How can one stop these people?

[Exfso]

Every day without fail, I get some person rings me who says they are from "the technical dept of Windows", what a joke!! I have had a gut full, how does one stop these people calling all the time?:mad2::mad2:

[Octane]

Have any young kids or grandkids to put on the phone with them? :)

"Just a minute, going to turn my computer on."

Walk away and put the phone down without hanging up. :D

H

[Larryp]

I hurl a tirade of abuse at them-doesn't stop them calling, but makes me feel better!

[jenchris]

I just say " yeah, right" and hang up.
Once I said, "which computer, I have 6?" They hung up that time.

[Neutronstar]

I find with cold callers and the like they give up pretty quick if you speak to them in a language other than English.

I know enough German to address them. When I answered with "Gutten Arbend", one guy said, "oh, you don't speak English, see ya later mate" and hung up on me. Like I knew what he said. :lol:

[Julian]

You could say"I've been waiting for your call"

"I need the two windows in the front Room cleaned, then there is the kitchen back window which is a little dusty, and of course the cobwebs in the garage"

Windows is now clean:P

[Akwestland]

Sometimes (When I am in the mood) I start talking to them, they get all excited I start asking them questions (as if I am interested), I then let them down with a great thud when I inform them that I don't actually own a computer and probably never will. They are not sure what to say next.

And other times I ask then about the "error reports" I ask them what format the report is in, what protocol was used to transmit the data, and what period of time was the data collected over, add a few more questions that they will not be able to answer (because the error report does not actually exist) and they do not know which way to go either. And yes, I do know a little about computers, but do not profess to be a Guru.

Just my thoughts.

Andrew.

[Neutronstar]

THAT one I like, might try that next time.

[vapeinspace]

If I have nothing better on, I try and waste as much of their time as possible. If figure the longer I keep them on the phone then the less they are wasting other peoples time.

So far my record is 54 minutes.

[glend]

Make sure your phone is on the 'Do Not Call' Register, then you will onky get bothered by exempt charities. - in theory.

[AndrewJ]

Gday Glen

Doesnt work, as these folks are normally ringing from O/S and hence know they cant be fined anyway.
In my perfect fantasy
I would get the windows peoples call first, then tell em i need them to hold as i have another call. The second call would be from the scum wanting to change all my downlights to LEDs ( for Free :lol:).
Then i could connect em to each other:fight:
Andrew

[Dealy]

Yep that's what we used to do.

We found the only people that called on the house phone were scammers and telemarketers, so we unplugged the phone and only use mobiles now.

Kev

[FlashDrive]

Tell'em your running Windows 3.1 .... or better still a Commodore 64

Col....:D

[glend]

Ok, then try this: All these overseas call centres doing inbound marketing rely on computer dialing systems which randomly dial numbers till they get a hit - when the system detects a pickup at the called number it it then 'pops' the call to the first available operator (its forced on the operator by the system). There is always a lag between when the system calls you and when it connects you to the operator. If you pickup the phone and say hello the system assumes your caught and pops the call to an operator (you can actually sometimes here the call centre background noise when this happens through the open mike of the operator). The trick is to hang up during this switch period, don't say anything just hang up. Most people can't brign themsleves to just pickup the phone but not say anything, so you can pickup, say hello (but that's all) and if you don't get an immeadiate response from someone you know just hang up before the system can pop the call to an operator. These Overseas call centres have to contend with lag and that's their weakness.

[OffGrid]

:rofl:Get yourself a standalone digital answering machine.
Our home phone has had various answering machines fire walling since I can't remember when.
Nothing gets through unless it is both important to us and the caller.

As most calls are computer generated, they usually drop out very quickly and we get a short busy tone msg that is easily deleted.

Our regulars know the deal and warble on till we pick up or leave a message.

No costs to call the voicemail.
I have been thinking for some time to buy a few units and put away in case they are no longer manufactured.
We are not on the No Call Register and never will be.:rofl:

Life is good this side of our firewall.

[vlazg]

I have a referees whistle next to the phone, give them a blast, it hurts

[pmrid]

I ask them "Does your mother know what you do for a living?". There's usually a pregnant pause during which I quietly hang up. I have given up torrents of abuse - it's not worth the effort.

Peter

[04Stefan07]

I play along a bit to waste their time then tell them I'll call the cops and they have never called back.

[xelasnave]

I use Glens system. Hi there...no answer then I hang up.
I think I have had only two or three calls in 12 mths that were legit.
Although I let one thru recently.
After his speel I said...I don't have a computer I think you are bs get lost.
I do wonder however how many folk they get to scam

[Terry B]

Never had one of these calls. I have had a silent number for years.

[MattT]

Get a real computer.....an Apple:2thumbs::2thumbs::2thumbs:

Never had anyone from windows or whatever ring me....

