Letting nuisance recorded calls play out

[Stephen Tashi]

A friend of mine thinks there should be a campaign urging people to let nuisance recorded phone calls play out in their entirety -even to the point where the caller has hung-up and you hear the recording from the phone company indicating your phone is off the hook. What would be the effects if if people often did that?

Would it increase the expenses of the nuisance callers? - decrease the number of calls their machines can make? - increase the cost of phone service for all customers?

 

[Evo]

What would be the point of not hanging up once the caller has hung up? They are no longer paying for the call. If the call is to your cell phone or if your land line has metered service, you could be charging yourself.

 

[Stephen Tashi]

What would be the point of not hanging up once the caller has hung up?

I think you would have to actually listen to the call if you did that. My friends idea is that you just put the phone down and go about you business until you get the call from the phone company - followed by the alarm from the phone company - at least from my phone company in the USA.

 

[Evo]

There can be a lot of extra time between when a recording stops and the call terminates, just because the recording stops doesn't mean that they cut off the call. In some cases, due to glitches, the signal that a call has terminated may take hours or even days (Yes, I used to work for the phone company Ma Bell) But even when it works correctly it can take up to several minutes because it needs to see a disconnect from both ends, if not, it waits a bit. Been ages since I worked with that so I have forgotten the terminology.

 

[berkeman]

When I'm working a medical shift, I need to answer all incoming calls even if I don't recognize the calling phone number. That is because my cell phone number is posted publicly, in case folks have a medical emergency when I am patrolling away from my post. If I get a call that is not an emergency related medical call, there is no way I'm letting it drone on and tie up my phone.

 

[marcusl]

I have always thought that the way to tie up the most resources would be to let the recorded message play and get a person on the line. Then sound interested and engage them for a long time before finally rejecting the offered product or service. I do not have the time or patience to try this myself, however, so you'll have to tell me how it goes.

 

[Stephen Tashi]

There can be a lot of extra time between when a recording stops and the call terminates, just because the recording stops doesn't mean that they cut off the call.

Does this tie-up the lines of both the caller and person who was called?

If I get a call that is not an emergency related medical call, there is no way I'm letting it drone on and tie up my phone.

Naturally. My friends idea is that you only let a call drone-on when it's convenient for you.

 

[symbolipoint]

I have always thought that the way to tie up the most resources would be to let the recorded message play and get a person on the line. Then sound interested and engage them for a long time before finally rejecting the offered product or service. I do not have the time or patience to try this myself, however, so you'll have to tell me how it goes.

The recorded call might not give an option for you to reach a live person to whom you could engage, and if you press a button for whatever purpose, do you know if this would confirm that your number is worth another call attempt from they or others to call your number for more scammy tries?

If you have a machine to take a recorded message and which allows you to hear and screen the call, you could just let the machine take the call, and that can usually be the end for that particular call event - but maybe not others.

 

[Borg]

A friend of mine thinks there should be a campaign urging people to let nuisance recorded phone calls play out in their entirety -even to the point where the caller has hung-up and you hear the recording from the phone company indicating your phone is off the hook. What would be the effects if if people often did that?

Would it increase the expenses of the nuisance callers? - decrease the number of calls their machines can make? - increase the cost of phone service for all customers?

Once the phone gives you a dial tone or busy signal, they are gone so you're just wasting your time at that point. Today's technology is such that I doubt you can impact them in this way.
However, this reminds me of a company that was calling me in the early 90's. I discovered that their dialer would hang up, wait a few seconds and try to get a dial tone to make their next call. Unfortunately for them, those few seconds weren't long enough if I stayed on the line. I remember leaving my phone like that for hours while their dumb computer kept trying to get a dial tone.

 

[Evo]

Does this tie-up the lines of both the caller and person who was called?

Yes.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

There is a website devoted to playing with the scammers. Some great stories there.
http://www.419eater.com/

 

[davenn]

There is a website devoted to playing with the scammers. Some great stories there.
http://www.419eater.com/

haha brilliant !

thanks