So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Bruce Wayne]

Hello this is Rachel from cardholder services. I don't bother to get the home phone anymore. The call is never for me, 90% of the time it is a spam phone call, & finally if it is someone we know they can leave a message. The last time someone called me on the home phone was over a year ago. If I give out a number anymore, it is my cell. I get spam phone calls on it but I have an app called Mr. Number. You can black whole phone numbers, phone numbers from certain area codes, etc. I can't recommend it enough.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've had an unlisted number for over twenty years, and the only people who have it are my mother, the kids from work, the theatre director, and a select group of friends. The marketing dinks must be getting it via pure random number searches, which gives me even more reason to dislike them.

Supposedly this "I dropped my headset" thing is some kind of scam, but exactly what it's supposed to accomplish is debatable. About all it accomplished for me was to irritate and annoy me.

 

[ChrisB]

Many times they just call sequential phone numbers. I hear this at work frequently, one office phone ringing after another, until they get to mine: "Hello, you recently applied for a payday loan....".

 

[ChrisB]

Supposedly this "I dropped my headset" thing is some kind of scam, but exactly what it's supposed to accomplish is debatable. About all it accomplished for me was to irritate and annoy me.

I believe the idea is to get you to think you are talking to a real person. It works the first time for about 30 seconds. After that, fool me once, shame on you.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

A new gimmick making the rounds is for the first words to come from the phone are, "Can you hear me?" They want to get you to say "yes." Apparently this one word opens up all sorts of possibilities for them.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Just say "No."

 

[Trenchfriend]

I'm interested, how it is in the US. In Germany, every company and every public authority is committed to identify itself by transmitting it's phone-number, by law.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Spoofing" phone numbers in the US is illegal only if there is "intent to defraud," but that's a loophole you could drive an entire call center thru.

 

[Zombie_61]

Two others that have popped up recently are

• "We can reduce the rate on your credit card" (I don't have a credit card, I do have an Amex card that is paid off each month on time as - at least when I took it out (in '85) - you can't run a balance on it)

• We can help you with your student loan debt - (never had any)...

In the last month we've received several of those "student loan" robocalls, and we don't know why we're suddenly getting them. We never got any calls like that before, we're both in our mid-50s, and neither of us have ever had a student loan.

 

[tonyb]

A new gimmick making the rounds is for the first words to come from the phone are, "Can you hear me?" They want to get you to say "yes." Apparently this one word opens up all sorts of possibilities for them.

I have paid one monthly bill by phone, speaking to, and keying in numbers to, an automated system. I provide the debit card number, expiration date, security code (that three-digit number on the back of the card), the zip code of the account's billing address (my home zip, in this case), and the amount I wish to pay. The system then reads back to me the info I have provided and asks if I approve the charge. I am instructed to say "yes" or "no."

I have very little techno-savvy, but I can see how gathering that other info through whatever means crooks do such things, and having a recording of my voice uttering "yes," might result in an empty checking account.

 

[Stearmen]

A new gimmick making the rounds is for the first words to come from the phone are, "Can you hear me?" They want to get you to say "yes." Apparently this one word opens up all sorts of possibilities for them.

If they can get into your bank account with just you saying yes, then you need to change banks! It sounds like another urban legend, like flashing your lights will get you killed by gang members, or the shirt in the windshield wipers!

 

[vitanola]

If they can get into your bank account with just you saying yes, then you need to change banks! It sounds like another urban legend, like flashing your lights will get you killed by gang members, or the shirt in the windshield wipers!

No. No bank account. The malefactors are attempting to "slam" you, into, say, changing you over to a twenty-five-cent-per-minute long distance service. When you receive their outrageous bill and complain the firm pays the tape which confirms your agreement to the firm's usurous contract and threaten suit (and reports to all three credit rating agencies) if you do not pay up tout suite...

 

[Stearmen]

No. No bank account. The malefactors are attempting to "slam" you, into, say, changing you over to a twenty-five-cent-per-minute long distance service. When you receive their outrageous bill and complain the firm pays the tape which confirms your agreement to the firm's usurous contract and threaten suit (and reports to all three credit rating agencies) if you do not pay up tout suite...

My phone company will only change my plan if I go through a whole host of questions!

 

[BlueTrain]

When I get a phone call that is a survey, which are entirely legitimate, if somewhat irritating, I just tell them I've learned to keep my opinion to myself. It always gets a laugh.

 

[Stearmen]

When you call in a professional to do some work, and you have to partly redo his work after he leaves! Had an electrician fix the electrical mast for my house after the tree limb broke it off. When the city guy came out to reconnect the power, he saw that the mast was coming loose and taking some siding with it. He quickly disconnected the guy wire to get the weight off. I had to run to the other side of the city to get more tools, then a trip to the hardware store, and an hour up and down the ladder! Power is back on, waiting for final inspection!

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

A new gimmick making the rounds is for the first words to come from the phone are, "Can you hear me?" They want to get you to say "yes." Apparently this one word opens up all sorts of possibilities for them.

Sort of like when I would try to sell something on Craigslist I would get nothing but spammers trying to sell me something! My favorite is the one that looks like it's from a potential buyer asking if your item is still for sale. Then when you reply and answer yes you would get this spam message:

"Don't sell it!

I was in the same boat as you are trying to make ends meet until a friend told me about this remarkable business opportunity which I would like to share with you...."

 

[Trenchfriend]

Is there disturbing föhn (blow-drier)-weather in the US, too?

 

[Edward]

Many times they just call sequential phone numbers. I hear this at work frequently, one office phone ringing after another, until they get to mine: "Hello, you recently applied for a payday loan....".

It's an automatically generated thing - they use software which dials more numbers than they have callers, based on an assumed rate of calls going unanswered. This then maximises their salesfolks' time actually speaking to clients rather than witing for an answer. Of course, it's technically illegal (across Europe, and I think in the US too) to make a sales call that you don't have anyone to speak to the answerer for, but that's how they roll. Similarly, these automated systems dial the numbers in sequence - they should have the DNC numbers edited out, but they don't.

 

[Fading Fast]

It's an automatically generated thing - they use software which dials more numbers than they have callers, based on an assumed rate of calls going unanswered. This then maximises their salesfolks' time actually speaking to clients rather than witing for an answer. Of course, it's technically illegal (across Europe, and I think in the US too) to make a sales call that you don't have anyone to speak to the answerer for, but that's how they roll. Similarly, these automated systems dial the numbers in sequence - they should have the DNC numbers edited out, but they don't.

So which branch of the gov't / law enforcement is responsible for policing, enforcing and prosecuting offenders of the DNC list? Passing a law is all fine and dandy, but it also has to be enforced.

 

[Bamaboots]

So which branch of the gov't / law enforcement is responsible for policing, enforcing and prosecuting offenders of the DNC list? Passing a law is all fine and dandy, but it also has to be enforced.

Federal Trade Commission