Blow a whistle in their ear

Dear OperatorRJ
Here's a method I've used to contact friends and family who don't have Caller ID and have the same issues your Mom has.  We establish that after (or before) a certain hour - say 9 p.m. - like your time frame, if the phone rings 2 or 3 times, then stops and then rings again 2 - 3 times, then stops and begins ringing again, it's pretty safe to figure it is me calling and the person can pick up the phone that third start of ringing to get my voice and not some telemarketer.

FYI - I give the leeway of 2 to 3 rings (or 3-4 rings, whatever gets the job done the quickest and without starting the answering machine or voice mail) because with cell phone towers and landlines and Bluetooth, etc., one can never be certain the caller and the receiver are hearing the exact same number of rings.  Of course, for some folks, this method may be too confusing to remember.  My dear
90-year-old Mom got wise to it pretty quick, tho.  Good luck!

Sally I find it interesting that you have a job as a telemarketer / charity worker (usually though not necessarily college students) and yet you have such insight into Global politics.  Really.  You say, "...unless we establish a fair, moneyless, global resource based economy, you will not be able to stop these people from doing their jobs."   First of all, I wonder what the above Global Economy issue has to do with telephones being hi-jacked (apparently even in Europe) by scam artists, political parties and to a much lesser degree even some "legitimate" businesses, all of whom seem to have no sense of decency whatsoever.  Why would that suddenly warrent a call for such an economy, if it was even possible?

Secondly, this has been going on for years now and yet no government has ever made the attempt to come up with even a hint of any kind of workable / enforceable legislation.  I find that VERY hard to believe.  America is supposed to be the most powerful and influential nation on earth, yet she cannot form an alliance with her closest neighbor, Canada, to find a way around this?  Why does it have to be a Global solution?

I think you've hit the nail on the head, though.  The only real solution to be put forward will be a Global one.  The question it raises in my mind, however, is 'Do our poor, feeble, impotent national governments want exactly that?' Of course what is the average citizen to do?  Call upon these same governments to 'do' something about it.  We can only 'blow our horns' for so long before we are desperate enough to accept any solution - even that one.  Some food for thought I would say.

See:  now THIS is what I am talking about.  I just found this under the Latest Forum Thread entitled "Boilerplate spammer on the 'Card Services' numbers"  Maybe I spoke too soon about nothing being done by national governments (or at least law enforcement).  This, in my opinion, is what we really need more of (see below):


The Federal Trade Commission announced Wednesday a multinational crackdown on so-called tech support scams, in which the callers, who usually asserted that they represented technology companies like Microsoft, Dell and security companies like Symantec and McAfee, tried either to sell virus-protection software or to get the consumer to allow remote access to his computer so that the caller could then “fix” it, for fees of $45 to $450.

In six cases filed in federal district court in Manhattan, the commission named 17 individuals and 14 companies, most in India, as participants in the operations, including many with legitimate-sounding names like Virtual PC Doctor and V-Tech Solutions.

At the commission’s request, a federal district judge in Manhattan froze the United States assets of the suspects. The commission also said it had shut down 80 Internet domain names and 130 phone numbers in the United States used in the scheme. Efforts to reach several of the companies and individuals were unsuccessful.

The suspected fraud occurred in several English-speaking countries. Joining the F.T.C. in the enforcement action were the Australian Communications and Media Authority, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission and Britain’s Serious Organized Crime Agency.

The Story

notgiven, thank you for the news tip!

CORRECTION:

Where I found the above was actually on the 'Latest News' article entitled "Multinational Crackdown on Computer Con Artists"

Sorry for the confusion.

Sick,

You raise a good question.  First, I don't think that there is any amount of sinking to their level which will reduce the number of nuisance calls you receive.  Reporting callers to the FCC, FTC, whoever, while important, is not going to solve the problem, even when it gets the occasional bad actor shut down.  That is because these calls are a global problem, a technological problem, and a social problem.  I can't help with the global and social issues, but I can help with the technology.

There are a number of effective ways to block such unwanted calls.  Some are free, others are inexpensive.  I've made a number of long posts explaining them, but the short answer is - Google Voice, VOIP accounts with call handling rules, Asterisk/PIAF, hardware blockers, Panasonic blocking phones, silent ringtones, and call blocking apps.  I have used all of these approaches over a number of years and am very happy with the results.  Not only are such callers unable to make my phones ring, but I get noticeably fewer calls than I once did, because unwanted callers encounter a phone which appears not to be in service.

If you have any questions about how to do these things i am more than happy to answer them, or you can simply search the site for them by going to startpage.com and searching for:  host:800notes.com lone stranger blocking

Hope this is helpful to you.

All telemarketers are evil. It's an absolute disgrace of a job. Get a better job. You intrude onto other's lives asking for money. There are other ways to ask for money. No respect for anyone who is a telemarketer.

receiving  regular  calls also.  recommend setting a silent ring tone on your phone for these numbers this way you won't even hear the call and they'll end up hanging up without  leaving  a message.

receiving  regular  calls also.  recommend setting a silent ring tone on your phone for these numbers this way you won't even hear the call and they'll end up hanging up without  leaving  a message.

