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[Iduno]

It wasn't very long ago that you got a thick book delivered free that had addresses abf phone numbers for everyone in your city.

And everywhere they'd lived for over a decade?

[Lord Shonus]

Back issues were never hard to find.

[Reelya]

Phone books apparently lasted a lot longer than they should because the companies make money off the yellow pages ads. They cost a lot of money to the taxpayer however in municipal disposal. Cities wanted them gone a long time ago, but the phone companies fought against that.

https://www.vox.com/2014/8/21/6040585/phonebooks-yellow-pages-delivery

If everyone sent the phone books back to the phone company, they'd be absolutely pissed. Getting rid of the old books isn't part of their business plan. Basically they're junk mail masquerading as something that was once useful. I don't know the status as of today but the only thing that would stop them is the point at which they can't sell enough Yellow Pages ads to cover distribution costs.

[Frumple]

They're definitely still distributing in at least some areas. Last few we got here were notably smaller, tho'. From, well, phone book size down to probably 2/3rds to a half one.

They're also just... not as useful as they used to be, even discounting internet stuff. Lots of people simply don't have landlines and the phone book doesn't tend to list cell, so their basic (ostensible) purpose isn't even as fulfilled. Still decent enough for finding official numbers of import, city hall, major local businesses, etc., if for whatever reason you can't access the number online.

[Rolan7]

Really?  I'm actually surprised.  Much in the same way certain call-scams keep targeting my family.

[Reelya]

I have a hunch that if you keep the scammer on the call as long as possible wasting their time, they'll remove your number.

[Frumple]

Depends on the scammer, actually, and if you're living alone or not. Would that wasting their time one day be enough to make the sacks of shit stop harassing people. If goddamn only that were sufficient.

Realistically, the only thing that approaches consistently effective is to just not fucking engage. If it's not a number you know, don't answer. If a scammer starts talking, just hang the hell up. Talking at all gives them information they can use or re-sell, so just don't.

[Reelya]

Depends on the scammer, actually, and if you're living alone or not. Would that wasting their time one day be enough to make the sacks of shit stop harassing people. If goddamn only that were sufficient.

Realistically, the only thing that approaches consistently effective is to just not fucking engage. If it's not a number you know, don't answer. If a scammer starts talking, just hang the hell up. Talking at all gives them information they can use or re-sell, so just don't.

I'm not saying it'll stop them harassing people, but it'll definitely make them take your particular number off their list if you waste say half an hour of their time. They don't manually dial anything, it's all auto-diallers. So if you hang up after 1 second, it's easier for them to just push the button to dial the next number rather than spend the time removing your number.

if it's automated, sure, hang up and ignore since you can't do anything about that, but if you keep an actual person on the line they can't be scamming anyone else for that time and you will piss them right off. Make yourself a non-zero cost to have to deal with.

So, after a short call they couldn't be bothered doing anything so will just dial the next number in order to max. the number of contacts/chances they have, and you stay in their system (perhaps marked as a human having answered the phone, so getting even more calls than before). But if you jack them around then they lose out big time, making your number seem like poison to them.

[Frumple]

Mate, I'm literally telling you from personal fucking experience that only sometimes works like you think it will work, and only some scammers have the behavior pattern you're describing. Add that knowing someone is on the line and willing to talk is straight up valuable information to them and, again, what you're talking about is only sometimes going to get the results you're thinking it will.

It's also a terrible fucking habit to get into. Multiple people I know that have been scammed, and defrauded of hundreds to thousands of dollars, said they were going to do the exact same thing you're suggesting. It ended up with them scammed, because these are pieces of human shit that literally make their living talking people into performing incredibly poor actions. If you're mentally adept right now enough to not get entrapped, there's no guarantee you will remain so as you age, or if you happen to be drunk or some shite, and then you're out some chunk of your bank account.

The right action with these fucks is to not engage. Not now, not ever. Make it a habit to not fucking engage, not now, not ever. Do not assume they cannot convince you otherwise now and every time they try again in the future, just assume, rightly, they should not be talked to and then do not talk to them. Period.

[Reelya]

You're probably right.

However, personally that's not going to be a thing. My default mode is not to pay for anything, so if I got dementia the last thing I'd be doing is giving my credit card details over the phone (most of my money's squirreled away in accounts even I can't touch). I'm too much of a cheap asshole to even pay for Netflix.

For someone who's used to buying stuff on the phone I can see how if they got dementia then they're more likely to do that, but for me that would be the most unnatural concept of the planet. Like, talking to a person and doing stuff that way: very unnatural.

[Bumber]

The appropriate response is to play loud, ear-rapey noise into the phone.

[ChairmanPoo]

The appropiate response is to hangup and add to the blocked list.

Which I actually do to more legit people asking for money (including NGOs. Way too NGOs understand routine donations as a stated permission to call you back over and over to donate more money)

[Frumple]

The appropriate response is to play loud, ear-rapey noise into the phone.

I've held the damn phone up to a speaker blaring literal noise music for repeated pickups. Didn't work. The only appropriate response is to not engage with the pieces of shit at all.

For someone who's used to buying stuff on the phone I can see how if they got dementia then they're more likely to do that, but for me that would be the most unnatural concept of the planet. Like, talking to a person and doing stuff that way: very unnatural.

There's more to it than buying stuff off the phone, though. Money orders or banking junk gets involved, too -- if these shits have someone talking to them that doesn't want to give money over the phone, they talk the person into sending something in the mail or directly wiring the money. Again, the only correct interaction is no interaction.

Block list can help a little, though, sure. Just don't expect it to be super consistent. Apparently the sacks of shit that do this crap have ways to get around the blocking

[Bumber]

The appropiate response is to hangup and add to the blocked list.

Doesn't really seem to help for me. The different numbers that robo-callers keep calling from are humanly infinite.

Legit businesses don't always have a caller id, so there's no way to filter by that either.

Block list can help a little, though, sure. Just don't expect it to be super consistent. Apparently the sacks of shit that do this crap have ways to get around the blocking

Someone should start a totalitarian party that promises to crack down on that shit locally and add restrictions on calls from abroad.

Or maybe Bazooka Party could help us track the culprits down and grant us the freedom to explode them!

[Reelya]

There's more to it than buying stuff off the phone, though. Money orders or banking junk gets involved, too -- if these shits have someone talking to them that doesn't want to give money over the phone, they talk the person into sending something in the mail or directly wiring the money. Again, the only correct interaction is no interaction.

Wiring money? Sending stuff in the mail? The point was I was talking about myself. Those aren't things I do. You might as well be talking alien language to me. If I got dementia there's no way I could or would even do those things. I'm not sure how this wiring money concept works or where you'd go to do that, so that would be out, and if I had to mail something I'd have to go buy stamps and envelopes and have to write stuff, and have to post it, so that's automatically going in the too much effort basket.

Point being I was talking about trolling people on the phone. There's nothing I want, and certainly not from some asshole on the phone, and certainly not so much that I'd leave the house to do anything. I work for call centers, I know the bullshit and how to jack them around. Yeah, I can see how these phone scammers get older people, because they're used to doing business the way you described. Phone sales, wiring money or what have you, but 100% of what I do is on the internet, and I never call customer support unless I absolutely have no other choice.

Yeah, so I can't see the situation where I'd actually get excited about what some stranger on the phone tells me. I spend all day dealing with asshats on the phone. I'm not going to be running around doing stuff because of some asshole on the phone, because i am that asshole at work, that's my job description. I can in fact just go into call center mode and bullshit to some scam caller for 30 minutes and waste their time and then they lost half an hour where they can't scam some old lady or similar.