Advice for Robo calls
Hello Americans! This advice is mainly for you because I don’t know if Robo calls are very common in other parts of the world and these techniques may not work there. So, did you ever get a call from an unknown number and you said hello a couple of times and no one answered? No one said anything? Then the other person just hung up? It is unlikely that was just a wrong number. Most likely that was a reconnaissance call from a Robo caller or a spammer.
The first time they reach out to you it will be a “dead air call”, where they just want to find out if there is another person on the line. If you even cough, they put your name on a higher level list.
This higher level list usually includes a Robo call they will give you some information of some sort (a car’s extended warranty, for example) and tell you something like “for more information press one, to be placed on our do not call list, press two.” It is very important but at this stage, you should not do anything. They want you to press any button because by pressing a button, you are telling them that there is a person on the line. A person that can understand them and interact with a phone tree. Even if you press two to be placed on the do not call list, you are telling them that you are a person who can understand them. That makes you valuable. Do not engage. Hang up the phone.
Sometimes things will escalate into a person, and professionals tell you that you should also not engage. Do not tell them to stop calling. Do not ask them to explain themselves. Do not invoke the holy name of the do not call list. If that’s what professionals say, it is probably for the best. My instinct is to tell them that I’m never gonna be interested and that I am blocking the number. Maybe this just wastes my time. I figured since I had to research this for myself, I would pass on this advice to you, dear reader.
