Hmm, everyone's favorite girlfriend, Raechel, with a certain scam that isn't one scammer, but a whole family of them.  I was down on getting calls from that wonderful company called cardholder services, as well as a dozen different things.  Doing a little research on line, it seems the FTC and FCC are on them, have been for a while, but the calls are back to one a day or more.

Enough compaining.  Time for actions, and it seems the FTC etc. are having a hard time getting their prison cells around these crooks.

So, logic. which tells me the operators on the other end, the scammers, are probably not using a telephone handset, more than likely, a headset.  Which would suit my purposes nicely as what I am thinking is this.

I have a very cheap wooden recorder of the musical kind, otherwise known as a fipple flute.  As are most wind instruments, the mouthpiece can be removed, which when you block the end that you took the rest out of, becomes a very shrill, very loud whistle.  I think maybe waiting for the scammer to answer, then a good long blast with that and hang up might have little effect, other than personal satisfaction of knowing what it must have been on the other end.  I've tried to keep them on the line as long as possible, but they seem to be able to learn a little, and when they don't immediately get the information they request, they hang up. 

Therefore, I shall try greeting them with a "One note sampa" of my own composition.

Oh, yeah, don't bother reporting the phone numbers, they never use one they really own and it would just be causing someone else a problem.  So, let's just have some fun with them.

Doric.

I get Jennifer from cardservices alot...Hang up soon as I hear who it is..

Yesterday it was Jessica.

But I'm past the point of passive resistance.

NOw I want to do damage.

Doric.

you can play computer, offer them weird choices and make them press random numbers.

I like citing the telecommunications laws about the use of private lines for conducting business without written consent.  You can charge the calling company what ever you want and try to collect.  One of our past District Attorney's turned me on to this trick.  It's amazing how quickly they get off the line.

Quote - I like citing the telecommunications laws about the use of private lines for conducting business without written consent.  You can charge the calling company what ever you want and try to collect.  One of our past District Attorney's turned me on to this trick.  It's amazing how quickly they get off the line.

It is a good ploy and one I have used successfully.  I used to get calls from a Mortgage company (UK) about three a day until I started saying "As you have called me I deem this call to come under our consultancy agreement and therefore the charge of £100, charged in 15 minute blocks now applies.  How may I help?"  The calls became very short indeed and in just over a week they stopped calling altogether.

I started greeting them with false enthusiasm, and I find the more I do that, the quicker they hang up. :D

Problem with card services and all of their clones is they're not one company, they're just individual scammers operating under the one name, or assortment of names.  Impossible to screen out, what comes up on the caller ID means nothing.  They ignore the "do not call" lists, and with our current government, they seem to have a partner.  Any regulatory body that has the power to stop them is blocked by some stupid politician from doing their job.  The Federal Trade Commission has issued warnings of fines of 11,000$ per day, but when you can't locate them or they change name every week or even more often, the scammers pretty well have their way.

They have a "remove from list", but if you push whichever button the message says, you get the whole scam from the top again, a telephone version of a full "bird".  There isn't anything you can threaten them with, nothing that they'll bother with, they just skip to another name or number and continue on their felonious way. 

If I can cause a little pain, well, pain is fun.

Doric

My only phone is a land line with a message machine.  I always leave the ringer off and the volume on 0, so I only know if I have a message when I bother to look for the flashing light.  Aside from a family emergency, I really have no interest, so I only check maybe once a day - the card people tend to stop leaving messages after the second or third call.