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Most of us have answered a call from an unknown number only to be stuck fending off a telemarketer or answering a survey.
Even more of us refuse to pick up from unknown numbers, and a few amateur pranksters revel in toying with whoever is on the other end.
But according to an Aussie call centre worker, there are a few key steps to dodging pesky unsolicited phone calls for good.
In a now-deleted post to Reddit, the worker revealed the tricks of the cold calling trade and the mistakes Australians are making when trying to get rid of telemarketers.
“Not answering, saying you’re not interested, hanging up while I’m speaking or saying you’re busy is pretty much a guaranteed way to get more calls from us,” the user wrote.
“Just saying you don’t want to do the survey means we might call you back for a different survey. Saying you’re busy means we literally put you down for a day to be called back.”
Instead, they said, what you need to do is ask the caller to take you off their list.
“You can just say “take me off your list” and we are legally obligated to remove you,” the user wrote.
“Also, before you do that, ask where we got your number from. We are legally obligated to tell you and most companies have a website you can remove your number from.
“It is important to know your phone number is being traded between multiple companies without your consent or input.”
They also recommended that Aussies add themselves to the “do not call list” if they want to proactively reduce the amount of unsolicited calls they receive.
The Do Not Call Registry is a government database where individuals and organisations can register, check, or remove their phone, mobile, and fax numbers to opt out of receiving unsolicited telemarketing calls and faxes.
While it only stops telemarketers, not all cold calls, it could be a major help in reducing the number of unwanted, unsolicited calls you get.
The Reddit user also said Australians should be wary of the amount of personal information they reveal when they answer the phone or that they leave on their answering machine; especially if they’re worried about deepfakes.
“I would recommend having no answering machine message and just saying “speaking” or “hello” when you pick up the phone from an unknown number,” they wrote.
Users were quick to chime in with their two cents on the worker’s tips, with many saying they were pointless when they “don’t even answer … to people in my contacts list”, let alone known numbers.
One wrote: “you’re dreaming if you think I’m going to answer an unknown number on the off chance it’s a legitimate company just so I can tell them to take me off their list.”
“I don’t answer unknown calls and unless I can trace it to a legitimate person or business I am interested in, or leaves an actual human voicemail explaining who is calling and why, it goes on the blocked list straight away,” another replied.
“Last time I told a telemarketer to take me off their list, they told me to f*ck off. My landline is useless to me now due to this industry, so it is unplugged,” someone else wrote.
One user added to the worker’s tips about protecting their data from possible scammers, saying even answering the phone at all shows scammers you are “active”.
Instead, they recommended users “answer the phone and don’t say a word” because if it is a ”real person they will say ‘hello’ etc” but the scammers’ automated system “takes it as a dead line and hangs up”.
The more you know!
But whatever tactic you use – screening the calls, blocking the numbers, threatening legal action, or playing along – the original post warns cold calls will not go away any time soon.
“For whatever reason there is a ridiculous amount of money in this industry. As long as the financial incentives exist calls will keep coming to you,” the worker wrote.
At least we universally agree: these calls are the bane of our existence.
Maybe the ultimate tactic to avoiding them is just to chuck our phones into the sea.
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