I got a call this a.m. It was a boy and he said, "Hi, Grandma. This is your grandson. I knew he was too old to be my grandson. I said, "Is this Ty?" He said, "Yes, Grandma, this is Ty. Did you hear about the trip? I said no. He said I won a trip to Las Vegas. I'm there now. I knew the next thing out of his mouth was going to be, "I need money." I said, "You're full of baloney and I don't want to listen to you anymore" and hung up.

DH & I got rid of our land line for a couple years, but sometimes he'd be trying to call me when I was home but I wouldn't hear my cell phone because it'd be downstairs in my purse.

So we re-installed a land line but we didn't give the number out to anybody. He and I are the only ones that should ever be calling on that line. Eventually, of course, the spammers and telemarketers found the number.

But since I know it's either spam, a wrong number, or rarely it's DH, when it rings I have fun with it.

My favorite is to just pick it up and say, "Passphrase, please". They'll pause, start to talk, and I will just say, "That is not the current passphrase" and hang up.

Or sometimes I'll act like I think they're someone who I'm arguing with calling back and start making up crazy stuff. "LOOK MARSHA, I told you I don't CARE what your excuse is. There is no way I am going to forgive you for shaving my dog and painting it blue!!!"

I got rid of my land line about 4 years ago because we all had cell phones, so there was no need. What a blessed relief! But now, somehow, they are getting hold of cell phone numbers. I just don't answer. Problem is, one of my doctors doesn't show his number - comes up as "Unknown", so I don't answer those calls either. That's a nuisance when it's the nurse calling, because it's tough to get back to them before they're off doing something else.

It seems to be getting worse instead of better and I am on the do not call registry

The calls I absolutely love are the ones that sound like an answering machine and tell you they are too busy to take your call at this time and to please call back later! Hey, they called me!

Love the ideas of "fake" languages and the "arguing". Going to have to try these!

Can't wait for elections to be over. Get dozens of calls now for candidates I've never even heard of, let alone will vote for! Yes, I do have caller ID and an answering machine, but the political calls fill up the machine. Oh well...

As Ernestine (remember her???) used to say: "One ringy dingy. Two ringy dingy...(snort, snort)". LOL

Is your number listed with donotcall.gov ?? I have both my home phone and our cell phones listed.

That happened to me last week. I usually check caller ID before I answer, but I was distracted and picked it up without thinking. When I said hello, nobody said anything. I looked at caller ID and saw our number and my cat's name. We have our phone listed under Andy and our last name so when salesmen call I just tell them that Andy is in the litter box and can't come to the phone right now and they hang up on me. lol I called the phone company and they disconnected our line and reset our digital profile (whatever that means) and reconnected it. They said that should take care of the problem.

Our phone and our cell phones are on the federal and state Do Not Call lists. It doesn't seem to make any difference. We still get lots of sales calls.

I get calls for my ex's present wife from collections agencies. We have been divorced 21 years. I tell them it is my ex's wife, she lives in TX and I live in FL and to take my number off her name. Son tells me she spends faster than he can make it---his problem. Sales calls if it is a machine I hang up and if a person I tell them I am broke and have no money to buy anything so loose my number. Right now worst is political ads, most I ignore.

That's funny! A friend of mine got a call saying she would get a free cruise if she had their company put siding on her house. She said, "Oh! That's wonderful! My husband has cancer and I just found out that I have cancer. We can't work and haven't been able to pay our bills for months. We really need a vacation! Thank you!" The caller hung up on her. None of what she told them was true, but they suddenly didn't want to "give" her a cruise. lol

Oh gosh. I just finished reading this one minute ago and the phone rang. It was a guy, very think accent, asking about the Microsoft on my computer. I said "what computer?" He said "the Microsoft operating system". I said "what system if I don't have a computer?" He hung up on me.