I got one the other day from the "IRS" that the "DEA" is coming for me and that they can help me avoid arrest. I asked her for her employee number and she provided me 3 letters. I told her that was not correct, so she made up a new one with 4 letters and 2 numbers. I once again told her she was wrong and that I work for the IRS and we were currently running a reverse trace on her number and to stay on the line with me for another 10 seconds while we triangulated her position. She hung up pretty quick.
Yes. And for that - I have a very special .gif that I send in reply. It shows an as yet to be identified, solid object- leaving one female at a high rate of speed while two other females make out above that action. It goes out with the text "Can you identify this object?" Sometimes the responses are amusing, sometimes a variant of "please don't contact me again ..." but usually, it's radio silence, which is nice. And last week, I got a text that addressed me by my Christian name, which was unusual. So I sent that .gif in reply thinking someone was trying to reach me about my car's warranty. Now, I live out in the weeds where phone reception is poor, so it sometimes takes a while for any picture to go through (satellite ISP latency, Wi-Fi mobile &etc.). While I was waiting for the image to get pushed through - the text bubble shows up (another iOS user, apparently) and the next message comes through with "I'm one of the ambassadors for the xxx program we have ... " at our church! HOLY SHIT! I hit the delete keys as fast as I can while the image was still going through, just hoping the command to dismiss that message would make its way through in time. It turn turned out the message was from a fellow parishioner whose kids go to the same school as mine! I don't know if went through or not, but he hasn't said anything about it since. We'd spoken a few times at various events over the years and he's just getting into racing cars, doing trackdays and such. In fact, we met after mass last weekend and I go "at first, I thought you were one of those text spammers ... " to which he kind'a chuckled. We talked a bit and have been invited over to his place for dinner this coming weekend. Now, I'm kind'a hoping the image went through. I could use more of that humor in my circle of non-motorcycle racialists. PM me your phone number in case you want that in your arsenal.
Thanks, I think I'm just going to stick with Plan A and let them eat static. I don't want to give them the satisfaction of knowing there's anyone on the other end reading/responding to their text.
Today was especially trying with the F'n robo calls, live scammers and the like on both the landline and my cell. It gets to you. To be clear, the phone companies could take action to help get this under control. So could Congress with a tougher do not call and related BS law, not to mention enforcement of the current laws. As for the out of country calls, the onus could be on the host country. My solution is fundamentally suitable and just: no matter where in the world located, summary execution. Preferably in a slow and painful fashion. Understand I normally tend to be a bleeding heart pacifist type.
I would say it's pretty likely that someone spoofed your number to call them and they ignored it, and then texted the number back to see who it was. So both of you have no idea whats going on.
Well, as it pertains to email.....these days upward of 90% of email coming into a company is actually SPAM. It's actually a very small percentage of the email that reaches a company's internal mail server that's actually valid messages for their employees. I won't be surprised if this phenomena makes its way to TXTs and voice calls. If it gets to that point then the telco companies will HAVE to do something to filter/block that crap at the network level before it reaches your phone.
This is a timely rehash I just received 2 voicemails to my land line desk phone at work from some lady using the F word many times about she doesn't want a car warranty and why the F am I calling her. The 2nd one says shes going to the police because I won't stop. Initially I wanted to be there to pick up the call to inform her it was spoofing and to just block the number herself. After the last voicemail, talking to her may not be good. I'm not sure I could stop myself from caller her a F'ing moron. Like the police will fix it for her even if it was a legit call from a legit number. She also doesn't notice that my voice is clearly not the same as the one calling her
My business line gets up to 10 non-customer calls a day for such things as duct cleaning, lower credit interest rates, etc. I finally ported that number to a service that I set up a Automated Attendant on. The initial message says " Thanks for calling XXX company. Press 1 if you aren't a robot". When they press 1, the call is forwarded to me. It costs less than $15/mo in my location. I put it in place a month ago and haven't received a robo or spam call since. No customers have complained, and a couple have asked how to set that up for themselves.
Fucking election season in upon us again. The Vote for Pedro texts are annoying and I’ve been sending .gifs of unappropriate adult content to each and every one of ‘em. And never got a response, until today: “You could be sending pornography to a child’s phone.” Came the reply. Oh yeah, sperm burper? “I bet the FEC and state election committees would be interested to know if a minor’s phone is being used to send messages on behalf of someone’s campaign for public office.” Was the reply. I hope all these jerks texting from home to make a few extra bucks get mobile phone AIDS and a face amputation.
On the mobile, I've just set it so that any call from a number not in my contacts goes directly to VM. The phone never rings unless its someone I know. Text messags from unknown numbers go into a different folder as well. For home, I have it set where they have to press 1 or give a name (depends on what your carrier offers) to get my phone to ring. It helps a lot, especially at election time, as lawmakers have specifically exempted election calls from anti-spam laws.
I have a fax interface set up on my computer hooked to the landline. Unknown or obviously spoofed numbers get a fax tone. Or sometimes an answer from a non-existent police department.
