Robocalls Flooding Your Cellphone? Here's How to Stop Them
By CHRISTOPHER MELE
An unfamiliar number appears on your cellphone. It's from your area code, so you answer it, thinking it might be important.
There is an unnatural pause after you say hello, and what follows is a recording telling you how you can reduce your credit card interest rates or electric bill or prescription drug costs or any of a number of other sales pitches.
...
Experts recommend a multifaceted approach: Don't answer unknown numbers, use call-blocking apps and report unwanted calls to the government.
I don't agree with the 'experts' the article mentions. I have a different approach, which has been recommended by a number of newspaper columnists, radio personalities, and by me.
Take one for the team.
I think you should answer the call, and hang on until you get to talk to a human being. Stretch the call out as long as you can, and then politely say that you're not interested.
/THAT/ will get you on their don't dial list faster than a nuclear bomb aimed at Bombay: the purveyors of this kind of come-on don't care about what /you/ want, but they care a lot about how much time /their/ employees spend on a call.
You've already been molested, and already had your time wasted. Take one for the team, and tie up their one irreplaceable resource for as long as you can. If everyone did it, the entire industry would be out of business in a month.
Bill Horne Moderator