Inida, is that the place that makes the fancy glass bowels? ;) That would make a good plot for an action film: the MC snaps due to one too
many telemarketing scam calls, and goes full (bronson) Death Wish on em.

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Too bad phone spiders aren't actually a thing, eh?
------------------------- This post almost made me fall out of my chair laughing. Thanks m8

Phones being international= no 1 law will stop trash calls. But I do agree with a message machine. You can buy them cheap, built into a land line. It really is a solid protection layer.

Leave a name + # and yer all set.

edit: typo

Use Google screen call and Eset spam call/text blocker. Sacred peace 𐇯

You said... Landline? Sure! Connect it through your PC for filtering.

PC? Not a fish tank water filter? So that's why my handset is leaking....

A water around your phone table? Wet cold calls? Is somebody calling to say he cares once you buy their stuff? It's time to seal your leaks... We care, We don't know who we are but aren't them.... let's dry and wave : )

I just say "no, thank you, I am not interested, i never buy anything over the phone" and hang up.

I have a son that worked briefly as a telemarketer, and he got depressed by the way people reacted to him. For these people it is just a job, they have a list to call an quotas to fill just like anyon else, when they have that role, it is very little they cn do about things and they need to make money as well.

As long as you are not talking your number off any call registers, then expectt these kind of calls, and there is really no reaons to be rude, it is a waste of time and energy. and the actuall callers are just people to, usualy in a bad position and need the very low income the job gives.

(however, i do like the solution one comedian had, which was to say "Hold on one sec, I got a kettle boiling on the stove" and tthen put the phone down and dont pick it up again until the caller realises and hangs up. No rudeness, no bother for you, the caller gets payed and the only thing that happens is that the company just loses more money on the call)

You are not alone, and your country is not alone. It is also severe here in Australia.

So severe, that my landline has been off the hook for a few years now, and every communication I do is either via the web or my mobile phone. But nuisance calls to my mobile phone have now also started.

I tried hard to prevent that, by only sharing my mobile phone with a few folk, and having my wife's mobile be the main contact, but somehow they discover your number or just go random.

Sure, I have settings on my phone, to blacklist numbers and limit some things late at night. But ultimately I have very little control, if I want to be available to all those who might need to contact me, and a whitelist as you noted, isn't sufficient enough. And they seem to have heaps of numbers they can use, and rarely call you again using the same one. You should be able to report a number, and the telco that provided it and no doubt many others, should then blacklist (disable) all of them ... certainly if multiple independent reports of abuse have been reported.

Really, the buck should stop with telecommunications companies, who are the only ones with the power to stop this idiocy. Governments can only do so much. Mine has even provided a Do Not Call register, but if that works at all I have not found out, as I still get crap calls now and then.

I've gone from swearing at these callers, to playing all sorts of pretend games with them. You have to be careful though, as some obviously get pissed at you and then call back at like 3 in the morning etc.

I can only surmise, that the telecommunication companies are making money out of the current situation, and so won't fix it.

P.S. I cannot see how this is political at all, unless you are going to single out a country like India or Pakistan etc, because of the accents of many of these callers. Really it is businesses taking advantage of poor folk, who are between a rock and a hard place ... they are damned if they are a telemarketer caller and damned if they aren't ... it is as simple as putting food on their tables, and having a life somewhat like what many of us take for granted in our first world countries. Personally I think the Death Penalty is too good for those behind it all ... no morals no ethics.

If only it were that simple.
But often they call at inconvenient times, forcing you to wake up or drop everything or rush to answer your phone, because you left it in the bedroom or something. And of course, as I get older that could lead to injury, maybe even a heart attack etc. Sure I could try to remember to slow down enough, but it could be an important call, and I am annoyed with myself for leaving my phone in the bedroom or I left it there on charge etc.

As I stated in my last reply, I do have some sympathy for some of these folks, and I have no idea what kind of company your son worked for, but clearly there are situations where the caller cannot be ignorant of the nature of their call. So they deserve all they get in those instances.

I've at times tried to be polite as possible and pleaded for them to take my number off their list, and I might have had success a few times, but not for long.

Seems simple enough, until you get a caller that takes offense, and then calls you repeatedly or in the twilight hours, hanging up after you answer the phone. Some of them have no sympathy and don't like smartarses. There is also the case where your phone is then unavailable for all the time you leave it connected to them.

P.S. I suspect they don't just get paid by the hour or number of calls, but also earn bonuses for being convincing enough. Hence their irritation if they aren't.

Here in Germany, advertising calls without prior consent and/or with suppressed caller-ID are prohibited by law.
Having said that: it happens (though only on landline for me).
I usually block the number, so the same number can't call me again.

There's also the "Verbraucherzentrale" (Consumer Advice Center), and the "Bundesnetzagentur" (Federal Network Agency) which will act on your behalf, if you contact them with evidence for such illegal calls.

Especially the "Bundesnetzagentur" is pretty powerful in that regard, since that's a federal entity, which can impose fines (up to €300.000,-) and /or revoke phone lines of the calling companies.

However: it's important to differentiate between illegal calls (= calls with suppressed caller-ID, and calls without priorly given consent) and simply unwanted calls.

The latter category is probably much more common, and almost entirely self-inflicted by the called party.

Ever read the small print below those agreements you signed?
Remember that pre-checked box, which allows a company and its "trusted partner services", to contact you?

Yeah!
That's where those unwanted (but not illegal!) calls stem from.

