I may hold the record for junk calls

[Cyrano]

So I'm home today and my phone hasn't stopped.

Yes, I have a smart phone, but I also have/need a land line. And that land line got going with junk calls a little after 8:30 this morning. And it has wrung, on average, about three times an hour.

Since I'm not home much of the time, I have no idea if this is normal. What I've been doing today is turn it on and then instantly turn it off. Sometimes, the same call is repeated moments later.

I'd unplug the damn thing, but I have it for a reason. (Call waiting lets me know when it's a legitimate call.)

Although I've been on the "No-Call" list forever, it's useless.

My guess is that If our smart phones received this many junk calls, we'd all rise up in rebellion and demand our carriers either find a way to stop it, or we'd storm their stores and "sting em up."

The fact that we don't get constant calls on our cell phones indicates to me that there's a way to block most of them. So if this can be done with smart phones, why not with land lines?

Anyhow, my condolences go out to those with land lines who are either retired or work at home. I often wonder if this is another result of the Trump administration's deregulation of everything that can possibly be deregulated.

[displacedtexan]

1. My brother had an ATT landline until he died last year.

I spent almost a year helping with his at-home care, and the junk calls got so bad that we had to forward the calls to a cell phone, so I could block them. Consequently, the landline phone rarely rang after that.

[FoxNewsSucks]

2. I used to have a landline,

I had a little box I got at Radio Shack for $49. It plugged into the line between the jack and the phone. When the receiver was picked up, the box emitted a very quick beep. That beep was the computer version of the three-tone "number you have dialed is disconnected or no longer in service."

Human callers never really noticed it, since it was shorter than an answering machine beep. Robo-calls disconnected right away and removed the number from their database. You still got calls from other call centers, but after a month or so, your number is removed from more and more. Eventually, I got no auto-dialed calles again. And very few other calls.

This looks like the same kind of box I had. It's worth a try.

https://www.amazon.com/Privacy-Technologies-TZ-800B-TeleZapper/dp/B00005TQ1Y/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=call+zapper+tones+out+of+service&qid=1559846903&s=gateway&sr=8-7

[Doreen]

5. Thanks

I will let my friend know about this.

[Dustlawyer]

7. Thanks!

My elderly mother lives with me and has to have a land line. It rings all of the time as well despite the "Do not call" listing. I will find one of these after work today!

[customerserviceguy]

3. And the phone company wants it that way

They'd rather sell you a complete digital package rather then just plain old telephone service, which is expensive to maintain for the rates they can get for it.

Junk calls will be the death of landlines, and the powers that be are just fine with it.

[Doreen]

4. My friend has gotten somewhere between 50 and 60 in just one day.

She has donated to some organizations in the past but some how others find out and try to get her to donate to them also. I have noticed the better your credit is the more calls you get. She has excellent credit ( almost perfect ) so you can imagine the calls she gets. They are relentless.

[Leith]

6. Our cell phones DO receive that many calls

I don't get an average of 3 spam calls per hour. It's more like 2. That's from 10:00am to 8:00pm, Monday through Saturday. For some strange reason, they have been leaving Sunday alone (for now).

I am on the cell phone No Call list, but I have to give them 31 days for them to check for my number (does anyone think that's going to happen?). As of June 20, I am going to complain to the no-call people every single damn time I get a spam call. I hope they're ready.

[LanternWaste]

8. Between telemarketers calls and calling customer service...

I sometimes daydream about being the only person on the planet.

Weird thing is, in my case, I have a cell and a land-line. I get about two or three marketing calls per month on my land-line, same amount per day on my cell that's got two blocking apps on it.

[Initech]

9. My parents have a landline and it must ring at least 3 times an hour.

All junk calls. It rings so much that I want to smash the damn thing. Even on my cell phone I'm starting to get bombarded with calls. One telemarketer was calling me so much that I wound up going through Verizon directly and hard blocking the number (as opposed to blocking it through the Samsung app). It's getting infuriating.

[Cal Carpenter]

10. I have a landline at my business

Line 1 is listed as our business number. So many of the calls we get on that line are junk - recorded messages about our google listing or website, preapproved business loans, etc, or they are actual humans calling from crappy credit card processing companies and the like. Recently we've been getting calls with caller ID of the White House or Defense Department and it is a recording in Chinese (Ni hao!).

