Question for the attorneys

[DoggyDaddy]

I've even seen some numbers that was a digit or two different than mine.

Yep, same here. I think I even saw my own number once.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

A couple years ago, I diligently blocked every spam call I would get, I did that for months. Of course, I never answer calls that are not from someone in my contacts, very rarely will I even give my number to a reputable company that I might be dealing with at the time. Anyway, for well over a year now, I only get a spam call maybe once a month, sometimes not even that often.

I've been doing that too, but the problem is, if it's a spoofed number, blocking it doesn't always work. I've gone to block a number several times only to find that I already had it blocked. My rule of thumb is, if it's a legit call, they'll leave me a voice mail. If they don't, they get blocked.

 

[Lpherr]

Our cells have the ability to let only contacts through. Everyone else is automatically blocked.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Of course, I never answer calls that are not from someone in my contacts

And this doesn't always work either. Just a couple weeks ago I got a call that was in my contacts. It looked like it was the local number for my credit union. I answered, since it looked legit, only to hear a heavy thick foreign accent on the other end that horribly mispronounced my name. I was *ahem* less than polite in my response to them. I also called my local branch manager to let him know that their number was being spoofed. This has happened before when they spoofed the number for the fraud department of my credit union. ****ing bastards.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Our cells have the ability to let only contacts through. Everyone else is automatically blocked.

See post #24...

 

[Lpherr]

See post #24...

Haven't had that happen.
Of course, most of our contacts will text before dialing.

 

[loudgroove]

I've been doing that too, but the problem is, if it's a spoofed number, blocking it doesn't always work. I've gone to block a number several times only to find that I already had it blocked. My rule of thumb is, if it's a legit call, they'll leave me a voice mail. If they don't, they get blocked.

only numbers I have blocked are people that call me family that I have cut ties with. But since I don't work in the music industry anymore. My phone is no longer attached to my hip. So if your name isn't in my phone you better leave a message.

 

[littletommy]

I've been doing that too, but the problem is, if it's a spoofed number, blocking it doesn't always work. I've gone to block a number several times only to find that I already had it blocked. My rule of thumb is, if it's a legit call, they'll leave me a voice mail. If they don't, they get blocked.

Yep, I follow the voice mail philosophy as well. I noticed when I was blocking numbers on a daily basis, that a lot of the numbers were only one digit off from a number I had previously blocked.

I know my doctor, dentist, and credit union will always leave a voicemail if I don’t answer, and if for some reason I do give my number to someone I’m doing business with, I always tell them to leave a message because chances are I won’t answer. So far, it’s worked out pretty good.

 

[El Conquistador]

I got a call from my number one day. That was weird.
The other day I got a call from a foreign guy named Bob that was a “IRS agent” I had some time to kill so I told the guy that I knew he was a scammer and was going to talk to him and waste his time so he couldn’t talk to someone else that may believe him. I put him on speaker and he talked for about 15 minutes. I kept asking him how he got paid, was it commission on how much he ripped people off? I asked if he ever felt guilty for taking peoples money?
He never would admit he was a scammer and kept asking me questions. I would say if you was with the IRS then you would know all of these questions. I asked him what my address was or social security number was or how much I paid last year in taxes. He could never answer me. Finally I got board and told him I actually worked for the IRS and thanked him for talking to me because I had been tracing his number all this time.
He hung up on me. The nerve of that guy.

 

[Brandon]

I got a call from my number one day. That was weird.
The other day I got a call from a foreign guy named Bob that was a “IRS agent” I had some time to kill so I told the guy that I knew he was a scammer and was going to talk to him and waste his time so he couldn’t talk to someone else that may believe him. I put him on speaker and he talked for about 15 minutes. I kept asking him how he got paid, was it commission on how much he ripped people off? I asked if he ever felt guilty for taking peoples money?
He never would admit he was a scammer and kept asking me questions. I would say if you was with the IRS then you would know all of these questions. I asked him what my address was or social security number was or how much I paid last year in taxes. He could never answer me. Finally I got board and told him I actually worked for the IRS and thanked him for talking to me because I had been tracing his number all this time.
He hung up on me. The nerve of that guy.

Up your game. Take the call to the bathroom and make sure the splashing is heard and unserstood. Adds a whole new element to wasting their time!

