Poll The Great Telemarketing Avalanche of 2016/2017

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Is one or more of your phones getting daily or nearly daily telemarketing calls?

  • I own multiple lines, they all get daily or nearly daily telemarketing calls.

    Votes: 37 27.0%
  • I own a single line, it gets daily or nearly daily telemarketing calls.

    Votes: 70 51.1%
  • I own multiple lines, I never or very rarely get telemarketing calls.

    Votes: 8 5.8%
  • I own a single line, I never or very rarely get telemarketing calls.

    Votes: 22 16.1%

  • Total voters
    137

MusicForFish

Ultra Maga Instinct
<Prior Amod>
31,465
123,597
In the last year, myself and almost everyone i've asked has been getting telemarketing calls on a daily basis, on every phone number we have. I have three numbers, one of which is a Google Voice number that I've never given out to anyone, and occasionally I still get a telemarketing voicemail left on it, which is at least a little entertaining because google's talk-to-text butchers it.

1. The source number is always spoofed, usually to look like a local number (area code + prefix are the same as my numbers about 30% of the time i'd say).
2. The source number is always different, so blocking numbers is not an option.
3. Being on the national do-not-call list doesn't help.
4. Asking that they kindly add you to their do-not-call list doesn't help.
5. Not answering doesn't help either, I went at least a few months without answering a single phone call except from people I knew and they still keep calling, every day.
6. You can't ignore them, you can't ask them to stop, they don't honor the national do-not-call list.

Lately, it's all robo calls initially: "press 1 to buy a new Toaster, press 2 to be put on our do-not-call list", etc. I've used the prompt to add my number to their do-not-call list so many times i've lost track, which immediately hangs up on you but nothing else. I've purposely pushed 1 or whatever in hopes of talking to someone, and then telling them to never call me again, but nothing seems to stop these jackasses. At best, you start getting calls selling you some other bullshit, usually something with warranties or vacations.

So i'm curious how many of you are in the same boat, and if you know of a sure-fire way to stop the constant calls.

I've signed up for the no call list, and it helped a little. Now I only get 6 to 8 calls a week instead of a full VM and 20+ bullshit calls.
 

a_skeleton_05

<Banned>
13,843
34,508
Fuckers are getting really crafty now. I picked up to what looked like a local number that turned out to be a "you've qualified for a" call which I promptly hung up on. Several minutes later the phone rang again with a private number that had a 5 second pause after answering, I hung up right when a woman started speaking. They immediately called back and it was the woman with a really sweet sounding voice trying to act like I knew who they were and asking why I hung up on them. I mean hey, it at least really beats Dave(Sanjai) from Microsoft tech support.
 

Kuriin

Just a Nurse
4,046
1,020
How the fuck do you block spoofed numbers? The numbers where they are the same phone number as you sans last 4 digits. I use NoMoRobo on my landline and it helps some. But, jesus!!
 

Frenzied Wombat

Potato del Grande
14,730
31,802
I use the free AT&T "Call Protect" app which blocks around 70% of these annoying calls, so I'd recommend it if you're on AT&T. But fuck these fuckers.
 

Hoss

Make America's Team Great Again
<Gold Donor>
25,427
11,875
I get minimum 2 a day. The most infuriating thing to me is that when I'm in the mood to play with them, 90 % of the time I can't get a person. Like I can't even figure out how the Scam is supposed to work if they won't talk to me. That means they're just bothering me.

One time I started getting texts from someone with a very similar number to mine. They were asking why I called them. Apparently the scammers spoofed my number and this retard thought he had me.
 

Borzak

Bronze Baron of the Realm
24,422
31,637
I've kind of wondered about if they buy the numbers in bulk from when people put them down for something they buy or something. I recently traded phones with my grandmother to have while I take it in and have it changed (they're all on the same account). That number gets zero scam calls, telemarketing calls, poll calls or anything. Other than someone I gave the number to it hasn't rang in the two weeks I've had it.
 

Tarisk

Pathetic Reaction Bot
1,565
372
I've kind of wondered about if they buy the numbers in bulk from when people put them down for something they buy or something. I recently traded phones with my grandmother to have while I take it in and have it changed (they're all on the same account). That number gets zero scam calls, telemarketing calls, poll calls or anything. Other than someone I gave the number to it hasn't rang in the two weeks I've had it.

Hard to say. I once got a new number/phone with sprint, and day ONE i got 3 spam/scam calls from spoofed numbers within just a few hours hours of having the phone activated. Suffice to say I was triggered pretty bad.