How To Beat Spam Phone Calls
If You Can't Beat Them, Join Them
Several weeks back I wrote an article on how to beat (email) spam.
Today’s article is in a similar vein - but instead of unwanted emails, we’ll be talking about unwanted phone calls.
While there are things that you supposedly can do to reduce spam phone calls (putting your number on a “do not call registry” etc.) you’re more than likely to still get unwanted calls.
Next time you receive an unwanted call, you can try one of the methods below to make spam-calling less appealing to the spammers (by wasting their time, increasing their costs, and sometimes just giving them a taste of their own medicine).
I’ll admit up front that I don’t have any hard data to prove that the methods I’m going to outline actually work, but in my experience some of them seem to have worked (and as alluded to, some have helped me increase my sales skills, if only marginally).
Starting with the method I’ve observed to be most effective to reduce spam calls: the answer and immediate mute.
This method is pretty self explanatory - I’ll press the “pickup” button on the phone and then immediately mute my line.
To the spammer it shows that the phone has been answered, but its just a dead line - no one on the other end.
Often after a few seconds of “Hello? Hello?” the spammer hangs up.
(If it’s a legitimate call, I’ll often either recognize the caller’s voice or they’ll say something beyond the generic “Hello? Are you there?” and I’ll engage with them further.)
I’m hoping this answer-and-mute is causing my number to be marked as “invalid” in whatever database the spammers are using and thus less likely for a callback, but like I said - I have no hard data to back this up.
(Some spammers seem to have caught on to this method and the automated dialing software the spammers use doesn’t connect to the spammer until some noise is transmitted by my end of the phone - in these cases, I’ll answer and clear my throat before putting the phone on mute so that the call connects to the spammer and then just let the call run its course with the “Hello? Hello?” mentioned above.)
Another method I’ve used in the past is actually saying “Hello” and then once I’m sure I’m talking to a real person I’ll act like I was interrupted and ask them to wait for a moment.
I’ll then put the call on mute and just let it sit.
Generally the spammer hangs up after less than one minute, but regardless of how long they sit “on hold” I feel good knowing I’m tying their time up (and potentially preventing them from scamming someone more likely to fall victim to their tactics).
Another method (and the last one I’ll mention today) is to tell the spammer I’m not interested in what they’re selling (or the “undelivered” package they have for me, or the back taxes I owe to the IRS, or whatever the scam-de-jour is) and then try to up my selling skills by pitching them most recent multi level market product that’s been advertised to me.
They generally hang up pretty quickly once I start my sales pitch.
And that’s it for my most effective spam-phone-call-fighting-methods.
As somewhat of an afterthought: I plan to write a full-fledged article on a related subject in the future, but given the subject of today’s article I feel it’s important to mention: when dealing with calls from anyone you aren’t certain that you know, don’t give out personal information or follow instructions given to you by the caller.
If the person on the other end of the line is contacting you about a legitimate concern or opportunity and you prefer to do business over the phone you should be able to obtain a legitimate phone number to call (via the company’s website, a phone book, or something similar).
It’s safest to treat any unknown caller (and any information they provide you) as inherently malicious - you’re almost always going to be better off ignoring it, or verifying it through a channel independent of the phone call.
On that note, stay safe and let me know via an email or comment if you’ve found other effective ways of beating spam phone calls!