Telemarketing annoyance, round 2

16 Responses to Telemarketing annoyance, round 2

1. Frogdaddy says:

   October 27, 2015 at 12:08 am

   I use Ooma voip at $4 a month. But for $10 more you can get their premium service and get the ability to add numbers to a blacklist to be blocked.
   • HSR47 says:

     October 31, 2015 at 8:43 pm

     That sounds useful, but probably not to Oleg. From his post: “The calls always come from different numbers…”
2. Tirno says:

   October 27, 2015 at 10:16 am

   If the call is on a landline, I’ve had a lot of luck using a Telebouncer.

   As a bonus, it also filters out all the political robo-calls around election time.
3. Jeff says:

   October 27, 2015 at 12:34 pm

   Install the TrueCaller app on your phone. You are able to report and block at will…
4. brian says:

   October 27, 2015 at 1:56 pm

   Yes, VOIP is good for a start. If this entity is someone you have any relationship with, then you may have consented to their contact – eg, Citibank, if you have a credit card with them, they may have subsidiaries market to you.

   If its not that, then go here and have your phone numbers put on the national do not call registry. I have all my numbers there and we never, ever, ever get phone calls from anyone. Never. And, if you are on that registry and they do call, you can sue them. 🙂

   https://www.donotcall.gov/

   How about that…. .

   B
5. DJ says:

   October 27, 2015 at 4:29 pm

   My iPhone lets me block any caller. My land line phone service lets me block all but toll-free numbers. Tastes great, less filling.
6. Mike says:

   October 27, 2015 at 5:11 pm

   Is your phone in the Federal Do Not Call list? If it isn’t, list it. If it is, file a complaint. I understand that the fines can be up to $11,000 per violation.
7. Rick T says:

   October 27, 2015 at 5:31 pm

   I enrolled our landline with NoMoRobo (www.nomorobo.com) and the spam calls have all but stopped. One partial ring with “incomplete data” on the caller ID screen then nothing.
8. Paul Koning says:

   October 28, 2015 at 9:57 am

   I think the problem is that a lot of these outfits are criminal organizations. They don’t care a bit about the Do Not Call list, and they hide their origins with forged caller ID information. I keep getting calls like that from fake police charities, fake car extended warranty outfits, and many others.
   Apart from using an answering machine it’s not clear to me there is any solution for this.
9. Janir says:

   October 28, 2015 at 11:38 am

   In short, there’s really nothing you can do, except change your number. They are faking the caller ID numbers and you can ask to be removed til your blue in the face.
   Asking criminals not to do their crime is pretty much a useless gesture as we all know. All we can do it mitigate the situation as best to our advantage.

   I generally don’t answer unknown numbers to me and let them leave a message if they are going to. I get maybe 1 call like that a week. If it does get worse, then I’ll change my number. I used to use Google Voice’s call screening and blocking capabilities, but since they are faking the ID there is little point to that as I keep adding a new address a week.
10. Sigivald says:

    October 28, 2015 at 2:02 pm

    “The calls always come from different numbers”, guys. Blocking doesn’t help.

    Most likely the caller isn’t even the real “Coach Orlando”, and isn’t even in the US, just using US VOIP gateways.
11. James says:

    October 28, 2015 at 2:05 pm

    The Consumers Union aligned with Consumer Reports is fighting some of this:

    https://secure.consumersunion.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=3088.

    There is a policy in process to make it worse. Frustrating.
12. Mike OTDP says:

    October 28, 2015 at 6:11 pm

    Landline? Unplug the phone. Only connect it to make calls.
13. Jim from Coach Orlando says:

    October 30, 2015 at 7:52 pm

    Hi Oleg! This is Jim from Coach Orlando….

    Sorry, couldn’t help it……
14. buzzsaw says:

    October 31, 2015 at 7:53 pm

    Is this a landline? If so, here’s what I do. I have a Panasonic cordless phone. It has a feature called Silent Mode which they suggest for times like when you are sleeping. While it’s on, only callers in your phone book will ring through. You will hear the first ring, unless you tell the phone to mute it, which I do. I have mine programmed to enter Silent Mode at 11:00 AM and leave Silent Mode at 10:59 AM. There is a one minute window during which a number I don’t know can ring my phone. Anybody can leave a message.

    I have essentially blacklisted every number on the planet, except for friends, relatives and business associates. The downside is that a friend or relative calling from a different number can’t do anything but leave a message. This could be bad in an emergency.

    What we need is a challenge like I will have to type in a few seconds to post this.
    • HSR47 says:

      October 31, 2015 at 8:57 pm

      “What we need is a challenge like I will have to type in a few seconds to post this.”

      Ideally some sort of challenge-response system that allows people to specifically identify themselves, along with relevant info about the number they’re calling from (e.g. so that caller ID can show “Joe Smith calling from temporary [work/non-work] number, will be reachable at number until XX:XX”).

      Applying basic cryptographic principles (public/private keys) would be a good place to start.

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