What do you do with spam phone calls?

Vectis

Basically, I never answer the phone if it's an unknown caller.

All my contacts are in my phone - family, friends, doctor's surgery, insurance company, car service etc. Everyone I need, and, more importantly, all the people I think might ever need to ring me.

I'm struggling to think of anyone, apart from a spam/scam type of call, who would have my number when I haven't given it to them?

I did matched betting for a number of years, no longer promoted on this site I think, and the betting companies all have your number and I'm pretty sure most of the unknown calls I got are from them touting for business.

Obviously, any unanswered calls go through to voicemail but I don't think I've ever had a message left from an unknown number. Spammers are not going to waste their time leaving messages. Now, maybe there's some obscure scenario where someone would obtain my number, someone I've obviously never given it to, and they need to ring me but I can't think of it at present. Anyway, they can always leave a message.

I do think we are sort of conditioned to answer the phone when it rings and, likewise, reaching for our phones anytime a notification announces itself. It actually takes quite an effort of will at the start to simply ignore the ringing phone, or to just check the number and cancel it.

Personally, I can't see the point in getting into discussions or trying to wind the spammers up. It's not just their time you're wasting but your own as well. Better, I think, for them to come to the conclusion that you're just not going to answer the phone at all. They're more likely to give up in that scenario, the bookmakers certainly did.

sheramber

Lay the receiver down at the side and walk away, leaving  them talking to themselves.

Mrs_Ryan

I haven’t had any spam calls for a while. 

I had the HMRC one once, it was during my lunch break. Funnily enough from HMRC 😂I told them (quite rightly) that they were speaking to a real officer of HMRC and started asking them certain questions. 

They couldn’t get off the phone fast enough and I’ve heard nothing since. I reported it obviously and I told my manager in passing. He was in hysterics and said he would try that himself 😂

lincroft1710

The ones that annoy me are those who say "I'm Fred Bloggs and I'm the appointed Energy Advisor/Consultant for your area". As soon as you say "Appointed by whom?", they put the phone down

Murphybear

prowla said:

The "your computer has a virus" ones I tend to keep on the phone a while, on the basis that it may stop or delay them getting to someone who will fall for it.

Cold callers I say I'm registered with TPS and can they remove my number from their system; I then add the number to a "Junk" contact so I'll know to ignore it next time.

If I got a “your computer has a virus” I would say “I don’t have a computer” or “I studied Computer Science at University”, a friend did this and it worked.  In his case the latter response is true 

MrsStepford

I don't answer the phone unless it's a number I know.
Delivery companies and supermarkets send texts.
I block the numbers.

TadleyBaggie

I just let the Truecall box handle them, the phone very rarely actually rings.

hawkwinddotcom

Hello Gloucestershire Police, how may I help you?, usually works

WMH2001

Mum and I had endless spam and scam calls on her landline, prior to moving in with her to provide 24/7 care she was taken for several thousand pounds by an operative preying on her vulnerability. When then living with her I answered every call and prevented the bad actors getting to her but the annoyance for both of us was really serious.. The TPS didn’t make any noticeable difference to the frequency of these calls. In the end I had the landline taken out, gave my mobile number to her bank and utilities etc and I set her up with a simple mobile the number of which we gave just to her friends. My mobile number hardly ever receives unwanted calls, perhaps because I’ve always been extremely careful who I’ve given it too, both in person and online. 

When we were receiving these calls on her landline I rarely did anything other than promptly hang up. It was I think the case that whilst some callers were out and out scammers others were in a way victims themselves of these call centres and the companies who ran them. It was rarely possible to be sure which was the case so as I said I just dropped the call rather than play games or be abusive. 

Neadledrop

I have this cool trick where I track the IP address of the scam caller and order shitloads of pet rats from stores over to them. Hopefully the brood of the rat kingdom takes care of the rest and conquer those little !!!!!!.