XPost: rec.arts.drwho   
   From: YourName@YourISP.com   
      
   On 2025-10-25 09:23:45 +0000, Daniel70 said:   
      
   > On 25/10/2025 2:30 am, Hornplayer9599 wrote:   
   >> On 10/24/2025 05:01, Daniel70 wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>> So now that Answer Machine (eventually) answers the call and says I'm   
   >>> not home .... by which time the Spammers Dialer machine has usually   
   >>> hung up!!   
   >>>   
   >>> Job DONE.   
   >>   
   >> Many years ago, back when I still had a land line, I was getting   
   >> bombarded with spam dials every day.  Then I saw something on the shelf   
   >> at Wal-Mart (stop laughing :) ) that claimed to help cut down on those   
   >> calls.  What you did is you plugged this thing into the wall jack, then   
   >> plug the phone into the other end.  What this thing did was every time   
   >> the phone rang and you either picked up, or let the answering machine   
   >> pick up, it would send out the three tones that lets the calling party   
   >> know that a phone number is disconnected, or otherwise not in service.   
   >> When a spam dial hears those tones, they would stop calling the number   
   >> in question.   
   >>   
   >> It worked...within a month the spam dials dropped off to almost nothing.   
   >> Of course, I had to let friends and family and any business I wanted to   
   >> talk to know that they needed to ignore those tones.   
   >>   
   > So it resulted in you being de-listed ... by/to the Spam Bots. Good.   
      
   We've always had an unlisted landline number, which cuts down on spam   
   calls, although of course doesn't work with robo-callers (computer   
   controlled or people simply dialling sequential numbers). We have very   
   rarely ever gotten spam calls at all.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)