Letting phone scammers have it

[rturner76]

I get at least one call every day telling me about how my credit card company wants to lower my interest rate. Because of this,usually I don't answer a number I don't know.

I answered the phone today, already fairly sure it was another scammer and this time I wanted to talk to the guy. I wanted to let him know I didn't appreciate him calling me trying to scam me out of my credit card number. So when he came on and did his con, I told him I don't give my credit card number to people on the phone who are trying steal from me.

After he did some more of his con job of course assuring me he was from my "credit card company" I said "here's my number" and I spelled out a very un christian phrase that basically instructs him to have anal sex with himself. This got him started on my mother and that's when I just let him have it. There's no need to get into everything I said but I said some VERY uncharitable things having to do with the poor job his mother did raising a thief, he is not man enough to feed his skinny children, and he should go and eat more sand among a whole diatribe of emasculating, culturally insensitive or even bigoted statements. He just would not hang up the phone.

So after five or so minutes of this my mother told me to wrap it up so I got off the phone immediately. Not before he gloated about 9/11 and threatened my life of course. The thing is after I got off the phone, I felt great! I was all stressed out before and anxious and all of that was just gone and I felt calm and relaxed.

So as Christians or even just as philsophers what is the approach to take here?

Just keep letting it go to voicemail

Politely tell them (7-12 times) no than you, I'm not interested, please take me off your call list

Lay into 'em and just let out all your pent up anger on them

Is there another approach?

 

[alsughasoughaiuyfygh]

.

 

[Rajni]

I get at least one call every day telling me about how my credit card company wants to lower my interest rate. Because of this,usually I don't answer a number I don't know.

I answered the phone today, already fairly sure it was another scammer and this time I wanted to talk to the guy. I wanted to let him know I didn't appreciate him calling me trying to scam me out of my credit card number. So when he came on and did his con, I told him I don't give my credit card number to people on the phone who are trying steal from me.

After he did some more of his con job of course assuring me he was from my "credit card company" I said "here's my number" and I spelled out a very un christian phrase that basically instructs him to have anal sex with himself. This got him started on my mother and that's when I just let him have it. There's no need to get into everything I said but I said some VERY uncharitable things having to do with the poor job his mother did raising a thief, he is not man enough to feed his skinny children, and he should go and eat more sand among a whole diatribe of emasculating, culturally insensitive or even bigoted statements. He just would not hang up the phone.

So after five or so minutes of this my mother told me to wrap it up so I got off the phone immediately. Not before he gloated about 9/11 and threatened my life of course. The thing is after I got off the phone, I felt great! I was all stressed out before and anxious and all of that was just gone and I felt calm and relaxed.

So as Christians or even just as philsophers what is the approach to take here?

Just keep letting it go to voicemail

Politely tell them (7-12 times) no than you, I'm not interested, please take me off your call list

Lay into 'em and just let out all your pent up anger on them

Is there another approach?

If I don't recognize the number, I simply don't pick up. Same with solicitors who ring my doorbell (in spite of the sign that specifically says "No Soliciting"). If I don't recognize them, I don't answer the door. Makes life much simpler!

 

[tturt]

Read when we answer this type of call, irregardless if we speak with them or not, that phone number gets sold and passed to more phone scammers. Phone ringing? If it's valid, they'll leave a message.

 

[friend of]

Set up a recording device.
Record your conversation and tell them to take you off the list.
Continue to do this.
Sue them.

Unless of course they're calling from Somalia or something.

 

[tturt]

this is from a couple of months ago:
Scam Alert: Do not answer calls from these area codes

 

[.Mikha'el.]

I just ignore calls from numbers that are unfamiliar. Even answering the phone to tell them to stop calling gives them the validation and attention they're wanting, and only encourages them further.

 

[Monk Brendan]

I have a sure fire reply!

"Oh wow! I'm glad you called. I need 50 large cheese and pepperoni pizzas, 2500 chicken wings, all of them your hottest, and fifty 2 liter bottles of Diet Coke. I need them to be delivered to my business address in Fairbanks, Alaska, in ten minutes time. How much will that be?"

I really like to mess with people's minds. The reply I usually get is "click."

 

[Godlovesmetwo]

I've tried the "Stay on the line. You've reached Sydney Police Headquarters. I'm now transferring you to Detective Bromwich, Head of our Phone Scamming Investigation Department."
Then I try to impersonate the detective. Mixed results. I need to work on my performance mainly.

 

[thisgal]

I use Google Voice which is great at filtering out known scam numbers. Also, most smart phones have options to block callers once you know it's a scam.

 

[FrankDux]

Assign custom ringtones to everybody you know and mute the rest