Trimline2 - I was tired of the calls from Rachel et. al. to fix my credit card rate, the calls trying to sell Cialis or Viagra, and the "local" home remodeling company trolling for jobs. Since most of these calls were recordings, Lenny, even if had he been available, wouldn't have been able to engage the caller. It had become predictable that the house phone would ring with as many as four or five scam calls in an hour period of time. And, this was happening almost daily though at different times of the day.
In response, several days ago I implemented nearly the same thing to avoid telemarketers calling my home phone, which continues to be served by AT&T. The house number is forwarded to a Vitelity DID that sources an IVR. The recording I use starts with the standard SIT tones, followed by a recorded voice that says "
Please press 8 to confirm that you are not a telemarketer." On pressing 8, the caller is transferred to my primary Ring Group, ringing other phones in the house. Otherwise, the call terminates.
Whether it's true or not that using SIT tones in the recording result in the scam caller's computers removing my number from their call list, I have set the announcement to "not answer the channel." If a call is "answered," the called number may remain on the calling list. Setting the announcement to not answer removes that possibility if the SIT has any effect. Simple, and effective.
PIAF CDR captures the Caller ID of the call so that on review of the CDR, any calls that are recognized as legitimate can be returned, and if you use a toll-free number as the target forward-to number, you can ensure that the caller ID for all calls gets reported to PIAF ... no "anonymous" calls.
The simple interception of all calls by the IVR has lowered my frustration with the elimination of frequent scam calls.
Edit 11/15: Added "Press8" recording.
/Pete./