How I Keep Telemarketers at Bay

This technique probably isn't suitable for everyone, but it happens to suit me perfectly.

What You Need
To implement it, you will need:

• a feature called Distinctive Ring (sometimes called Custom Ring) from your phone company.
• a Fax machine that responds to Distinctive Ring
• Desire to have a private, unlisted phone number

About Distinctive Ring
Distinctive Ring is a feature you can subscribe to through your phone company where you have only one phone line, but two separate phone numbers. The idea is that if someone dials your "public" phone number (ie, the one that shows up on caller ID when you call somebody, and probably the one all the telemarkers have), your phone rings in the normal way that you are accustomed to. However, if someone dials your "distinctive ring" number, your phone actually rings differently, like 2 short rings in a row, or some other variation. This is supposed to allow people who share a house to distinguish whose calls are meant for whom before even picking up the phone.

But in my household, we use it to keep telemarketers from invading our privacy.

How to Implement it
What we do is let our "public" phone number (say, 555-555-1234) serve as our Fax number, and our distinctive ring number (555-555-4444) serve as the number that we respond to. It's the one we give our friends and family, and any company we have legitimate business with.

All we had to do was set the option on our Fax machine to pick up on the standard ring, so that it ignores all other ringing patterns. This means that when someone dials 555-555-1234, the fax picks up and makes an awful noise. But if they dial 555-555-4444, we pick up and have a nice chat. We also set the fax to pick up after only two standard rings so we don't have to listen to a lot of ringing.

Advantages
This has several advantages over other attempts to stave off telemarketing:

• It always works. When you pay to have your number unlisted, it doesn't always work, because your phone company might not list you, but rival phone books and the internet will. And not all companies observe the "Do not call" list. So the calls keep coming. Grrr. But not with the Distinctive Ring/Fax method! :)
• You have the satisfaction of knowing those jerks are getting a headache listening to your fax when they call. Heh heh heh.
• You can turn it off at will by simply turning off your fax machine, if you're expecting a call from someone who has your "public" number, instead of your private one.
• Phone companies and telemarketers don't know about this technique, so they're not trying to combat it (yet)
• The default for secondary "distinctive ring" numbers is to be unlisted, so you don't have to pay to keep it private.
• You can leave your Fax plugged in and ready to receive real faxes at all times, without the expense of an extra line.

We have been doing this for three years with the same two numbers, and have still managed to keep our good number off the telemarketing lists. If they ever get hold of it, we'll just request a new distinctive ring number. On the rare occassions when we pick up on the standard ring before the Fax does, just out of curiousity, EVERY time it's just been a darn telemarketer. Just more incentive to keep doing what we're doing.

Disadvantages

The only disadvantages are:

• You do need a fax, or a virtual fax.
• You have to pay for the distinctive ring service (around 5 bucks a month)
• People can't find the number you'll answer in the phone book (I don't consider this a disadvantage, but...)

Particularly given that telemarketers are now (July 2003) trying to sue the FTC to get rid of the "Do Not Call List", this is an important tool in the fight to protect your privacy.

Good luck--It has worked for us!

Variation

If you don't have a Fax machine, or a computer you can turn into a virtual fax, you can still use distinctive ring as described, and just ignore the standard ring. The advantage of the Fax is that it can pick up in one or two rings and stop the ringing.