Robocalls getting out of hand.

I think it was an episode about two weeks ago of John Oliver “Last Week Tonight” where his main “story” was all about robo calls. He pointed out “and is really a non partisan issue, right...yet some politicians are allowing it to happen”

At the end of the show he pushes a button to start some robo callers to those politicians that will call them ever like 90 minutes, asking them to help stop this epidemic.

It is a political show though, so be warned or just fast forward to the robo call segment if you might now like the rest.

Actually just found it...just the robo call segment

Also wish they would start getting smarter about cookies, tracking for marketing. Imagine a small town, you go into the hardware store and buy a flashlight one day. From that point on any time you go into that, or any other store the staff starts pointing you to flashlights...”hey mr. smith, we got some dandy new flashlights in! Check these out!” “Uh, no thanks, I already bought one ten month ago here and I’m all set. Don’t need another, thanks” “they got em in all kinds of colors” “please stop talking to me about damned flashlights!”

It occurred to me, and I never even searched for spinning tops, every time I visit some sites the top banner is some really elegant, shiny, precision made spinning tops.
Ought to be a button, “I’m never going to buy this crap, kindly stop showing it to me each time! I want one even less now than I did the other 432 times you showed it to me, and even the first time I didn’t want it. Now I hate them!”

Or another one, “I already bought snow tires, I’m not in the market for these!”
 
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This just reminded to report a call I received earlier this week claiming to be the IRS and that I would be arrested in the next two hours if I didn't, its been two days. Guess I've been too busy to get arrested, lol.
 
NOROBO has ceased working for me. All spam calls get through to our VoIP phone. But, caller ID allows me to ignore most of them. I get a call almost every day from "Anonymous". I don't remember who they are, but that number NEVER gets answered. Maybe they'll get the idea, but I'm not holding my breath. I had one a couple days ago from someone trying to sell me something from a resort company. Caller ID said that the call originated in my area code. I asked the caller where he was and he said Orlando, FL. As I read him the riot act about spoofing CID numbers he hung up. I hope I never hear from them again.
Good luck with that.
 
Seems to be working. The Feds cut them off yesterday [only FOUR bad actors], and I haven't had a spam robocall at all today. :goofy:

I got one today, "do not hang up, your google business listing..." (it's a personal cell phone, not a business cell)

*click*
 
My phones have been on the do not call list since its introduction. A joke. A long time ago I stopped answering the phone with "Hello", choosing rather to answer by saying the word "yes". After learning that the turds were recording words like "yes", and using it out of context, I stopped using the word "yes". I started using a couple of the blocking apps, with some success, but then, the turds started spoofing the caller i.d..

Nowadays I look at the caller i.d. and answer by asking who I might know from wherever the caller i.d. says. Most of the time this defeats the robo, but not always, and it's not extremely rude to a real caller. If a turd gets through, I will try to keep a live person on the line as long as possible.

Lately they've started to call late in the evening. This really strikes a nerve in me, and I have started lashing out with a constant loud and violent tirade of every cuss word I've ever learned in both English and Spanish until I hear them hang up. I have to watch my surroundings, and I know it won't stop the turds, but it makes me feel better.

I know with the technology we have, this constant harassment can be better controlled than it presently is. Why are our worthless politicians continuing to do next to nothing about this crap?
 
I answer in my best auto-attendant voice, "Hello, and thank you for calling! Enter your PIN code at any time. If you don't know your PIN code, please press pound, now!" In 8 of ten occasions, that sends them on their way, but if Bob from Mumbai starts talking, I wait until he's mid-sentence, and continue with, "I'm sorry, I did not get your PIN code. Please enter it now, or press pound if you don't know it!"

If the talking continues, I close with, "Goodbye!" and hang up.

Yes, I am easily amused.

And the voice is good enough that I did, indeed, burn one of the posters in this thread when I called them and, upon hearing the answer, I said, "Don't hang up! If you have..." which is when they did, in fact... hang up.
 

Just 4 slimy insects in and endless sea of cockroaches, unfortunately.

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Good luck with that.

Yeah, I know. I got several more from the usual suspects yesterday. I hate these calls, even from outfits I know and otherwise respect.

Edit - And two more since I originally posted this about 1/2 hour ago. Both automated, so you can't even cuss them out.
 
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Yeah, I know. I got several more from the usual suspects yesterday. I hate these calls, even from outfits I know and otherwise respect.

Edit - And two more since I originally posted this about 1/2 hour ago. Both automated, so you can't even cuss them out.
Several calls here today, with only one being an actual live human. All the rest were illegal robocalls. The ones Nomorobo and Ooma killed don't show up in the call log, so I don't have an exact count. All are spoofed caller ID, I am guessing all are recordings. I pick one up on occasion, but I haven't had a live slimeball on the other end in many moons. All recordings.
 
I tried to sign up for Verizon's call filtering, only to be told that my iPhone 8 is not compatible with their product. Specifically, it only works with iPhone 6 and older. WTF?? :mad2:

And Do Not Disturb While Driving now appears to be totally brain dead. As long as you are connected to BlueTooth, it will let ALL calls through... there appears to be no way to restrict it short of disabling the BlueTooth pairing or turning BT off. It used to be that friends calling me could not get through with DNDWD activated, but about 50% of spam calls got through anyway. So for a while I had BT turned off on my phone, but I turned it back on when someone advised me that DNDWD should do what I want. No joy, it's even worse than before. Now there is an option to allow calls from Favorites through, but since ALL calls are let through when connected to BlueTooth, that must mean that Favorites can be let through even if you're not hands-free.

This is beyond belief. Of course I can activate DND manually and that will (might) keep spams from getting through, but it would be a pain to do that every time I get in and out of the car.
 
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