 

[Alamo]

If it were up to me, I'd have some really smart people track these people, the spammers and internet fraud people and all such that operate out of reach (and maybe some who are in reach, but good at hiding their tracks) and send a group of amoral mercenaries in to kill them all, loudly with plenty of video. May have to do it again, possibly a 3rd, but that would be about it....as long as we were willing to do it again if necessary.

I'm not smiling; I'm not joking.

All the movies with the hitman/secret agent/specialops warrior/mob guy/disgraced cop who has retired but now has to go rogue to save the world/daughter/whoever plots have gotten pretty stale, but if you could put together a team of hackers and warriors that travel continent to continent killing/burning/castrating spammers and robocallers you’d have a box office smash

 

[Twangbanger]

All the movies with the hitman/secret agent/specialops warrior/mob guy/disgraced cop who has retired but now has to go rogue to save the world/daughter/whoever plots have gotten pretty stale, but if you could put together a team of hackers and warriors that travel continent to continent killing/burning/castrating spammers and robocallers you’d have a box office smash

If the plan to save the world is hiring people willing to do illegal stuff to stop other people willing to do illegal stuff, my guess is, as a group, they've all figured out it's safer and more lucrative to send spam for a living.

 

[BugI02]

I can't fathom the entirety of my existence and depth of my accomplishments consisting of being a pain in humanity's ass but apparently there are plenty who don't feel like I do.

It falls under the same human failing as most other scams and crimes

If they put as much effort into making an honest living as they will trying to make a dishonest one they would already be better off

 

[Leo]

Wait until the birthday passes that makes you eligible for medicare and supplemental insurance policies. It is amazing how many try to make it look like it is from the Social Security Office.

 

[Leo]

When real companies still printed and mailed out real catalogs and flyers, sometimes businesses would get a package of post cards, maybe 150 in a stack, with every vendor related to your industry. In a hazing event, we filled out every free postage post card with the name and address of the new guy.

We meant to annoy him, but he loved it. He had a wood burner and now had bales of paper to get the logs started.

 

[loudgroove]

When real companies still printed and mailed out real catalogs and flyers, sometimes businesses would get a package of post cards, maybe 150 in a stack, with every vendor related to your industry. In a hazing event, we filled out every free postage post card with the name and address of the new guy.

We meant to annoy him, but he loved it. He had a wood burner and now had bales of paper to get the logs started.

I use to enjoy getting solicitations in snail mail with prepaid envelopes. They would always get sent back empty. lol

 

[Cameramonkey]

My worst is one I think Ive told here before. Some now retired guy up in Fishers likes to give out the cell number I've had now for 20 years as his own. I assume its so he can recall that number to call up accounts, but not be bothered by marketing calls. (or he is too old and stupid to realize he is giving our the wrong #) I CONSTANTLY get texts for him from the republican party, candidates, realtors, etc. Like, Averaging 1 a day. "Great news Maurice!, Donald Trump..."

When he put his house on the market, that morning was NUTS. Realtors calling literally every 15 minutes starting at 8am asking if they could please just get one more offer in even though he had closed the window. Yes, the number was even on his zillow/MIBOR listing. Maybe even his property card. I learned a new phrase that morning "blacklist me".

 

[WebSnyper]

If it's truly Spam/Phishing use the report function in whatever email service you use and report them. The email service learns from the reported emails and applies AI to look for patterns, IP addresses, types of content, etc.

If it's a legit company that you possibly signed up for then unsubscribe. If they don't honor the unsubscribe then start reporting as spam and block the sender. It should hit the email reputation of the sender and their emails may start getting blacklisted by the email provider.

Outlook.com also has a sweep function you can use if you want to get rid of all the emails from a particular sender, and there are also a sweep options to setup a rule to only keep the latest email from a particular sender or only emails from that sender within the last 10 days, etc.

The sweep is handy for legit senders like Palmetto State armory that just send a butt load of emails but that I still want to receive the emails.

 

[Ingomike]

Yes!! Every friggin' day. And apparently most of them live in the 463 area code! (Not really, but that's the area code they're spoofing.)

Interesting, I see many calls spoofing my area code and prefix so it looks like a legit call. The rest seem to have no rhyme or reason…

 

[lrdudley]

I use to enjoy getting solicitations in snail mail with prepaid envelopes. They would always get sent back empty. lol

I worked in the printing industry for over 20 years. Someone in our industry was getting paid to put that ink on that paper. The USPS was getting paid to deliver it to us. It was helping our economy. I don't see how spam emails and texts make any contribution to our economy.