Ben by Daniel Shelton for May 16, 2023

All house line phone calls go to voice mail. We get calls from our pharmacy to let us know when renewals are ready – that is about 95% or more of the “real” calls we get. Just about any other call is a spam call.

Rare that get calls on our cell phones – our 3 sisters tend to text instead – and that is maybe twice a month unless a problem with my 94yo mom or one of husband’s nieces. (We do text each other – as in – I text “ok” (dinner is ready) and he texts back “ok” (will be right down). Two days ago I got a text “back is in terrible pain – come up” answer – “ok”. Then again, my phone’s card will stop working and I have to reboot the phone. Obviously if I went to use the phone/text I notice not going out, but what worries me about this is if husband was working in his woodshop in the garage and was injured and sent a text I would not know he needed help if the darn thing needed to be rebooted yet again and he could bleed to death.

I did get loads of texts during the period leading up to – and after – the election, all political spam from “the other party” – over 25 a day sometimes (and they don’t understand that annoying people will make them not vote for the annoyance) – and most of the texts were not even for candidates in any state near us.

If not for worrying about him the few times are separate in the house, I would not even bother with the cell phone – and we just figured out that the pain I have been having in my right leg comes from the cell phone in my pocket hitting my leg when I walk.

No caller ID?

I would like to use an airhorn on these..

Our esteemed government officials are fighting the spam callers and robo-callers. Their efforts have given us the “Do not call” registry and they’ve persuaded the telecommunication companies to give us the options to block numbers and provide caller ID. But they also made sure to make a big exception in that those politicians are allowed and able to call and text us for their fund raising efforts.

I have number recognition on all phones, so if I don’t know the number, I let it go to voicemail. But sometimes, it’s an anonymous number and as hospitals and other institutions do call anonymously, I will pick those up sometimes if I expect a call from such a place.

Pick up, once the pitch starts, just hang up. You don’t even have to say a word

Between the spam filter and caller id I answer about one call in 50.

I like to have fun with them and wind them up.My favourite ones are the “I hear you were involved in an accident”.“Yes, it was a bad one – I died”.“When was this”“10 years ago. I’ve been in a coma for 9 and a half. I was well fed up when I woke up, but I’d lost a lot of weight, so that made up for it a bit”.I usually get stunned silence by that point, but it can go on.

Another one is “Yes, I got hit in the rear so hard I ended up in the back seat”Stunned silence again.

My favourite was done by my wife – in an angry voice: “You just got me out of the shower. This had better be important”. They often hang up.

Learn a dozen or so words in a foreign language. Not Spanish or German or French, but something a little harder to identify, like Welsh or Polish.

I’ve just stopped answering the phone (we have caller ID) if I don’t recognize the caller’s number. If I’m not sure, or am waiting for a call-back from someone, then I’ll pick up, but immediately hang up if it’s not someone I’m expecting. I’ve quit “being polite” to these people. :P

We’ve gotten those calls at 4 or 5 in the morning. I’d yell at them but recordings about the misuse of my credit card don’t listen. I wish I knew where they lived.

If not in my contact list – call goes straight to voice mail. When I have requested a callback from a business – I ask for the number they will be calling from to add to my contacts otherwise they will not get through. I have noticed that after a couple of years, I don’t get spam calls any more – now I’m getting spam texts – another method of an attempt at identity theft…

Doesn’t Patti have caller ID?

Or answer the call in your best robo voice “This number is no longer in service”.

Caller ID and a call scanner works great for me.

My best friends are “Scam Likely” and “No Caller ID.” They call me all the time.

I’ve learned to automatically ignore Caller ID readings of UNKNOWN or NAME UNKNOWN or long phone numbers beginning with M or V (which denote boiler room operations). And I’d rather let the answering machine handle the rest unless I recognize the name.

Looks like a land line, screen ‘em through an answering machine. Don’t have one ? I’ve got one I can sell you , cheap.

If there’s no recognizable name on the ID, we don’t answer it.