Things that baffle you? (2 Viewers)

[Stan]

How about constant calls -- sometimes 2 or 3 times a day from Duct cleaning companies? We have laws which prevent people who register on a do-not-call list from receiving unsolicited calls, but shady companies here hire call centres in India to call for them, and since they are over seas they can't be touched.
My response is to be as rude as possible. I even say "let me see if I have it right, you have a job where you try to trick seniors out of their money and steal from poor people. How do you sleep at night? Do your parents know you do this?" This has not cut down on the calls at all, although I have been hung up on and been told to #%*^% off.

With Caller ID, I just ignore them. The Do-Not-Call list is a joke, what a complete waste of time, worked for maybe six months, then the calls started right back up. Surprisingly never on my cell-phone, only the land line. I'd like to think it's one of those "just ignore them, they'll go away", but it just keeps going. Four new phone #s in three years, it's hopeless.

Unless it's a number I recognize, I never answer. Life is so much better. Most of the time I think they're robo-calls, once they hit my answering machine, poof, they vanish, never even leave a message. Occasionally I'll hear somebody breathing, but they realize they've reached a machine and bail. The worst is when I actually do answer, the robot says "please hold for the next available idiot". Instant hang up.

Every once in a while I'll answer. I'm really polite, but they push me to far. It's amazing some of the horrible, vile language I can come up with. I always apologize to the person on the phone, telling them get the hell out of a call center, life will be so much better.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I'm getting the calls on my cell phone lately...a fair amount.

I just block the numbers and then get calls from other numbers that are from the same cities and numbers that are similar to the one that I blocked.

PITA.

 

[cinemiracle]

I'm getting the calls on my cell phone lately...a fair amount.

I just block the numbers and then get calls from other numbers that are from the same cities and numbers that are similar to the one that I blocked.

PITA.

I get them almost daily on my home line but not on my mobile. If the caller has an Indian accent then just hang up or abuse them.They are always Indian scammers. Very common in Australia. They generally wait to see if they recognise your voice before talking. Usually female as well and you can often hear kids talking in the background.. Most time I just never answer my landline and wait for a message,but none ever gets left.

 

[Alf S]

How about constant calls -- sometimes 2 or 3 times a day from Duct cleaning companies? We have laws which prevent people who register on a do-not-call list from receiving unsolicited calls, but shady companies here hire call centres in India to call for them, and since they are over seas they can't be touched.
My response is to be as rude as possible. I even say "let me see if I have it right, you have a job where you try to trick seniors out of their money and steal from poor people. How do you sleep at night? Do your parents know you do this?" This has not cut down on the calls at all, although I have been hung up on and been told to #%*^% off.

We still have our landline (tied to internet) and we bought a new pair of cordless phones that have Call Blockers built into the system and it's been great. We can tell it to not answer "Anonymous" our similar, we can add phone #'s to block, or if a random weird out of state call comes in we just hit a button to add them to the list.

My cell phone has the "Hiya" dialer/call blocker app loaded on it and it does awesome blocking out unwanted spam and telemarker calls. It has a huge database of spammer numbers it knows to block.

I highly suggest both of the above if you want some peace and quiet.

https://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-KX...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=AYAQW6JG06P58NHW889S

https://hiya.com/

 

[ChristopherG]

Nomorobo is a great option. Our unwanted calls have dropped off dramatically...

 

[Martino]

Speaking of unwanted calls - we get several calls where the person on the other end of the line just speaks in Spanish...

Can't tell if it is a recording or an actual person, but as soon as I hear that voice, I yell as loud as I can "WE DON'T SPEAK SPANISH HERE, YOU MUST HAVE THE WRONG NUMBER" and hang up...

 

[Stan]

We still have our landline (tied to internet) and we bought a new pair of cordless phones that have Call Blockers built into the system and it's been great. We can tell it to not answer "Anonymous" our similar, we can add phone #'s to block, or if a random weird out of state call comes in we just hit a button to add them to the list.

My cell phone has the "Hiya" dialer/call blocker app loaded on it and it does awesome blocking out unwanted spam and telemarker calls. It has a huge database of spammer numbers it knows to block.

I highly suggest both of the above if you want some peace and quiet.

https://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-KX...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=AYAQW6JG06P58NHW889S

https://hiya.com/

I've still got my landline, not tied to internet. Internet is usually there, but not always 100% reliable. If I'm dying and call 911, I want them to be able to find me as soon as possible, not try and triangulate between cell towers or do some fictional GPS stuff like on NCIS.

