this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2024
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The same company has been harassing for the better part a year now wanting to buy a property I don't own. I have filled a DO NOT CALL registration, I have blocked their numbers multiple times, I have told them to stop calling and to remove my name from their list, and now I'm getting maybe 1 or 2 calls a day and multiple texts.

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[–] hperrin 127 points 9 months ago (2 children)

You don’t own the property, so tell them you’re willing to sell, go through whatever process they give you, wasting as much of their time as you are willing to, then inform them that they’ll have to talk to the owner to finalize the deal.

[–] [email protected] 90 points 9 months ago (6 children)

this is the way. i had to break it to my friend recently, these scam callers don't have a DO NOT CALL list. they just have a list where they call you more.

i got my cell number decades ago. for many years i would get calls for a Sabrina. i explained to them many times over the years, i don't know anyone by that name and i'm not interested. every time, they'd wait about 6 months and the calls would start up again. about a year or two ago i was in the shop working, and got a call. i decided after that moment that i was Sabrina and i was interested in whatever it was they were selling.

a few days later, i got a call, told them i was Sabrina, was down for whatever services they had. i managed to get the person to give me the address they had listed, under the guise of confirming it. before the end of the week i had 3 different roofing contractors scheduled, all to show up at the same time, same day.

my only regret was that i couldn't be there to watch the drama unfold. when they called back later i told them i had no idea what they were talking about.

in the year and a half since that incident, i have received no more calls for Sabrina.

moral of the story, sometime the best answer isn't the honest one.

[–] rdyoung 28 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

I've been known to text them back some very very NSFW images. That tends to put a stop to it (until the next batch of wannabe flippers gets that number).

[–] RIP_Cheems 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I sent one a sex hotline number and actually tricked the guy on the other end. Still didn't stop them.

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[–] mojofrododojo 8 points 9 months ago (4 children)

tubgirl coming in clutch...

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I love zipping up the craziest furry porn I can find into a .zip folder, telling them that my bitcoin wallet code is in there, and then watched the poor assholes unzip the file and starting the wailing and gnashing of teeth. I suppose I could start bundling malware, but I really like the psychological effects of hardcore CBT furry hyper airplane porn better. Memories that will last a lifetime :)

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[–] superduperenigma 24 points 9 months ago

Make sure to wait 1-3 days between each communication to drag the process out as long as possible.

[–] Zak 76 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Assuming USA, sue them. They owe you $500 per call after your number has been on the do-not-call registry for 31 days or after you told them not to call you again. If the violation was willful, they owe $1500 per call.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_Consumer_Protection_Act_of_1991

[–] [email protected] 34 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The hardest part of this is generally finding the correct entity to serve.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Next time just tell them you'd love to sell and to meet in person

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[–] logicbomb 57 points 9 months ago (2 children)

A while ago, there was a story about a man who made pretty good money from filing lawsuits against companies that ignored his do-not-call requests. If the laws still allow it, it might be a good way to make them stop.

I believe that all he had to do was to keep notes about the businesses and numbers that called him and when he asked them to add him to their do-not-call lists.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

I remember that and tried to find him, but it looks like there are whole law firms doing it now. Probably worth it if you have a good backlog of records. Also, now that I think of it, the guy I remember did spam faxes, which were outlawed before do not call. He worked on other people's behalf, too, pocketing some of the payout.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

Ahh finally. Injunctive relief!

[–] RainfallSonata 44 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I tell them I'm accepting offers of $2,000,000+. My home is worth about $100,000.

[–] superduperenigma 12 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Where do you live that any home is only worth 100k? Even looking 100 miles away I can only find undeveloped land or dilapidated, former hoarder nests for less than 150k.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This. But where do you live in where you can find undeveloped land or dilapidated, former hoarder nests for less than 150k?

More than double that in my country.

[–] smort 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (4 children)

Middle of nowhere Nebraska. It’s not a good option, but it exists

https://www.redfin.com/NE/Nebraska-City/1110-4th-Ave-68410/home/90952016

And there’s a 1/1 in the same city for $95k

[–] massacre 7 points 9 months ago

The main drawback is that you have to live in Nebraska

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago

This is basically my strategy as well but I give them a number I’d legit be willing to sell for, currently it’s 3x what I paid for it, as-is with a required waiver on inspection.

It’s the top for the range of what I could sell my house for if it was in prime condition with the current markets, so it’s not unreasonable. Prime condition it absolutely isn’t (it needs several thousand worth of fixes, in addition to the several thousand I’ve already done on this cheap pos. It’s 140+ years old. It has problems), hence the waived inspection and as-is clause.

If they still want it, I’ll sell. It would save me tons of money getting it saleable.

But they never call/text back… not ever..

Apparently top of market price for the property plus “as is, waived inspection” will get them to leave you alone… and if you’d be willing to sell for that and they go for it, you win. They know you know your shit, so aren’t worth bothering, and you win if they go for it.

