<p>I will not give to any charity that calls me asking for donations. I decide on my own what charities to support. </p>
<p>When I get a call from a charity, I politely explain my “policy” and tell them simply that if they call a 2nd time, they will lose out one whatever chance they get.</p>
<p>I now give online, provide my real name and email, real city, real zip code, but a fake phone number (111-111-1111 or something similar), and type the words “DO NOT SEND MAIL” in the street address line on the web form. The credit card will validate fine with the zip code… and there is also usually an “opt out” option for email on the form. </p>
<p>I also generally let my land line go to voice mail. I don’t pick up unless am near the phone and recognize the number on the caller ID – except I occasionally get an unwanted call if the number is from an area code where one of my family members live. They also sometimes get me early in the morning because I don’t have caller ID on the bedroom extension. But it’s usually not the charities that are calling – more typically the mortgage lenders or others flagrantly violating the “Do Not Call” registry rules. </p>
<p>After the last election, I changed my voting registration to “no party” affiliation, hopefully to cut down on political campaign calls… though that might backfire down the line. (I good get more calls from Republicans) I’ll have to see. It’s just that with the changes to the primary system in California, I don’t see any particular value in having my registration tied to a political party.</p>
<p>H was having an awful time with scientology and other religious orgs before we got caller ID. It was AWFUL. We started telling them to take H off their list and also telling them to give supervisor’s full name, address & phone number so we could serve him with a complaint for nuisance and invasion of privacy. The calls dwindled but didn’t finally end until we got the caller ID and stopped answering all calls unless we KNEW the party calling. It has been GREAT!</p>
<p>Many charities outsource their calls – that is the person calling is not employed or volunteering with that charity, but rather with the the fundraising agency. Also, I think that many use software that randomly dials numbers, so the person actually making the call may have no way of knowing what number they just called. Or, the calls could be made to a specific list, but NOT a list acquired from that charity – that is, Charity X hires Fundraising Agency Y to make calls, and Agency Y buys calling lists from other sources. </p>
<p>If it happens again, you might simply ask, “why not?” and see what you are told. </p>
<p>The problem is that even when they say they will add you to the “do-not-call” list, the calls may keep on coming because they are not working off a centralized list. </p>
<p>I also agree that the “charity” intro could be a ruse, especially if they are asking for information. Usually the real charity fundraisers are trained to be very polite; not so the scammer or collection agent posing as a charity.</p>
<p>As to my “policy” mentioned above – I ABSOLUTELY NEVER give out credit card information to anyone who calls me on the phone. You never know who is really calling. If you get a call from a legitimate creditor, then you need to end the incoming call and place your own, separate call to the creditor. (Using the number printed on your bill or listed on their web site, not a number the caller gives you)</p>
<p>Ugh. Our house gets double calls in political season because my H is registered as one party and I am registered as the other. If ever we retire to a swing state, we’ll get more exercise answering the phone than Adam’s cat chasing Eve’s mouse.</p>
So far as I can tell, the Do Not Call law is never enforced. For quite a few years after its adoption, the number of junk calls dropped precipitously, but now we’re back to the way things were before, and filing an online report seems to be pointless. I think there’s not an adequate budget to crack down on the telemarketers, plus many are operating outside of the country and beyond the reach of US law, so they’ve figured out they have free reign to torment us. </p>
<p>As for charitable solicitations, I just say, “I’m sorry, I don’t make contributions over the phone, but I’d be glad to look over any materials you send me.” Click. I can only hope that answer takes me off their list.</p>
<p>I usually just hang up, but sometimes use a combo of the Seinfeld and penalty methods. I ask them to spell their full name, then inform them of the $10k fine.</p>
<p>I remember seeing recently that the federal government is asking inventors to come up with something to block telemarketing robocalls. They’re offering a reward for an invention that works. I may add to that reward! </p>
<p>I only get telemarketing calls from robots and while it’s easy to hang up, it’s hard to let it go to the machine because they deliberately leave long annoying messages that often end with the sound of a buzzer. Sometimes, I just pick up the phone and quickly hang up. I figure if it’s a live person, they’ll get the message eventually.</p>
<p>Beware of anyone asking you for information. There is a scam going around our area with people (sounds like they are from India) pretending to be representatives of your internet or TV service provider.
They ask about correcting a problem with the service (almost everyone has some problem. . .)
