Brainiack Question....

Bailey Boat

Bailey Boat

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What's the upside for all of these robo calls?? I get numerous calls per day and always hang up before the connection is made so I don't give them my time. I understand selling the "active" numbers but since there no sales pitch what's the gain??
I know I'm old and may not see their end goal but why keep doing it if there's no return?? Educate me....
 
Sometimes it is just a numbers game. Computer dials 1,000 calls, and maybe 50 people pick up. Or maybe 25 people pick up. Or it could be a company is paid to market something and in their contract or sales pitch a certain number of robo calls will be performed. The calls really cost the company nothing so it doesn't take much of a response to justify it.
 
Robo calls. If you pick up it knows its a live number and therefore gets triple the # of calls, or a live person now calls you back since they know its a live # with a person actually answers the phone.
 
What I have begun doing is answering but then immediately cancelling the call so It looks like a bad connection or a dead number. That has cut down on them to a great extent but they just keep a coming......
And to put everyone's mind at ease, I'm one of those people that won't even allow my CC to leave my sight. Waiters hate me and that makes me feel proud.....
 
They also are harvesting good numbers for future robo blasts, they will also spoof the caller id number.
 
Remember back in the day when there was this phone service called "long distance" and you got a charge just for connecting? International calls were beacoup bucks too. There was no robo calling back then, generally when the phone rang it was important. Crank calls like we have now would have been cost prohibitive.
 
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I can't just ignore it because I use my phone for business and I get a lot of legitimate calls from unknown numbers. I've tried pressing 1 to unsubscribe, blocking numbers, installing anti-spam calling app, and registering on the do-not call list. nothing worked. I'll try the silent treatment and see if that cuts them down.
 
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call centers use sequential dialing so only one digit changes for the next call.
 
My 80-year-old dad gets a lot of this crap. He's not very technological...he had me get him an answering machine. If he doesn't know the number, he lets the machine get it. A legit person leaves a message; if not, it wasn't important. The robo-dialers learn the number of rings, and quit before his phone answers now...they have gotten fairly sophisticated on the other end. Especially the synthesized voice ones; really hate those.

I'm all in favor of a bounty on these scum.
 
I hate it, I get half a dozen a day.
Like said, they are using local numbers.
Its easy to 'ignore' the call from Texas or Arizona etc. But when its a local area code you have to wonder if it's real or not.
I am in a position that i DO get calls from new numbers on my cell, so answering is a necessity.
 
CZfool68 said:
I get calls from a Pittsboro number a lot, but I just assume @BurnedOutGeek and @thrillhill are drinking Scotch again and sitting by the firebowl. Damned drunkards. :p
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And if you do answer they'll blow an air horn in the phone then die laughing. And in 20 minutes they call back... don't ask how I know... and it continues until the wood or Scotch run out.....
 
Cowboy said:
I was recently told by someone who trained with FBI agents on this subject. They said if you answer but don't say anything they will automatically disconnect and the software thinks it's a broken line.
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I just got one of those stupid ones that spoofs your area code and prefix hoping you'll think it's someone you know locally (as if that applies with a mobile phone, duh). I thought of this post and almost tried it but couldn't recall if you should then hang up after a pause or let them disconnect. I think I'll try that next time and see if it cuts down on them.
 
I usually ignore them, but sometime I talk to them just to see how long I can keep them on the phone. It costs them very little to call you, but it costs them a lot to spend time talking to you.
 
My father has alzheimer's. When I took over his finances I learned that he had 3 long distance carriers and got collection envelopes from every charity known to man because he said yes to all of them over the phone.

He is part of their target demographic.
 
JimB said:
I usually ignore them, but sometime I talk to them just to see how long I can keep them on the phone. It costs them very little to call you, but it costs them a lot to spend time talking to you.
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Reminds me of an anti spam email technique available only on BSD :( called tar pitting where if an SMTP connection were made form a known spammer, it would reset the TCP parameters to one byte per second and then issue "error, please try again" signals when it would get almost to the end of the header transmission. In one case someone locked up the spammers email for over 12 hours which was 12 hours it couldn't spam anyone else.
 
Even though I have tried to stop her, my 92-year-old mother talks to random callers all the time.

In a way, talking to her is fitting punishment for them:
"What, what ... speak up ... my hearing is bad."
"What did you say your name was? Are you related to the Smiths who lived over by the river in the 1940s?"
"How much? I'm a poor old widow woman who barely gets by; I don't have that kind of money."
"Did I tell you about my medical problems? My bowels have been giving me trouble lately ..."​

Luckily, if they don't hang up sooner, every call ends with her saying:
"All of this talk is confusing me. Write everything down and send me a letter. Bye!"​
 
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noway2 said:
I just got one of those stupid ones that spoofs your area code and prefix hoping you'll think it's someone you know locally (as if that applies with a mobile phone, duh). I thought of this post and almost tried it but couldn't recall if you should then hang up after a pause or let them disconnect. I think I'll try that next time and see if it cuts down on them.
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This is why I don't answer the phone unless the number is in my phone book. Anyone who knows me knows to text and anyone else can leave a message or sod off.
 
