Is there anything you can do for landline spam calls? Or spam texts? My family is inundated.
Pick up the phone and ask them to put you on a do not call list. Surprisingly that works for some of these.
Pick up the phone and fuck with them. “911, what’s the location of your emergency” is my standard greeting no matter who calls me. Or tell them you are a Jehovah’s witness and as them if they’ve heard the good word.
Tell them this is a cell phone and your state allows up to $$$ per phone call if you take them to small claims. This usually works well with asking their full name and the name of their company and the name of their supervisor.
Want to get warranty for a horse carriage
Want to get warranty for a 1930s Model T
Want to get warranty for a future 2023 car
Want to speak to Kate when the person calling is Cathy. No no no I really want to speak to Kate.
Want to ask if they can call me at a specific time rather than random so that I know it is them
Max talk time has been 10 seconds. I wish I had the skills to prolong the call.
You could start by giving them more realistic car details.
I engaged them one time when I got really annoyed. Gave fake car details (but realistic), call back number of local McDonalds, and then kept asking for details about the coverage. I eventually declined it and the sales agent got super pushy with scare tactics so I hung up.
https://www.fcc.gov/spoofed-robocalls
> Caller ID authentication is critical for protecting consumers against spoofed robocalls where scammers mask their identity, harass consumers, and seek to defraud vulnerable communities. Caller ID authentication, based on so-called STIR/SHAKEN standards, provides a common information sharing language between networks to verify caller ID information which can be used by robocall blocking tools, FCC investigators, and by consumers trying to judge if an incoming call is likely legitimate or not. On June 30, 2021, the FCC confirmed that all the largest voice service providers had implemented these standards in the IP sections of their networks, in accordance with the FCC’s deadline. While some small carriers were afforded an extension of this deadline, Chairwoman Rosenworcel shortened the amount of time afforded to a subset of small voice service providers based on evidence that they were originating an increasing quantity of illegal robocalls. Thus, small voice service providers that are not facilities-based must implement STIR/SHAKEN in the IP portions of their networks no later than June 30, 2022.
That "small voice service providers" loophole is what's currently abused; a few of them have found being lax on spam detection means they can rake in fees for a while.
https://epic.org/documents/scam-robocalls-telecom-providers-...
> Every answered scam robocall pays money to those providers, as well as to every telephone service provider in the call path. Even when these providers are told—sometimes repeatedly—that they are transmitting fraudulent calls, they keep doing it, because they are making money from these calls.
For mobile turn on do not disturb with only contacts or favorite contacts allowed to breaktrough. Aggressively respond with a stop word to incoming texts - that eventually clears your number out of marketing databases.