[–] zxqwas 42 points 9 months ago

I consider it my civic duty to waste as much of their time as possible. It can also serve as an outlet for creativity and have a bit of fun. Think of it as a reverse prank call.

I think my favorite was when they called on my work phone and I tried to set them up as a customer, with my most pleasant voice asking about their billing address and quoting our consulting fees and that I'd be happy to answer any question they wanted as soon as they were set up as a customer. They told me to fuck off and hung up 15 minutes later.

[–] waterSticksToMyBalls 23 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I always tell them $750k cash, non sequential bills, come alone, no cops. And if they say that's too much, relentlessly mock them for being poor until they hang up.

[–] macrocephalic 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Depending on the property that's a pretty good deal.

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[–] pigup 5 points 9 months ago

I wish to see a video of someone doing this

[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago

This was happening to me (although maybe not at that frequency). I ended up googling the property they kept asking about and found some site (clustrmaps.com) that had incorrectly associated my contact info with the property. I wrote to the company from a contact us page on their site and requested they correct the data removing my name and phone number from the property. They wrote back apologizing for the error and confirming that they had removed my info.

Have you tried searching for that property online? I wonder if you might have a similar problem where they could remove your info from that property.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago

Threaten then with legal action. If they're smart that should be enough; if they aren't, sue them.

Tips:

  • Most places in the world have laws against against disturbance of peace. Check the ones that apply to you, and mention them as you're telling them to stop calling you.
  • Start recording their calls as proof. Make sure to consistently say "do not call me further". Depending on the place you might need to include some warning like "your call is being recorded".
  • If you can't/don't want to record them, at the very least annotate when they call you, and keep every single piece of text that they send you.
[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago (2 children)

accept selling the propeety and ghost them at an in person meetup /s

[–] SpaceNoodle 12 points 9 months ago

This, but not sarcastically

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

repeat this process EVERY time they call.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Tell them you will sell it for 2x what they offer and only go up from there every time they try to haggle.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

You are on the right track. Starting at 2x and increasing your price is awesome!

Most of them will want to "assess the value" first or something else to keep the conversation away from money, at first. They want to try and hook you, then low-ball the fuck out of you. You need to confuse their routine at all costs.

Flipping the script will usually confuse them. If you are familiar with high pressure sales, use everything in the book. Sob stories, FOMO, extreme sense of urgency, etc. Start pressuring the fuck out of them to buy and don't let them distract you with stupid shit.

Now that I am thinking about it, I haven't gotten one of those calls in months. I started dumping pages of XSS and SQL injection test scripts back at automated texts so there is a chance I broke something. Dunno.

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[–] Rylyshar 20 points 9 months ago

Report them to the state attorney general

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago

So if you’ve filled a do not call, why aren’t you following up on that?

Go contact whoever operates your DNC and find out what options are available to enforce it.

[–] GroundedGator 17 points 9 months ago

"I am reporting this call to the FTC."

donotcall.gov

If you want, you can also attempt to get a callback number and company name, state they are registered in before telling them you are reporting the call.

The more info you can report the better.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Sometimes when I get a call from an unfamiliar number with my area code (I don't live there anymore so it's always a scam spoofing a nearby number) I roleplay as a 911 operator and don't drop the act until they hang up, threaten them with penalties for wasting public resources and such. It's probably not strictly legal but they're calling me illegally too so i think it pretty much evens out :)

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

that means you also have their number right?

make a craigslist listing with content like "free concrete mixer" "free plushies" or something like that and their number as contact info, won't work on robocalls probably

the effect is twofold: first they will get calls (originating from real numbers) from cheapskates wanting their freebies. then their number may be picked up by a crawler and get cold calls from unrelated spam operations. this all in addition to figuring out what just happened

[–] [email protected] 30 points 9 months ago (4 children)

If OP is blocking their numbers and they keep calling from new ones, most likely they're spoofing numbers. Doing what you're saying could in that case affect someone completely innocent

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[–] Bytemeister 5 points 9 months ago

They're probably spoofing the number. Call them back to confirm before you screw up some poor bastard's phone.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Give them all the same ridiculous non-negotiable cash selling price.

[–] slazer2au 5 points 9 months ago

One billion dollars.
While doing your best Dr Evil impersonation.

[–] Today 14 points 9 months ago

Dude, i wish i knew! Lost my mom last year and the predatory fuckers contacting me about her house won't let up! Every day i get mail and everyone on my phone plan gets calls and texts.

[–] toiletobserver 13 points 9 months ago

Find their phone number and set up your own robo call operation for just them.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago

robocalls or humans?

Get an air horn and use it when they ask.

bonus points for talking quietly, so they turn the volume up a bit

[–] mrbaby 11 points 9 months ago

C'mon man just let us buy it. Please?

[–] Hikermick 8 points 9 months ago

Make appointments to let them see the property and don't go

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