Goodbye, robocalls. I might actually miss you a bit, and all that fun we’ve had over the years.
I’ll miss all those times I was in the shower when you called, and I hurriedly hopped out, only to learn I’d won a trip on a boat.
Gone will be the exercise of running around the house, looking for a phone, only to learn Microsoft is checking in on my computers.
And most of all, adios to the so-called pollsters, who are really just operatives trying to get your information and money to feed to candidates.
Time Warner Cable announced Thursday it integrated Nomorobo — which is a fun name to repeat, incidentally — into its phone service. You can also use Nomorobo, a $25,000 winner of the Federal Trade Commission’s Robocall Challenge in 2013, to hang up on those calls before you ever hear them.
The technology essentially works like this: You give Nomorobo permission to have the line ring into their servers at the same time it rings at your home. If the number is on the service’s list of robocallers, it hangs up on them before you ever jump out of the shower. It also claims it can find new banks of numbers when enough customers receive calls from the same number at the same time.
I just installed it on our line Saturday afternoon, so I can’t say if it works. I sure hope it does. Every day, we get a handful of unsolicited calls, even though we’re on the federal Do Not Call list. Surprisingly enough, wannabe crooks ignore this list from the government.
Experts tell you not to engage with the scammers and robocallers on the phone. Still, my wife and I can’t resist messing with the callers sometimes:
•Sometimes when we see it’s a scammer, we like to put our children on the phone. Kids say the darndest things, especially when you’re laughing in the background. Unfortunately, even they are tired enough of the calls that they resort to “No thanks, we’re not interested.”
•My wife got one of those calls telling her she’d won a spot on a cruise. She started asking the caller if they’d like go go along with her.
•When I get a pollster who’s obviously working for a campaign, I like to ask the caller how they’d answer a question before I give them my answer. I also enjoy answering multiple choice questions that offer scenarios labeled A, B and C with numbers, such as 1, 2 and 3.
•A caller recently claimed to be from Microsoft, telling us about problems on my computer. My wife was overly appreciative, ramping up her enthusiasm and gratitude after each statement by the caller. Eventually, when they started talking about payment, she exuberantly said, “Thanks for believing that I’m that gullible!”
•I took a call once from someone with a thick accent claiming to be “John.” I asked if he was from Ohio, and he said he was. Then I started acting like he was my best friend from high school, reminiscing about the old days. He eventually got creeped out and hung up on me.
I’m sure I’ll miss all these laughs I’ve had with my anonymous best friends who take the time to call and try to take my hard-earned money from me.
Or perhaps I’ll just enjoy the peace and quiet that goes with enjoying my own home, free of nuisance calls.
.neFileBlock {
margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
padding-bottom: 5px;
padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
font-size: 85%;
}