My cordless phones are probably 15 years old, I'll check out your links. Maybe time for an upgrade.

 

[TJPC]

Our "duct" calls are always from someone with a thick East Indian accent who judging from the background noise is calling from a very large room full of murmuring people. Oh yes, they always tell us their name is Shirley or William or some such thing.
We also get calls informing us that there is something dreadfully wrong with Windows on our computer. I even got one of those calls that said I owed thousands of dollars in back taxes and if I didn't pay up right away the police were going to be dispatched.
I should not answer I guess, but I am having so much fun being nasty to them I can't help it!

 

[Tony Bensley]

Our "duct" calls are always from someone with a thick East Indian accent who judging from the background noise is calling from a very large room full of murmuring people. Oh yes, they always tell us their name is Shirley or William or some such thing.
We also get calls informing us that there is something dreadfully wrong with Windows on our computer. I even got one of those calls that said I owed thousands of dollars in back taxes and if I didn't pay up right away the police were going to be dispatched.
I should not answer I guess, but I am having so much fun being nasty to them I can't help it!

We've never had a call about there being any severe problems with our Windows, but I do recall being freaked out the first few times I saw some variation of such appearing as pop ups! I absolutely HATE such scare tactics, and the thing that angers me most is the knowledge that there are some unsuspecting people who DO fall for these, and get brutally taken advantage of, in the process!

I see nothing wrong with giving these types "the business" when the opportunity presents itself!

CHEERS!

 

[TJPC]

My mother-in-law is 83 and been diagnosed with "mild cognitive impairment". She has always been extremely gullible anyway, and we must constantly be on the lookout for these scammers.
As far as I am concerned people who run such a "business" should be castrated with a wooded spoon!

 

[Mike Frezon]

Yes. The calls are difficult for my 87 year old mother (with only a landline). I got her a phone system which voice announces the caller. If she doesn't know them she lets the call go to her answering machine and a message is never left. But it's still hard for her that her phone rings and her life is interrupted by this nonsense. If her TV is on, the caller ID also appears on screen.

As I said, I get the calls on my cell now. Some m********f******** must've sold my # to a list somewhere. Anyway, I pretty much do the same thing and if I see a city/phone number pop up on my screen I automatically just ignore it. If it is someone who really wants to speak to me on a legitimate subject, they will leave a message and I can return that call promptly. No message? That number gets blocked.

My system is not nearly as invasive as my mother's system though.

 

[David Norman]

My mother-in-law is 83 and been diagnosed with "mild cognitive impairment". She has always been extremely gullible anyway, and we must constantly be on the lookout for these scammers.
As far as I am concerned people who run such a "business" should be castrated with a wooded spoon!

I'd look into a system that only allows Phone calls from certain numbers and the rest get shut down at the source. If she has a fairly narrow circle of family/contacts she needs to answer the phone for that might be the safest option. I'd actually do that with my phone except my wife couldn't live with it.

 

[cineMANIAC]

What baffles me is how some people actually sit through these phone calls and let these scammers pull them into their schemes. It's the same thing with time share pitches at airports - all you gotta do is say a few harsh words and walk away (or hang up). I get calls from all over the country. I picked one up one time - a call from Chicago. Turned out to be an automated survey of some kind. But, yeah, people are so gullible and easily fall prey to scammers in hopes of scoring money or a free vacation. There's a whole industry in the scamming field and it seems to come from either India or Nigeria. Anyone with a heavy accent is almost guaranteed to be a scammer.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I have to admit one thing that baffles me is covfefe...

 

[TJPC]

?

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

?

Covfefe nearly blew up my phone this morning so many people were texting it to me...I was more than mildly baffled...

 

[Aaron Silverman]

One of the great things about Comcast is the caller ID that pops up in the corner of the TV screen so I don't even have to shift my view to know whether I should pick up the phone.

 

[ChristopherG]

One of the great things about Comcast is the caller ID that pops up in the corner of the TV screen so I don't even have to shift my view to know whether I should pick up the phone.

FIOS does this as well.

 

[Stan]

[URL='http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/may/31/man-killed-in-downtown-spokane-shooting-shooter-co/']Man killed in downtown Spokane shooting cooperating with police[URL='http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/may/31/man-killed-in-downtown-spokane-shooting-shooter-co/'].


Catch the error

Don't think it went live for long, it was corrected to say "Shooter cooperating with police", but wow, how does something like that slip by the editors?[/URL][/URL]

 

[TJPC]

I have to admit one thing that baffles me is covfefe...

Sorry! I know the significance of this now. We were on a mini vacation and hadn't seen the news.