Anyone being bothered by autodialers?

[Kenneth T. Cornelius]

Your phone rings, you pick it up and say hello, it beeps in your ear and goes dead. Same thing happens two minutes or so later, and maybe yet again. This could be three o'clock in the morning. Might happen two or three times a day. You are infested with autodialers. You complain to the phone company and they say, "gee that's strange, never heard of it before. Nothing at all we can do, except change your phone number."

Sound like something that has/is/might happen? It has been happening to me and I hope I've got it licked now.

Turns out there is a whole little product line of stuff intended to deal with this problem http://www.familysafemedia.com/telemarketer_block_comparison_.html
It's an interesting read, but you probably don't need to spend money at all. Go to the K. Alan Carlton site at http://pcworld.about.com/Mar262003id139756 You will wind up with a greater understanding of the problem and a downloaded mp3 containing three notes at 985.2 hz, 1370.6 hz and 1776.7 hz. If you get one of these calls, don't say anything. Just hold the handset up to your speaker and play the mp3. Then you can answer in the event it wasn't that kind of call. This procedure is supposed to make the autodialer think your phone has been disconnected and erase your number. So far, it seemss to have worked for me.

Has anyone else had this problem?

 

[Schweddy]

There is a product at Radio Shack that does virtually the same thing.

I put myself on the national "do no call list"...https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx

Dallas Newspaper called once after that - I mentioned to them that I was on this list and they immediatly appologized. Then they threw more junk in my yard they call 'free' papers.

Still trying to figure out how I can get them for littering on private property.

 

[Kenneth T. Cornelius]

I forgot to mention that I have been on the do not call list since day one almost. I also have caller ID and had call intercept. Call intercept was more of a nuisance than a help and it didn't intercept the autodialers either. Caller ID is useful only insofar as it displays something like "Unknown Name/Unknown Number". This alerts you that it's someone you don't want to talk to (most of the time), but it doesn't say who it is.

All that doesn't matter anyway since there is never anyone on the phone. It just beeps and hangs up.