Messing with phone scammers, looks I've been ID'd

[Red Squirrel]

This is bizzare, are your customers tech companies because it makes no sense to call residential customers to complain about DSLAMs.

No they're calling about regular internet customers, but I can't do much about it if I don't have access to those DSLAMs. What I find odd is the fact that they don't have that access (which is maybe a good thing considering their english is so bad they probably would not even know what any of the options mean). For our own helpdesk here they can go in and check your modem etc. I used to do that job way back in the day and often times we could bump down the speed if the connection is unstable or do other things or simply confirm if there's a line issue by doing a line test etc. But for this particular help desk that calls us, it's another region and we don't have access to any of their stuff.

 

[sdifox]

No they're calling about regular internet customers, but I can't do much about it if I don't have access to those DSLAMs. What I find odd is the fact that they don't have that access (which is maybe a good thing considering their english is so bad they probably would not even know what any of the options mean). For our own helpdesk here they can go in and check your modem etc. I used to do that job way back in the day and often times we could bump down the speed if the connection is unstable or do other things or simply confirm if there's a line issue by doing a line test etc. But for this particular help desk that calls us, it's another region and we don't have access to any of their stuff.

Pretend to be Mexican and say "No hablo inglés."

 

[Paratus]

Can’t remember where but there was guy who made his home number a 1-900 pay number. So telemarketers would be charged by the minute for however long he could keep them talking.

 

[bononos]

Can’t remember where but there was guy who made his home number a 1-900 pay number. So telemarketers would be charged by the minute for however long he could keep them talking.

Yes I remember that one, it was someone in the UK.

British man turns the tables on telemarketers by charging them to call him

These days Lee Beaumont is perfectly happy to get a call from a telemarketer. In fact, he’s the one making a profit from the unsolicited sales calls.

news.yahoo.com

There is also the jolly roger service which annoys telemarketers by keeping them hanging on the line but it needs the call conferencing feature which is not available on cheaper phone plans.

 

[kranky]

Now in full work-from-home mode, having to deal with more scam callers. It's honestly easier to answer, keep working and mess with them rather than hear the phone ring incessantly. After a few rounds, I realized there are only a couple different scripts they use so it's just about mindless to string them along.

There's the "eligible for zero percent on your credit card" scam, the "you were overcharged and are owed a rebate on your utility bill" scam, and the "medicare supplement" scam (probably got on some list due to having my late father live with me until he passed away).

"Blue card" has been a perennial winner other than the one incident in the OP. Utility bill calls go pretty smoothly, a couple of short questions then I'm asked to get a copy of my bill, I "have to go upstairs". They always say "I will hold, take your maximum time" (odd phrase), then I put down the phone and let them wait.

I used to tell Utillity Bill callers I didn't have any copies of my bill, I throw them away after I pay them. But that got too involved. "Don't you have one waiting to be paid/why don't you keep them/can't you log on to your utility and get a copy"... I just want to get to the point where they are expecting me to go do something and see how long they wait.

It's been pretty entertaining to waste their time and given stay-at-home and there's nowhere to go, it's one of the few bright spots to the day to see how long a scammer will endure. Turns out Medicare Supplement scammers are pretty tolerant of nonsense; perhaps they get a lot of senile confused people. Today was a Medicare guy from India, I answered everything with "I'm not on Medicare." Probably answered 6 or 7 questions that way regardless of the question. When I sensed he was going to hang up out of frustration I said wait, I don't understand, do you want to talk to my wife? Got a relieved "yes", said hold on, she's upstairs, I'll get her. Set phone down, see how long they wait. 14 minutes!

 

[Captante]

Link to .pdf of original story if by some remote chance you've never seen it

 

[MtnMan]

Yeah, I think my Panasonic phone will do that but I have to manually go through a process to add the number to the blocked call list (which has 250 number capacity). The Panasonic system to do it is pretty complicated, more than it needs to be. I have stopped doing it recently, I just ignore any call from someone not on my call list who doesn't leave a message, and never pick up unless I have reason to think I might have business with them.

I've been getting a lot less scam calls lately, fingers crossed.

Newer Panasonic's have a 3,000 number capacity, and they have added a callblock button to the base and handsets.

 

[Perknose]

Now in full work-from-home mode, having to deal with more scam callers. It's honestly easier to answer, keep working and mess with them rather than hear the phone ring incessantly.

[...]

I just want to get to the point where they are expecting me to go do something and see how long they wait.

[...]

Today was a Medicare guy from India, I answered everything with "I'm not on Medicare." Probably answered 6 or 7 questions that way regardless of the question. When I sensed he was going to hang up out of frustration I said wait, I don't understand, do you want to talk to my wife? Got a relieved "yes", said hold on, she's upstairs, I'll get her. Set phone down, see how long they wait.

Spoiler

14 minutes!

 

[Captante]

Or do what I do and never ever answer an unrecognized number under any circumstances? (Or check voicemail)

Seriously as I've said on here before if you want to actually speak with me you'll have to arrange it via email/SMS.

 

[lxskllr]

Link to .pdf of original story if by some remote chance you've never seen it

I read that a long time ago, but it's nice having a revisit. Thanks for the link!

 

[Red Squirrel]

One thing I do miss my landline for is messing with scammers. Not sure if cell network has better "antispam" built into the network or what but I just don't get scammers or telemarketers on my cell. I strung a scammer along for over an hour once, he remoted into a VM full of spyware and I throttled the speed to 50k. Every now and then I would kill his connection and then play the dialup sound. "Sorry my connection dropped let me reconnect, can you fix that while you're in there it always does that!".

Link to .pdf of original story if by some remote chance you've never seen it

Oh that is a classic lol.

 

[mopardude87]

Best name ever for a telemarketer? Ronald Reagan, not even joking and take a guess where he was from.

 

[Muse]

Newer Panasonic's have a 3,000 number capacity, and they have added a callblock button to the base and handsets.

Mine has a call block button but 250 capacity. I haven't hit that ceiling yet, AFAIK. I don't know if there's an expiration for call blocked numbers where they make room for more, what happens if I hit the 250 call ceiling.