Thank you for the ways to rid these callers from annoying us!

receiving  regular  calls also.  recommend setting a silent ring tone on your phone for these numbers this way you won't even hear the call and they'll end up hanging up without  leaving  a message.

Then I suggest you speak to your employer about what THEY will do to protect your ears from the damaging effects of having a whistle blown in your ear. Cause really this is the job YOU chose, and is not MY problem!!! Because if you're going to constantly call me over and over, even after I've told you I'm not interested and put me on your Do Not Call list, then yeah you're going to get a whistle in the ear. This is my phone, and my house and I have the right not to be harassed. So whatever report us, or leave us alone LIKE WE ASKED YOU TO DO!!!!!!!

Sally, shut up, stop lying, and get off our phone. OUR phones, not yours. Put yourself in the shoes of people who get your calls. You think it's fun for them? I get multiple calls per day from collection agencies, asking for people who USED to have my number. I don't need people like you calling on top of that.

So here's how I deal with it: 1. Caller ID, so I can see who's calling, and 2. Blocking anonymous calls. That works.

So, Mustang Sally, get off your pity pot. You work in a profession where abuse is part of the job. There is nothing you can do about it, and the people you work for don't care. To them, you're another replaceable body, nothing more. Yes, you can go to the police. You'll get fired, though; your bosses don't want any problems. This may be the only job you could find in this economy; if so, I feel sorry for you, but I'm not shedding tears, because your job is to harass other human beings. Deal with the results.

YOU CAN BE FINED AND HAVE TO PAY HOSPITAL BILLS AND MAY BE SUED FOR BODILY HARM FOR BLOWING A WHISTLE IN THE EAR OF TELEMARKETERS I HAVE A FRIEND WHO WAS MADE DEAF FROM SUCH STUPID BEHAVIOR AND THE WOMAN IS NOW BEING SUED FOR IT CAUSE ALL OF THE CALLS ARE TAPED FOR YOUR SAFETY SO THE TELEMARKETER CANNOT SAY ANYTHING RUDE TO YOU GEEZE YOU PEOPLE NEED TO GROW UP THESE FOLKS ARE ONLY TRYING TO MAKE A LIVING AND NOT BE ON WELFARE

Really? Really? You are lying. No telemarketer was made deaf by a whistle being blown and their is no lawsuit. I searched all over and found it to be a total lie.
But, as you are in a largely fraudulent profession, I am not surprised. When you do a job which relies on preying on the gullible it becomes second nature to spread BS in hopes that you can fool people. You could have chosen to make a logical, cogent argument as to why it is wrong to do this to other people. Instead you chose to lie. Remember, if you have right on your side you do not need to lie.

Although I have often spoken against the "whistle while they work" strategy, your all caps belch of a post is far from believable.

One of the points I have made in the past is that the telephone system contains audio limiters that constrain the amplitude of the sound coming out of the receiver.  While still potentially unpleasant, a whistle blast over a telephone did not make your imaginary friend go deaf.  Nor are they engaged in litigation.  You know you are telling tales and so do we.  Of course, you can always provide a link to the filing if you want to change my mind.

I am aware of such an event in the EU, and have posted a link about it here.  But even then, I think it was a matter of bureaucratic overkill, and disbelieve that any injury occurred or was possible.

As for the calls being taped for "our safety", where shall I begin?  Safety?  Are you operating some sort of telephonic death ray?  In my experience calls are taped to provide: proof that someone fell for your pitch, a source of the word "yes" to later be cut and pasted into another recording for use in slamming, to document any unfortunate statements against interests by alleged debtors, and to provide fodder for management to use when browbeating thralls such as yourself.

As for the oft launched "making a living" canard, no doubt shoplifters and other petty thieves would make similar arguments.  Intruding into my home against my expressed wish is violative and predatory.  If one does so physically instead of electronically, the consequences are likely to be immediate and substantial. A telephonic intruder is less accessible, thus some feel the desire to blow whistles.  I strongly disagree with the practice, but I am not unsympathetic to those who are provoked to this sort of action.

Despite the widely promoted notion that we are all some sort of victim, and not responsible for our failures, the opposite is almost always true.  The public schools may have failed you in the past (as they did me), but if you would make the effort on your own to learn how to communicate in writing, using something approximating correct grammar, punctuation, and structure, you would have access to much better employment.  I have reviewed more than a few employment applications over the years, and I can tell you that yours would never have made the first cut for anything other than the most menial of jobs.  

Churches, outreach organizations, and vocational schools often have remedial English classes available.  Public libraries have books on basic grammar and punctuation.  And simply reading something you enjoy, while paying attention to how it is written, will help you improve.  It is up to you whether you make the effort to change the course of your life, or whether you spend the rest of your life in a call center wearing a headset while being reviled and abused from all quarters.