There must be a spot reserved down below for the hateful folk who do this. Makes you want to send them on down asap!

We don't answer any odd calls. I have most everyone programmed into our phone. If a name doesn't come up, we don't answer. If it's important, let them leave a message. We had one odd call that did leave a message. The message was "sorry you did not press 1, thank you, goodbye".

I never answer my house phone, and no one hardly ever leaves as message there. I do not like telephones!

I certainly do not answer them.

lol..finally convinced the idiot from jamica (yup that far away) that fil was dead and please don't call again...the "tears" in the voice were a great touch) well, i'm hoping it worked again the other night....now if I could get rid of his junk mail, sigh....normally I don't answer but wasn't paying attention last night...

A call from a farm-related agency came in the other evening, asking if I was "Stuart", my old step-uncle's name, who died over 11 years ago ... and they were interested to hear that news. Didn't ask if I were a farmer, using both the farm and the phone number.
Someone didn't do a very thorough job of training her!
ole joyful

Let's be fair then. When drug dealers start hitting on kids, we should also keep in mind that they are just trying to support themselves and maybe a family too and probably no happier about it than the kids so let's re-do the mantra to be polite. Same goes for the purse-snatcher, burglar, armed robber and more. So let's be fair and let's tell the children from now on to be politically correct and "just say 'No THANK-YOU!'".

Nope, no sympathy here. Most tele-terrorists go into it to make a fast buck. And I (almost) hate to pop anyone's bubble of disillusionment but they're not single parents trying to feed their children. They're not handicapped veterans trying to get a prosthesis leg. They're mostly people who don't want to work a more respectable job because they think they can get rich quick. Most are sucked in by the purported quick money and big money they'll make. The truth is they'll make far more to support themselves and their families by going to any fast food place or retail store so many of which are begging for decent employees. (Well maybe we just hit on something here!) And that way they're not going to be harassing for pay. None of these people have the right to wake people up, interrupt our activities or the like. Shame on them and anyone who thinks they have that right. Feel sorry for them? ROFL Not me. If you TRULY want to be kind to them, encourage them to get a respectable job and make some actual money, and not be working a scam. You'll do them a far better service with a little tough-love than telling them to keep up the good work.

And yes, I know that some of the posters here have children and friends who committed these activities and I suspect there might be some of them who did teleharassment themselves with how they reacted. And I recall how they pleaded for sympathy since they were their kids. But they failed to say how big a nest egg was built up from these scams. I don't know of any who retired early. And none that I recall wish they would go back to it again.

And FWIW, religious recruiters pounding on doors, again, often waking people up or disturbing them deserve and get the same treatment from me. I used to have a sign up telling these jokers to take a hike. Fortunately the City has cracked down on a lot of this stuff.

I will say, I do cut kids some slack when they're out hawking their wares door to door. Minors get (and should be) treated respectfully. But this brings up a quandary... maybe this is how some of them grow up to be tele-scammers. I'd like to see a law that the parents are required to accompany the kids. But that's another story!

We keep getting calls from "out of state". I never answer them bur one evening DD answered and asked them to stop calling. That just made them keep calling several times in a row ghat evening. Now they call several times a day every day including early in the morning. I don't know who they are or how to stop them or block them so we just don't answer but it is annoying.

Oh,by the way. this is Dorothy_Oahu.

"They are just doing a job" Ya well STOP using me to do it!! Getting paid to irritate people does not make it ok!! Sadly this tactic works--or it would not keep happening. I love my caller ID!! NEVER NEVER NEVER answer the phone if I don't know who is calling.