I sometimes ask “Does your mother know you’re a crook?” That gets them off the phone right quick. But I get far fewer of these than I used to. I wonder if all the people who simply don’t answer from unknown numbers have made the “business” less lucrative. I hang up immediately if there is no one on the other end.
I don’t answer if it’s not in my contact list and I’m not expecting a call. I figure a legit caller will leave a message, and even some robocallers leave messages, which I delete. My life became so much more pleasant when I quit answering the phone. 
The caller ID on my android phone has recently started labeling these types of phone calls: “Scam Likely”.
Not sure how TPTB do this, but it’s pretty darn cool.
I sometimes respond to any questions with random Monty Python quotes.
I don’t think a recording of my voice saying “My hovercraft is full of eels” constitutes a legally binding contract, but IANAL.
Regards,
Shodan
Lenny is your friend.
A mentally confused old Australian gentleman who repeats himself a bit and is proud of his family and of his ducks, he is the Scammers Delight.
Lenny – YouTube Lenny —Reddit Lenny — Canadian Nat Post
Poor devils.
Unless you have proof of this happening, I’m going to call your anecdotes urban legends.
The police? The ones in Pakistan or India? What number are you going to report? The spoofed one from your CID? What company are you going to blame? Do you know their name or just something an op told you (most will hang up if you ask, anyway)?
Scammers do not respect, nor refer to, the DNC list. Why should they? No authority is checking or interfering with them, and most are overseas, out of the reach of most governments. They just call every possible number, then start at the top of the list again.
Good idea, and I’m with you on the wasting their time concept, but if you think they won’t call again, you are sadly mistaken. They will, no matter how much you are costing them. Scammer business philosophy isn’t what you think it is. If they wanted to avoid calling the least productive numbers, I wouldn’t be getting any calls at all, since they have never received a single penny from me, and I try to waste as much of their time as possible. Yet they continue to call – an average of 4 per weekday.
I often break into a story, and give a dramatic reading, like “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” or “Three Little Pigs,” or recite Benjamin Rosenbaum’s “The Orange” from memory. It isn’t surprising when they hang up quickly, but what is surprising is when they yell obscenities at me first (what’s the purpose of that?). Rarely, they listen and even interact with my story for the longest time. Maybe they are genuinely interested in it – I doubt if Goldilocks is well known in India, but if any supervisor listens in, they will get shit for hanging on so long. I refuse to feel sorry for them.
One thing that I am truly puzzled about. The most common scam is the “lower your interest rates” one. I have been trying to find out exactly how this works, even though I have an idea, so sometimes I play along with the questions. But the ops have very thin skins, and even though I try to sound like a typical debt-laden sucker, they hang up at the drop of a hat.
Obviously, I won’t supply any info like real names, real CC numbers, real debt amounts, etc., but saying I owe $4000 to 3 credit cards, my rates are 27% on each, and I need help isn’t enough to whet their appetite. One has to wonder just how many “clients” they end up signing on after a hard day’s calling.
Asking, point-blank, how this works, is a sure-fire way of getting a hangup. Maybe I’m just not that good of an actor.
Years ago at work, I’d constantly get calls from someone that wanted to slyly send me copy machine toner without me actually ordering it. The caller would say, “I’m calling from the copy machine company. What is the serial number of your copier?” I’d usually ask, “what company are you calling from?” Then they’d hang up. But sometimes my boss and I would have great fun with them. I’d say, “one moment, Dean Martin is in charge of that, I’ll connect you.” Then I’d leave them on hold for a while, come back and tell them Dean was on vacation. Sometimes, we’d start up the vacuum cleaner and hold the receiver next to it and keep yelling, “What?, I can’t hear you.”
It went on for years.
Screen calls, don’t even answer any call from strangers. Apparently if you do answer, you get put on a list of “people who actually answer phone calls”, and this list gets sold to other telemarketers.
I doubt if this is current info, more like an obsolete urban legend. I think telemarketers just call every possible combination of digits again and again. That way, they miss none, and no telemarketers seem concerned about the cops in the slightest. Much easier to *not *maintain a list.
Well, that’s rather brilliant. Especially the bit with the ducks.
