Dealing with the constant flow of scam calls - an experiment

I'm back at the family home for a little bit, and the home phone gets a barrage of non-stop scam calls. One day I got sick of it and unplugged the phone, for a day. The next day, zero calls. It took about a week before they started coming again. We let answering machine grab everything, and in that time zero legitimate calls.

This week it got bad again. So I did the same thing. Unplugged the phone. It has been quite again for the last couple of days.

I hypothesise that any interaction - answering the phone, and even it ringing, marks the number as active by whatever system the scammers use, and it keeps the phone number in rotation. Making it so the phone doesn't ring, ie unplugging it, drops the number out of the system, at least for a time.

So time for a broader study. If it is a problem for you, then try it, and let us know the results.

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Originally Posted by q9

I'm back at the family home for a little bit, and the home phone gets a barrage of non-stop scam calls. One day I got sick of it and unplugged the phone, for a day. The next day, zero calls. It took about a week before they started coming again. We let answering machine grab everything, and in that time zero legitimate calls.

This week it got bad again. So I did the same thing. Unplugged the phone. It has been quite again for the last couple of days.

I hypothesise that any interaction - answering the phone, and even it ringing, marks the number as active by whatever system the scammers use, and it keeps the phone number in rotation. Making it so the phone doesn't ring, ie unplugging it, drops the number out of the system, at least for a time.

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Back when we still had a land line we used to do this and it worked for about a week each time.

Talking about scammers, I had a robot call from a mobile to my mobile the other day that introduced themselves in English as "This is the Chinese Embassy" and then proceeded to prattle on in Chinese until I hung up about 10 seconds later. Normally I dont pick up unknown numbers but as I was expecting a call back from a mate I just assumed it was hm and didn't look closely at the number.

anyone know what these are about?

Ok, so your experience seems similar to mine. Be interesting if some others try this and chime in.

I had some similar message left on message bank. Recorded message with a bunch of Chinese following some English announcement. I'm not bothered really as my phone is permanently on mute, but the house phone issue drives us mental.

Interesting observation. I have not had a land line for around 10 years now. But I did get to landline numbers as part of my broadband plan. Perhaps I should plug phones into these lines with the ringer turned down to consume the scammers time.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

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Originally Posted by BobL

Back when we still had a land line we used to do this and it worked for about a week each time.

Talking about scammers, I had a robot call from a mobile to my mobile the other day that introduced themselves in English as "This is the Chinese Embassy" and then proceeded to prattle on in Chinese until I hung up about 10 seconds later. Normally I dont pick up unknown numbers but as I was expecting a call back from a mate I just assumed it was hm and didn't look closely at the number.

anyone know what these are about?

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Like most scams, they are just dialling random numbers, or numbers from a list they have bought. Because there are now quite a few Chinese in Australia, there's a good chance they will get some who reply. If so, the scams may be the same ones that they try on everyone else, or they may purport to be from the Chinese Embassy demanding money for a variety of reasons (e.g. relative in China in gaol or trouble) or they may be blackmail attempts.

100% get rid of the land line, not to many reason now days to even have one when your mobile can do it all and more for cheaper.


also be aware that data hacks and sites will glady sell your phone number (and email address etc) to be able to spam call you.

Our number of calls dropped significantly after registering on the government do not call registry..

Do Not Call Register

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Originally Posted by havabeer69

100% get rid of the land line, not to many reason now days to even have one when your mobile can do it all and more for cheaper.


also be aware that data hacks and sites will glady sell your phone number (and email address etc) to be able to spam call you.

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My landline costs me zero unless I make calls overseas and then it is 2c/minute. My mobile is used if I am mobile and either have a problem, something happens etc. so you could say I am of the opposite view. I rarely get scam calls on either but we had to change Mrs. P's mobile number and since then they have stopped but it has only been 6 months since the change. I simply don't see why I need to carry a mobile around and if someone wants me they can leave a message. Mobiles serve certain people such as tradies very well but I don't get the idea of I must be in touch with the rest of the world 24 hours a day.

