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Comment by maxerickson | Hacker News Reader

People seem to have varying success, but I find that any even semi-legitimate companies will stop calling if you answer and ask to be put on their do not call list.

It can be necessary to talk over their opening spiel.

This is in the US for a number that is already on the national do not call list (which has lots of exceptions); I don't make threats or argue or anything sophisticated, just "Please put this number on your do not call list." Then hang up.

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This never worked for me when I was receiving wrong-number collections calls, they would just hang up and call back the next day. What did work was hanging up, calling the number back, and asking to be added to their do not call list.

Debt collectors are actually more regulated than telemarketers, so once they are convinced you aren't the debtor, they will stop. I think the not wasting time on pointless calls is even more important to them than marketers. Even in the case that they are contacting the debtor, there are pretty strict rules they must follow.

I guess this discusses some aspects of it: http://blog.credit.com/2011/04/getting-collection-calls-for-...

Yeah, I did some research back then, and it didn't really seem to be by the books. Regardless, if they were the ones that initiated the call, they would all instantly hang up if I suggested they had the wrong number/person/etc and call again later.

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