Bailey Boat said:
And if you do answer they'll blow an air horn in the phone then die laughing. And in 20 minutes they call back... don't ask how I know... and it continues until the wood or Scotch run out.....
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It does sound like fun but I'm not sure how long the wood would last. :confused:
 
When they call us, my wife pretends she can't hear them. "Hello?" Then they start talking..."Hello? Hello?" They will talk more, and she will interrupt: "Hello? Is anybody there?" They finally get aggravated and hang up.

If she's in a particularly vile mood (or gleeful...sometimes they overlap :D ) she gets out the air horn.

She enjoys reducing the time-to-profanity on their end. It's become a game for her :cool:
 
I play games with them, had a gal on the phone for 20 min, the old cruise ship winner with the ship horn sound,
want credit card to pay the port tax, told her I only have cash, diamonds and gold pressed latinum because it can't
be replicated, I'm a retired diamond cutter, my eyes went bad (ha ha). Told her she can take the cruise with me.
images.jpg
 
NoMoRobo...free service for land lines. The scammers are getting smarter though because we still get a couple calls a week that get through but I log them into NoMoRobo data base and they don't get thru a second time. I think these people are the scum of the earth and even though they work nights and come in on weekends to figure out new and better ways to separate you from your money, they must be dealt with severely.
 
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jimmyjames8 said:
NoMoRobo...free service for land lines. The scammers are getting smarter though because we still get a couple calls a week that get through but I log them into NoMoRobo data base and they don't get thru a second time. I think these people are the scum of the earth and even though they work nights and come in on weekends to figure out new and better ways to separate you from your money, they must be dealt with severely.
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This is what I have used for years. Not foolproof but 90+ % effective. They also offer cell phone blocking for like $5 a month that I havent tried. I'm sure that over the last 5 years I've missed out on a lot of "free vacations".
 
jimmyjames8 said:
NoMoRobo...free service for land lines. The scammers are getting smarter though because we still get a couple calls a week that get through but I log them into NoMoRobo data base and they don't get thru a second time. I think these people are the scum of the earth and even though they work nights and come in on weekends to figure out new and better ways to separate you from your money, they must be dealt with severely.
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How does that work? Do you just plug in the number that was on the screen? That wouldn't work because it wasn't their number to begin with.
 
And if they ask "can you hear me OK?" Do NOT answer yes, it's a trap and they record your saying yes and edit the dialogue that you agreed to something with that yes.
 
J R Green said:
How does that work? Do you just plug in the number that was on the screen? That wouldn't work because it wasn't their number to begin with.
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I dont know how it works but it does. I dont get the same call/# again or if I do it only rings once and sends the call to nomorobo hell.
 
when i'm bored i tell them i can bring the money to them
if they will give me a street address. so far, no takers.
 
The problem I have been having lately is that some telemarketer is spoofing my number when they call other people. So, about once or twice a day, I get a call from someone "returning my call"- but it wasn't me. I looked this up online and most sites say that your number gets used for a few days and they move on. However, this has been going on for months. Any ideas of how to stop it? Aside from being annoying, my number is probably on some list of suspected scam numbers and it could be affecting my business when I make work calls from my cell phone.
 
Covfefe said:
The problem I have been having lately is that some telemarketer is spoofing my number when they call other people. So, about once or twice a day, I get a call from someone "returning my call"- but it wasn't me. I looked this up online and most sites say that your number gets used for a few days and they move on. However, this has been going on for months. Any ideas of how to stop it? Aside from being annoying, my number is probably on some list of suspected scam numbers and it could be affecting my business when I make work calls from my cell phone.
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I've had that happen as well in the past. I just tell them somebody spoofed my number.

Just last week I received an incoming call and it showed up as my own cell #! :eek:
 
Yep, about 1/2 drunk the other night when the phone rang. Went Hey that's me! Wonder why I am calling me, must be important. No I did not answer. Did not make much sense to me that they would spoof my own number. I just don't answer the damn land line anymore and if you are not in my contacts on my cell, leave a msg.
 
I just answer and say "The jobs done. He's been taken care of. Never use this number again."
 
JR is right about the target demo. we get calls meant for my father-in-law who is in a nursing home.
i have since found out the Robo-callers get the "Central Office Code" (ex: 919- COC- 1234) for the facility
and then computer dial all the combinations. all the land-lines to individual rooms at his nursing home have
the same COC.
 
"yes, I'd like to order 2 large pepperoni pizzas with extra cheese"
 
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