I answer, "Pascal's push-cart and donkey rentals. Do you want to rent a donkey, or are you a jackass that wants to speak to one of your cousins?" Works well if you get "James" or "David" with a near-eastern accent on a live call.
The Feds have been putting pressure on the telcos to get this under control. Steve Lehto has covered this on his YouTube channel, and he just had something about it recently.
As for me, I have my phone set so phone calls from anyone not in my contacts list go directly to voicemail. Back when I had a landline, I used to have my answering machine set with an outgoing message that would trick the robocallers into thinking a person has answered. I got more than one profane message from an upset telemarketer on the machine, which always made me laugh.
Please be careful with this, a telemarketer is actually selling a product and working a lead that they got from a response from you that you requested. If you say you are not interested, they actually remove you from the list and rarely if ever contact you again. They are actually offering a product or service you are or were interested in. Typically they will leave a voice message as to why they are calling and a number they may be reached at.
That leaves you with the call you got, a Spam or Scam call, The info they have on you ranges from none to detailed that has been stolen from a variety of sources. Yes, many originate from India with the advent of cheap Voice over IP and auto dialing software built into their computer, their job is to get as much info on you to use for online theft. Good examples are "Amazon" "MediCare" "Credit Card reduction of interest or debt forgiveness " Or any number of fruadulant calls. Calling these people telemarketers is an insult to those who are truly offering services.
A telemarketer will know your name (or the name you used when you requested info) and be able to upfront tell you the name of the company you requested info from, and the number in your caller id will be reachable.
I hate these people with a passion, they make it much more difficult for a person and or company to conduct business, also they have almost rendered cellular service almost unusable.
Typically I will give them a false name, string them along to the point were they are cussing away. I know I have made their day much happier.
The FEDs really do not care. Neither do the telcos. The problem could be fixed immediately through verifying outgoing service.
Social engineering calls, gather as much info as they can to scam later.
I like using an can airhorn on them if its a real person.
well u can always answer the phone with TACO BELL, or Bethany police dept,or some other well known business ,,what i did to cut way down on these calls is to stop putting my phone number in the text of the ads i have on craigslist..i take a white piece of paper 8x11 and a black marker ,and write my phone number on it, take a pic with cell phone and put that pic in craigslist ad.or anywhere on line..
