[Hidden-tech] Ways to reduce junk phone calls?

[ed at edbride-pr.com]

I'm not sure how "creative" this is, but assuming you have caller-ID on your
landline, you'll note that most robocalls have a phony phone number; it's
generally a city or town, and the return phone number appears to be valid
(i.e., the correct area code and telephone exchange). The giveaway is that
the caller is identified as a city or town. Don't pick up your phone for
these calls. The robodialer recognizes when it's reached a phone answering
system, and doesn't leave a message. You'll still get the rings, but not the
annoyance or distraction of actually interacting with an automaton or human
who has been connected by same.

The VOIP suggestion below might work well, too, assuming you have really
good Internet service (bandwidth).


Ed Bride


-----Original Message-----
From: Hidden-discuss <hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net> On
Behalf Of James Triplett via Hidden-discuss
Sent: Tuesday, September 22, 2020 2:15 PM
To: Val Nelson <val at valnelson.com>
Cc: hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net
Subject: Re: [Hidden-tech] Ways to reduce junk phone calls?

On (21/09/20 18:38), Val Nelson via Hidden-discuss wrote:
> Date: Mon, 21 Sep 2020 18:38:45 -0400
> From: Val Nelson via Hidden-discuss 
> <hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net>
> To: Hidden-Tech Listserv <hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net>
> Subject: [Hidden-tech] Ways to reduce junk phone calls?
> Reply-To: Val Nelson <val at valnelson.com>
> 
> Hi HT community,
> I'm increasingly bombarded with junk phone calls. Multiple a day.
> Especially in the last month.
> 
> Any creative ideas to reduce that? They are all mostly on the same 
> topic of selling business visibility online. Argh.
> 

We've basically eliminated robocalls with the following:

1. Move (called porting) our "landline" number to a VOIP service, such as
voip.ms .
2. The VOIP service has an automated attendant function, which answers the
phone
   and says, "Marketing calls not accepted.  If you're human, press 3"
3, If, and only if, the caller presses '3', the automated attendant "dials
out"
   to a second secret number, which then rings our phone.

To my surprise it works perfectly, even human callers at call centers don't
seem to be able to get past it.

The VOIP service (which we got originally to save money) costs around $6 per
month per line.

cheers,
James
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