Latest method of amusement.

So, I've had my phones on the no-call lists for years, but you have to renew every so often. This creates a gap where we get them in large quantities. So, until the phone gets picked up again, I've taken to smashing the number pad until they hang up. On a smart phone, you can really throw a lot of beeps into the phone rather quickly. So I do this untl they hang up.

Today, I do this for 5 minutes before he finally hangs up. SEriously... 5 minutes. He hangs up, then calls from another number across the country (mahwah, NJ to San Francisco) and in very poor engrish tells me "you so soopid."so I continue to smash numbers. HE hangs up and calls back. I smash numbers. Rinse and repeat.

I highly encourage this behavior. It's quite entertaining.

LOL he's probably going to get fired after wasting all that time!

WEll, good. telemarketing is the devil. especially when they're calling from the Quickie Mart.

Along these lines------

There used to be a guy who was the hokeyest of all the hokey televangelists---- Robert Tillman. He was a gem, always begging for money, claiming to have a direct line to God, and even speaking in tongues when he forgot the script.

I was visiting my younger brother in college. We returned to his apartment after an evening of imbibing. Turning on the T.V. there was Rev. Tillman, doing his thing. He was mesmerizing, with the slick-backed hair and wild histrionics. At one point, he mentioned "Giving the Devil a double black eye" by contributing to his church. My brother saw the opportunity and took action.

Over the next hour or two, we called continuously demanding to speak to Robert--- as we had forgotten how to give the devil those eye bruises. The operator always asked for a credit card first, and second, and third--- which we refused each time. "Put Robert on the phone----I need to give the Devil a double black eye" we repeated over and over......until they eventually hung up. We'd then call back, and give the new operator the same routine.

It was a lot of fun.........but that was likely due more to the Boone's Farm wine, than the televangelist.

In reply to Bobzilla:

If you have a fax at work it's easy enough to program them to call a full arrange of numbers for extended periods of time. Enjoyable enough despite it not being likely to fix anything.

In reply to 84FSP:

we'll never fix it. As long as there is someone stupid enough to fall for this, they will keep calling. All I can do is make it a little harder for them.

I ask them what they're wearing and request that they talk dirty to me. It works well.

In reply to captdownshift:

funny, I tried that a few times, but they usually don't understand enough english to comprehend what I'm asking. I mean, you're calling an english speaking country to scam peopel out of money, at least speak the language better.

Not as bad as the fake IRS calls though. That dude needs serious language skills.

In reply to Bobzilla:

there was one instance where I did it at the shop and it was a woman attempting to sell adult movies (this was back in the late 90s) once I realized what she was attempting to sell and why she had stayed on the line and restarted her prompts 3 times, I leveled with her and stated that it was one of my all time backfires and that she probably was expecting the biggest sale of the day, but that I do this to chase off telemarketers. She responded with, I've never thought about doing that and will have to try that route when at home, thanked me and hung up.

captdownshift wrote: In reply to Bobzilla: there was one instance where I did it at the shop and it was a woman attempting to sell adult movies (this was back in the late 90s) once I realized what she was attempting to sell and why she had stayed on the line and restarted her prompts 3 times, I leveled with her and stated that it was one of my all time backfires and that she probably was expecting the biggest sale of the day, but that I do this to chase off telemarketers. She responded with, I've never thought about doing that and will have to try that route when at home, thanked me and hung up.

On a semi-related subject. My uncle would start responding the telemarketers as phone sex client. It got them to hang up fairly quickly.

We get calls all the time on the house phone. My wife likes to pick up the phone, lead them on for a bit, and then YELL AT THE TOP OF HER LUNGS in the most gut wrenching screech you can imagine in order to blow their headsets clean off their heads. They usually stop calling after that.

This tactic might work on the telemarketers:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/-7mSP5G9Z58

Im a big fan of setting the phone down nearby, where I can just barely make out the chatter, let them talk and talk and talk, while I go on about my work. Every so often when I hear them stop, I will utter some sound that could be construed as speech, and follow it up with "tell me more". Then, they proceed to go on for another few minutes. I will keep this up as long as they will.

But, there is only one king of telemarketer pranking, and its Tom Mabe:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZmKtS-k12b0

If you think that's funny, try keeping an airhorn by the phone.

