I am NOT intentionally trying to break GOG's "no political topics" rule, as I am genuinely not sure if this is a "political" question (though it seems ALL questions in life are political... so maybe we should just close the forums???) but this is a LIFE issue. Especially for people with loved ones in this world... isn't that everybody???

We all get telemarketing calls and most of us (the intelligent ones) are sick of them. But I just got one that sets a new low for me personally.

First of all, with loved ones in the world, how can one just ignore calls? What it your son (my son) is in some sort of trouble, and is calling from an unknown phone (this HAS occurred) so I feel an obligation to drop whatever I'm doing (and for many this means not only dropping what they're doing but also physically rushing to answer) just in case it is a loved one.

And dammit, I pay the phone bill. Not these assholes. I would get it if phones were free and part of the deal was accepting marketing calls. But phones aren't free (and I only have and always have had LANDLINES... I have ZERO interest in cell phones) and they have no right, NONE, ZERO, to take up my time without my approval. NO RIGHT WHATSOEVER. I have read many times that this is the number one complaint our (USA) federal government receives year after year. So why the fuck is still a thing?

I just answered one, realized immediately it was a telemarketer, with a likely Indian accent (seems many of these calls originate from Inida or that part of the world and they spoof the caller ID to hide this fact. So I used a swear word to him. I said "I'm NOT interested and never will be in talking to you assholes."

His reply? "Go to hell mother******" Seriously. Not only are they calling me, on my phone, and spoofing who they are on caller ID, they are now telling those who object to literally "Go to hell".

Is it this bad in Europe??? I know in most things Europe is light years ahead of this fascist country in consumer protections, but is this as big a problem in Europe too?

I am so sick of this I swear if I could move I would consider violence. And I've never, EVER said that about other human beings before. But I would pay for the privilege of coming face to face with one of these assholes and delivering a full punch to the face. And then ask them how it felt.

I'm at the end of my rope. I can NOT not answer calls. Blocking numbers doesn't work (I do that) because they spoof a different number every time. It's impossible to block them all.

I dunno, once again I guess this is just a therapeutic post. Only this time I don't fell any better. At all.

Short of applying one of these clumsy devices to your landline and registering on the FTC's Do Not Call list, the next nearest thing I'd suggest for you is to drag yourself into the modern age with a feature phone, and set it to only ring for people whose numbers you have in your contacts.

I get some calls on my cell, although it's quite rare. These days it's as likely as anything to be a bot, so there's no use getting angry at it. Anyway, even if it's not a bot, I do get your frustration, but I also have sympathy for the people working the call centre, as it's pretty much the worst hell-on-earth job I can imagine outside of an actual labour camp.

I am on the Do Not Call list. Have been for years and years. Even had to renew it a couple of times.

And I am NOT moving to a cell phone. And even if I did, how could I possibly know which numbers to put in and accept if/when (as has happened to me) my son was in trouble and called from a totally unknown phone (the person's phone was the other person in the car accident... my son didn't even know this person.

NO, the solution is to STOP THIS SHIT. It can be done. It is a choice not to.

And I've reported these numbers to the Do Not Call registry about, I dunno, a hundred or hundreds of times, though I no longer do because as was relayed to me... it is almost impossible to collect the "fee" (it used to be $500 per call not sure if that's changed) from calls originating in India and China and Russia and Pakistan and on and on and on.

EDIT: And the device you referenced means you would need to know which numbers to add to allow through... and again, what happens the next time my son is in accident? Or my sister? Or my nieces and nephews?

The bottom line is WE pay for this thing. If telemarketing firms wish to have the right to call us at any time on our phone, then they should pay the phone bill.

The only instance here were telemarketing is allowed is if you're already a customer of the company that's calling you and you gave them permission to do so. And you're free to withdraw that permission. So the problem of unsolicited calls only comes from scammers, not from legitimate companies trying to sell things. That's my experience anyway and such is the law here in The Netherlands. Consumer organisations have pointed out that there are companies who break the rules however and call despite not being allowed to, but luckily I haven't experienced that.

There used to be a call-me-not register that you had to re-register into every 5 years or so, but the law has become more strict, see above.

Indian accent? It was most likely a Microsoft tech support scammer. They can be rude if you call them out on the scam or troll them. I haven't had a actual telemarketer get rude, though they sometimes ask why I'm not interested in what they're selling and get persistent. In most cases they just wish me a nice day. I have reserved my number against telemarketers, but some still get through the cracks.

When I get unwanted calls, I just let them talk. I don´t hang up and I don´t say a word. Just let them talk until they realize that something is wrong. It´s even easier with a landline. Just put down the phone receiver and do something else. Occasionally I tried to make faint and scary noises, but that got boring fast.

The UK does have the Telephone Preference Service which does block marketing calls from most legitimate companies... ...but this can't help with the outright scammers, located in other parts of the world.

