These people call about 6 times a week from different numbers. This time it was "Mike Schultz" from the home improvement center. I have asked countless times for them to remove my number from their database, but to no avail.
Spread the word: Learn all you can about the scam and pass it on to others, so they don't fall victim. Encourage others to do the same. Talk about phone scams whenever you can bring it into a conversation, compare notes on calls with family, friends and others you see everyday. Talk to your children and educate them about the various scams and what they can do if they get one. Encourage them to also talk their friends and help spread the word.
Report to 800notes: You can be helpful by telling as much truthful information about the call as it actually happened, not what you THINK it was about or why your getting them. The Forums are for those discussions, not the number threads. Telling a "story" about your personal feelings or beliefs doesn't help anyone understand what the scam is about or serve any purpose towards letting others know what happened when you received the call. Did they leave a message, did they call a lot, did they trick you into giving them anything, did they tell you any useful information that can be passed on to authorities? Telling about a legitimate call is not very useful, since that information isn't really an 'unwanted' call. Scammers regularly spoof legitimate company numbers to trick people into answering a call, so posting about a "good call' only raises eyebrows towards a potential "shill" trying to convince people its ok to answer or call back and talk to the caller.
Report to authorities: Gather information about the scam or scammer by acting out as a helpless victim. Let them complete their scam and record anything useful to authorities. This is not for everyone and never allow yourself to become an actual victim by giving any money or personal information, just string them along to the point of gathering info on their scam operation and phone numbers they tell you to call back to. Educate yourself FIRST about scams BEFORE you go off on a scam hunt, so you know what you might expect and be a more convincing victim. There are links on where you can report those calls over on the right side of the screen. --->
Block and ignore: If you simply don't want to deal with the calls, just use the blocking options from either your phone or an app, your phone service provider, a device or a blocking service. Depending on the volume of unwanted calls can determine which you choose to block calls. For those who get only a few calls here & there, use your phone or service provider. For those who get tons of calls, use a blocking device or service. Blocking services have very large user submitted lists and block many calls someone else has reported, as well as any you report. Everyone who uses the service benefits from this list.
Wasting time: You can take the time to talk to a scammer for the sole purpose of self entertainment and also prevent a few calls that scammer would otherwise be making to others. It is not a recommended solution, as your inviting your number to increased unwanted calls from angry scammers, as they don't like it when someone is knowingly wasting their time. It does cut into the profit margin of the scamming outfit by tying up one of their scammers and saving someone from being a potential victim.
Complain about it: Reporting about a call and complaining are NOT the same thing. Complaining helps no one and serves no purpose other than to tell your feeling about what you personally think of an unwanted call. Complaining about nobody doing anything to stop calls is you complaining about yourself, since complaining IS doing nothing about the problems.
These are all options we can choose and has an effect towards stopping unwanted calls (except complaining), if we all work together as one big team. Its a war all of us are in and its not just an individual battle of you vs a scammer, its each of us battling scammers collectively and as a group, we have power!