4 ms·

In the UK/the rest of the world where everyone has to pay calls by the minute, things maybe a a little different here than in the US of A, and Canadia. My appr

In the UK/the rest of the world where everyone has to pay calls by the minute, things maybe a a little different here than in the US of A, and Canadia. My approach is a little different than to hang-up as quickly as possible, as this is a behaviour that the telephone solictors use to their advantange. In short, I try to soak a call for as long as possible. The best tactic is to be a little bit dumb, but fean interest in whatever the person is calling about. I generally find that getting them to explain each sentance they say about 3 times is about right, before moring on to the next sentance. Anyway, I answer all calls, and press the button to talk to a human, then try to keep the human on the line for as long as possible. The cost centre for these automated calls is for a human to talk to me. On at least 4 occasions after being an affible fool for about 20 minutes, without the sales person on the other end, they have said "okay, I get it, you don't want us to call you, and we will put you on our 'do not call list'". At which time they promptly hang up in a huff. I my numbers, work, cottage/holiday home, mobile, work mobile, and work line now only get about 1 call a month, of which I am more than happy to take, and generally ends with the above result. Previously I used to get 4 or so random unknown calls a day. I also notice that after calling for a taxi, the number of unwanted calls goes up.

sukilot 10y ago
Thank you for your service, but that is a massive waste of your time. Use Lenny.
- hackbinary 10y ago
  Lenny? I just do some mundane task while I am soaking their time. These calls are using an anti-pattern of most people who are disinterested will hang up, but those who are interested will continue to talk to the person. Their economic model depends on uninterested parties hanging up as quickly as possible. To disrupt their economics, take their call. I know things are a bit different in the US and Canadia where the mobile/cell call receiver also pays for minutes. Here in the UK, and the rest of Europe, only the call initiator pays for the call. If you are calling from a land you will pay a higher rate to call a mobile (an 07 number).
  - FireBeyond 10y ago
    Lenny: http://www.soundboard.com/sb/itslenny http://www.soundboard.com/sb/itslenny
  - TeMPOraL 10y ago
    > Their economic model depends on uninterested parties hanging up as quickly as possible. To disrupt their economics, take their call. You're right, though in all fairness, your solution doesn't scale fast enough. Most people won't altruistically do something like you did. We could use something that would be easy to set up and that would start generating significant costs for the callers without bothering callees much. RE Lenny, how is one even supposed to use that? :o.
    - lozf 10y ago
      Lenny was a voice activated script that would cycle through those (plus others I believe) pre-recorded sounds in a (generally successful) attempt to fool telemarketers. You could transfer calls to a SIP extension (or via a number of PSTN numbers in different locations). Unfortunately the original service is now defunct, but I'm sure there are some private closes in operation. There's an archive of recordings on youtube linked from https://www.reddit.com/r/itslenny/ https://www.reddit.com/r/itslenny/ -- some are hilarious and sure to brighten anyones day.
  - PhantomGremlin 10y ago
    in the US and Canadia where the mobile/cell call receiver also pays for minutes That has changed in recent years. My postpaid cell plan (Verizon) now offers "unlimited talk" and "unlimited text". The only variable is how many GB of data a month you want to pay for. AT&T is similar. Just choose the amount of data.
corndoge 10y ago
Usually I pretend to be interested while getting as much information about the caller as possible, and then I inform them that I intend to file with the FCC or describe in gory fantastical detail how I plan to murder them, depending on how annoyed I'm feeling that day.
maxerickson 10y ago
Straight asking to be put on the do not call list has the same result (for the callers that maintain one). Just talk over their opening spiel. 15 seconds, no more calls from that caller.
- e40 10y ago
  For me, they've usually hung up before I finish saying "do not call list"... shows how much they care about following the law.
  - maxerickson 10y ago
    Sure, it won't always help with scams. But they will still probably remove you from their dialer, the operators cost them money too, so they don't want to keep calling bad leads.
    - e40 10y ago
      You would think. Not according to my experience: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11793483 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11793483 I continue to get calls. Still. Sometimes several times a day. This means two things to me. First, their dialer software sucks. Second, they do need to put people on a DNC list. It would improve their odds of scamming people.
- dave2000 10y ago
  Most of the calls I get are people doing surveys, or lying about how I was in an accident and could make money from a legal claim. Neither pay any attention to the UK TPS (no call list); the former because that type of call isn't covered, and the latter because criminals don't tend to obey the law. I get a lot of calls from Indians. Any solution has to take into account the international nature of the annoyance. I'm perfectly happy with a whitelist system, or where anyone who has not called me before needs to sign up with my phone company using verifiable credentials.
  - hackbinary 10y ago
DanBC 10y ago
In the UK I'm signed up with the Telephone Preference Service. I only ever get one type of unsolicited phone call from a robot voice asking if I've recently had an accident, then transferring me to a human to get details. I tried asking them to put my on their do not call list (very calmly and politely) and they keep calling. So now I waste as much of their time as possible everytime they call, and then block their number. (And then report them to ICO).
e40 10y ago
In short, I try to soak a call for as long as possible. Me, too. In the last few months, the calls ramped up to a frantic pace on my cell #. The difference, though, is the caller ID was very close to my number, sometimes most digits were the same. All the calls were from the same company, I'd bet. Free trips to Mexico were the #1 subject. There were others. I started keeping them on the line for 10-15 minutes each. At the end, I'd say "I'm not going to give you my CC# because I kept you on the like since you refused to put me on your DNC list." I've given up doing that, since having done it 10 or so times, I'm tired of it. They won, but not before I wasted a lot of their time, too. These boiler rooms are really a scourge on our society. I know they scam lots and lots of people. On one call, I heard clapping every few seconds and when I asked what that was, they dude said someone had just "purchased" the free vacation (see, you need to give them $99 to secure that).
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  > These boiler rooms are really a scourge on our society. I know they scam lots and lots of people. I dead-seriously believe that telemarketing is a much less honourable occupation than prostitution. At least in the case of latter, you have two willing parties who need something from each other and voluntarily engage in exchange of value. Telemarketing lives of lying, deception and ruining people's lives in borderline-legal ways.
danieltillett 10y ago
A website where you could pledge to do this and list your phone number might be a great idea. This would be the equivalent to a honeypot server. If enough people got on board then the business model of spam calling would collapse.
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sukilot 10y ago

