Guest post: Stop all robocalls for a one-time fee of $75
aTarom | Wikimedia Commons
Note from Dan: Keith Finch is an attorney from Blacksburg. He emphasized this email should not be considered legal advice. I’ll leave it to my witty readers to imagine some company names they’d like to see appear on others’ caller ID screens.
By Keith Finch
We’ve not had a single robocall or call from a political or charitable organization in four years, and here are the steps anyone can follow to do it.
1. Form a corporation to own your phone line. Try to give it a very business-sounding name, like “Amalgamated International Private Mortgage Finance, Inc.” The cost is $75 at the Virginia State Corporation Commission website.
2. Get a tax identification number for your corporation here. This is free of charge.
3. Use your corporate documents and your tax identification number to sign up for phone service. In my experience, your corporation doesn’t actually need to open a bank account.
4. Put your new phone number on the Do-Not-Call list. When this takes affect, you won’t get calls from regular telemarketers.
5. The Do-Not-Call list doesn’t apply to to political or charitable organizations, but now they won’t call you either, because THEY DON’T CALL COMPANIES! Our friends and families have been complaining about all the robocalls and political calls they receive, but frankly I didn’t know what they were talking about, since we haven’t received a single one.
Technically you’d be required to pay an additional fee each year to the State Corporation Commission to continue your corporation’s existence, but frankly I’d be surprised if any phone company checks to see whether any of its corporate customers have failed to pay the fee (so long as the customer pays its phone bill).
Additional advantages:
(1) Your corporation name will appear on others’ Caller ID screens when you call using your new number, so you can give your corporation a funky name that fits your personality, like “Corvette Lovers Association of Virginia, Inc.,” so your friends will see something like “CORVETTE LOVER…” whenever you call.
(2) You become eligible to sign up for business telephone plans, which can give you better customer service than regular consumer plans.
(3) Added privacy from not having your real name associated with your telephone number.
Hope this helps!
October 1, 2012 - 1:30 PM
I can hang up for free.
Here is a solution that lets you keep your identity and still eliinate most of the nuisance of robocalls. I have a dandy $29.00 Panasonic portable phone that lets you block individual phone numbers. The only caveat is that you have to have caller ID. You have to answer the initial call to get the callers number. After that initial nuisance, you simply keep that number open on the caller ID screen and press the save button. The menu then gives you the option of “BLOCK” or “SAVE”. Select “BLOCK”, and your done. Future calls from that number, your phone will ring once, and the caller will get a busy signal. Telemarketers will call from multiple numbers, but it only takes 10 to 15 seconds to block a number. Not perfect, but it works for me.
Seems like some are making an awfully big deal around here about getting people (or robots) to stop calling their homes unsolicited. Hmm… Aren’t there bigger problems in the world to be solved? Sure.
I’m not saying this problem isn’t worthy, though I’ve already solved it myself at home and on my mobile phone, but it seems to be the pot calling the kettle black when I am given so much crap about trying to do the same thing with my yard, rather than my phone.
Having to get up off the couch to answer a call you don’t want doesn’t seem to be much different than having to walk outside to throw away a paper you don’t want. It appears that the only difference to me is that one is the Roanoke Times and the other is some spam caller.
In any case, I solved the problem at home by requiring human verification for certain calls and blacklisting others that are known to be “spam.”
I very rarely get any robocalls anymore. It seems like it has been years.
And remember, the “do not call” list was the result of somebody getting tired of receiving the calls and working to solve the problem for everyone.
1.Here is a solution that lets you keep your identity and still eliinate most of the nuisance of robocalls. I have a dandy $29.00 Panasonic portable phone that lets you block individual phone numbers. The only caveat is that you have to have caller ID. You have to answer the initial call to get the callers number. After that initial nuisance, you simply keep that number open on the caller ID screen and press the save button. The menu then gives you the option of “BLOCK” or “SAVE”. Select “BLOCK”, and your done. Future calls from that number, your phone will ring once, and the caller will get a busy signal. Telemarketers will call from multiple numbers, but it only takes 10 to 15 seconds to block a number. Not perfect, but it works for me.
Ron Swenson,
My solution is similar, but it works at the phone company level, rather than at my phone, which would still receive the call.
With the solution I am using the call is blocked before my phone receives it.
#3 Now let’s see, Jack thinks other folks are making a too big of a deal out of getting several robocalls a night while he’s going bonkers over picking up one plastic bag a week. Got it.
I let every incoming call just roll to the answering machine. Leave a message. I’m busy killing Nazis and Communists on my computer.
I don’t think it’s too big a deal. I do think it is a big deal. I just don’t see the difference between one annoyance and the other. Both are a minor inconvenience.. but one is loathed by the readers here, and Dan, and the other should be allowed because it is the Roanoke Times.
That’s all. I’m for stopping the robocalls, too. I hate them.
I’d love to know how they plan to ban robo-calls and not things like VT Alerts or school closing robo-calls.
Business gets robocalls too. Google ad sellers, government contract sellers, insurance sellers, printer supplies and even political calls and emails all come to businesses too. “Please hold for…” at least 2-3 times a day on average.
Save your money and use caller ID or as Don said, hanging up is free, you owe NOTHING to anyone who dials your phone, anymore than anyone who approaches you on the street.
Jack, they have medication for that.
Henry,
I believe the VT-Alert type things are solicited. They are generally okay when solicited.
“They are generally okay when solicited.”
It would surprise you how many times you agree to robocalls. Do you read every Terms of Agreement when you sign up for free stuff? Most people don’t.
#13 I don’t think that anybody who gets VT-Alert is surprised that they get it, Henry.
I’m not surprised that I get VT alerts because I signed up for them. I am surprised by the fact that when they send one out I get it in duplicate or triplicate every time. Fro every alert they send, I get at least two calls, two texts and two e-mails. You’d think the system would recognize when the message goes through and stop hitting the same number over and over.
Setting up your voice mail to say, “You’ve reached Sexy Sadie’s Sex Fantasy hotline! Just speak or key in your credit card number and we’ll get started!” eliminates a lot of BS calls.
#15 I also get at least two, Chuck, one that tells me the alert has started and what it’s about (usually a test) and one that tells me it’s over. Is that why you’re getting two?
With Robo-calling there is always a slight pause before the ‘Marketer’ comes on the line. That is because the dialing is automated and will switch you over to a person when it detects an actual human on the line.
Pick up the phone. Say hello. If you hear a click or nobody talks right away, hang up.
Works well for me.
Mike,
Sometimes you will answer and won’t get anyone at all. The reason for this is because their system will call your home at various times of the day, without the intention of speaking with you at all. It just detects whether you answer or a machine answers.
It then uses the data from those several calls to determine the best time to call you back and actually speak with you.
It’s pretty shameful, actually.
Several problems with the authors premise. First is that a business phone line cost substantially more per month than a residential phone line. Second is that you will get bombarded with business-to-business calls. And finally, he left out you’d better notify the IRS as soon as you get your phone line that you are not needing the corporation after all, otherwise you’ll get yourself in a heap of trouble for not filing a tax return for your company. This is in all forms, a horrible idea and article.