You have just sat down to dinner and you are excited to bite into the steak you have been dreaming about all day and then your phone rings…. You don’t need solar power, you don’t need new health insurance and you don’t have a car so why would you want a car warranty.

Here are a few tips on how to reduce the number of telemarketing calls you get.

The first thing you want to do is make sure your phone number is on the DO NOT CALL registry. You can register any phone number (cell, landline, VoIP) all online. The list is updated once a month so you will probably still get calls for a couple of weeks.

Once you are on the Do Not Call Registry, you can then report the unwanted calls to the FCC. You can report the call even if they are calling from a spoofed phone number or no phone number listed. I have started reporting a lot of calls, and I have noticed that the phone is not ringing as much.

When they start asking questions, don’t answer them. They don’t need to know if I have pains, am a diabetic, how old my windows are, etc.

My standard response is “that is none of your business,” which it isn’t.

Keep in mind that being on the Do Not Call registry will decrease the number of legitimate companies that call. It really doesn’t help with the companies using overseas call centers or with scammers. That is why it is important to report the calls to the FCC. Individuals reporting unwanted calls led to the FCC fining a call center $300 million making more than five billion robocalls in 2021.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/04/tech/fcc-robocall-scam-biggest-fine/index.html