We gave up a regular land line about five years ago, going with Magic Jack and get no unsolicited calls. I'm glad we don't as I have no patience with those people.

No calls about the computer, but I will be in court soon because we're being sued by the IRS.

I would give up our home phone too if I had another way to connect to the internet. Nothing available here in the woods but dial up. Yes, I had 3 messages on my answering machine about the IRS. Maybe I will see you there. I forgot, my daughter even got a call on her cell phone about Window's recently!

Sue

My mother has a land line and she gets all of these weird IRS and 'computer issues' phone calls. I'm worried that she'll take the bait on one of them sometime! :p

marilyn_sue, I'm so sorry that you are still dealing with dial-up speeds! ugh!

You certainly have a lot of time to waste. Why not hang up the instant you answer to dead space (don't say hello more than once), or hang up immediately after you know what the call is. Playing with these crooks is just wasting your time, and keeping you on their lists.

I used to worry about being polite. No longer--I just hang up!! By the way, I had another call from "Heather" recently. She sounds the same as usual. To be honest, I haven't received very many such calls in the last months. Maybe hanging up has a good effect. Hooray!!!

Heather or Rachel calls almost daily about lowering my interest rate. It's a recording that goes to my answering machine. Lately there are a lot of calls about Medicare plans.

I worked for the IRS years ago, and they NEVER call people on the phone to tell you you are in debt or need to file returns or submit evidence or anything. . They are mandated to make all contacts by letter, so there's a "paper trail". No one from the IRS should ever be calling you, tho you can reach them during business hours using their 800 number 1 800 829 1040, or the phone number included in their letters. If someone calls claiming to be from the IRS, ask for their name, the supervisors name and a number where you can reach them. I'm sure that will prevent future scam calls. "This ones a tough bird...don't call her again."

I get fewer of these phone calls than I used to get. I don't know if it's because I now just hang up without saying anything or not. If the phone rings and I pick it up and then there isn't anybody saying hello immediately I know it is a call that I don't want and hang up.

The problem with answering your phone is you loose control over who has access to you. Unless I can see who is calling on caller id, I never answer and let it go to voicemail. If it's important enough, they will leave a message. If it's someone I want to talk to, I can always call them back. After a couple of months of the robo callers only getting vm, they have almost completely stopped calling. The trick is to NEVER answer.

Also, unless it's for a personal business you deal with regularly and you know the business won't sell it, do not give out your phone number EVER. Every time a store or any other agency asks so they can have it for their "records" I refuse saying either I don't give it out, or they don't need it. I don't use those discount cards either because even your grocery stores sell the data they collect on you to anyone willing to pay for it, including that phone number and email address. Is it really worth a measly 3% discount or coupon so they can track you? They get lots of money for selling your private information and/or buying habits while you get a discount on a box of pasta?

I recently had a message from our tax dept too (Im not in the US), it was an automated voice message (how lazy!) from a "john smith" wow, now that's original, followed by some thinly veiled threat if I didn't return the call. It was kind of insulting how little effort they took to be convincing lol. My DH works in IT and it's amazing how many of his clients have fallen for the windows problem one.

Love caller ID. Got it for my Mom and Aunt too. Now they just look at the phone and don't have to answer.

Rachel from credit card services is still calling me. :0)

I also get annoying letters wanting to buy my house. Geez!

dh finally lost it the other night and screamed at the caller no he's not jane and for the 50th time don't call again...we'll see sigh...and this is his CELL phone...

We were getting all these dumb calls every day for weeks. We finally left our answering machine on for over a week and they totally stopped. Haven't had a single one!! If they start again I'll put it on again! Hate the darn things!!

I leave my answering machine on, set for only 2 rings; also have caller id which shows up on my tv. 99.999 % of the calls hang up when they get the vm message, obviously solicitors. The ones that matter leave a message.

I don't have caller I'd. I get irritated when the telemarketing calls come at lunch or late in the afternoon. These are times when my children frequently call me and I am always disappointed when it isn't one of them.

I never get these calls....I've had a couple from charities that I give to, but never from someone trying to sell me something, or any other unwanted caller. I did sign up for "do not call" some years back, and that evidently is still in effect.

Lukki wrote: "I don't use those discount cards either because even your grocery stores
sell the data they collect on you to anyone willing to pay for it,
including that phone number and email address."

I simply make up a phone # and I keep a hotmail address for these types of things, including internet shopping. I do refuse to give phone # when asked at a store (or email address, or even zip code). I just say, "no thanks."

I got the call again about my PC about a week ago, I was in a rush to get to work. I told him are you joking? Everybody knows this is a scam. He said f @&$ you and hung up

I'm getting spam informing me that there are new police records filed on my personal information. I should click on the message to find out how to eliminate these errors. Yeah, right.

We have gotten 2 calls from the "IRS" about being sued. Hubs went online and found out that it is definitely a scam. Some person did answer the call and was told he would be sued if he didn't send a certain amount of money to them within the day. Person got real nasty - calls come out of Spokane Washington if I recall correctly. We got a call two days in a row and let them go to our record a call.

Besides the calls from the IRS, cities all over the country call me. I never answer the phone unless I recognize the number. Thank goodness for caller ID. Blocking the numbers decreases the calls somewhat. Although most people call me on my cell phone, I do not want to give up the land line because I want service during power outages and I prefer the size of a regular phone rather than the cell phone.

I never answer any more and rely on caller ID. I don't give my cell number to anyone but family. Husband was taken by the Windows scam. We were waiting for a call from Apple about our new iPhone and this call came and the person said are you near your computer? He had an Indian accent and it was only by luck we weren't hacked. He gave husband a number which is a CA one and if you call it, it acts like a business. But I copied the tiny number on the ID screen and it was a Nigeria number. Scary world.

We also never answer our phone unless we know who's calling. Caller ID is great, Plus I blocked 20 calls so far. My phone ran out of space to block these calls. Now I'm looking for a landline phone that blocks more than 20 calls.

I let my machine take those calls, why pick up especially when you see numbers you have no idea who they are.

Today got a call and I went I don't belong or go there but hear the message and picked up to let know its wrong number or someone will call and can be angry why didn't you call and tell me, I been waiting.

Don't know. We have the answering machine on our land line pick up. If it's a robo call it gets deleted. Don't even listen to them. If it's a human we listen to the first few words. Don't know them? Hit delete. Unknown numbers to my cell get ignored. if it's important that's what voicemail is for.

Caller ID is a great invention. And PhoneTrayFree is a wonderful program. I don't answer if I don't know the caller or if in the rare circumstance where I'm expecting a call and it could be the caller, although usually I'll still let it go to the answering machine and pick it up if it's someone legitimate. I have quite a database built up now of blocked numbers. Most get the SIT and a "disconnected" recording. The obnoxious ones who are likely to be listening (rather than waiting to be redirected) get a recording of urination or vomiting and toilet flushing.

I also do a lookup of the number as it's ringing, takes longer than for it to go to the answering machine but I know right away whether to block the number or not. Most of the time, it's blockable. I have to be a little more careful the last couple years with all the doctor/clinic and medical stuff but anyone professional will leave a message and I can pick it up or let it go.

Junk calls seem to go in streaks, presumably as they sell the lists to others. Talking to them does little good. Threatening them is a joke and just gets you put onto more lists. The best way to deal with them is to not play into their hand. Although, playing with them IS satisfying! I like the wait while I boot the computer one!

Those calls seem to cycle. Right now I'm in the off cycle but I'm sure they will all start again around the first of the month.