# Telemarketer calls



## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

For the past many years, I have been plague by telemarketer calls. Last year, I started getting as many as 4-6 a day.

I tried wasting their time, the "press 1 to have your number removed", just hanging up, ignoring them, reporting them to the FCC (what a joke!), and a dozen other things. None worked.

But, I found the solution: I have my fax machine set up so that I simply have to press answer when I see a suspected phony number. Seems that these robo-caller's software is setup to recognize that they have reached a fax machine and take the number off their call list.

If I'm not sure, I pick up my handset and tell the caller to hold on while I hit disconnect of the fax machine.

My robo-calls have dropped to maybe one a week.

Hope this helps. Worked for me.

Ralph


----------



## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

Never an issue. Then again, never had a land line either.


----------



## BWfarms (Aug 3, 2015)

I had somebody call me with a blocked number on caller ID over and over never leaving messages. I finally answered politely and no answer, I chewed the silent air out and hung up only to be immediately called back by this blocked number. Verizon wouldn't give me the contact information for the caller citing privacy laws that they couldn't give me the number. Bull poop! Called Verizon again after this continued all day, they agreed this was harassment. Finally agreed to block all calls not showing Identification for a year at no charge. Problem solved.

Another nice feature is the block contact on the iPhone. Get a telemarketer or scammer, it's just a quick swipe and voila!

If you don't leave a message I won't return your call.


----------



## azmike (Jan 4, 2015)

Look guys, it's hard out there. If everyone buys just a few thousand $$ of "extra" stuff this poor economy might turn around. Even if the calls are from India, they would be happy too!


----------



## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

The one was this outfit out of New Jersey that kept calling to offer me a couple of hundred thousand in business loans. They'd call 3-4 times a day. Tried hanging up, tried press 1, etc.

Then, one day, I got curious--started wondering what their real scam was. So, I told the screener, who was George (or Mike or Vol--something like that) from India that I was interested. So, he put me on hold and transferred me to an "account manager".

Turns out this guy was from New Jersey. So I kept playing dumb (not real hard for me) and asking him how this worked. At first, he offered me $200,000 in loans and I said "Sure!". As he qualified me, the amount kept falling.

All he needed was for me to fax him six months of my bank statements so he could verify my income.

I kept pressing him for how it worked. He said that they would deposit the money directly to my account. When I pressed him for more details on repayment, he said that they would then set up an automatic withdrawal that would repay the loan directly out of my account to them each month and I wouldn't have to do anything!! Pretty easy.

The scam was get my account number, get direct access, then raid it! Pretty slick (I don't remember his name but I think it might have been Clinton.)

I can't believe that people would be stupid enough that even one person would buy into this. But, then again, I'm reminded of P.T. Barnum.

Ralph


----------



## RockmartGA (Jun 29, 2011)

Search YouTube for "Tom Mabe Telemarketer". Tom is a comedian and he has a series of phone calls in which he gives a telemarketer hell.

This is one of my favorites:


----------



## Hayjosh (Mar 24, 2016)

I used to be a telemarketer for a summer when I was in high school. Worked 4-10 pm for $6/hr plus commission and wasn't a bad gig for a high school kid. I can let you know a few secrets about telemarketing:

--Saturday is the funnest day--it's answering machine day. That means we could listen to hundreds of different answering machine greetings which was often comedic, and we didn't have to talk to anybody which meant it was an easy day.

--they likely hate their job more than you hate talking to them.

--I know you're going to say no so just say it as early as possible. I would even pause during my spiel to let them say no. The ones who pissed me off were the ones who made me go through the entire thing and THEN said no. And then id have to pretend like I was giving you a rebuttal in case a supervisor was listening in.

--the people who screamed at me were the most entertaining calls. Anytime somebody got a screamer or an a-hole we'd wave everyone over and put it on speaker. You're not "sticking it to them," you're entertaining the entire row of cubicles.

--if you told us to take you off the list that's exactly what would happen. I'd enter a code at the end of the call and it would remove you from the list --from THAT list. But there were many campaigns (industry talk for call lists) supplied to my company by JC Penney, which is the company we were calling on behalf of. However your name still may have been on other campaigns so it's possible you could have been called again.

--Demographics mattered. Everybody wanted to get assigned to campaign 20 for the night because it was the easiest campaign? What does that mean? You'd get the most sales when calling that campaign. Why? Because they were new cardholders and were suckers. However campaign 20 was usually only what new hires got placed on for training. But we did have sales goals and if we met our goals, one of the rewards was getting to call campaign 20 for a night which was like a bonus itself.

--many times I did talk to some genuinely nice people, some of whom bought from me just because they could tell I was young or new and wanted to help me out (and told me they'd cancel later), and others who just seemed lonely and needed someone to talk to. So I would and those were ACTUALLY enjoyable.

--now, how to NEVER get called again: the deceased code removes the name from all campaigns. Simply tell them the person they are calling for is dead and your name gets removed from the lists for good. I would have done this for everybody but then my supervisor would have wanted to know why everybody I was calling was dead LOL.


----------



## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

Hayjosh said:


> --if you told us to take you off the list that's exactly what would happen. I'd enter a code at the end of the call and it would remove you from the list --from THAT list. But there were many campaigns (industry talk for call lists) supplied to my company by JC Penney, which is the company we were calling on behalf of. However your name still may have been on other campaigns so it's possible you could have been called again.
> 
> --now, how to NEVER get called again: the deceased code removes the name from all campaigns. Simply tell them the person they are calling for is dead and your name gets removed from the lists for good. I would have done this for everybody but then my supervisor would have wanted to know why everybody I was calling was dead LOL.


There's a difference between telemarketing and these bozos.

Telemarkets are working for a living, they have a product to sell. And I'm sure it's a pretty crappy job, but it's a job.

"Hi! I'm Rachel from Carholder services...." are the ones I'm refering to. These are robo-calls. And, those things don't work for these guys. They ignore the FCC Do Not Call list, they are usually foreign based, and they are usually a scam of some kind.

Ralph


----------



## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

I use a 'different' method and it goes like this:

M- Hello

T- May I speak to the home owner?

M- Speaking

T- Do you own your home?

M- Yes, along with the bank.

T- How would you like new window (siding what ever is selling)?

M- Will it make my house more valuable?

T- Sure it will make your home a lot more valuable.

M- How soon can I get new windows (or whatever they are selling)?

T- I will sent someone to make an estimate........

M- No, that doesn't work, I need the window installed in less than 2 weeks!!! I can't wait that long, I need to have this now!

T- Why, can't you wait?

M- Because I am being foreclosed on in 15 days and if you install new windows before I'm foreclosed on my house will be worth more and I will get some needed money out of the deal.

Dial tone seems to happen.

And to Josh's point, I am a dead beat, I guess. No need to pass my number on to the next list.

Larry


----------

