Lately, we've been getting a marked increase in spam phone calls. I did everything with the do-not-call list, way back when. Do I need to do all that again? What's the proper response when I get a robo-caller trying to sell me health insurance?

I usually cut them off mid-sentence and state that they must remove me from their list.
I don't ask- I tell them. I don't get any resistance from this approach and I'm not rude about it, either.

/no home phone these days, just a cell.
//not looking forward to the day they'll start spamming my cell.

I've gotten several spam calls on my cell. I don't care if I'm rude to them, I just talk over them and inform them that they're calling me on a cell phone. I think it worked pretty well because it's been months since I've gotten a call, and for a while there I had 5 calls within a few weeks.

As for the home, I'm on the do not call list as well as paying for call intercept. It works extremely well and I rarely get unwanted calls.

That's funny... I was JUST thinking this same thing last night... when I got the 5th call in 2 days from survey companies. I hadn't had any in years. Are survey companies exempt in the same way that politicians are?

The first call that I got was from somebody trying to sell me some kind of insurance concerning my mortgage. The woman on the phone would only identify her firm as having been "authorized by SunTrust" (my mortgage company) to call me, but clearly she worked for somebody else. I read her the riot act ("in Texas, if I tell you not to call me and you subsequently do, it's a $500 fine per call").

The second call, this morning, was a robot offering me some other sort of product (wasn't paying careful attention). The robot did announce its phone number at the beginning of the call, before I had a chance to write it down or anything.

Anyway, I put our phone number back into the do-not-call registry again. We'll see if that does any good.

Sounds like you need VoIP service with call block and possibly telemarketer block features.

I found out that there is a company (and there are probably others) who is the subcontracted calling organization for many many national and local charities.

Here's the interesting part. You can't ask them to put you on "Do Not Call" for all their charities. You have to tell them specifically which ones.

I had around 5 calls from these same guys over a month or so for 5 different charities. Each time I asked to be put on "do not call" for that charity.

Finally I went to their website to get a list of all the charities they handle so I could have them all blocked. There are THOUSANDS of them. And they break them down to the finest granularity possible to make it hard for you. For example, "Red Cross of Miami" "Red Cross of Southern Florida" "Red Cross of Florida" "Red Cross of Eastern US" "National Red Cross" might all be SEPARATE charities requiring separate blocking.

In other words, this company WILL keep hounding you forever no matter what and there is not much you can do about it.

Can't remember the name or website of this "soliciting organization" offhand. If they ever start bugging me again, I'll try to document it here.

Quick Sidetrack: Here is an example of how I am becoming a "cranky old man" at my young age.

There are a number of charities that I regularly contribute to and have for years. Every time they call, I remind them that I NEVER respond to any solicitations by phone, and that if they send me a letter, I'll contribute in December just like I always do, but they should never contact me by phone ever again (and by the way, don't waste postage and paper sending me multiple requests in the first 9 months of the year, just spend that money on the actual CHARITY instead).

Anyway, here's the old man crankiness part. One particular charity called me on the phone and bugged me anyway. I remembered that last year they had done the same thing, then had apologized profusely and promised they wouldn't call me again.

Yet they still did. Again.

So I reduced my yearly contribution way down to a token $10 or so and told them why. I bet they STILL call me on the phone next year. Idiots.

I love the cause, but I hate their fundraisers!

Call them up and tell them to not call you. If pressed, start rattling off each and every one. You can be more petty than them.

Pet Peeve #2: I sent a sizeable donation to a charity in late December.
Then I got a letter from them in early January saying "We are having a big fund drive for January only. We noticed you gave us X in 2005. Why don't you mail us a check for X+20% RIGHT NOW for 2006."

Dammit! I just sent you a big check two weeks ago. Now you want me to immediately double it before your "Thank You" form letter even arrives!

That's what happens when you let automated processes generate your fundraising letters. You really tick off cranky people like me.

Same with soliciting me by phone.
If you're a reputable organization and not an "aluminum siding salesman" you'll send me a letter and let me check out your legitimacy at the BBB, your website, and various charity scam tracking sites. NOT call me on the telephone and try to strongarm me while I'm eating dinner, entertaining a lovely lady, busy with (attempting to play) guitar, or for that matter just staring at the Tivo.

Man, I love donating money to worthy causes. I just hate being called at home and bugged about it.


Just so I don't end my rant with whining, I want to give an example of the RIGHT way to handle your fundraising. After I donated some money (and a tiny amount at that) to an underfunded sports program at my alma mater, I received a personal letter from one of the athletes thanking me for my contribution.

That letter absolutely made my week! I was glad that I could help out in some small way, glad that somebody appreciated my help, and excited and hopeful to see the team do well in the coming year. And I'll feel happy to give them a little more next year. That's the RIGHT way to handle your fundraising.

Maybe they are not in the USA ? I remember hearing when the do not call list was started people expecting the telemarketers to just move off shore.

I inform charities that I have a list, of which I pick 2 charities per year to donate to. Anyone who calls me with some kind of telemarketing gets instantly removed from my list, and informed of that fact, as well as the amount I may have sent them if they had been more polite.

This also goes for any company - I can always be more petty than them - and get products elsewhere.