Line 2 is unlisted and was previously a residential number. It gets a whole different type of spammy bullshit. I won a cruise, or a friend or family member has nominated me to win a medical alert device (really? wtf?? lol). Once in awhile a human asks for a person by name - I have no idea who they are looking for. Probably collections companies or something for the person who had this number 10 years ago.

I'd say between the two lines I get 5 to 10 garbage calls a day, sometimes a lot more (a 'day' being 9 to 11 hours depending on the day of the week).

But every time the phone rings I have to answer it because we get a lot of calls from customers or vendors or other legitimate things. So annoying.

[keithbvadu2]

11. Keep asking: What is your name? ... until you get an answer.

Keep asking: What is your name?
... until you get an answer.

What is your company/org name?
... until you get an answer.

What is your company/org address?
... until you get an answer.

What is your company/org phone number?
... until you get an answer.

What number can I get in contact with you?
... until you get an answer.

.
Their time is also important to them.

[Cyrano]

12. Useless. They'll give you a phony name

That aside, why are you wasting your time of scammers? You're not taking up their time. They are stealing time from your life.

[keithbvadu2]

13. Entertainment value Don't care if they give fake info. Just keep them talking, wasting their time.

Entertainment value

Don't care if they give fake info.

Just keep them talking, wasting their time.

[cwydro]

16. That sounds like really boring entertainment.

Ymmv.

[keithbvadu2]

18. Slow day

Some people enjoy junk mail.

[Xolodno]

14. I transferred my landline to Ooma....

...then turned the ringer off.

All my friends and family have my cell phone number. When I'm required to fill something out that wants my number....I give them the "land line".

Recently I downloaded the Ooma app and have it set to let me know when I have a voice mail on that number. Every once in awhile, we get a call from an old friend or distant relative. Most of the time, its a collection agency after my sister.

[leftyladyfrommo]

15. Ut is ironic that lots of us don't answer our phones

any more. I only answer calls from my contacts. If people leave a message I will call them back unless it's a sales call or scammer.

So I have a phone that I rarely actually talk on. I use my phone as my computer. I text a lot.

[KentuckyWoman]

17. Junks to my landline will blow your record out of the water

We had a day not long ago that averaged 12 calls an hr for 3 hrs straight, but 13 hrs total we got blasted... just to a lesser degree for the other 10 hrs.

that's the day I learned turn it on and immediate off doesn't help. in fact it makes it worse. Almost immediately the server will put your number back in the lineup, change the outgoing caller ID and call you again... over and over and over. This day I got calls with caller ID claiming to be my own phone number repeatedly. Often they just pick a number out of thin air, sometimes they fake caller ID that is a number held by your friends, family.

Computers are so fast they can link up call history on a phone number in milliseconds now.

My landline carrier has instructions on their website that is supposed to help, but obviously hasn't. The no call list is pointless.

Laws don't do any good when the computer equipment is outside the US and therefore beyond the reach of US regulations.

[tosh]

19. I bought a Digitone call blocker in

Maybe 2011-2012. It will block 1000 numbers PLUS all “out of area” and such.

It is FULL and I still get multiples each day the ones blocked by that do not ring through. I have blocked some unknown amount of numbers on my Panasonic handsets, those ring once.

The most annoying ones are those that spoof local numbers, both landline and cell, hi-jacking some real person’s caller ID. I had 3 or 4 of those today.

I work at home for the business we own and a landline is necessary. It is maddening!

I made a contact in my iPhone named robocall. It is blocked and I just keep adding the intruders onto that, but those are nothing compared to the landline.

The landline call blocker can piggyback with a second unit, so it may come to that. Shame we have to live with this craziness.

[TwilightZone]

20. If you're with a carrier that Nomorobo services, sign up. It's free for landlines.

https://www.nomorobo.com/

Here's a list of carriers they currently service:

https://nomorobo.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/205761775-What-phone-carriers-are-supported-

Your phone company might also have a service available. Ours does, so we have their anti-spam service set up, combined with Nomorobo, and our spam calls dropped probably 95% or more.