<p>We have an AT&T phone system in our house with bluetooth capability for two cell phones. When we make long distance calls, I simply hit the “cell” button, choose which cell number I want to use (DH’s or mine) and it uses our free minutes. We could feasibly use three of the handsets at the same time, one for each cell phone number and the landline number. We’ve talked about going to cell-only service, but our internet service, TV and phone are bundled and it just seems easier to keep it.</p>
<p>My husband has a different last name than me, so whenever they call me Mrs. Smith, I know it’s a telemarketer and I say I’m not Mrs. Smith and I hang up. </p>
<p>Any charity asking for money (and that includes my alma mater), I tell them I have a policy of never giving money over the phone, and they need to send me something in the mail.</p>
<p>Had an interesting conversation with Planned Parenthood just last night. They’ve been calling a lot – but when I pick up I get an automated voice apologizing for the fact that they called me but can’t talk to me right now. (Oy). Got a human voice last night, and told them to stop calling me. The guy said: “but we’re Planned Parenthood, and you’ve supported us in the past.” And I said – “and I’ll continue to support you in the future on my terms and in the mail, and if you keep calling me during dinner time my mind might change and you really don’t want that to happen.” We’ll see what happens tonight …</p>
<p>In general, I am not nice to telemarketers and hang up really quickly.</p>
<p>I think I might try something like that with charities: “I will never give your charity another dime if I receive any more phone calls.”</p>
<p>^^^ The people actually making the calls most likely do not work for the charity and don’t care about the charity, they work for some sweatshop hired by the charity to raise money for them, and therefore couldn’t care less if you ever donate again or not.</p>
<p>They just move on to the next mark.</p>
<p>My DS is usually very quick to catch a scam, but replied to an ad for a car. Fortunately he send me a copy of the email and I told him IMMEDIATELY it was a scam. He had already responded by asking them for the car’s VIN # and said he would not deal with Paypal protection or an out of state vehicle, but would look at if if it was local. Needless to say he heard nothing more from them.</p>
<p>Has anyone been hit by a telemarketer who tried to get the Craigslist verified phone code? When I told a telemarketer with an Indian accent to stop calling, he said he could get me on an international do-not-call list by waiting for a call from the do-not-call list holder that I would get in a couple of minutes, noting down the code they gave me, and giving it to him when he called again.</p>
<p>I figured it was some sort of a scam to use my phone #, especially when the call I received was from Craigslist, and told him to scram. I still don’t know what he would get by getting my phone registered with his account, but I figured it wouldn’t be anything good for me.</p>