How I handle Landline Telemarketers / Spam


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Yes, I still have a landline as well as a cellphone. The only reason I have a landline is for my business. Since around 2007 I've been using a program called ezvoice. It records the callerID info of people who call and text it to my phone. it also keeps a log. It also sends an email to a special Gmail account that I have.

 

So in Gmail I have every phone since 2007 including the voice mail message left. It's pretty cool

 

recently I was looking at the program and saw that if I add someone to my address book I can tell the program to block that call. When it blocks the call the moment the CallerID name and number matches it just drops the call. So about one ring, then it hangs up on them. Plus it doesn't send me any kind of notification that they called.

 

This is great because the same stupid telemarketer likes to call me once a day, now they always get hung up on. When a new telemarketer calls, I just open the call log, right click on them and add them to my address book under spam and to block all future calls. I've got quite the collection going.

 

Political calls from past are also in there, as I browsed my gmail phone log around election time and picked a bunch out to add to my spam folder

 

Ezvoice

http://ezvoice.sunshinesoftsolutions.com/

 

 

 

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nice, only reason I have a landline is for FTTC :p ive removed my home phone from it though, was sick of telesales.

 

Heck ive even removed my office extension at work, any business contacts i do business with have my work mobile number and skype for business. Our receptionists fob them off and give them my email address for cold sales, stating i do not have an office line. It also stops calls for support, no ticket, no issue.

 

I put a big poster up against my desk back-screen so walk bys cant see if im in my office too! :p So much more productive.

 

 

Can't you route landline calls to a phone with Google Voice? Maybe pick up a cheap Android phone on Amazon and not activate it, sign into Google and basically treat it as a tablet, data only. Put Google Voice on it, and Hiya or TrueCaller (both download a list of telemarketers and make a contact called SPAM... basically what you've manually done). Might streamline your workflow a little.

 

We have a landline at work. It's a smart landline phone, as in it has a screen and it looks like it has a web browser, but it's not hooked up. It can probably run Java stuff or something. Caller ID doesn't work and the messages light goes off every half hour or whatever. I'm always clearing it. But voicemails go to email, which is cool as hell (so if there's an actual message, it pops up on the computer). I wouldn't mess with it if I weren't getting paid to.

When I get calls forwarded to me at work from reception and its some survey/marketing company or an IT related firm that I'm not interested in, I tell them that I'm just filling in temporarily because the person they're wanting to talk to died in a horrific car accident or they took their life in some gruesome way. They're typically so shocked at the graphic details I provide that, they're left speechless and never call back. Had one guy stuttering and could only get out a "WOW!" before hanging the phone up.

 

 

I had a hilarious one specifically for them.

Me and my wife had a system where she would answer the phone, then I'd come in as an abusive spouse, and demand to know if she's cheating on me, she would respond faking terror.. we'd let the arguement heat and escalate fast, then I'd clap my hands together, (simulate slapping her) she'd pretend to cry and scream, then I'd shout GIMMEE THE PHONE just before she'd hang up.

 

How we laughed.... 

Must be getting older now, as we just hang up these days.

My friends on PSN were in stitches, as some of them actually know me, and some are family members who know my sense of humour. (Some remarked that they wished they had the nerve to try something similar)

  • Haha 2
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