The only way to end them would be if everyone would not answer an unknown number but there are to many people who have to answer every time the phone rings without even looking at the caller ID.
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Unfortunately there are some, not many, but a few calls that are unknown that just might be important. Although 99% of legit calls will at least have a phone number that shows up. And there are those of us old enough to remember the days before Caller ID, and had to listen to “Will someone answer the damn phone” when you just had to just answer.
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There is a difference though in someone just selling versus a scam. My boss used to say that we’d get about a 1 or 2% response on cold telephone calls. So if I made 100 cold calls, I could expect maybe one sale. Heck of a way to spend a rainy afternoon and back then it was a dial phone. No computers or push button stuff. The good old days. Please buy my corn flakes.
Me too. But’s it’s still annoying.
My landline in not plugged in, I only plug it in to find my cell phone🤪. Land line calls are still displayed on my TV caller ID, spoofing is common. Once displayed a call that originated from my phone.
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My VOIP service got so many complaints that they subcontracted call monitoring to Nomorobo. It works well.
Have you tried getting help for your Canon printer? Their support is so dismal and inept that paying $40k might be less bad.
I’ve tried blocking the numbers too on my cell and home but the list gets so long and they just pick another number. So I just don’t answer when I don’t know who it is or it says scam likely.
The problem with blocking numbers is that these are random spoofs. It may be a number that isn’t even in service or a family member’s number. I had some older customer who blocked all the scam callers and some of the numbers he blocked were friends and family because the scammers spoofed their numbers.
Also, they might call from a spoof of a legit business or the local police dept. You don’t want to block those numbers either. I had a customer who couldn’t call their bank because a scammer spoofed the number and they blocked it. I think blocking is a bad idea for this reason.
Most phone support is terrible these days, if you can even get that! You are lucky to have a live chat but even then, you are often frustrated. Sometimes it is just an e-mail, then you get a crap form letter back that doesn’t apply to your situation. This has been a huge issue since the pandemic started. I have waited in line, on the phone, etc. more now than ever before.
I would be happy to setup your Canon printer though and won’t charge $40K to do it although it will likely cost as much as the printer itself.
Canon customer support did a good job for me anyway. My Canon printer failed 3 months out of warranty, figured out it was the power supply unit (cheapo, sort of like those plug-in wall warts) so phoned and asked them if they’d send me a replacement power supply. They said they didn’t stock them anymore (presuming they’d decided the design was faulty), but they’d send me a new replacement printer instead. $35. A few days later I’m sitting in my driveway making some bicycle adjustments, and the UPS truck pulls up and sets the box containing the new printer next to me. A few tech problems after that, new printer software not compatible w/computer software version, but a little software hacking on my part did the job.
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I kept getting a scam call claiming to be from Best Buy/Geek Squad a few days ago. I would tell them not to call and they would call right back using a new spoofed number.
Finally I just played dumb and wasted their time. Then they wanted my phone number and I gave them some random made up number. They cussed me and hung up at that time. No more calls came in. This tactic works wonders for me. It works with scammers no matter if it is a car warranty scam, student loan scam, tech support scam, or whatever. They avoid you and must put you on a “scammer do not call” list.
One of the few times that I actually answered a scam call, it was one of those calls from–I think–India, trying to sell me a solar electric system for my roof. Knowing that nobody likes to deal with a person who acts crazy, I repeatedly shouted into the phone, “I already OWN the entire solar system, you idiot”–until he hung up.
Those calls, which used to come in daily, suddenly ceased.
Next time a car warranty one calls I am going to try something like this. “Well I plan to move to the Moon next year and Mars the year after that. Does your car warranty apply on both the Moon and Mars because I am going to put my car on the same rocket I fly on and take it with me?”
It didn’t seem like they knew when people were screwing with them and would invest a lot more time in the early days of these scams becoming so common. I would even tell them it was a scam and they would argue with me and try to convince me otherwise. Now I think they understand there is literally an endless pool of suckers for them to target and hang up even if you just slow them down by acting like you don’t understand their requests. They are aware there is so much low-hanging fruit for them out there so no point in wasting any time…
Putting them on hold for an extended time is also a good tactic if you don’t have time to mess with them. They know you are wasting their time after a while and hang up.
My brother’s favorite tactic is to say something like… there’s somebody at my door… please wait for me…
He then puts the phone down and walks away for the next 20 minutes or so. There is never anyone on the phone when he returns.
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I tell them you called me, you have that information.
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This just happened to me today, and I am not making this up. I was busy doing something and was actually expecting a call, when my cell phone rang and I answered it without looking. It was an insurance broker called “EverQuote”. Before I could get rid of them, while we were still connected, I get an incoming call, caller ID says EverQuote. Finally got rid of the caller, guess what happened less than a minute after I hung up. Phone rings…… guess who it is, it’s EverQuote. 3 calls in under 3 minutes, a new record for me. Never did get the call I was actually waiting for.
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I wasted an hour of their time once doing this. I told them I had to take my wife to the doctor but I would pay them the $5000 they requested when I got back. I went outside and cut wood for an hour and then came back in. I then let on what I was doing. They sat on the phone for an hour thinking I was giving them $5000, only for me to tell them I knew it was a scam and just wasting their time. I have never been cussed at that much in my life!
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I have been informed that one should never utter the word “yes” on an unknown call because they can record it and splice it to show you bought $500 worth of something. Well over a couple months I got three calls from the same lady wanting to give me an insurance quote. I pick the phone up and she asks is this bing? What am I supposed to say? I can’t say yes. What a dunce. I’m sure she’s a new agent doing cold calls to drum up some business.
I understand that but when I made cold calls I would always introduce myself first and state my business.
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I have heard that too. Instead of saying YES, just say SPEAKING.
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