I would like nothing more than cold calling to be made illegal. Few things tick me off more than someone phoning me with whatever nonsense they are about to utter. Glad you were able to sort things out, hopefully with not too much damage done.

Edit:Oh dear.

Well in the USA we have this thing: The do not call list. Criminals order copies of it to get numbers to call. Enforcement is zero. And with the down economy it is a zero priority. However I have a long list of businesses I will never in my life use. There are ten suckers born every minute.

Telemarketers seem to be ignoring the do not call recently. I have gotten over a dozen telemarketing calls in the last week (and all my phones are on the do not call list).

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BOINC WIKI

Well in the USA we have this thing: The do not call list.

We have one in Canada too. The government sub-contracted it to - wait for it - Bell. You can imagine how effective it is.

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Telemarketers seem to be ignoring the do not call recently. I have gotten over a dozen telemarketing calls in the last week (and all my phones are on the do not call list).

Ring!-Ring!..."Hello"..."Hi sir, are you having a good day?"..."GET STUFFED!!" clunk as the receiver goes back down. They say us Brits can be a bit abrasive at times. Then can't we all...you just need to know how to deal with these
cold callers...RUDELY!!

I wouldn't say that. I reported Hardy's Carpent. Within two weeks the messages stopped. The fine is probably the reason, evenso they might just have gotten a warning letter.
Awhile back, a friend wanted to help me with an issue. I politely said no, nobody get's access to this computer but me.

To all the US Setizens, sign up, even if your number is unlisted. I think this applies to landlines only, but I could be wrong.

Blurf, did you advise her to file a policy report?

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Pluto will always be a planet to me.

Seti Ambassador
Not to late to order an Anni Shirt

I wouldn't say that. I reported Hardy's Carpent. Within two weeks the messages stopped. The fine is probably the reason, evenso they might just have gotten a warning letter.
Awhile back, a friend wanted to help me with an issue. I politely said no, nobody get's access to this computer but me.

To all the US Setizens, sign up, even if your number is unlisted. I think this applies to landlines only, but I could be wrong.

Blurf, did you advise her to file a policy report?

If you mean a police report-Yes.

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Thank you Blurf. I feel a little bit better about her situation. She should also file a report with the IRS once she has a copy of the police report and her State fraud division. They generally act faster.

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Pluto will always be a planet to me.

Seti Ambassador
Not to late to order an Anni Shirt

Telemarketers seem to be ignoring the do not call recently. I have gotten over a dozen telemarketing calls in the last week (and all my phones are on the do not call list).

Ring!-Ring!..."Hello"..."Hi sir, are you having a good day?"..."GET STUFFED!!" clunk as the receiver goes back down. They say us Brits can be a bit abrasive at times. Then can't we all...you just need to know how to deal with these
cold callers...RUDELY!!

The few times when I had a land line and was on the list that I was called I hung up, must be My English ancestry coming out. :D Now days I have a cell phone, I get the occasional wrong number, but that's it. If someone were unlucky enough to call Me, I'd just close the phone like a StarTrek Communicator, that ends the call last I looked.

On a landline that doesn't work here in the USA, I'd have to unplug the phone from the phone cable to disconnect them.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

I have my Cell phone on the do not call list, although they are not supposed to be calling it anyway. To the criminals/scam artists, it means little.

So those that do call, I waste as much of their time as possible. Latest rash was with "Nielson" service.

Unless I placed the call, no information to anyone. I do not do surveys, I did not enter your contest. Who you are speaking to is answered with "who are you calling?"

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Janice

I have my Cell phone on the do not call list, although they are not supposed to be calling it anyway. To the criminals/scam artists, it means little.

So those that do call, I waste as much of their time as possible. Latest rash was with "Nielson" service.

Unless I placed the call, no information to anyone. I do not do surveys, I did not enter your contest. Who you are speaking to is answered with "who are you calling?"

