It never fails, you sit down to eat dinner or watch a favorite TV show and the phone rings. Having grown up in the time of the land line, before caller ID, my automatic response, much like Pavlov and his dog, is to answer the phone. Mom always said it was rude to let the phone ring more than three times.
I have over the years, thankfully, adapted to several modern conveniences, like looking at the phone number on the display to see if it’s actually someone I know. I’ve taught myself to ignore the phone numbers I don’t recognize. I even let the call go to the answering machine, figuring if the caller has something important to say, they’ll leave a message. 90% of the time, they don’t. Still the phone ringing several times before it goes to voice mail and the multiple calls coming in every evening gets really irritating.
Of course, I signed up for the “Do Not Call List” several years ago, but most tele-marketers or scammers don’t seem to know it exists. If they do, they don’t care, figuring I won’t take the time to report them and, even if I do, there aren’t enough people around to enforce the policy. They’re right, unfortunately.
After one particularly exasperating day of relentless phone ringing, I lamented the experience with several of my friends. One of them suggested I go to NoMoRoBo.com.* She claimed it would cut out nearly all of those annoying calls.
Admittedly, I was skeptical. After all, the Do Not Call List had failed me. Why should this outfit be any better? But, I was desperate, so I checked it out.
The website claimed it had eliminated over 775 million telemarketing and scammer calls for its customers. Even better, the service was free for my home phone and $1.99 for my cell phone. I figured it was worth a try.
Almost immediately, it went to work! When a call comes in that looks suspicious, the phone rings once and then hangs up on the caller; certainly better than listening to the phone ring four times before it goes to voice mail. I looked at the caller screen the first few times to see that it was, indeed, cutting off numbers that have been repeatedly calling the house for several previous days. It also seems to be “learning” the offending phone numbers and cutting them off each time. The number of calls even started decreasing after only a few days with NoMoRoBo.com in action.
I only wish I had found this service sooner. It would have been especially great to have for my mother’s phone. As she got older, her usually keen sense of picking up on those con man calls seemed to fail her. She signed up for things multiple times, like several warranty programs for the same car she owned. Fortunately, she wasn’t “taken” for any large amounts of money, but that happens to people every day. If I had known about NoMoRoBo.com, we could have headed off a number of those pirates who prey on elderly folks who still assume people are trustworthy.
*I am not, in any way, connected with the owners of this company. But, I would consider being a paid spokesperson if they ask. That’s how much I appreciate this service!
