How to Handle Unwanted Calls

By Justin Lavelle –

Receiving unwanted calls can be irritating, especially calls from telemarketers, bill collectors or political campaigns.  We live in a technology rich world that can program robots to call to solicit our time and money.  It can be frustrating to answer a call to find someone on the other end of the line that you don’t want to talk to. Below are ten types of unwanted calls/callers and tips on how to handle them:

1. The debt collector who just won’t stop

“Hi, is this Maya?” These types of calls often come in spurts and are extremely annoying to field. These calls can be the result of the person who last had your number not keeping up with their bills or a case of mistaken identity. While you’ll eventually learn the number, it would have been great if you didn’t pick up the first time.

2. The irrelevant sales call

Bad news: the used car dealership sold your information to a hundred other vendors and now they’re all calling you to offer everything from driveway repairs to gutter cleanings. In addition to being annoying, they’re often irrelevant because you now live in an apartment building or condominium.

3. The time consuming survey

Election season is upon us and it is an ideal time for pollsters to try collect your feedback on current issues.  They open the conversation under the guise of taking up only a few minutes then skillfully keep you tied up for half an hour.  In any case, you probably have better things to do than answer a bunch of random questions for a total stranger over the phone.

4. The 2:00 in the morning call

When the phone rings in the middle of the night, we naturally assume something bad has happened.  Calls that break your natural sleep cycle catch you off guard and leave you feeling disoriented and perhaps fearful.

5. The annoying ex with the new number

Break ups are never fun.  Couples hope they can remain friends, but sometimes it’s best to sever ties and walk away. After a relationship ends, you can do your best to block them on social media and ignore their crazy emails. But exes can be persistent and if they feel like they are being ignored, calling from an unknown number to get you to answer is often an effective tactic.

6. The scam artist on the prowl

The only thing worse than an annoying call is one that potentially robs you of your money. Last year, spam phone calls cost Americans over $8.6 billion. Fake charities and fake prizes are common scams that older adults fall prey to.  Beware of long lost relatives who want to send an inheritance if you provide legal fees to process the transaction, especially if the money is held overseas.

7. The IRS Phone Scam

Be leery of con artists impersonating IRS agents trying to scam people out of money by trying to collect on phony back taxes.  Never share personal information with these callers.  The IRS will never make contact on the phone for tax collection, notification will always come in writing.

8. Political Robo Calls

Candidates can be relentless when seeking public office.  They purchase phone numbers and have robots call with recorded messages.  This is a cost effective way to get their message heard, but these calls usually come around the dinner hour and can disrupt family time.

9. Jamaican Lottery Scam

There is one simple rule when it comes to winning the Lottery, you must purchase a ticket.  Don’t get sucked into thinking you’ve won a huge sum of money when you never purchased a ticket.  Avoid getting sucked into this scam, simply hang up the phone.

10. Grandchild in Trouble Scam

Scammers have no scruples.  It is becoming more and more common for callers to pretend to be a grandchild feigning a troubling situation like an illness or being arrested.  They know just enough about their victim to manipulate him or her into sending money to bail their alleged grandchild out of a dire predicament.



As you can see, there are a number of valid reasons to avoid answering your phone right away especially if you don’t recognize the number on Caller ID. Take precautions to know who is calling before you answer and avoid putting yourself in a potentially risky situation.



How to Rid Yourself of Unwanted Callers:
There are some ways you can alleviate the annoyance of unwanted calls. For example, Apple’s iPhone includes a caller ID feature for unknown callers.  The phone will look through your emails to see if it can recognize a caller not in your contacts list.  Of course, this will not cover all callers. For callers entirely unknown, you can use an app like BeenVerified that allows you to perform reverse phone lookups. Other strategies include:

1. Simply not answering any calls from numbers you’re not familiar with-if it’s important the person will leave a message
2. Answering the call and requesting to be put on the company’s Do Not Call list.
3. Register your number on the National Do Not Call list at www.donotcall.gov or by calling 1.888.382.1222
4. Use Anonymous Call Rejection from your phone service provider which stops calls from anonymous and private numbers. Most providers also offer Call Rejection which allows you to create a list of numbers you want to reject.
5. Phone harassment is a crime. You can ask your provider to put a trace on threatening or obscene calls so you can take further action if need be.

Justin Lavelle is a Scam Prevention Expert and the Communications Director for BeenVerified.com. BeenVerified is a leading source of online background checks and contact information. It helps people discover, understand and use public data in their everyday lives and can provide peace of mind by offering a fast, easy and affordable way to do background checks. BeenVerified allows individuals to find more information about people, phone numbers, email addresses and property records.