I received a call from someone who presumed I had diabetes and was apparently trying to sell medical devices paid for by one's insurance company or possibly by Medicare.  When I delayed the call by saying someone was at the door, the caller finally hung up.  The same day as the initial call, I received 15 subsequent calls from this number--all blocked, thanks to my phone system.

No one replies when I say "hello".  Then the phone disconnects.  When I call the number back a recording says "this account is no longer valid".

This number calls me every week with the exact same results.

They called once yesterday & again just now. I didn't answer ((*I give you my word, that's your best strategy)) but the caller ID readout of "Backbone Comm..." piqued my curiosity enough to google the number, which brings me to...

Hi Dave.

I've gotten these before, too, and they are incredibly annoying! But there's good news, and maybe-good-news. These calls are 100% automated, and their sole purpose is to see when you're most likely to answer. Sickeningly efficient, isn't it? Bots work longer & cost less; and putting all of the menial, repetitive tasks on auto-play means that the sales reps can spend 100% of their time trying to talk people into [***] they don't want, need, or have the money for. Ugh!

Anyway, stop answering calls from this number, and any others you don't recognize. Your number will get logged as a dead-end and they'll move on after a few tries. The more you pick up, the more likely they are to keep calling, and the longer it'll take for them to stop. That's the good news. Simple solution:) One I trust, & that I can vouch for.

Now this next one I'm not so sure of lol but it's definitely worth mentioning. If you press pound a few times before they hang up, it confuses things enough that the call doesn't get marked down. It sounds plausible enough but it feels too urban-legend for me. ...As in "I answered by mistake and now they keep calling! What do I do?!" is probably posted somewhere with "dude just keep hitting pound next time" as the top-rated answer haha.

Wow. That ended up being really long! Lol I hope it helps someone


tl;dr?  If you don't know the number, don't take the call. If it's important, they'll leave a message.
Answering these is like hiding from the school bully and then giggling the second he walks past your hiding spot.

Sorry buddy, they are not automated.  They went to VM and you could tell it was a call center or a house party.  So definitely a scam HQ.  I'd personally like to answer to catch their M/O.  Idiot who called probaly should have hung up but left 30 seconds of background conversation.

They did not leave a message.

No doubt these callers are scammers waiting for someone to answer. Perhaps they are paid to check numbers. Don't ever answer an number you don't recognize.