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Originally Posted by Chris Parks

My landline costs me zero unless I make calls overseas and then it is 2c/minute. My mobile is used if I am mobile and either have a problem, something happens etc. so you could say I am of the opposite view. I rarely get scam calls on either but we had to change Mrs. P's mobile number and since then they have stopped but it has only been 6 months since the change. I simply don't see why I need to carry a mobile around and if someone wants me they can leave a message. Mobiles serve certain people such as tradies very well but I don't get the idea of I must be in touch with the rest of the world 24 hours a day.

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if it cost's you zero thats fine, but your mobile also has an answering machine service built in.

also having a mobile and carrying it are two separate things. I just don't want to see people paying for a landline when really its totally redundant now.

Getting rid of the land line is not really an option here. There are times that it has been the best way to talk with my parents when there are network/connection issues with our app of choice. If nothing else it is reliable.

I have a local skype number so they can call me using the landline, for free, where-ever I am. And that too has been reliable.

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Originally Posted by havabeer69

if it cost's you zero thats fine, but your mobile also has an answering machine service built in.

also having a mobile and carrying it are two separate things. I just don't want to see people paying for a landline when really its totally redundant now.

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Why is it totally redundant? it might be for you but there are a lot of people out there that haven't got on the mobile hype wagon and don't pay a lot of money to buy and use mobiles. I have used a mobile extensively for business and employment reasons but as soon as that ended so I did my use of a mobile, it lives in the car and I rarely use it or even see it.

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Originally Posted by Chris Parks

Why is it totally redundant? it might be for you but there are a lot of people out there that haven't got on the mobile hype wagon and don't pay a lot of money to buy and use mobiles. I have used a mobile extensively for business and employment reasons but as soon as that ended so I did my use of a mobile, it lives in the car and I rarely use it or even see it.

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lol, must be the typical millennial in me pushing mobiles on everyone.

really though, you have your specific reasons for NOT using them, but you choosing not to doesn't mean its the wrong fit for most people.... but there is nothing a land does that a mobile doesn't, and you've already said a big one, safety. In an emergency you're getting your mobile out. I'm talking purely of the phone and SMS aspect here, not the fact you can use the internet on most modern ones. genuine questing where do you store all your phone numbers?

the only two big downsides for a mobile is:
initial cost of buying the thing
battery life



I actually I take it back there is ONE thing that a land line is better at, and thats slamming it down at the end of an irate phone call. its something lost on mobile phones

We must be on the scammer’s naughty list.

Depending on my time available or if I’m feeling like it, I pick and let them start to speak, (just in case it is a real call), I then interrupt, tell them they are mongrel scammers and invoke the “Snake Island” reply to the Russian warship, “Go F Yourself!”

Have had the odd one still on the line after the Snake Island reply and I then add that the conversation has been recorded. They always then terminate the call.

We tend not to get repeated calls. We are “lucky” if we only get the odd call now ~ “you beauty!”

Just as an aside, we don’t swear a lot here at home but these people are the exception.

I do recall a number of years ago an article in the paper saying that some companies employing cold callers were having trouble keeping staff because the Australians were so rude and abusive on the phone.

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Originally Posted by Bob38S

I do recall a number of years ago an article in the paper saying that some companies employing cold callers were having trouble keeping staff because the Australians were so rude and abusive on the phone.

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Oh, we're such naughty, naughty boys.:D

Knew one bloke, now sadly deceased who was a retired IT type. He used to pretend he was an old Polish gent who didn't really understand, and see how long he could tie them up for. Their greed overcomes any sense that they may be being tricked.
His highlight was tricking a scammer into downloading a virus that locked up their system. He convinced them that they should download a 'screenshot' of his computer. They had the hide to accuse him of being dishonest!

That’s gold, unfortunately beyond my skills.