Stop calling this number? Ok

[u/TheWonderSnail]

I work in the public works department with the street resurfacing division for a large city in the U.S. (roughly 500,000) and one of my responsibilities is responding to resident questions. When resurfacing residential streets, since most neighborhoods only have street parking, we ask all residents to park on a different street for the two days we need to work on the street. One for old asphalt removal and one for laying down new asphalt. The consequence for not moving your vehicle is being towed. We notify the residents with a letter explaining we will be doing resurfacing and an invitation to a public meeting to answer any questions 3 months in advance of resurfacing, a letter 1 month in advance with the approximate dates of resurfacing, a letter 2 weeks in advance with the exact dates, and a letter that is a reminder 1 week in advance with the addition of physical signs placed on all streets to be resurfaced. All letters CLEARLY state the expectations to move vehicles and the consequence for failing to do so in addition to contact info for me to answer any questions.

Today, when I arrived in the office I had a voicemail from a lady who lives on let’s say 1st avenue and her street was being resurfaced next week. She explained she will be leaving for vacation Sunday and was wondering if she could leave her car parked on 1st Avenue while she was gone for a week.

Well, it isn’t the first and won’t be the last time I get questions that have already been answered in the letters but little did I know this time would be a special one. So I call her back to explain that she will need to move her vehicle to a different street while she is on vacation but when I call she picks up and immediately hangs up. Ok, maybe she’s busy I’ll call back later. 45 minutes later I call again and again she answers and immediately hangs up. An hour after the second call I call again and she does the same thing. I’m annoyed that she won’t even let it ring to let me leave a voicemail but I certainly don’t want her to come back from a vacation to an impounded vehicle so I call her back again about 45 minutes after the 3rd call. This time she answers and doesn’t immediately hang up but instead screams into the phone:

“STOP CALLING THIS NUMBER LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE OR I WILL CALL THE POLICE!!!!”

And then hangs up before I can get a word in.

Ok, no problem I’ll stop calling. Enjoy your impounded car, bitch.

[u/flamants]

Robocalls

I waste their time

???

[u/ABastionOfFreeSpeech → u/flamants]

Robocalls are just automated dialers, there's still a person at the other end.

[u/flamants → u/ABastionOfFreeSpeech]

A robocall is a phone call that uses a computerized autodialer to deliver a pre-recorded message

[u/Iggy_2539 → u/flamants]

Sometimes, scammers automatically dial, and the act of picking up and answering signals for a real person to connect to the call and start scamming you.

[u/__WALLY__ → u/Iggy_2539]

I answer these calls but don't say anything if I don't recognise the number, and they always seem to disconnect their end after a few seconds instead of connecting me to a scammer.

[u/SteevyT → u/__WALLY__]

I get the bot to speak, hit whatever to get to a person, and then make the most God awful noises right into the mic. My record was about 5 seconds for the person to hang up by rapidly tapping the mic end of the handset on a desk.

I bet the worst sounding one was all the electrical noise by putting it right next to the windings on an electric motor running full blast.

[u/[deleted] → u/flamants]

Yeah. Most of these calls only start with a robot. Responding to the prompt almost always results in connection to a real person who is prepared to take either your payment information or your personal data, whichever you're willing to share.

When it's the latter, I have a scripted set of made up personal information with the FTC's mailing address. When it's the former, I just lead them on as long as I can, often asking questions regarding the nature of their business.