three calls so far in the past 6 hours. :mad: I was a bit worried until google turned this up.
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/my-very-own-irs-imposter-call
The Do Not Call list is the biggest joke of all time. My phone just rings off the hook from these telemarketing scumbags.
Why can’t the Attorney General put together a Federal task force to hunt these scamming fuckers down? Prosecute them and throw their ass in prison?
Because they’re mostly in other countries. The ones here can spoof the number they’re calling from.
“Off the hook?” You keep your phone on a hook? I’m thinking a coat hook, cuz no way a fish hook. Who would do that?
When I get calls that I don’t recognize the number, I just let it go to voicemail, where I may or may not listen to it. (Don’t hurt me too much, Thelma Lou!)
Are the calls coming in on a landline?
The Do Not Call Registry worked for a few years. I made sure to renew. Doesn’t seem to do any good anymore. I’ll look at that software. thanks.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-irs-scam-20150708-story.html
This one got caught but is only getting 14 years.
If you have a relatively modern landline you can give nomorobo.com a try.
It works by having you set up multi-ring on your phone, so it rings the nomorobo number at the same time it rings in your house. Their magic computer does a quick lookup of the caller ID info and determines if the call is worth your time. If they deem it a junk call, they pick up and hang up. You just hear one ring.
It’s the telephone equivalent of those spam email filtering products like Brightmail that were so popular before Google and others got better at filtering spam.
I have FiOS, and it was pretty easy to set up the multi-ring. In the time since I set it up I have had maybe one call every two or three weeks that gets through.
Some people don’t like the one-ring, but it doesn’t bother me at all. I smirk with glee as I say “Gotcha!” when they plonk a caller.
My backup is this thing which makes it a snap to blacklist and hang up the moment the call turns sour. Since I work at home, I’m usually right next to the red button when a suspicious call comes in.
If you can’t do nomorobo, check out one of those call blocker devices. Phone company blocking service is a joke: they give you a blacklist of 10 numbers at most. This device allows a couple thousand numbers.
ETA: My mom’s iMac is sitting in a box in my dining room, shipped across the country, because some bastard scammer convinced her to let him run diagnostic tests on it. I’m installing a fresh hard drive and the latest OS and shipping it back to her.
Why would the Do not call registry apply here? These people are already criminals trying t steal from you. Why would they obey a little law while trying to break a really big one?
Can’t help with your specific problem, but here’s some random things that come together amusingly:
[ul]
[li]Prosody is the analysis of human speech patterns[/li][li]Asterisk is an open source VOIP system that you can run if you know how, that supports various plugins[/li][li]An Australian company with a series of telemarketer time-wasting phone tree options went under, but the recordings somehow still exist[/li][li]“Larry” is the amusing product of the above[/li][li]This guy has dozens of Youtube recordings of Larry such as this.[/li][/ul]
P.S. - Listen for the duck.
Holly golly gee willickers. Three calls in SIX hours. That is off the hook man.
When we bundled our phone, wifi and cable with TWC, we started getting alerts on the TV when the phone rings, that show the phone number and name that the caller wants you to see. Since we answer the landline maybe once every two months, 99% of the time I glance at the TV and then ignore the phone. But if you actually use your landline, you could look into whether your local cable bundle includes this little perk.
Maybe they read your threads on the SDMB, and recognized a likely sucker?
For those not already on the federal do not call registry, I recommend you STAY OFF!!
I suspect the criminals use the registry to identify good phone numbers so the do not call registry becomes the do call registry.
I had my landline on the list years ago, but added my cell phone early this year. Suddenly my cell began receiving junk calls. Coincidence? Maybe.
Website devoted to this issue:
If the phone companies cared to help, I’m sure the number spoofers could be stopped cold.
I’ve gotten two messages today:
& that I should call some 314-xxx-xxx phone # to get more info.
Ummm, I got a refund in April, which means I didn’t owe them anything then. I’m sure they’re suing me, especially because I haven’t received any correspondence in the mail from them (well, there was that email in my junk folder that I deleted.) :rolleyes: OTOH, I had T-Mobile phone service, & they’ve been hacked, so maybe I should panic! :eek: