I would at least notify the police and your attorney general and if you have caller ID with a phone number, that is what they want. I received a call from '''a grandson"" needing money, since I have no grandsons, I asked his name, had is number and turned it in. In talking to the attorney general in this state, they thanked me for doing this.
Marie

Marie: There was no phone number, just said 'out of area'.

Shirley

I hate getting sales calls. I always answer the phone when it rings, if it's someone selling something I say "I can't buy anything right now. I'm unemployed". Actually, I am retired. My SIL says "I never buy anything over the phone!" and hangs up.I'm also on my State's Do Not Call List. About a year ago, I got a sales call and simply hung up. The person had the nerve to call back and curse (yes,the F word) at me. Stated "I'm just doimg my job." Well, legitimate companies don't use cold calling. My cousin is a bill collector for Sears. She's told me of the terribly rude people she encounters.Some people are just sad-they tell her they had to chose between paying their mortgage or their Sears bill. I feel sorry for anyone who has to use the phone to conduct business. I was an interviewer with Social Security for over 30 years, occasionally assigned to work the phones. I hated every minute!

Wow! How bold. Never had a call like that.

Fairly often I lead those guys on some, as the original poster did. Haven't had any (non-existent) "grandsons" calling, needing help: I'd surely want to know the name, on one like that!

I tell those guys that I never buy anything offered over the phone by strangers.

How do I know that I'll ever receive anything, should I accept the offer?

Plus - I tell them that I never give out credit card number over the phone, and, sure enough, part of the deal will be that they're going to need that.

The latter is what I cut into their message to tell them when they call to say that they can cut the rate charged on my credit card.

Or I ask them how they could cut my fee ... when, as I pay in full every (rare) time that I use it ... I never pay a fee?

Just call me a mean old man, I guess.

ole joyful

bozo ford? not only was he a potty mouth, he was lacking in imagination, lol...

I politely say "good bye" and hang up quickly before they say anything mean or nasty. It would upset me.

I don't even give them a "goodbye". I just say "take me of your list" and hang up. When we get those annoying automatic calls, I just keep pressing the star key and then hang up.
Now I wish I was at the door the other day when a girl came up trying to sell siding. My husband is just too polite. I told him no legitimate person would be selling siding door to door. I also told him to never let anyone in also. Any time we need something done in or around our house, we call someone we know. With all the scams going around, I don't trust anyone.

Marie-ndcal, my neighbor just fell for that scam. She said it sounded exactly like her grandson. I was so surprised it would happen to her. He told her he had had been in an accident and she asked (using his name) if he was okay. He told her he was in jail and she asked why. He told her it was a DUI. Then he put a man on the line (supposedly a policeman) who told her she had one scared grandson and he needed $4000 to post bail.

Bottom line is she is out $4,000. Here's what's sad. They didn't give her time to think about it. First, the kid's father is an attorney, second her grandson is 17 year old extremely bright student and third it was 11:00 in the morning (for a DUI)??? Besides, I would never try to keep something like that from his parents. If their "bright, studious, good kid" gets a DUI at 11 in the morning, his parents need to know. But, she told him he HAD to tell his parents what happened and he promised. Sigh!

Even when she went to wire the $$$$, the lady asked her if she was really sure it was really her GS because of scams and she assured her it was really him.

No matter how many times we hear it, it happens every day.

Anyone calling our land line gets the fax machine. We only have it for faxing and internet access. I also give it out when businesses want a 'local number'- I figure it keeps the poor sales clerk working the register from catching flack and we still do not have to talk to anyone.

That's so sad, patti. Gadget's call wasn't a legitimate sales call, it was an illegal scam, plain and simple. The reason for the potty mouth is to get people off-balance; when the responder sounds unsure or shocked, they go in for the kill, (info extraction.)

That's why I have a whistle close by :o)

I don"t know if this is true or not, but I was told that by saying TAKE ME OFF YOUR CALL LIST will NOT do it. You must phrase it as PUT ME ON YOUR DO NOT CALL LIST. ( Put me ON your Do Not Call List, not take me OFF your calling list.) Like I say, I do not know if this is true, but I've been told....

We are on the Do Not Call lists, and we get many calls every day that it is amazing. It started about 9 months ago, and I just know that anyone calling is really unethical. I usually speak over them and say, "This is a do not call number" and hang up. But they clearly are not ethical employers. The poor people trying to make a little money on the other end of the line are not to blame.

I assume business are also desperate for customers in this economy, but this is not the way to get business.

Just tonight at 5 I got a call that asked for my real name. I asked what for? He said it was wireless world and thanked me for my recent phone purchase. He wanted to tell me about some things that were available to me and asked if I had a few moments. I said not if it will cost me money. He said OK have a nice day and hung up. I could't think of a thing that he could try to sell me that I would really need.

I am on every "Do Not Call" list out there, and I
still get calls - most are Robo - on both my phones.

As someone else said, if they are unethical in their
dealings, calling someone on a Do Not Call list certainly
doesn't mean anything to them.

Please be careful -- and don't give your number, zip code,
etc., to the hapless sales clerks that sometimes ask
for it. When they say may I have your phone number,
zip code, e-mail, etc. ", just say...no...sorry.

I get 3 or 4 calls a day on my cell from one of those automated messages that sound like a conversation. It fooled me the first time as I thought it was a real person.

They infuriate me and the number keeps changing so I can't block it unless I block all numbers. I've stayed on the line and was put on hold to talk to one of their "agents" and when I politely requested to be put on the do not call list, they hung up on me mid-request!

"Hello, this is Tom with home protection" is how they start, and there's a website out there trying to track him down, lol. It's so annoying and i'm pretty sure it's very illegal but I don't know how to stop it.

I'm on a do not call list but if ones gets thru, I just hang out. No, sorry or any pleasantries, just a hang up. My cell is off and in the car so no one calls me on that. I have caller ID and don't pick up if I don't see a number I know.

I have to hang my head & admit that this was how I made my high school summer money.

This was back in 1952 & I answered a newspaper ad for "phone work", thinking it was some kind of office receptionist position. It turned out to be an early "boiler room" situation wherein the Ladies of the DAR in the area contracted with a company to raise funds to buy a TV set for the local Veterans Hospital. We had a printed spiel (of course, mentioning the charitable angle), & the products were some cosmetics & food-type goods; bottles of Vanilla were a popular sale item. In those days, the "Lady of The Home" was not generally employed, so phone connections were usually made. We just used the local phone book for contact numbers.

Some people "washed out", but I was pretty lucky, & managed to sell quite a bit on my first "trial". I recall we got 50 cents an hour plus commission---I did Very Well on commissions. I was recalled the two following summers, & it was a "fun job" looking back.

BTW, the purchased items were all delivered by a few kids on their bicycles!

The DAR Ladies always managed to donate two TVs to that Veterans Hospital, & there was a photo every year in the local newspaper of them making that donation. I'm sure the sales company made out even better.

But it was a different era. WWII was not that far in the past, & the Korean War was still going on.

In spite of this, I just say "Not Interested" in all unsolicited sales calls to my home phone.

Sheila, sign up for the do not call list again. Your 5 years may have expired.

Why answer the phone at all if you don't recognize the number, or if it's not shown? It seems to be an easy fix - just don't answer. If it turns out to be someone you know, after all, or a call that you want, they will (or should) start leaving a message and then you can pick up.

Or maybe I'm missing something.

"... sign up for the do not call list again. Your 5 years may have expired."

The Federal Do Not Call list does not expire. No need to sign up again. I don't know if Canada has a DNC list. The one most talked about affects the United States only.

The Do-Not-Call registry does not prevent all unwanted calls. It does not cover the following:

--> calls from organizations with which you have established a business relationship;
--> calls for which you have given prior written permission;
--> calls which are not commercial or do not include unsolicited advertisements;
--> calls by or on behalf of tax-exempt non-profit organizations.

And it also does not cover war dialers.

It is true, albeit a technicality, that if you say to take you off the "list" use some common sense and you'll see the error in your method. You are asking/telling them to take you off their do not call list. Why would you do that?

I'm starting to wonder if there should be a competency test for people to have a telephone these days. There should be for email and a computer. Otherwise, it's getting to the point that these scams are so well known and well publicized it's beyond feeling sorry for someone who falls for it. The reason these things continue, whether it be spam, telemarketers, or any scam, is because people fall for it. If people didn't profit from it, they wouldn't bother with it. And the people that give their money to these bottom-dwellers make things worse for everyone else.

Some of my rules, if I don't know the caller, I don't waste my time to answer. If the number just says a state name, it's probably a bottom-dweller. If they don't leave a message, they don't get a call back. 2nd call without leaving a message gets them blocked. And I don't give out my number unless necessary. Even the hospital got a fictitious number for both me and the "emergency contact" person, aka, a number we can call and harass if there's an error in the billing.

There's lots of ways to deal with those scumbags, I've given examples several times, if you have extra time and want to play with them. Personally I don't waste my time with them.

LOL, Cynic!

"If they don't leave a message, they don't get a call back."

I love, love, love our phone because it has 9 built-in voice mail boxes. The majority of callers get the message that's for mailbox 1. ("Oh, you got the machine! But you know the routine - at the sound of the tone let your message be known.") Mailbox 2 is assigned to family and friends. ("Sorry, neither hubs nor I can come to the phone right now, but leave a message and we'll call you back just as soon as we can.") Mailbox 9 is where calls that show Private Caller are sent. ("You've blocked your Caller ID so we don't have your number to give you a call back. After the tone, leave a brief message - be sure to include your number!") And so on. For the calls that show a number but don't leave a message, after the third time they've called, they get assigned to mailbox 8. ("Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.")

With regard to the entities that are exempt from the "DO NOT CALL ..." firewall ...

... you neglected to mention the political ones, didn't you?

Or - are they not exempt in your area?

Maybe you could arange a class-action-warfare enterprise to get thousands to push the "Do Not Call" people to put them on?

Or have they enacted legislation to make such impossible?

o j .. getting more cynical - every day

Not picking up for numbers that we do not recognize or do not show up will not work for us.

