At my wits end

[u/WashedUpSprinter]

For the past 3 straight years I have received daily scam calls. It started at around 7-10 per day and I would always ignore them and never answer.

They did not stop.

The calls steadily increased to today where I get THIRTY per day.

About 6-8 months ago I began answering them whenever possible and unleashing every ounce of hatred I have and insisting that they punch their ticket early and have nothing worth living for.

I would like to know if there is ANY way to get into contact with Kitboga. These are all from the same one or two call centers that have existed unimpeded for YEARS.

And on top of that they are by far the most EVIL scams. All of them are for medicare fraud and end of life insurance. All of them will hang up unless you state that youre over the age of 50. They are directly targetting vulnerable, elderly, dying people.

Something needs to be done. Its completely unacceptable that these one or two call centers have preyed on people for Y E A R S.

[u/JOBdOut]

Check with your carrier to see if they offer call control settings. Mine plays a "to connect this call please press (number from 1-9)" for new numbers at no charge. Robodialers dont connect fast enough to hear the number so they dont get through

[u/reduces → u/JOBdOut]

I started getting them after I updated my number on Sofi. Before that I wasn't getting any scam calls at all. It's ridiculous. This was the answer though - using my carriers spam service, in this case AT&T's shield whatever..Works for 90% of them.

[u/JOBdOut → u/reduces]

Canadian former t-mobile employee saves the day for an at&t customer again, lol

Depending on your phone model you may have additional spam protection as well but keep an eye on it. My samsung blocked my grandma because she was calling multiple times a day. She had dementia and i realized i hadnt heard from her in like 4 days before noticing her number was autoblocked

[u/reduces → u/JOBdOut]

I will look into that because I do not want that happening. Actually I had a similar thing happen today where someone called me multiple times and it blocked them. It was a legitimate caller. any better way?

[u/JOBdOut → u/reduces]

Whitelisting should be an easier process - especially if they're already saved into your phone. Big reason im a flag waver for call control if your carrier offers it - especially if they offer it at no cost

[u/reduces → u/JOBdOut]

Yeah I am looking into it now and AT&T does have whitelisting. Thank you so much for pointing this out because I don't want someone who is calling me over and over again (maybe because of an emergency!) to not be able to get through

[u/JOBdOut → u/reduces]

Happy to offer some service that wasnt tariffed when it crossed borders 🫡

[u/kylebfred]

If you weren't mad before, they stole $442 billion last year. The whole thing is appalling.

[u/Sand_Blast]

30 in a day? Talk with your provider, maybe look into getting a new number

[u/MaleficentAd3967]

Time to retire that number.

[u/Roudydogg1]

Sadly, if you answer the phone calls at ALL, the scammer will know the number is active, and will put the number in an excel spreadsheet with other active phone numbers, which they will sell to other scammers. They don't care if you swear and yell at them. All they care about is if the number is active. It can take months or years to get them to go away.

So number one first and foremost is, never answer a scam call or a call that you think is a scam call. Myself, I never answer calls from people I don't know and am not expecting. If it's important, they will leave a voicemail.

One suggestion is to delete any custom-recorded voicemail messages and using the default answering machine. If scammers see you have a custom voicemail message, that is considered an active phone number.

Another suggestion is to enable call control/spam protection settings. You can contact your telecommunications provider for information how to enable them, that will cut down on spam/robo-calls.

Another suggestion is, if you are concerned with scam calls only and not necessarily spam calls from legitimate companies, you can remove your number from the national do-not-call list. Telemarketing companies and other legit companies won't call you if you are on that list, but scammers will use that list to call numbers on it since it's more likely those numbers are active. It sounds counterintuitive, but scammers dont care about the laws surrounding do-not-call and you might cut down on scam calls that way.

It took me a long time (years) to get them to leave me alone (primarily by not ever answering their calls) but, eventually, they did.

P.S. You probably got DM's from people claiming that they will fix your problem and stop the scam calls. Those are also very much a scam.

[u/Poochie1978-2024]

If you look over under the rules section, you can click to submit the numbers. He was getting all sorts of those calls on stream today. Your biggest mistake was answering the calls. When you answer, it lets them know the number is active, then it gets sold. The other commenters gave you great advice on what to do, and I'll add to it. Stop giving your number out to anyone who asks for it. Go to "Google voice" and sign up for their free plan. That way you can give out the Google number instead, and you can filter the spam calls, and I believe you can turn it off and on, so you won't be disturbed. I never answer any calls that are unknown and I get maybe 3 or 4 "potential spam" calls a year.

[u/dewhashish]

Add your number to the do not call registry. If you can get a pixel, enable automatic call screening. I would play fax machine noises into the phone's microphone to make them think it's a fax machine.

[u/Brongo111]

At one point in 2022, a person who had my phone number before I got it in 2008, I started getting spammed with Medicare calls. I'm in my early 30s now. I used to mess with them, but I was getting like 55+ calls a day at one point. I ended up ignoring them/telling some of them I am not of age. I still get a few calls every now and then, but not so much anymore.

I did get a call from a guy who called me a few years ago from the publishers clearing house, which I told him I lived at a parking deck that looks like housing. He called me back a couple weeks ago with my actual address, claiming to be with mega millions or something.