What is windows?

[FlashDrive]

Profanity will not be tolerated ..... :P

[KISSMAD]

How do you hear it ring? :lol:

[LewisM]

had a silent number since I got my first phone. Anyone important knows my number. To top that off, we haven't even had a home number connected since 2009. Is there any use these days??? Regardless, we are also on the Do Not Ring system - not that it helps in this case.

Matt is right - when they call, just say you have Apple. There ya go, good bye. All over.

Speaking of annoying scammers/canvasers - Jehovah's or Mormons. We can see who is ringing the door bell from our balcomeys. If I am feeling lazy, I will shout out something to them in Russian and ignore them. If they try again, I will say something that sounds more rude :)

If I am bored and feeling playful, I will usually answer the door either with "Shalom Aleichem" or "La il laha il Allah, Muhammad a rasool Allah". Interestingly, the Jewish usually throws them more than the Arabic!

[Exfso]

Terry, I used to have a silent number, and Telstra in their infinite wisdom cancelled it without my input. This woman today wanted to argue with me when I told her there was no such thing as Windows technical department making outbound calls. Her words were "now listen to me" well that fired me up and after I told her to go and do "you know what", I then hung up.These clowns must have a death wish I reckon. I have tried all the usual responses ranging from I don't have a computer to I run a Mac and all the threats regarding police etc, it is just water off a duck's back.:mad2::mad2:

[MattT]

Change to Optus? Have been with them since they started in this great country of ours....other than that maybe pretend to be a mad Russian, sorry Lewis, have worked with enough of them and can do the accent perfectly....lots of fun!

[Paul Haese]

Pete, I have a range of methods of dealing with these germs.

BTW being on the do not call register does not make any difference. We get calls once or twice a week and we are on the register.

So as to strategies. Answer phone, hear start of spiel and then say you are scammers and hang up. Or wait for them to start talking and then burb very loudly in the phone, or the other make a noise from the other end. You might as well entertain yourself I reckon. You could call scan via an answering machine too, or start singing into the phone. Put on some loud music and leave the phone near the speakers. You could play along with them and then tell them after a while that the computer is either an Apple, not turned on, or you got lost with the instructions and could they start again. There are endless ways to entertaining yourself. I think answering the phone and walking off is the best way. Leave the phone on and after a while you can hear them ranting and raving. Highly amusing. If they are dumb enough to ring my place, I think I ought to be able to provide a little bit of torture back.

[Exfso]

Yeah Paul, have tried all that stuff, nothing seems to work, they are like flies in the outback, they just keep coming back. Might have to build some sort of electronic device to provide real kick butt feedback and turn their ears to mush...
Actually a really powerful umpires whistle should achieve a similar result when blown into a telephone microphone....

[thunderchildobs]

Depending on my mood, as soon as they start talking, i say
"Australian Federal Police - Fraud Squad how can i help you".
Click.

[sheeny]

I don't know about the "Do not call register" not being worthwhile... I am on it, and when I get a call such as this, I immediately inform them that I am on the do not call register, and I want to speak to their supervisor, or ask how did you get my number, etc... "click" every time.

It doesn't guarantee you won't get a call, but it does slow down the call rates. I can tell when my number expires off the Do Not Call register - the frequency of calls noticeably increases, which reminds me to renew my listing. I still think its worthwhile being on the register.

Al.

[BeanerSA]

I haven't had a home phone line for years. That stopped the calls.

[GrahamL]

Tell them Interpol has requested you log this call so it can be tracked to its origin , had a few just go completely silent and one who just lost it
big time :)

[PCH]

Yeah Al,

But that's not because they're scared of getting caught or don't want to put you through to the supervisor. They hang up solely because you're not playing the game and clearly they don't wanna waste their time talking to someone going on about do not call registers.

[Exfso]

I am also on the do not call register, that clearly means nothing to these cretins, reckon I get half a dozen calls a week. So as far as I am concerned that register does "Jack":shrug:

[PCH]

The DNC register is an Aussie thing - how would they even know about it, let alone abide by it since they originate from overseas?

[cfranks]

As others have mentioned, I use the 'my computer is switched off in another room' ploy and ask them to wait while I switch it on, put the phone down and walk away. Once, after about an hour, I hung up the phone and the guy called back asking why I had hung up on him! :P I apologised and started the process again but then took pity on him and explained what knowledge I had acquired after 46 years in the computer industry. We finished having quite a nice chat!! I live alone in a small village and seldom talk to anyone so any conversation is (usually) welcome. :(

[Shano592]

Or go even further back. Tell them you are using a Microbee with 16k of Ram, a green screen montior and no hard drive! Ah, good old MWBasic ... thank goodness we won't see those days again!