. You just will miss one in 100 important calls from someone you have not registered in your contact list. Obviously, dropping a landline and switching to 100% cell phone for $70/mo is working for you. So, keep it. My point is that there are landline services that can do everything the cellphone app can do for much less.

 

our verizon landline went to $80. and they were discontinuing it in the future anyway, so we dropped it and took the comcast 3 way deal for free.
since then, comcast has doubled to $265. plus an $80./mo. att cellphone, and an $18./mo. comcast 1 gb cellphone.
currently looking for a better plan for the 2 cells, but mrs. b won't give up television.
in 'cider house rules', dr. marsh coined the term 'idiot box'. (don't tell her i said that)

 

Cable TV basically became unaffordable for us a long time ago. We cut the cable TV service but had to keep the cable for the internet. Internet only is currently costing us $85/mo after the promotion period. We basically use the internet for streaming and VoIP landline phone service via Vonage. We don't have a premium streaming subscription, so the only cost is Vonage $13.99/mo for unlimited domestic and international calls plus the cost of internet which I get reimbursed $50/mo from my work because I am home based. Total cost is $35/mo for internet + $14/mo for landline phone + $3.30/mo for my cell phone + $15/mo for DW's cell (she uses her mobile far more often than I do, so I bit the bullet and got her unlimited call/text 3GB data plan)=$67.30/mo for internet/television/landline/2 cell lines.

 

We had AT&T land line and we were also paying $80.

We switched to Consumer Cellular wireless landline for $15 a month ( uses a home base station).

bisco if you are considering switching carriers and you are an AARP member you may consider Consumer Cellular - they had a good promotion for new lines recently and a $5 discount a month for AARP members - it might or might not be a good fit for you.

We also have only over the air antenna TV. We have never had cable so I have no idea what I am missing. Never have had the urge to get cable.

Our internet is Spectrum and it runs $80 a month.

Looked at AT&T internet when then ran fiber optic cable to our whole town last year and they told us we would need to submit to a credit check after doing business with them for nearly 50 years of phone service. My answer was we will just stick with Spectrum. Of all the companies in the world who would run a credit check AT&T would probably be the one that would concern me the most. If their credit check department is anything like their customer service department - well I can't imagine.

 

We get some recorded scam robo messages. Originally on a real answering machine when we still had a landline, on voicemail now that that number has been transferred to pre-paid mobile service. (Despite mobile phones, that home number has remained our primary number. Now we can take it with us while traveling, even to Canada and Mexico where our other cheap mobile plans have no service options.)

A good portion of the recordings are non-English and start with "Nihao, ...". With large immigrant communities around here, numerous scams target those with limited English skills and not particularly familiar with American legal and financial systems. Our number gets those targeting Chinese speakers.

They keep finding enough to remain profitable.

A current thread on a neighborhood forum has brought out numerous people mentioning their elderly relatives who were scammed. While some of their elders weren't tricked, others were, and it seems that roughly only half were stopped in time by interventions from relatives, bank tellers, or Western Union clerks.

My own dad answered every call (or at least tried to), but was too cantankerous and hard of hearing to get taken, as best we know. Except by his own satellite TV service provider, who scammed him into an upgrade he didn't need or use. Since we were already handling his bills, that didn't last long.

And now I qualify as 'elderly'. Barely ...

 

I work for a company that SELLS landlines, but only because they have to and the only reason we keep a 'not-a-landline' (VOIP) at our house is that it's free.
Throw-back copper lines are expensive AH and they are increasingly provided by third-party vendors in many parts of the country mostly because non-ip phones are very highly regulated because of legal inertia, while internet seems to be less so.
There are also a lot of last-mile issues with copper that are almost completely eliminated by wireless, and to a lesser degree...with glass (fiber.)
As a Layer 1/2 dude I used to spend 75% of my time at work slinging copper servicing plain old telephone service (POTS) but now I'm mostly either nursing an elderly switch or mux, or playing with glass.

I only answer my personal OR company phone if I recognize the caller, otherwise they either leave a VM, or it wasn't an important call.

Life is FAR too short to deal with unwanted phone calls.

 

I got a spam email this morning where the subject is "Yourr homee repairrs are covereed".

I understand the reason for misspelling every word, so it doesn't get caught by keyword filters for spam about your home repairs being covered.

What I don't get is how they think I'll see it any differently than if they had shouted THIS IS A SPAM MESSAGE.