Robocalls and SPAM Calls on a Cell Phone

I have a landline and a cell phone, but I rarely receive robocalls on my landline (about once every two weeks), but I routinely get them on my cell. A lot of credit card offers, bank offers, and some crap I don’t understand. I get one about every other day. Is there a way to get your number off of whatever list people use to make robocalls?

I’ve gotten less since I’ve started acting like a complete lunatic.

Try foaming at the mouth, screaming(if possible) and all sorts of things.

Bonus points if you sound like Homer!

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I just keep on speaking in English until they hang up. Not one has tried to engage me in English. If I scream, is it better to do it in Chinese or English?

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Gibberish is best.

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I try and utilise them to practice my Chinese. They typically hang up within 5 seconds of my first sentence.

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I love that you took something inherently annoying and made it into a positive opportunity.

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Taiwanese often use this app to block them

Google phone app also has build in spam block feature, but not all phones support it.

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It’s very curious to me that these have any cut-through as a marketing strategy. I mean take the average person in Taipei, and how busy they are, does anyone you know have time to be listening to random product promotions on their phone?

niii xiihuan daa dianhua ma?
Woo xiihuan daa dianhua… wo xihuan daa dianhua gei wo…mama, baba, gege, didi, jiejie, meimei, biaodi, biaomei, biaoge, biaojie, aiyi, jiujiu, jiuma, shushu, agei, ama, waipo, waigong, nainai han yeye.

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+1 This has been a game changer!

I used to do this until someone spoke to me in perfect English: “Do you have a Taiwanese ID? We are giving out loans!”.

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It’s easy … use whosecall.

Don’t answer single ring calls.
Block calls with no display number.
Avoid answering calls around mealtimes unless they are already known to you.
Hang up if they start speaking so fast and don’t know your name or don’t listen.
My friends mostly call me on messenger etc these days anyway. Or via email.

I always wonder why banks ccs etc think they can call you and never have to verify who they are! So I always hang up on them. Most of my calls are expected in some way or other. So… don’t sweat it!

There is no single one universal way to stop them.

Once you answer a SPAM phone call, you are then on the “list” of phones where people at least answer the phone.

So if you answer once, then you’ll get more, if you answer again, you’ll get even more.

I saw a call today from either Belgium (22) or Guinea (224).

Edited

That’s why I scream loudly on the phone to try to blast their ears. It usually gets me off the lists.

I’m thinking heavy breathing and “你在穿什麼內衣?” might encourage them to go and find a proper job.

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What if when they call you say that you got some canned lunch meat you like to sell them…

Most of the spam calls on my Sony are detected as such and display ‘spam’.

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It’s 32!

This will probably mentioned in a post. Before I came here back home in the Good Old USA, we had to pay for “airtime” on both incoming calls and outgoing calls.
The fact that incoming calls are always free really changed my perspective when I came here.

In the past I felt shunned that telemarketers nor in person sales people would ever approach me to sell me their product. My money is good here too you know.

So, I’ve kind of developed an admiration, like a compassionate teacher, for anyone who stayed on the phone past the first 10 seconds and have tried to speak in English or speak in simple Chinese to sell me his or her product.
I even, told an instant home loan scammer what he was selling in English.
T: “What is #_&&'+ in English”?
Me: My Chinese is not so good. I think you are selling mortgages or home loans.
T: Thank you
I also managed to get some useful information my wife could follow up on later like Free MOD or a very low price internet upgrade.
The Best Win…
I got three months free use of an internet connected Apple iPad (internet connection also free) courtesy of the Department of Immigration’s Customer Service Department as they called themselves.
The phone call started out in Chinese which was strange for some one from the immigration department targeting foreign individuals and ended with her trying to convince me that it was not a scam.

The iPad was pretty nice. Though I’m not sure I felt comfortable doing all my communication on a government-owned computer.

Several months later they called back asking me when I’ll be home to have my iPad delivered.
“Delivered? Didn’t I just returned it a few months ago?”
“You expressed interest participating in the program again”, she said.
“No, thank you”, I said. “Not now, maybe in the future.”
It was too much responsibility, I thought. You assumed responsibility for damages.

The immigrants tool kit software, language instruction and other stuff really could have been more useful. It was half assed and mostly in Chinese. Not intuitive.
The really cool thing was the free bag the iPad came in. It had a really cool logo and message in Chinese.
I used it until its cheap adhesive job stated to fail and the letters and Logos started to fall off. I really liked that bag.
Im not sure the program is still going on, but maybe it is.

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My phone rang just now and it indicated that it was a possible spam caller. I figured there is the chance it is a legitimate call - like my bank or credit card. When I answered it, I toggled my Android phone’s record function, which announces in Chinese that the call is being recorded. And then – click! – end of call.

In the past, I would receive a call and the caller would launch into this rat-a-tat-tat of Mandarin - a whirlwind where I am unable to get a word in at all. When they finally stop speaking, I say, “Nin keyi jiang Yingwen? Do you speak any English?” and then usually the call ends abruptly with a click, or worse, there is confusion on the other side and we go back and forth trying to establish that I am an English speaker and my Mandarin accent indicates I am hopeless in speaking Chinese – and then there is the click!

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