I’ve heard of someone who fell for this and gave out a debit card for a $1 charge the service “required.” Fortunately, the bank locked down her debit card before any significant charge was made to the account. Anyway, never give any info to someone who calls you. Even if you think it is legit, hang up and call the company back to be sure.</p>
<p>We’ve gotten these calls multiple times–always Indian accents.
If my teenage S ever picks up one of these calls, he puts on an accent, and says something like, "No, I think it is better that YOU give me YOUR credit card number first. OK, Sir, Yes. You give me your card THEN, if that number is satisfactory, I will give you mine. Sir. I beg you, sir. Let us make a deal on it. . .you have my word, etc. etc.</p>
<p>You folks have some great coping strategies! A friend of mine used to hand the phone to her toddler. Sadly, no toddlers here at the moment (waiting for those grandchildren).</p>
<p>Have you ever either hung up on a telemarketer or told him/her in no uncertain terms that you aren’t interested, hung up the phone, and then had the phone immediately ring again? I sometimes suspect that the telemarketer is calling back for the chance to hang up on me.</p>
<p>The worst calls are those automated political ones. You can’t even tell the caller to buzz off.</p>
<p>I usually feel badly for the poor student calling from one of my, DH or ds’s schools asking for money. I usually engage them in a brief conversation about their major and such but then ask them to put something in the mail as I too will not agree over the phone. One international was obviously reading off a script and just kept repeating “how much can I put you down for”? I said zero and to mail me info. He persisted and I finally said goodbye.</p>
<p>Iron maiden. I get telemarketing calls on my cell phone too. </p>
<p>UCBA…I would guess that a collection person would speak my language. This caller was not a good speaker of English. Calling me Mrs. DHs first name was my first clue there was an issue.</p>
<p>I always donate to my college when students call.</p>
<p>I have a sister who lives overseas so I can’t drop my land line. Even worse, her calls come up as “out of area” or “private caller” which is a pseudonym for most robocalls. I have to be careful who I hang up on!</p>
<p>Before DH retired as senior federal executive we had a secure phone line in our house. Literally the only time this phone line ever rang was from telemarketers and their random number sorting. I would simply tell them that they had reached a secure government facility of high ranking national security intelligence and that I was launching an immediate investigation using their phone ID and the name that was displayed… that usually got a prompt hang-up but occasionally I did have to assure the speakers that neither Fort Knox, Camp David, NORAD or 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue were in need of mortgate refinancing.</p>
<p>This happened about a year ago. An Indian accented telemarketer called and when I told him I was on a do-not-call list, he said it didn’t apply to international calls, but said he was willing to get me on it. He then indicated I would get an automated call and I was to do something to get me on this list. I don’t know what the whole story was, but apparently they get a few bucks for getting a verified Craigslist number and this was what he was trying to trick me into doing.</p>
<p>When I was a baby, my mother had the worst pushy telemarketer experience from her university. I was a newborn, she had just spent several years attending grad school and doing volunteer work in another country, and my dad was working a series of random sorts of jobs like building houses before going back to grad school. They did not feel like they had extra money to give. My mother told the person that she had no money to give and the woman said “But you went to X University. I know you’re making good money.” Note, this is a decent, not excellent, state university. The woman would not take no for an answer and eventually my mom hung up on her. The phone immediately rang again, and my mother handed it to my father,and said “tell her I’m not here.” He answered the phone and immediately heard “I know she’s there.”</p>
<p>I have had more than my share of spam/telemarketing calls on my cellphone, including from the cellphone provider company trying to hawk something. Really skeeved me. </p>
<p>And as for phone solicitation. I am with calmom on this one. Spent the stamp and mail me something. I will give to the alma maters but not over the phone. </p>
<p>I did give once. My DH got corralled into making solicitation calls for our religion federation fundraiser once. He called. I gave.</p>
<p>Telemarketing calls to cell phones are illegal in the US under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.</p>
<p>There are collection companies, or scam collection companies (i.e. those who try to collect on debts that do not exist, as opposed to those who mistakenly call and harass someone other than the actual deadbeat), whose callers may have what some may consider foreign accented or not good English.</p>
<p>Sounds like the likelihood of arresting/fining anyone who spams via cellphone is about as likely as via landline. If I see a phone # I dont recognize or get an 800 # I do a reverse lookup (I have an app thats no longer available that also includes being able to ID cellphone #s). Its usually spam. The AT&T spam on my phone really, REALLY pi$$ed me off. They must have po’ed lots of customers, as they don’t do it anymore.</p>