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
Mostly what I get are the heavily accented calls from “Microsoft” about issues over my computer. I then inform them that it must be a mistake as “we Amish” are forbidden by our religion from owning computers. Hey, if they don’t know that the phone/landline is also a no-no, that isn’t my problem.
My elderly mother was getting bad dementia and was getting 3, 4, 5 calls a day from a scammer, who would talk and talk and say she won a million dollars, a new car, was going on a cruise, etc. I would pick up the phone when I was over there and say, “I’m trying out for American Idol. Tell me what you think of this:” and I would sing The Star Spangled Banner (very badly indeed) at the very top of my lungs and hang up. Pissed him off something awful, but he never stopped calling until I got her phone number changed (and she had already given him $400). The singing was fun, too bad it didn’t scare him off.
Say “not interested” and put the phone down.
Don’t engage in conversation - they have heard every trick in the book. Don’t waste your time and don’t waste their time.
When the mood takes me and I have the time, I like to make them angry and waster their time.
If I can get them to say “you’re an idiot” I consider it time well spent.
I sometimes mess with spammers. I had one call who got me so angry that I stayed on the phone with them for thirty minutes so they wouldn’t call someone else who might believe them.
Scammer claimed to be with the Florida State Attorney’s Office.
He did not know that I had dated an attorney who worked in that office.
He said he was calling from the SAO about a bank fraud case. I asked what SAO department he was in, and he said, “The State Attorney’s.” :dubious: Which division? No response. Who is his boss? No response. Then he pushes on with the “bank fraud” thing (I’d know if I committed bank fraud; I haven’t.)
I asked which bank it was and when. He said last year, and named a bank that doesn’t exist where I live.
“Dude. I’ve lived over a thousand miles away for 10 years. This is nonsense.”
(I texted the situation to my ex and asked him WTF.)
“We do not want to arrest you but if you do not make arrangements to send us money we will notify your employer of the warrant, and we will send the sheriff to get you…”
“What’s my address?”
No answer.
“Where do I work?”
No answer.
Friend responds, scammer. I have no warrants. 
So I tell the guy on the phone to send out the sheriff.
That was six months ago. I think I’m okay.
I used to tell the guy who called my phone extension, “You sold us the copier, right? So YOU should have the serial number. You read it to me and I’ll tell you if you’re right.”
I’ve been getting daily calls from a 1-800 number linked to a phony debt collection scam.
After ignoring the calls for several weeks, I answered (to confirm there was a live idiot at the other end wondering why I didn’t say anything), and after the next few calls, answered and without giving them a chance to say anything, commented that their scam was illegal and subject to several thousand dollars in fines for each occurrence (heard a dial tone while I was so informing them). A week went by with no calls.
Got another call from them last night. Back to ignore.
Hell with that noise. Time they spend spinning their wheels with me is time they don’t spend annoying someone else and potentially making money. By wasting their time, I’m doing my part to make scamming less profitable.
That’s right, I’m a goddamn hero.
The exception is when a computer pretending to be a human calls you. Those things have gotten scary-sophisticated these days. They’re even programmed to say, “oh, no, I assure you, I am not a robot,” when you accuse them. I test them by going wildly off-script into something simple they haven’t programmed in. “All right, what is three plus three?” They can’t answer. If they don’t just hang up, they start pretending they’re having trouble hearing you.
You should test them by asking if they have ever heard of Alan Turing.
Regards,
Shodan
I’ve gotten the toner pirate call. I’ve answered, “Oh, we have a Classico Prismatic printer. Prints in 5000 colors, including Mackenzie tartan. Seriously, the toner comes in these five gallon buckets and we’re being sued by the copier serviceman because he threw his back out trying to refill magenta.”
I’ve told the Windows virus people that I don’t believe in computers. I’ve told the lower the interest scammers that I don’t have a credit card (I don’t.) But…one call from an unknown number was a potential employer seeking a job reference for a friend of mine (I gave her a glowing recommendation.) So sometimes, I have to answer.
My time is my own, and why are you concerned with their time?
I consider it a moral obligation to harm scammers in every reasonable way not harmful to myself.