For the first couple of years I got no sales calls on my cell that I can remember. At some point I started to get some but it was rare, maybe one or two a month, if that. In the last few months though something seems to have changed and I get sales calls all the time. Multiple times a day. If I answer (unfortunately I often answer), most of the time you get silence. Other times you get The robot. A natural sounding voice who explains her pause by saying she was having trouble with her head set. I have to admit the first time I heard this I thought it was a human. The numbers come from all over and they don’t seem to be a single company. When I don’t answer some leave a voicemail but most don’t.
Has a law changed or something that opened the flood gates because the increase was pretty sudden and noticeable.
I am on AT&T & I have the same problem which is switching to an even worse mode. I am getting calls from my area code on cell numbers with the same string at the start as mine.
M= my number & x = what is different.
( mmm-mmm-xxx )
They are not in my contacts but I have read that they are high jacking or spoofing active numbers and sometimes will be the number of someone you know/recognize, have in your contacts.
I also get the same recorded special with the same voice on different numbers.
I also still get the ones from area codes that I do not even know where they are and when I look it up, I have no one in that area nor any business ever contacted at that area code.
I take the time to block every # that calls & just hope I am not blocking someone who might have a legit reason to call me.
If I have a limited number I can block, I have not hit it yet.
There is prolly an app that will block all calls that are not in my contact list but I have too many people who need to call from various different phones or from motels, & such.
*Grrrr ::: sigh :::: The perfidy of humans towards other humans is always a bit astounding to me. :::: *
They seem to come in waves. It happened maybe 18 months ago. Now it’s happening again. I just don’t answer the phone unless I recognize the number If they want to talk, they’ll leave me a message. If they keep calling without leaving a message, then I will block.
I’ve actually noticed quite a few more myself lately. I read about the ‘dropped headset’ girl and actually got it the same day! Which…is actually kinda creepy if you think about it.
I’ve been having a real problem with it this last week. It started out as a call from someone trying to reach “Brandon” who had requested information about health care. I kindly told them they had a wrong number. However, more calls came about the same issue, and although I asked the people to stop calling, it got more and more frequent. Then I started getting texts and voice mails. I blocked all the numbers but it was still unsettling to pick up my phone and see the sheer volume of missed calls. For instance, yesterday they tried me 24 times!
What the hell are they expecting, that I will finally break down and be Brandon?
I’ve reported all the numbers to the FTC, and last night my husband blocked the numbers through our Verizon account, so I don’t even see the notifications now. I’m forwarding the texts to them also.
I actually have more blocked numbers than real contacts in my phone now.
Starting about two months ago, I went from getting one in a blue moon to ten or more a week, and it is often the same company coming from different phones, which I assume are cellular ‘burners’ or VoiP numbers that can be sourced anywhere regardless of geographical location. These bag of fartherders are more persistent than a pussy-grabbing self-proclaimed billionaire at a beauty pageant, and some of them are more aggressively rude than Rudy Giuliani at a screaming convention. I have taken to not answering but when my phone is literally tied up with repeated calls (again, cycling through numbers so it looks like it is different people calling) it becomes really frustrating.
Telemarketers deserve a special place in the seventh circle of hell normally reserved for child molesters, used car salesmen, and presided over by Richard Milhouse Nixon as their deity supreme.
My cell number is our former landline number, so I’m not surprised that I get crap calls. But I just don’t answer. If it’s important, I expect the caller to leave a message, like the guy I called for an estimate who called me back while I was driving. I have family and friends in my contact list. I can’t be bothered otherwise.
I very seldom leave messages any more. Would you like to know why?
Because about 95% of the time when I do leave a message, and actually get a response back, the response makes it abundantly clear that the person never listened to the message.
Why should I have to say the same thing twice?
One time I met a guy, and we got to talking a little about business. A couple days later, I called him to follow up. I got his voicemail, and left a message. About 60 seconds later, I got a text-- “Who is this?” Naturally, I had given my name, and why I was calling, in the message I left.
So you people who expect voicemail messages are deluding yourselves.
Suddenly I’m getting a bunch of calls with “Unavailable” numbers. Due to circumstances, I do occasionally get calls from a hospital, jail, or other facility that genuinely blocks numbers, so I have to answer, but these are all the guys in south Asia wanting so helpfully to “fix” my computer.
I’d gone months if not years with basically no telemarketing or scam calls on the cell phone, but since last week there have been multiples per day.
For those of you blocking numbers, you may end up blocking legitimate callers who actually have that phone number. The CID you see is fake. The spammer takes your area code and adds 7 random digits to make a realistic looking CID. Theoretically, you could eventually block all the numbers in your area code if enough spammers called you.
