The Medicare Open Enrollment period, America’s October festival of “skim, scam and fraud” begins on October 15th.
intercst
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If they aren’t in my Contacts, it never rings through, a handy setting, at least on our iPhones…
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I can’t do that, I have too many contractors where the company is in my contact list but the individual guys who do the work make the calls to tell me they’re coming, or not, or whatever.
I do have a land line left over from a lifetime ago, and that is the phone number I write down on any-and-everything except my GP or others have have a real “need to know.” Nearly all of the Medicare! Car Warranty! Politicians! And similar end up talking to a silicon chip, which I can erase with remarkable ease. My only gripe is that prior to playing the call the machine laboriously recites the originating number which I rarely care about since half of them are spoofed anyway. I’ve searched all over for a setting but can’t find one, but otherwise, having an alternate number is a blessing.
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I almost never look at my cellphone messages. Anyone who wants to reach me knows this.
Mom really hated that. I told her I am not looking at my cell messages for 3 hours per month.
Two months ago, Mom said she never looks at her messages. I said, see?
I’ve handled that at the time of the work, once they call, I add the number to the main contact, or we text, whatever works… I do go back once in a while, try to clear out old temporary contacts, but it does get messy after years pass…
We kept the landline long after I retired, initially for the simpler E911 locator for emergency services, but today with everyone on cells, emergency services have had to change their locator methods, less and less copper lines any more.. As I was part of Ma Bell for most of my 40 years, it wasn’t easy to turn it loose, but it’s no longer what it was, I no longer even know any active techs, and all our Installers are scattered, few survive, actually, all retired…Changing times, fun while it lasted…
I get many robo calls.
They are easy to deal with because there is always a certain amount of silence while the robo notifies the salesman that “there is a live one on the line!”
It’s allot longer pause than a real person so I just hang up.
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I love the no ring option on my iPhone if they are not in my contacts list. Especially if I’m doing something in the work shop. If they are not in my list yet, if they are legit, they will leave a voicemail. Just add them to your contacts list as you get the calls.
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Just yesterday I couldn’t get in to my patient portal, couldn’t change the password, blah blah. Called the “help” line, and the girl said she couldn’t help (?) if I couldn’t change the password, and here’s the number for tech support. I called, it said “Your hold time is more than 15 minutes, would you like a call back?” So I said “yes”.
Without a number in the contact list, it would have gone to voice mail, and the number that called back was not the main number for tech support. That kind of situation, or a variant with a contractor, doctor/dentist/etc, or other unfamiliar number happens often enough that I can’t really see turning off the ringer for “unknowns”. I’m also on the HOA board and the Architecture Committee, so there’s lots of folks I don’t have in my contact list - which is already too big anyway.
Ah well. 21st century problems.
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I just checked my Mac/iPhone contact list, it’s at 1,039 ‘cards’ and I’m sure some of those cards have multiple numbers if it’s a business.. I try to go through, dump any I spot I’ll never use again, but friends, family, ex workmates, they do add up… As someone else noted Voicemail is always there, too… As my old HS class list maintainer, as well as my old WeCo/Telco list maintainer, some of these have slipped away, so I’ve reduced those on the email lists as well as contacts/
I still get odd spammers, they stay silent, I answer one sometimes, haven’t hit a live person in ages, so I have zero qualms about blocking them…
There’s some interesting ‘Reels’ in Facebook where they go after scammers, locate them in India or wherever stop them, disable their computers, flip the table on 'em, turn the info over to local law enforcement, help the scammed if they can.. Good to see…
Certainly if you are expecting a call you can turn on the ringer. Other people (like the HOA) can leave a message and you will call them back. I only ever turn on my ringer when I’m expecting an immediate call back from my doctor. My sister can leave a message!
JimA
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In work we went AI in our departments, regional, and HQ. There are growing pains I never expected. The parts are not working with each other yet. Nothing is resolved. It will take time.
My Android tells me when the call is suspicious.