Know a way to stop Rachel at Account Services? How about a cool 50k?

[mike123abc]

She or "Ann" seem to come in spurts. I have not heard from them in a few weeks, perhaps the latest batch of scammers that had my cell phone number have been captured. I just hope they did not sell my number before they were closed down...

Now the Feds are offering a reward for coming up with a way to stop robo callers...

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=27988

But the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is offering a bit of solace to frustrated citizens. It has created a "prize competition" called the "Robocall Challenge", which:

...is intended to provide recognition to individuals, teams of individuals, for-profit legal entities and/or non-profit organizations (collectively, “Contestants”) for developing proposed technical solutions or functional solutions and proofs of concepts that can block illegal robocalls (each a “Solution”).

U.S. federal telemarketing laws outlaw most robocalls looking to sell products (though the aforementioned political calls are legal). The competition focuses on block "illegal" calls, so it won't exactly offer relief from the advertising.

But for those with an axe to grind against the pesky automatons of the phone lines, you can win up to $50,000 USD yourself or as an organization/group of less than 10 individuals.

 

[TheForce]

Let it be known that I don't answer any calls unless it comes up on my caller ID as someone I know. These also have special ring tones. I have about 400 names in caller ID list. I also have close to 100 numbers in an ignore category. To get on the ignore category, I see a number called 3 times or more that I don't know, it gets added. I still get callers ringing about 15 times a day.

 

[mike123abc]

Since I use my phone for business I pretty much answer it during business hours. After hours if it is not in my contact list or a local phone call, I do not bother to answer it.

 

[Anole]

In my call list, or I look at area code...and usually ignore anyway!