Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Giving My Phone Some DNA

One of the biggest nuisances that we get to "enjoy" on a regular basis are junk phone calls.

In the US you can surf http://www.donotcall.gov and put your phone number on that list.  It was the first thing I did when I got my current phone number and it cut the number of calls down greatly. 

That sort of thing helps a lot when you have a generic number that looks like a business or one that has repeating digits.  A lot of people will put down a bad phone number on a survey instead of saying right out "No, I really don't want you calling me".  If you have that number, you're going to get called, just like I do.

I did notice that I tend to get them from certain specific phone numbers.  I call them a number of things but you can call them my Repeat Offenders or my Spam Callers.

Spam calls come from certain things.  The Politicians have opted themselves out so we get robocalled many times.  Naughty of them to opt themselves out.  I'll remember that in November.

There are job recruiters - oh, don't get me started on those.  The joy of getting a call is usually squashed when you hear a scratchy web phone call (Voice Over IP or VoIP) from India typically.

There are random telemarketers and the like but mostly they are not going to call back when you say "You do know I'm on the Do Not Call Dot Gov list, right?".

So how do I manage the repeat offenders?

If you are calling from my county or a nearby one (South Florida Area Code for me), I tend to just answer.   My family are already saved on my phone so I can tell.  My friends live on my phone as well.  

Outside of all of that, if I get a call and it's a (Oh excuse me, just got one... reject)... oh where was I...

Yes, I tend to save those numbers too.  But how do I mark them up?   I use a trick that the EMT and First Responders suggest, and boy it is simple. 

Closest Family gets "ICE" - in case of emergency.  Two folks get that for me so it is "ICE1" and "ICE2".

Business associates are "W" and then their name.  "W John" for example is saved in my SIM.  Sometimes a business associate can be a good friend too just like W John is.

City people get "WM" for the city I'm in but it could also be "C" for example or "PHL" if you're in Philly.

The biggest pests get the black list - "DNA".   Yes, my phone is littered with DNA.  It stands for Do Not Answer.  "DNA Recruiter" worked until I got annoyed with too many and had to switch to "DNA Company Name".

So why did this come to mind... It's early and I have gotten four calls already from time wasters of two different sorts.  In fact, my phone is ringing right now from a DNA while I am posting this.

Excuse me while I get this one.

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