Joe Gearin wrote: Along these lines------ There used to be a guy who was the hokeyest of all the hokey televangelists---- Robert Tillman. He was a gem, always begging for money, claiming to have a direct line to God, and even speaking in tongues when he forgot the script. I was visiting my younger brother in college. We returned to his apartment after an evening of imbibing. Turning on the T.V. there was Rev. Tillman, doing his thing. He was mesmerizing, with the slick-backed hair and wild histrionics. At one point, he mentioned "Giving the Devil a double black eye" by contributing to his church. My brother saw the opportunity and took action. Over the next hour or two, we called continuously demanding to speak to Robert--- as we had forgotten how to give the devil those eye bruises. The operator always asked for a credit card first, and second, and third--- which we refused each time. "Put Robert on the phone----I need to give the Devil a double black eye" we repeated over and over......until they eventually hung up. We'd then call back, and give the new operator the same routine. It was a lot of fun.........but that was likely due more to the Boone's Farm wine, than the televangelist.

You should enjoy this bit of Robert Tillman then. BTW, I'll wager that NO ONE can watch this all the way through without laughing Pastor Gas

Grtechguy wrote:

captdownshift wrote: In reply to Bobzilla: there was one instance where I did it at the shop and it was a woman attempting to sell adult movies (this was back in the late 90s) once I realized what she was attempting to sell and why she had stayed on the line and restarted her prompts 3 times, I leveled with her and stated that it was one of my all time backfires and that she probably was expecting the biggest sale of the day, but that I do this to chase off telemarketers. She responded with, I've never thought about doing that and will have to try that route when at home, thanked me and hung up.

On a semi-related subject. My uncle would start responding the telemarketers as phone sex client. It got them to hang up fairly quickly.

"So, What are you wearing?"

I started getting telemarketer calls lately and they don't even leave me a message. I blocked all their numbers (had to be two dozen) now they started calling me from "Unkown" numbers

I don't get this. Why berkeley with them? Just politely pass on whatever they are offering and go on with your life. Or just don't answer.

In reply to ProDarwin:

You must not get many of these calls. This isn't the old days. These telemarketers are hungry. They won't respond to politeness. I've had them refuse to take no for an answer, ignore repeated requests to be put on their do not call list, and even call me back when I finally hung up on them in frustration. I've not bothered to mess with them but I can certainly sympathize.

That extended warranty company used to call me at least once a day. I usually would hang up and report the number to the FCC.

But I started having fun asking them about getting warranties for bizarre crap, like a Jaguar V12 (just the engine) or a fully-race-prepped Yugo.

Apparently complaining to the FCC actually worked, though, because there ended up being a class action lawsuit against them for ignoring the Do Not Call list. I got a whole $18 out of it!!!

dculberson wrote: In reply to ProDarwin: You must not get many of these calls. This isn't the old days. These telemarketers are hungry. They won't respond to politeness. I've had them refuse to take no for an answer, ignore repeated requests to be put on their do not call list, and even call me back when I finally hung up on them in frustration. I've not bothered to mess with them but I can certainly sympathize.

I get maybe a couple a week.

"I'm not interested." Click.

2/3 of the time, the call comes up on my phone as "Marked as spam" so I just don't answer.

I signed up for Nomorobo. My home phone rings once and then all crap calls are transferred to the Nomorobo phone system where the telemarketer is told that I don't want their call followed by a prompt hang up. Problem solved. We didn't get any political calls this past election either.

If the phone rings twice, then we known it's a call that we should take and we answer it.

You have a home phone??!

What's life like back there in 1998?

ProDarwin wrote: I get maybe a couple a week. "I'm not interested." Click. 2/3 of the time, the call comes up on my phone as "Marked as spam" so I just don't answer.

Unfortunately I have a land line at my office and we've had that phone number for 25 years or so .. so we get lots of telemarketing calls (well, by lots I mean 1 or 2 a day) and if they're not just pre-recorded robocalls they're very aggressive.

funny, as I am reading this, I get one of those calls.

I hate it because I have near elderly parents (one is 70 the other is 68) and one of them is currently in the hospital, so I cannot turn my ringer off. I really really hate it when my phone rings at 7am with a robocaller