In the past, I have received calls from family members at hospitals or in emergency situations and my DH did not answer because he did not recognize the number. It was not possible to call them back. Another time, his mother locked herself out of the house at night and went to a nieghbours house whose number was unlisted, so did not appear on the caller ID.

If I had not answered, she would have been locked out all night. A second time she locked herself out, she was able to use the cell phone of a passer by, and many cell phones don't come up with a name on the caller id.

I tend to answer all calls, listen to the spiel, say thank you I am not interested. If they try to continue, I interrupt and say again "Thank you, I am not interested. Have a good night!" and I hang up.

Most calls are for cellphone companies (we do not have nor want cell phones), our own phone company trying to sell us additional services (no thanks), vacuum cleaner salespeople, and what must be time share places calling to give us free cruises and vacations.

Dances.

I live in Canada and registered for the Do Not Call program - which frankly is a joke. We have been receiving just as many - if not more - scam calls, computer calls etc. since signing up - and of course there are all of the "exceptions" that are allowed to call you. There are the computer calls that do not "ring" - they just leave a message - but those are now rare. Now we get a ringing phone with a computer voice - and it does you no good to press the button asking them not to call again because you then get a recording stating that that function doesn't work - and then an hour later, the same call. Twice I have missed phone calls from my dog's neurosurgeon thanks to such calls - we don't have or need call waiting. There is a new scam going on right now - we all get those error reports from time to time when using Microsoft Windows. I always hit the Do Not Send button. So last Friday at 9:30 p.m. I got a call from a foreign country (you can always tell - and of course the usual computer wait time - and the person asked for my husband - I asked who was calling and she told me and why). Well I happen to know that technicians from Microsoft do not call you (at least Canadians)and her big error right off was that while for some unknown reason the internet account is now solely in my husband's name (yet it is my account), the computer is registered to me - something the caller did not know. I called Microsoft and they have been receiving a huge number of calls from people who have received the same scam call - of course they would have asked for our credit card to "fix" the problem. Microsoft gave me a phone number to call should it happen again. Between these calls and the porno e-mails it is getting to be too much. My S-I-L and her husband are on a 4 month trip in Australia and e-mailing details of their adventures to about 40 people - who now have our e-mail address - and they in turn have forwarded it to others. The scam e-mails are way up. And, if I should ever receive a scam phone call from Canada I would be very suspicious because you can't even receive Bell phone service without calling India (unless you can only speak French (or pretend to)and then you get transferred to Ottawa.

But dances, if you don't answer and they start to leave a message, can't you hear that and pick up? I sometimes get a call from a number I don't know, and as soon as that person starts to leave a message I hear it and pick up if it's someone I know. I guess I still am missing something.

If we want to be able to see the number of the person calling (and have a more complex phone that'll show it, which I don't) ...

... we have to pay the phone co. something like $4.00 per mo. extra for them to allow us to have that message come across our line.

I've had a number of calls where there appears to be a dead line, but with a slight beep every few seconds ...

... then, after 12 - 15 secs., there's a click, then the line gives you the busy signal.

One of those robot dialers, I guess, pre-dialling suckers, with one of the live ones picking up to speak to the sucker, if their former call is finished ...

... if none of the live bodies is ready to provide their spiel to a new "customer"/client/sucker, the call gets dropped.

And I dropped what I was doing, 15 feet away, to be treated to that? There should be a fee for the transmitter of junk phone calls, as there is for junk mail!

ole crab-ful

Old Joyful, it's worth a whopping $48 to me (your $4.00 x 12) for a whole year's worth of knowing who is calling me. That's 13 cents per day. To me, it's worth many times that to not be "dropping what I was doing 15 feet away to be treated like that".

Easy fix. Just don't answer the phone if you don't recognize the number.

When I get a sales call, some organization wanting a donation, or political calls, I just take the phone and place it in a drawer and let them talk to their heart's content, until they realize they are talking to themselves. I don't care if I seem rude...they are rude by calling me and occupying my valuable time. Period.

I received a call one day from someone claiming to work at the credit union and they were updating their files and needed my ss #.. I cut them off quickly saying " if you work at the credit union you know my # already. The nerve of this people.

Eccentric, more and more calls come to us even those on the DNC (do not call) list because businesses in Canada have to abide by the ruling. To get around it, our numbers get sold to the US and other countries and they are free to call us.

I never pick up the phone when I see 877 etc. Sometimes they leave a message, but often don't.

The one scam which happened frequently were calls to extend your car warranty.

Dances might have the Call-Answer service, which comes with the phone company, as opposed to having an external answering machine. That way, the messages are private, and only accessible by using a password. I have that. I don't like any visitors hearing messages meant for me.

Thanks, Jasdip. Unfortunately we do not have call display. It is a pain that our numbers are sold to so many off shore companies. I particularly hate the "this is your Captain speaking" and "Debt Consolidation" calls. Then there are the surveys - I keep telling them not to call me - do they listen - No! I even had one phone company tell me I was definitely taking their Internet program for 3 months. Not likely.