Everyone wants your money
 

Everyone wants your money, and they'll do most anything to get it. The telemarketers are finding new ways around the do not call lists by usiang #'s they got from entry forms and calling about the prize and having you call them back. Once you call them you've solicited them and it goes from there.
Be careful out there as things get tighter and fewer want to earn an honest dollar it will get worse.

I rarely plug in an actual phone except when I either want to make a call or am expecting somebody to call me. My phone service mostly is for dialup internet connection and little else.

However recently have had phone plugged in expecting call and keep getting junk calls with recorded voice saying callback so and so at so and so number. Just fact that its a recorded voice makes me hang up and ignore any such call. But it is really annoying. I gave up having answering machine some years back cause buisinesses were filling it up with recorded ads. I debated getting one of those phone butler gadgets that makes calling party press a code before call can get through to me or my answering machine. The spam calls are just dumb recordings and cant do that even if you set it to tell the caller to say press one for call to ring through. Instead I just unplugged the phone and let anybody that would possibly call me to contact me via email and if its necessary I would phone them back.

Good for you Hermit John.

I pay for the service - I handle calls the way I want, on my time.
You want me to answer your call on your time? You pay for it.

I'm with Hermit John. My home phone is for dial-up and dial-out. I never answer an incoming call. All friends and family are plugged into the cell phone, so if a number shows up that is not friends or family - no answer.

For that very reason I read every word of sweepstakes before entering them. With so I know I couldn't afford the taxes on the prize and then the personal property tax thereafter so don't enter those either.

Good point to be brought up.

Up until last week I was being called as many as four times a day by a company in Florida saying I won a cruise after I entered a sweepstakes on line. First it was a human who I told not to call our number anymore. Subsequent calls were from recordings with an occasional person. I would hang up but they would keep their line open. I tried to trace the calls but it wouldn't work coming from another country. Thankfully the calls have stopped. I think it was costing them to much to keep calling I no longer answer the phone unless I am expecting a call. However my husband answers the phone when he is in the house. But that is his choice and he has to deal with the telamarketers.

Yep..do the same thing. Shut the ringer off..drives people nuts..but they can leave a message for us.
get phone calls from the strangest area codes and number such as all zeros ??

An area code with all zeros is a Skype number. Those are famous for telemarketers. I never, ever pick up the phone if it says unavailable or has a 000 area code. Makes life better for me!

Ahh. . .if you give someone your number don't you sorta expect they might just call you?

i am another 'let er ring'. caller id is great too.

I am sure some companies still buy sucker lists from sweepstakes and such, but much of this modern automated calling, they just stick in real area code and exchange, then dial sequentially until they get a real number that rings and somebody answers.

And automation with a recording to call back at so and so number means they dont even have to hire telemarketers to do the busy unproductive work, just enough telemarketers to talk when somebody does call the number. Those calling the number as instructed by the recording will then tend to be the more gullable and good prospect for ripoff.

Scammer and con people need to sentenced to good horse whipping in the public square. Especially those that target the elderly.

Family has my cellphone number so they can get a hold of me in an emergency. Otherwise they know to leave their name & number at the beep.

Payback time
We were getting harassed recently by a TV survey group, Neilson.
Bluntly told them they need to stop *#@% calling or else.
Next week they sent a letter with survey and questionnaire to fill out with 5 $1 dollar bills in it.
Pocketed the money and scrapped the rest of it.
Payback for the harassing calls.
But we don't usually answer these type calls , just when its time to tell them where to get off !

Fun is letting your answering machine answer all the calls. With a message saying something like "I'm probably listening, and if you're worth talking to, I'll pick it up, so leave a good message".

Does tend to get various relatives hot under the collar on those times I'm truly not home so I don't pick up, no matter how "interesting" a message they leave.

In all sincerity, I decided that I did not exist to answer ringing telephones. Don't know where people got the notion that they must drop anything they are doing to go tearing off to answer a ringing bell. Learning to ignore it unless I feel like answering it has made dinner time much more pleasant. As well being in the shower, in bed, etc. I'm very good at ignoring the ringing of a phone. Even in the office. If I'm dealing with a client face to face, the call gets ignored. That's what the answering machine is for.

We got rid of our landline five years ago. We only have cell phones and only give those numbers out to family/friends.

Even still........ I rarely ever answer my cell phone! LOL They can leave a message if they want to talk to me bad enough. My wife is the only person I'll immediately pick up for when she calls (and my children once they get old enough to do so).

In Wisconsin we can sign up for a "do not call" list. Have to renew it every 2 years & I never have telemarketers call anymore.

Sign up on the national do not call list
 

Just look it up on the net and add your phone numbers to it. That cuts out almost all of them. As for the rest I just say goodbye at the same time I am hanging it up. They never get a chance to start their spiel. The thing you never want to do is give out any personal information to anyone on the phone. They can be scammers or burglars shopping around for easy marks.

If you find someone to fab your sub frame have them fab up a thumb for you. My buddy the woodchuck made his on for his JD hoe and from the look of it it wasn't much of an effort. There isn't much more to it than a pair of claws rough cut from heavy plate, a hydraulic cyl, line and additional valve. A pin, simple mount and a few welds, nuts and bolts and you have a functional unit for little $$$. surpluscenter.com who is on the web has lots of hydraulic goodies at heavily discount prices. They are reputible and I have bought things from them for many years. Most likely you can get most or all of the steel for the sub frame from the local salvage yard. It is a lot cheaper there than a steel mill.

My house phone and my cell phone are on the do not call list and have been for years.

I don't have caller ID or an answering machine. If I need to screen calls there's something wrong in my life.

Tried to tell them NO
Heres the do not call #, guess mine expired

I worked part-time for a sleaze polling firm. They got around the do not call by giving us a starting number. After each call we would add one number. People would be shrieking with outrage they were on the do not call list but we had to say "Sorry, we are calling random numbers.". Mostly the only people who would talk with us were the elderly who had been trained to be courteous. Perhaps they were lonely,too. If the only ones who did the polls were old, then the results would all be skewed, so in the case the person being cheated was the person who paid for the poll.

We dropped the land line 1 year ago, We both have cell phones and have a aircard for internet access, had to have been the best decision we have made and do not miss the land line one bit. The cost is about the same with cell connections as the land line was.

I found the best system is to just be broke at all times then nobody ever gets any of your money. It doesn't matter how good the offer may sound you'll never break down and buy.
As far as telemarketers I only have a cell phone but there's no cell service here in the woods so the cabin stays nice and quiet, Problem solved.

I just answer with "What"? it's unrecognisable and after a little bit with me just standing there breathing the line goes dead.(course my speech is unrecognisable most of the time anyway but that's beside the point). what i hated to hear most when i was answering properly was "this is your captain speaking" i absolutely went nuts when i heard that. most likely it was because it was so often. i hardly get any of those calls now. ~Georgia.

Prety neat ideas! lol I like it