Whenever I get telemarketing calls, I just tell them "Just one moment, I'll be back in a minute." Then I lay down the phone and never come back. They try to steal my time (and probably also my money), so I can steal theirs as well.

LOL, I guess I created the nation of Inida. I probably should have notified the UN to update their membership.

I do want to point out, again, that any tech solution is based on specific phone numbers. I already do all I can with that. As well as blocking all unidentified calls (such as PRIVATE or NOT AVAILABLE on the caller ID) But these aholes spoof their numbers and it's never the same number showing up. And I'm almost 99% certain that they originate in India (hope I got it right this time lol). I'm not saying that as some sort of anti-Indian sentiment, it's just that I read that India was one of, if not the leading, countries with call centers per capita. And the Indian accent is noticeable.

They are almost always trying to sell drugs (not the illegal kind), as well as Medicare stuff.

I have never, EVER given these people permission. I have never done business with these people. And I've always known they're likely scammers. I don't care, I'm not going to do business with them either way... legitimate or scam. I NEVER buy anything from a telemarketer, any telemarketer. Ever. My concern isn't that they're scammers or not, it's that it is possible to combat this, and it's a choice by policy makers not to.

And it is indeed "illegal" for them to do this in the USA as well, because we have a Do Not Call Registry that I've been on for years and violations are supposed to result in a fine of IIRC $500 per violation. I would be a wealthy man if that were actually true.

If everyone threatened, and followed through with that threat if necessary, to cancel their phone services until this was fixed, it would be fixed so fast it would likely set a record for shortest time from proposing legislation to legislation being signed. It can be done, but there is no pressure being applied for it to get done. It will take action from policy makers, because tech alone can't solve this.

EDIT: Posting a screenshot of the Comcast tools I already use to block calls. This has been a feature, even though it's a landline, for a long time. I do use it. But they spoof phone numbers, in fact often they're "local" as the one in the screenshot has my five four zero area code. But they were from India, almost certainly, and when you dial back these numbers you either get nothing, a busy signal, or a message saying the number is invalid. All tech solutions are based on the caller ID function, and these assholes bypass that. Which is why only legislation can stop it.

OFG, my parents are also... well, old (80 and 76) and they have a landline with a system that works for them.

It gives you the capability of whitelisting any phone number to just ring through. They've added every single number they have from everyone they know - no problem.

If, however, you get a call from an unknown number (in your one-in-a-bajillion "my son is hurt and borrowed a phone" scenario), the caller gets a message that says something to the effect of "Your number is not recognized. If you want to connect, please state your name and then press the pound key." If you do that, it rings you through, so no important calls are actually lost.

Telemarketers never bother with that step, so them and the bots and the crap don't get through.

Not a one in a billion. To illustrate, just last week my mother (86), who visits our local senior center every day, was there last Thursday when they were told there was a problem with the bus that takes them home and there would be a delay. Her cell phone, for whatever reason, wasn't working, either a dead zone or some other issue, and she called from one of the other folks phones to ask if my health aid could come and pick her up so she wouldn't be stuck there all day.

These things happen. Limiting calls received to only known numbers is just not a good solution. The example with my son was several years ago, but there have been other instances where calls from unrecognizable numbers were important. The last part of your post is intriguing however, and something I will look into. Thank you.

But that doesn't absolve these assholes. The fact is this should NOT be a thing. Not when it's our money paying for our phone, and when there are solutions.

If you have an answering machine/service, set it to pick up after however small a number of rings you feel comfortable with. If you have a digital phone (or some accessory) that lets you see the number and/or name of the caller, feel free to pick up if and only if the caller is from an individual or business you know. Any and all other calls from unrecognized parties -- including any that claim to be from any government agencies or programs, like Medicare (since these are pretty much always not legitimate) -- can go to the answering machine. In my experience (mostly from trying to help my mom deal with her junk phone call issues since my dad died), most scammers won't even bother to leave a message (though some of the robo-callers will leave a few seconds of dead air or noise). Anyone you know can leave a message, and you can call them back however soon you wish.
Just make sure that, if anyone who calls you semi-regularly is the sort who doesn't like to leave voice messages, you tell them about this. Also -- again, if you use a landline with a digital handset -- make sure to program into it the names of anyone who calls you regularly, but whose number you don't necessarily recognize on sight. It'll save you from accidentally screening calls from some of the people you want to talk to.

Never? You must go through an astonishing amount of phones (and, depending on where you lay it down, perhaps homes, as well).

This reminds me of the time back in the mid 1990's when I was managing a bar/private club. We were only open during the evenings and weekends, but deliveries occurred during the day, so part of my job was to meet these delivery trucks.

Back then I guess telemarketing was in its infant state, and the phone in our bar did not have caller ID. I would get telemarketing calls sometimes when I was there, and I would answer, say hello, then set the phone on the bar and go about my business hoping to take up as much of their time as possible. Later I would pick up the phone and it would be dead as they figured out the ruse and hung up.

One day I was there for the Budweiser semi-weekly delivery. The phone rang just as he entered the building, I answered, we exchanged words and it was a real life human being, and he began his selling point (I don't recall what it was specifically). I set the phone down. The Budweiser driver delivered the cases of beer, wheeled them in, and we placed them in the back. I then went through the invoice and signed it. All this took some time. I picked up the phone... and he was still talking!!! I busted out laughing, and the driver looked at my like WTF? I explained what had happened and that I had set that phone down just as he entered and he was still talking and then he just busted out laughing too. Fun times.