I get probably 10-15 scam calls a day. Fake Medicare/medicade, home improvement life alert, extended warranty…pretty much every scam under the sun all from spoofed numbers in my area with someone with a thick accent claiming to be John Smith or some name like that. These people are targeting vulnerable people usually elderly people and that pisses me off as it has affected people I know and care about. I’ve tried not picking up for months but the calls keep coming. I then decided that when I have the time while cooking dinner or doing some monotonous task, I’d work on my voice work as an elderly smoker to keep these (usually) guys on the line for as long as possible giving them a random string of numbers and alpha numeric codes as if they were my credit card#, social security#, Medicare card#…
I’ve been wanting to take a step further and instead of just trying to waste their time…creep them out and make them feel uncomfortable. Maybe even to the point where they’d think about different career paths. Nothing excessive…just things like “hey Johnny boy, tell me what youre wearing…ohh yeah I like that…” But as someone against sexual harassment and the like (yes im such a good person I deserve so much praise) it feels wrong even if they’re in the business of harming people and taking advantage of them.
Anyway, as this isn’t something I’d discuss with my normal circle, I was curious how random people on the internet would weigh in.
I get the ones asking if I’m willing to sell my house. I don’t own a house. but I play along as if I do and when they confirm the number of bedrooms and condition of the home I tell them everything has been upgraded etc. keeping them string along for as long as possible. when they asked me a dollar amount, I tell them they have to come with an offer first before I tell them what my asking price is. again I don’t have a house. usually that triggers it up to a higher manager. so they call back a day or so later, and I speak to a different person usually without the accent, and go through all the same information. I waste their time again making up whatever I can. when it finally gets to a dollar amount, whatever they say, I double it. you would think that would make them hang up but they don’t. I’ve gotten into arguments with people where they ask me if I really think my house is worth that much money, it’s a riot. have fun. fuck with them all you want. they are the lowest of low and deserve every minute of wasted time
These I already understand are actual local home buying conglomerates who are not specifically scammers but are real people doing a job. That being said, Im on the side of “they are the problem with the housing market”. I do plan to normally keep these people on the phone without any SH creepiness.
I’ve also done some research into why I get these calls and its because when you look my # up, it’s tied to some boomer who lives ~30 miles away from me. Through these calls I actually have their address and name. I’ve thought about clearing that up but I like the fact that my name doesn’t come up when you search my #. Either way im already on every DNC list known to man but that doesn’t help.
Also Bangalore doesn’t care about the DNC list
My favorite way to deal with scammers is the grandma bot AI. Better than the sexual harassment strategy. You let them talk to a really dumb AI until they quit.