The only way you can effectively act against them is to waste their time (which is unfortunately difficult, without also wasting your own) - ask awkward questions, ideally ones where they need to get a supervisor in to help out. In the case of "tech support" scams, pretend to follow their instructions but then report some strange error message - a quick and dirty option is to just disconnect your computer's network connection and see how long it takes for them to figure out why their "download our malware" script isn't working. My favourite response is to have an FM radio tuned to static by the phone. Unknown caller? Radio goes on, phone goes on speaker. "Sorry, I can't quite hear you - the line is bad. Could you speak louder please?" If they persist, turn up the volume. "Sorry - this is a really bad line, you may have to shout. What was your name again?".

Often they say they'll call back. Sometimes they even do. PFSSSSSS!!!...

Sadly an all but accepted part of modern life nowadays. Remember the days when most phone calls were actually for YOU or someone else in your household ? Nowadays it’s more like one call in every twenty is from someone familiar ; the rest are from bots or some shitty call centre located about 2000 miles away from your home.

I also have only a landline. I prefer to be incommunicado by default, not permanently “online”. Whatever happened to people’s need for solitude ? You’re never alone with a mobile phone.

I let my answering machine (provided by my phone company) deal with such calls. My phone displays the caller’s number, or says “withheld” or “number unavailable” ; if I don’t recognise the number, I don’t answer the phone.I’ve already won the American lottery at least four times, which is amusing because I never entered it and I live in the UK.

Would be nice to not even receive such calls in the first place. However, I think it’s sadly just part of the modern alienating / alienated world we live in now. Nobody seems to be interested in doing anything about it. It’s all “thanks” to the internet I suppose ?

All phones are going to be internet phones soon though. 2025 in the UK I believe ? I dread to think how that’s going to pan out.

When it comes to scamming, I can recommend the Youtube channels of "Kitboga", "Jim Browning" and "Scammer Payback" to all of you. Those guys are super entertaining :)

Tell your family that you will not automatically pick up the phone from unknown numbers and ask them to record a message on your answering machine. Then if your have a good phone, you should be able to hear their voice while it is recorded on the answering machine and pick up the phone to continue the conversation.

Set your answering machine to answer after 2 rings to reduce the annoyance factor to you and important callers. The scammers' system detect whether it's you or the answering machine. With only 2 rings, it helps to have a phone with multiple handsets.

Looking at my spam caller list, most scammers don't leave a message - their system either hangs up after 2-3 seconds or times out after 50 seconds and an empty message of that length is recorded. Some spammers call again multiple times without leaving any message - so make sure your family talks to the answering machine without immediately hanging up.

You could also consider switching to a voip service like ooma. Their "paid" package should block many spammers and also have a call screening feature where callers not on a white list are sent to voicemail that you can hear getting recorded and have the option to pick up. But since it's love or hate with these voip services, I wouldn't port my number without trying the service for a few months.

Thing is, if you're on an official no-call register then anyone else is (depending on your country's legislation) breaking the law in calling you unless you gave them or an affiliate permission to do so. I know they don't care, I'm just framing this that anyone telemarketing in that case is going to be completely untrustworthy. And I get it's frustrating. My dad doesn't seem to understand either that his rage he flies into when receiving such time-wasting calls is wasted energy. Most scammers have pretty thick skin, all don't give a eff how they ruin your day. They're not going to stop because you yell down the phone at them. They've succeeded in raising your blood pressure and ruining your peace of mind.

Answer the phone. Listen to the caller's first spiel silently. Don't say "yes" to anything they say even if it's confirming of your name. "It might be, what's this about?" works. And if you suspect after that it's a scammer or telemarketer immediately hang up. You can say eff off first, but don't listen to the response.

I would also encourage you to get a prepaid mobile phone just for emergency calls and only give the number to family or close friends (don't give it out to anyone else). If they can't reach you first on your landline, then they call your mobile. If you want peace and quiet from the landline scammers, pull the phone out and leave your mobile on.

Firstly, I can just about guarantee that a majority of the "telemarketers" (which implies that they're actually trying to offer you legitimate products or services) calling you are likely nothing more than scammers, or robo-callers serving them. They don't care about your rights (real or supposed), only getting money from you -- whether directly, or indirectly (such as by selling any personal data they can weasel out of you). I get the impression that "legit" telemarketing has fallen off sharply in viability -- and, therefore, in popularity -- with the steep decline in the use of landline phones.

As to how to deal with it somewhat without switching to a mobile phone or changing your number: do you have an answering machine/service?

I have an answering machine on my landline, so I usually just let all calls to voice mail. People that have a legitimate reason to be calling that phone number all know that I screen calls and will pick up once I know it's them. Otherwise they can leave a message, and I'll never call them back... not that they leave a number to do so.