Blow a whistle in their ear

I wonder if Sally will stop back after 5 years to answer you? This thread is hilarious, I just can't believe how many people actually think that blowing a whistle or horn or yelling or making the dog bark and the cat meow, the fish going glub glub will do anything to the person on the other end. Get a life people, don't answer the phone, get a call blocker, or find out who they are and sue them, and stop with the childish ideas.

I myself will not waste the time to answer an unknown number, they will leave a message if it is important. I have many more important things to do like feed the dogs,cats,goats who likes to rest in low hanging tree limbs or the roof of your car or truck. But most important is making sure grandchildren get their candy bar and ice cream ration which is most important thing I do, after all, your only a kid for a short time, and it is kind of nice to watch them on their voyage of discovery of this world.

Just from my own, personal, experience:

Legitimate charities do respect the DNC list, though not obligated to do so.  Since putting my number on the DNC, over ten years ago, I've received only 2 calls from real, actual charities and they never called again, after my request to be removed.

Federal law and regulations requires charities (and survey companies and political groups) to have their own internal do-not-call lists.

I recently got rid of United Breast Cancer, which was calling me daily and sometimes twice daily.  I finally answered the call, and a woman who gave her name as Maria said that getting hold of us was harder than getting her children to write to her.  Then she introduced herself and said who she was calling from.  I said "You're too late, she died."  "What?"  "She died, of breast cancer."  She got very flustered, said she'd add my number to their Do Not Call List, and hung up.  And they haven't called back.

That's a good one! The BC "charities" [SIC] are among the worst offenders of take dollars, give out a few crumbs at most. As to the "mainstream" cancer charities, Suzanne in general told everyone thru her obituary not to give money to the "Cancer Industrial Complex" as she questioned the effectiveness of the direction taken by the American Cancer Society, etc. She did like charities which provided direct $$ to cancer patients to help with food, utility, rent, etc. when $ is going for treatment.

Useless on the growing number of automated calls...

The politicians were/are the worst. Last fall I got bombarded with Robo calls from, and on behalf of, Isidore Hall III, running for Congress after getting termed out from the California State Senate. Leaving voice messages had no impact, and his Robocallers were using the name and number of a recently deceased attorney.  Those running for office need to face real fines for ignoring their constituents' do not call requests.

TIP:  On the voter registration forms, be sure not to include your telephone number and email address. I am not sure if this would work, but if you registered ages ago, try re-registering at the same address but do not put down your telephone number and email address. It would be interesting to see if that reduces the volume of political calls. I recently re – registered and it will be interesting to see if that has an impact in the upcoming March elections.

Instead of blowing a whistle in their ear, which from having to use a whistle in the forest can can impact one's own hearing, try this:

   "[Very pleasant voice] My process server would like to make an appointment with you to serve a lawsuit on you for illegal telemarketing and harassment. What is the address at which you would like to be served with the lawsuit?"

why answer unknown numbers in the first place?

You'd get as far as "process server" before they hang up and call you back tomorrow.

Slim ~
Hello there.  One year ago, you & a couple of others here in 800notes provided me with accurate information on how to deal with scam / spam / bullsh*t telemarketing phone calls.  On your advice I bought a call blocker for my landline.  To date I have blocked 354 phone numbers.  This is great.  I feel as though I have taken back a bit of the peace & quite in my own home.
Now today, THIS ONE DAY, I have received 3 'new' crap calls.  They are reported & I have blocked them.  fine as kind.

This day, I've been on youtube watching some of the "Scambaiting" videos... why?  Because it is cathartic, I tells ya!
And I came across this TEDtalk:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXVJ4JQ3SUw&feature=youtu.be

In your opinion, is this a viable solution to help fight back against the telemarketers?
For $6.00 / year, I am interested.

Thank You for your time & consideration.
Sincerely,
Q

As I understand the process, clients would email the entrepreneur with a list of supposed spam/scam numbers that called the client.  OR they can "conference call" a special number while talking to the scammer.  For the first alternative, the Roger system then calls the numbers, as a sort of "payback".  For the second alternative, the Roger System takes over during an existing call.

Unfortunately, many of the numbers that show on one's CalleID are spoofed by scammers.  That means an innocent third party could get a Jolly Roger call.  In those cases, the first "solution" is really part of the problem.  The "conference call" alternative looks interesting, since it can be used on an in-progress call.

Here is a link to a discussion on another system, that won a prize for its usefulness:
https://800notes.com/forum/ta-86c10e74f9f4d99/

Opinion:
The "conference call" method might be entertaining, if you like that kind of entertainment, and if you have conference call capability.

Pushing a button to block is quicker, and definitely works to prevent second calls from the same number.

Thx Slim.
I shall check out the discussion you posted in a moment.

As I understand it, there is an option of simultaneous ringing, a thing set up through my phone company [like call forwarding...?].  In  other words, the scam call rings my number & the Jolly Roger Robot # at the same time which then determines if the call is 'unsafe'.  If I don't answer it, the robot does & keeps them on the line for as long as possible, wasting their time, energy, effort & hopefully costing them money.  Serves them right, imho.  I think it only works for incoming calls, whatever the #, spoofed or not.  I do not believe the system calls the numbers back.  I will find out more; I have an email sent in to them with questions.

I heed your caution, Slim.  Again, TY ~ have a great evening.

To gather information about them, so you can clearly document a complaint to the FTC. So you can gather information suitable for filing a TCPA lawsuit against them. So you can post helpful information here about the telemarketer for others.