Thank you for your service, but that is a massive waste of your time. Use Lenny.

hackbinary 10y ago
Lenny? I just do some mundane task while I am soaking their time. These calls are using an anti-pattern of most people who are disinterested will hang up, but those who are interested will continue to talk to the person. Their economic model depends on uninterested parties hanging up as quickly as possible. To disrupt their economics, take their call. I know things are a bit different in the US and Canadia where the mobile/cell call receiver also pays for minutes. Here in the UK, and the rest of Europe, only the call initiator pays for the call. If you are calling from a land you will pay a higher rate to call a mobile (an 07 number).
- FireBeyond 10y ago
  Lenny: http://www.soundboard.com/sb/itslenny http://www.soundboard.com/sb/itslenny
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  > Their economic model depends on uninterested parties hanging up as quickly as possible. To disrupt their economics, take their call. You're right, though in all fairness, your solution doesn't scale fast enough. Most people won't altruistically do something like you did. We could use something that would be easy to set up and that would start generating significant costs for the callers without bothering callees much. RE Lenny, how is one even supposed to use that? :o.
  - lozf 10y ago
    Lenny was a voice activated script that would cycle through those (plus others I believe) pre-recorded sounds in a (generally successful) attempt to fool telemarketers. You could transfer calls to a SIP extension (or via a number of PSTN numbers in different locations). Unfortunately the original service is now defunct, but I'm sure there are some private closes in operation. There's an archive of recordings on youtube linked from https://www.reddit.com/r/itslenny/ https://www.reddit.com/r/itslenny/ -- some are hilarious and sure to brighten anyones day.
- PhantomGremlin 10y ago
  in the US and Canadia where the mobile/cell call receiver also pays for minutes That has changed in recent years. My postpaid cell plan (Verizon) now offers "unlimited talk" and "unlimited text". The only variable is how many GB of data a month you want to pay for. AT&T is similar. Just choose the amount of data.

corndoge 10y ago

Usually I pretend to be interested while getting as much information about the caller as possible, and then I inform them that I intend to file with the FCC or describe in gory fantastical detail how I plan to murder them, depending on how annoyed I'm feeling that day.

maxerickson 10y ago

Straight asking to be put on the do not call list has the same result (for the callers that maintain one). Just talk over their opening spiel. 15 seconds, no more calls from that caller.

e40 10y ago
For me, they've usually hung up before I finish saying "do not call list"... shows how much they care about following the law.
- maxerickson 10y ago
  Sure, it won't always help with scams. But they will still probably remove you from their dialer, the operators cost them money too, so they don't want to keep calling bad leads.
  - e40 10y ago
    You would think. Not according to my experience: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11793483 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11793483 I continue to get calls. Still. Sometimes several times a day. This means two things to me. First, their dialer software sucks. Second, they do need to put people on a DNC list. It would improve their odds of scamming people.
dave2000 10y ago
Most of the calls I get are people doing surveys, or lying about how I was in an accident and could make money from a legal claim. Neither pay any attention to the UK TPS (no call list); the former because that type of call isn't covered, and the latter because criminals don't tend to obey the law. I get a lot of calls from Indians. Any solution has to take into account the international nature of the annoyance. I'm perfectly happy with a whitelist system, or where anyone who has not called me before needs to sign up with my phone company using verifiable credentials.
- hackbinary 10y ago

DanBC 10y ago

In the UK I'm signed up with the Telephone Preference Service. I only ever get one type of unsolicited phone call from a robot voice asking if I've recently had an accident, then transferring me to a human to get details. I tried asking them to put my on their do not call list (very calmly and politely) and they keep calling. So now I waste as much of their time as possible everytime they call, and then block their number. (And then report them to ICO).

e40 10y ago

In short, I try to soak a call for as long as possible. Me, too. In the last few months, the calls ramped up to a frantic pace on my cell #. The difference, though, is the caller ID was very close to my number, sometimes most digits were the same. All the calls were from the same company, I'd bet. Free trips to Mexico were the #1 subject. There were others. I started keeping them on the line for 10-15 minutes each. At the end, I'd say "I'm not going to give you my CC# because I kept you on the like since you refused to put me on your DNC list." I've given up doing that, since having done it 10 or so times, I'm tired of it. They won, but not before I wasted a lot of their time, too. These boiler rooms are really a scourge on our society. I know they scam lots and lots of people. On one call, I heard clapping every few seconds and when I asked what that was, they dude said someone had just "purchased" the free vacation (see, you need to give them $99 to secure that).

TeMPOraL 10y ago
> These boiler rooms are really a scourge on our society. I know they scam lots and lots of people. I dead-seriously believe that telemarketing is a much less honourable occupation than prostitution. At least in the case of latter, you have two willing parties who need something from each other and voluntarily engage in exchange of value. Telemarketing lives of lying, deception and ruining people's lives in borderline-legal ways.

danieltillett 10y ago

A website where you could pledge to do this and list your phone number might be a great idea. This would be the equivalent to a honeypot server. If enough people got on board then the business model of spam calling would collapse.

deleted 10y ago

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deleted 10y ago

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