New? telemarketer scam.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

I don't answer 1-800 or 1-888 numbers. In my experience financial institutions and anyone that needs to get in touch with you desperately will leave a message on an answering machine. I just answered my phone the caller ID listed a mans name and a number I was unfamiliar with, it turns out it was a telemarketer. I'm guessing most people screen their calls now so they have come up with a new approach, at least new to me, this also may be an attempt to circumvent the Do Not Call list. Regardless when I said hello twice quickly and then heard a woman's voice pick up on the on the other end I just hung up. That works too if they get past the screening process.

David

[LeftinOH]

I get *lots* of readouts on the caller-id from "random individuals".. often, if a message

is left at all, it is a sales recording. The telemarketing industry has finally caught on to caller id.

[tjwash]

1. You can also use "http://whocallsme.com/" and it will trace back who it was.

If I don't recognize the number, I never pick it up.

[annabanana]

2. related to the "do not call" list. .

How the hell do you get robo-calls ("your car warranty may expire soon". . ."You may miss a chance to lower your credit card rate, we have been trying to reach you") to stop? Do you have to call the numbers in the robo-calls?

[Warpy]

3. I don't have anything fancy, just a land line

and when there's a telltale delay that tells me either it's a robocall or somebody in a boiler room is going to pick up, I hang up with either a Bronx cheer or a burp.

I didn't bother with the "do not call" because I knew those bastards would just move offshore, which they did. I'm unlisted and unpublished and that eliminates most of the pests right away. Only sequential dialers get through.

My favorites, however, are the live callers who are terribly concerned about my credit cards, something I haven't owned since 1991. If I'm bored, I have quite a bit of fun with them.

Most of them just get the razzberry or a burp.