Robocalls and junk email

[colb]

This is getting ridiculous. I have started answering my phone without using my name. I get about 5 robocalls for every new client. I just received a robocall from a robot that was a pseudoconversational white patriarch voice. I couldn't tell for sure that it was a robot until three back-and-forths in when I asked who it represented. I answer so abruptly with a "hello" that I temporarily unsettle my new clients.

I have to scroll through outlandish emails that come in through my business website, checking for real new clients who got put in the spam bin.

Is everyone else experiencing this? It is almost debilitating. I'm glad that I have already built up a client base and am not trying to grow. Otherwise I'd be in some hurt...

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Grrr...I know...so does everyone!

My sister told me that there is a new feature on iPhone's new upgrade that will allow you to toggle a setting that will not ring the phone if the incoming number isn't in your contact list. The incoming call will go directly to voice mail and leave listing in your queue so you know. Letting new call go right to VM isn't a great business ploy I know. Works for personal though.

There are 'No Call' lists you can register to. I don't know how effective they are though. Or, if they work on mobile numbers.

Not answering is not an option for a business though. I'm looking forward to what other people are doing too.

 

[Gorman]

I deal with it everyday. I send pretty much everything to voicemail and let that sort them out.

 

[Reach]

So businesses are exempt from the Do Not Call list rules... Our solution was to use a “virtual receptionist” aka one of those annoying “press one for help, two for Klingon, three to be ignored perpetually” systems. The computers that make the vast majority of the calls cannot get through the system, so we receive only calls we want. In the past year, we have had fewer than five telemarketing calls on the company phone. And it makes you sound bigger and more professional when the caller gets a nice professional message when they call.

 

[cerviarborist]

I found an app called NomoRobo. It's crowd sourced, like waze for driving/navigation. Works like this: If a call is on their list of close to two million spam or robocall numbers, it goes straight to voice mail and is marked as a potential robocall. If it's legit, they can still leave a message which you can retrieve.

Other than that, when a call does manage to sneak through, I just hang up, press a couple buttons to share the contact with NomoRobo, and enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that I'm keeping them from calling me back, as well as keeping them from calling any other app subscribers.

It's about $20 per year.

 

[southsoundtree]

I don't answer my phone, and leave my voicemail full. They can email me if they want Me. If they want someone, they can find Someone. I'm established, overwhelmed with work, really, so I'm fortunate.

The more I answer, the more they call. True!

Now, my phone is pretty quiet, thankfully.



People in my contacts get picked up.

Local prefixes, my neighborhood, get picked up.

The more a regional company screws people, the more I smell like roses.

If I were trying to grow, it would be a PITA.

 

[OasisTree]

Hire a secretary! That's how I got my life back.

 

[climbingmonkey24]

It is what it is. If you have an online presence you can bet you will be getting some spam calls and people trying to sell you on their advertising programs. Or people just plain running a scam.