Telemarketer calls have been an annoying thorn in the side of many telephone users for a long time. What started years ago as unsolicited pitches from real people representing real organizations has turned into something much bigger and harder to decipher over the years.
Today, it’s hard to tell the difference between a legitimate phone pitch and a fake one. Many calls coming in are just scams — people OR computers who call you to try to “trick” you into buying their products or services or give them your confidential information over the phone. The trick is usually in the form of a lie about your computer or some account being compromised or at risk of being disabled. They hope you believe them and give them the information they ask for or purchase their product or service on the spot.
Rules have been passed at the state and national levels to try curbing them, but they continue to persist. Many of these calls are coming from overseas where our laws don’t apply or from organizations that simply don’t care because they know they are hard to catch or punish. What’s left is us consumers fending for ourselves against the barrage of telemarketer calls.
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So, what can you do??? Here are some tips and strategies:
(1) Don’t give your number out to businesses, stores, websites, or other entities which might lead to increased calls.
- This can be tricky or even impossible in this day due to the systems used for shopping. If asked at the register for your phone number, say “no thank you.” If contact information is required by the salesperson or agent you are working with, provide your E-Mail address instead. It is far easier to filter E-Mail than phone calls. If a phone number is still required, try giving a fake phone number. Use a “555” number so you don’t accidentally give out someone else’s number, like your zip code, then 555, then your birth month and year so you can remember it! (715-555-1274)
(2) If the calls are from the same number, you may be able to add a “Selective Call Rejection” service to your phone line so you can block them. TCC phone service offers Selective Call Rejection.
(3) If the calls are always different, you may be able to add “Call Screening” to your phone line to help block them. TCC phone service offers Call Screening which requires incoming callers to press “1” to put their call through to you. You can then build lists of approved and blocked callers to help weed out the bad calls.
(4) Change your phone number. While this is a rather drastic step, it might be necessary to start over with a new phone number — as long as you safeguard it from being picked up by scammers and telemarketers.
(5) Don’t answer calls you don’t recognize. If the caller is someone you know, they’ll leave a message. If not, they will hopefully remove your number from their list.
(6) Hang up. Don’t even give them a chance to convince you their pitch is real or important. The moment you hear something that doesn’t sound right, hang up. Legitimate businesses will send you letters for important matters if they fail to reach you by phone.
(7) Say “no thank you” and then hang up. If it’s a legit business but you just want to decline their offer without being rude so they don’t keep calling, you could say “no thank you” and then hang up.
(8) Call TCC (or your phone provider) or the company the caller is purportedly from to see if the call was legit or not.
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While there does not seem to be method for completely resolving this, hopefully these tips and techniques help you. In the same way there are some things you can do, there are also some things you should not do. Here are some of them.
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What you should NOT do are:
(1) Listen to them and do what they say. We like to use the rule that you do not give out any personal or financial information or make purchases or allow access to your computer or equipment over the phone unless you placed the call.
(2) Try to argue with the caller.
(3) Tell them you are going to report them.
(4) Scream at them or bang the phone on the table.
(5) Doing any of the above actions 2-4 could make things worse. The caller could put your number in the system for increased calls!