I was receiving numerous calls from scammers called "US Pharmacy". Men with heavy Middle Eastern accents with common English/American names. Finally I answered the last call I received pretending to be law enforcement. I also was receiving the scam IRS agent calls. I was able to stop the calls by telling them my brother works for the IRS and I know FBI Agents. Part of that is true, part is not.
I've often used the "Just a minute" routine. They never last more than 5 minutes, though."
I managed to convince one guy I was a Russian last week. "Da, da, speak English. Ver good. Sorry, sorry, who you say you are?" and so on till I got sick of it and hung up. He didn't call back.
I usually just hang up on them and then put them in the"blocked call" list till they make a new number and I block them again. I do mess with some of them sometimes for the hell of it. I just say : You Lie! They get pissed off and hang up. Works. I get those pharmacy calls too lately.
I was lucky. We changed our Telco at the end of 2015 and since then the only people who call are those who had called previously. Our phone number no longer appears on the list of the major Telco so we get under the radar.
I answer: "Thank you for calling the Piedmont Triad Sperm Bank: If you'll yank it we'll bank it."
Not only are they speechless, that usually does the trick to keep them from calling back.
This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at February 9, 2017 8:10 PM MST
You'll have to put some extra napkins or towels on your table next time, lol. I love hearing the labored breathing as they try to think of what to say next.
I was getting calls telling me they were from micro soft and windows was sending them error messages. I played along, until he told me to press the windows button. Told him I didn't have one. Eventually he asked what operating system I was using, I told him DOS 3.1, with windows 95. He actually went and got his buddy (sorry, his supervisor) to try to figure things out. They finally hung up.
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The phone rings once and disconnect them. My success rate is about 98%. The few who call through I put on my block list. I guesstimate I've blocked 600+ telemarketers since 2014.
Only annoying stories. I'll tell you about the worst one. It happened while my grandmother was in hospital, and we were expecting a call from her doctor at any moment. So the phone rang and it was a telemarketer. I said, "Sorry, I can't take this call because we're expecting an important call from the hospital. But I guess he'd heard all kind of excuses before and still insisted that it will only take about 5 minutes. So I said it again, and that I'll have to hang up on him. So I said bye and hung up. After a minute or two, the phone rang again. And guess who it was? Yep! The same guy. So I got angry, cussed him out, and slammed the phone down. The phone rang again, but to my relief, it was the hospital. Now we've got caller ID on the phones. And if I ever see a number I don't recognize, I don't answer it. They can leave a message if it's important.
If I have a moment, I like to lead them on, ask alot of good questions, and make them think they will make a good sale. Then I turn them down flat and refuse to purchase anything. If I'm really bored, I try for a second wave of false hope. I like to hear the frustration in their voice. ;)
If it's a telemarketer and I have time to spare, I let them think I'm interested and they'll talk on and on, not letting me get a word in edgewise. After 15 or 20 minutes I might then say, "Oh, I'm not interested. Thank you." Then I hang up. They wasted a lot of time on their call to me.
I have caller ID and don't answer if I don't know the number. I let the answering machine get them. I have a rather polite message telling the caller if they are selling something to please hang up. We don't want it. We don't need it. We have all we need, thank you very much. If they are a friend or family, leave a message and we will call back as soon as we find the phone.
The best one though was when I was a kid. We lived with my grandmother for awhile after my grandfather passed away. She kept the phone in his name. One night someone called and my dad answered. They asked for my grandfather. My dad said he wasn't available, and could he ask what the call was about. The man at the other end was selling cemetery plots. My dad kindly told the man my grandfather would not be interested as he already had one and he was using it. The guy at the other end started stuttering and told my dad he was sorry for his loss.
Benedict Arnold 