Americans obsessed with preventing Cold Callers?
Rick:
The biggest issue is with the automated dialers and pre-recorded calls, with caller id not blocked but "spoofed" (displaying a false number), which offer to clean duct work or shampoo my rugs or ... Even if the authorities go after them, they simply sprout up somewhere else. And since they display a false number, it is hard to catch them.
RE: the charity that then rents your name out to other charities, you simply need to make sure that IF you donate to a charity you also indicate "DO NOT RENT MY NAME OR NUMBER TO ANY OTHER ORGANIZATION". And make it clear that if they do you will never donate to them again.
I tend to block any spoofed numbers once I realize what they are, figuring that someone may use it again and that the true holder of that number and I will never need to communicate. I also report every call via the FCC's complaint form.
If you have elderly relatives, you need to teach them what to do / say, and what not to do. My father in-law insists that if he "pushes 1" as they instruct him to, he can tell them to not call again. I point out, in vain, that a) he's telling that they've got a potential live on to rent to others and b) that there is a very elderly gentleman living there (by his voice). He fails to understand.
You can add elderly relatives to the DMA Choice as well as the DMA Deceased list to cut down on mailings which can prompt them to call someone and then start the cycle. Getting callerid for them is a waste since they answer every call...
Fueler:
New OBI guy here.
This thread is an issue I have dealt with for a long time. I run a small business and it got to the point where I was getting 12 or more of "those" calls per day. It was getting to be where I didn't want to walk over and pick up the phone.
Step 1: Do not call list. Might have worked a little for the first 6 months then it was back to full speed.
Step 2: Pay for caller ID. Better but I still had to walk over and see who is calling. Not much of a time saver.
The #1 solution for me was a little program and modem.
http://www.imptec.com/callstation.htm
This deal turned out to be a god send. I could see caller ID, zap the caller, which added it to a "bad" list. Once on this list the caller never gets through again. software can be set up to give them a rude message, or a out of service message, or simply hang up. Either way I don't hear the ring and waste time walking over to see if I want to answer it. I now have one heck of a list of bad guys. My own little DNA "do not answer" list. It has lots of different ways to handle these things. Worth a look.
For those blocked IDs I have it play a recorded message that I made. "If you feel the need to hide your identity I don't need you as a client. Unblock it and call again please."
Here is another program I have been looking at that might be promising.
http://www.callclerk.com/
The #2 solution was to go VOIP and obi. In my case voip.ms. This really cut it down to nothing.
The only issue was that I opted for a new number as I figured the bad guys would still not go away. It took some doing to get customers and family up to speed on the new number after so many years. Thanks to the internet that really only took a couple of hours and emails to accomplish.
I am sure that eventually the robo calls will find me but in the meantime it's pretty cool.
I eventually used the same equipment at home.
Dave
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