Sounds good, My phone number is on the do not call list too, but then It was My landline phone number, I don't take surveys or what not either, I just snap the phone shut.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Unless I placed the call, no information to anyone. I do not do surveys, I did not enter your contest. Who you are speaking to is answered with "who are you calling?"

The one I like best is when the cold caller starts with.....
....."Hello sir, we're in your area at the moment"...
I ask them, "What area is that?"
They come back..."Your area"
My reply is, "You don't know what area I'm in do you?"...end of conversation.

Unless I placed the call, no information to anyone. I do not do surveys, I did not enter your contest. Who you are speaking to is answered with "who are you calling?"

The one I like best is when the cold caller starts with.....
....."Hello sir, we're in your area at the moment"...
I ask them, "What area is that?"
They come back..."Your area"
My reply is, "You don't know what area I'm in do you?"...end of conversation.

Their fishing for info and their bait is not very good. :D

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Their fishing for info and their bait is not very good.

Who'd wont to do their job??

By the way Vic, Uli has nominated you as being the "Mad hatter"
at you tea party....I'm the "not so mad March hare"..

We changed to cell phones a while back, I can count on one hand the number of spam calls I have gotten from that time.
(Oh my, I just saw the moon out my door, it is fantastic when it is so close to the horizon.)
Back when we had a land line I also had call display, so if the number was blocked or it showed an 800, or 866 number, it was not answered. I think they have a program that takes a number off the list if it is not answered after a certain number of tries, as the calls stopped.

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the key to me is to waste as much of their time as possible.
Auto-dialers and pre-programmed scripts are virtualy limitless.
By taking a live persons actual time, and providing them nothing,
I try to do my part to make their business as expensive and impractical as possible.

Okay so I need another hobby.

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Janice

I think I have gotten maybe 4 spam calls on my cell phone and they were in spanish and went to voicemail as well.

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I personally like to mess with cold callers. I usually tell them that I'll buy everything they want to offer me, if only I can have their personal number and call them at their house whenever the mood strikes me to place the order.

Or if I'm in a bad mood, I'll see how long I can keep them on the phone, arguing with them about how bad their product is and why I shouldn't buy it. It's hilarious the number of ways they'll try to defend the product instead of realizing there's no sale to be made.

the key to me is to waste as much of their time as possible.
Auto-dialers and pre-programmed scripts are virtualy limitless.
By taking a live persons actual time, and providing them nothing,
I try to do my part to make their business as expensive and impractical as possible.

Okay so I need another hobby.

Sometimes the auto-dialers do call cell-phone numbers, especially if they have a random-number feature. Happened to a couple of my shipmates.

I've been on the "Do Not Call" list for years, still get telemarketers with auto-dialers. And the DNC list does not apply to politicians, or charities if you have donated within the past 10 years.

So now I have the answering machine set to pick up on the 2nd ring, and the message explains that I am doing this to block telemarketers. Get a lot of 30-second dead-air messages. But once, a wrong number caller left me a message thanking me for a good laugh and a great idea.

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Donald
Infernal Optimist / Submariner, retired

I work Tech Support...

Just talked to a user who got a call out-of-the-blue from someone who works for "Windows" who said her O/S is expired and they needed her to let them on the machine to "fix it".

She let them in.

I just spent 2 hours cleaning it but what a mess.

There used to be a popular phone scam like that, run mostly from prisons before the automated collect call systems were put in.

Con would call you, convince you he was a phone company tech and needed access to your line. At his direction, you pushed the # key and a couple of numbers, and he was in. And the next month you had a many-hundred dollar long-distance bill.

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Donald
Infernal Optimist / Submariner, retired

And they are after your cell phone too......
Got a text message today, which I deleted very quickly.

Something about a sum of money that had been deposited to account XYZ, and to inquire about it to call phone number ZYX.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Just remembered my Nan's method of dealing with cold callers, a whistle she got off a policeman. Apparently it worked quite well.