When I have nothing to do, should I waste a spammer’s time? If they know my name because my number is listed, I tell them that he probably was the previous owner as I’ve only had this number for two months. I have a standard fake name, address, credit card number, but I’ve never carried it out to the end. I’ve given up after 2-3 minutes. Does anyone know (A) If I waste their time completely, will they finally stop calling me or (B) have their robo-caller call me more frequently (and then hang up when I press “1”) or © it will have no effect.
And what’s the deal with lowering my credit-card interest rate to zero? Why would my bank do that? And how do these people make a profit (or are they just after my credit card number). Is it spam or a scam?
A guy (live person) called me and asked if I were the owner of the house. I said “yes.” (I’m not). Then he asked, would I be interested in some new windows? I said sure. He said, how many would you need? I said, oh about 150. He hung up.
I think you need to take a page out of this guy’s playbook. He’s using automated software to engage phone spammers in useless conversations, wasting their time without wasting his own.
I used to fuck with these guys but I’ve decided that it’s a total waste of time to even answer the phone. Nothing you do will stop the calls. Even you discourage one, there are hundreds (maybe thousands) more. If you answer then you will just get on lists of people who answer the phone. A lot of calls are spoofed over VOIP from outside the U.S. and are virtually untouchable.
Nothing stops them from calling you, even if you fuck with them. The robo-caller just dials every number in a given exchange five or ten at a time, and then delivers the message to whoever answers first. If it goes to voicemail, that just confirms that this is a working number, same as when you “press 1 to be removed from this list”.
And no, they aren’t going to reduce your interest rate.
Go ahead and fuck with them if you want - it doesn’t do any harm, and twenty minutes being scammed by you is twenty minutes they can’t spend scamming someone else. I tend more to long discussions on their ancestry, sexual habits, and corprophagic affinities, but YMMV.
Regards,
Shodan
The only argument I see for it is the idea that you can stall them so they aren’t calling someone else. But I’m not sure how much that actually accomplishes anything.
I don’t see the need to actually mess with them. They have to be pretty bad off that they’d take a telemarketing job. The only reason I could see it being fun is if it’s creative and not really mean spirited–then maybe it lightens their day a bit.
Yeah, they are blight on society. I would like to know how many sales they actually make. It cannot be many. Everyone hangs up on them, as far as I know. And no, your bank won’t do that. They are trying to get you to apply for a new credit card, which may or may not have a cheaper interest rate. Get rid of a land line was my first defense. Now they call my cel a few times a month. Strangely Mr.Wrekker never gets them. Hmmm? They must have heard he’s a ‘hard sell’.
I don’t want to lighten their day. I want them to dread going to work, because everybody that they call illegally, in order to rip them off, not only doesn’t fall for it, but makes them feel bad with screaming abuse. I want them, ultimately, to say “fuck this - I will go dig ditches rather than put up with it”.
I am doing my bit to make the world a better place, where scam telemarketer jobs go begging because the work is so unpleasant, and doesn’t make money for anyone anyway.
Regards,
Shodan
I got a Windows call last week. I thought that scam had gone by the wayside. I was quite blunt and used expletives in telling the scammer he should seek other employment.
I’m sorry. There’s a bee on my arm and I was distracted. Could you repeat what you just posted?
I had one call me while I was driving home telling me how I had won a vacation or cruise or something. He had his script down and only stopped rambling once in a while so I could respond with an unenthusiastic “ok” or “yep”. I was curious at what point he would want some personal info from me. Finally after giving me some address I was supposed to go to he asked “Why don’t you sound excited?”
I said “I guess I’m just not that excited about it anymore, thanks anyways.” and hung up.
I got one group of them to stop calling by being uncooperative enough to end up talking to a supervisor. I asked her which computers. “All of them,” was the reply.
“Even the really old ones that aren’t connected to the Internet?”
:pause:
“Sorry for bothering you.” click
Admittedly, I’ve been tempted to mess with these callers by pretending to forward the call to another number, place them on hold with generic “hold music”, occasionally pausing the music to thank them for holding. After a while of this, I’d say in my best PR voice, “Thank you for contacting the United States Department of Justice. A representative from the US Government will be at your door shortly.”
If you have so little to do with your life that conversing with spammers seems a worthwhile use of your time, I’d recommend you get a hobby - specifically, one that’s actually entertaining.
A long, long time ago, I worked for Reese Bros. This was a few years before the world wide web made the internet an easily accessed thing. We were working out of the Expo Mart in Monroeville, PA. Everybody there, including me, was there because they were at the end of their financial rope. Like all such jobs, there were about a million rules and they all had the same penalty: You’re fired.
When you fuck with telephone spammers/scammers, all you are doing is keeping some financially desperate person, or a person who needs to keep a job as condition of parole, from making quota. Maybe you get them fired. The turds at the top of the dung heap? They don’t care. They have other people in dire straits they can hire.
I like the ones collecting for the policeman’s fund. I string them along for a few minutes, then tell them I won’t be making a donation. When they ask why, I shout “Because a policeman shot my Pa!” and hang up.
It’s one thing if it’s “Hey, take our survey! We can refinance your credit!” Those I just hang up on.
If they’re “We’re from Microsoft, your computer is infected” I ask them if their mother knows what they do for a living.
I’ve done this also, and it got one of these scum very mad. Then I escalated. It was fun.
Another time my first question was “what’s my OS?” He hung up.
Ones who are selling something and are legitimate I’m polite to - I interupt, say I’m not interested, and hang up.
Ones engaged in a criminal enterprise I’m not so polite to. They are scum. Picking through garbage is more honorable.
Back in the pre-Nomorobo days, I’d often ask if their mother was proud of them. I’ve also been known to ask, both male and female scamsters, if they had considered prostitution, and let them know that they’d make more, and have more respect if they did change careers.
But I’ve noted that now, the few that do get past Nomorobo (that I answered for the fun of it) seem to all be recorded calls, nobody live. I thought all the human operators were replaced by automation.