deepred:

 

Updated list of unsolicited numbers I've received in the last several months alone (links to reverse lookups where available):

 

• 03-563-8400 (donations)
• 03-567-4317
• 04-886-0148 via Symbio
• 04-886-6130 (via Symbio)
• 04-887-8867
• 04-889-4715
• 04-901-6966 (Welly Free Ambulance donations)
• 06-241-8398 (Palmerston North, unknown)
• 06-920-3951 (New Plymouth, unknown)
• 07-245-7177 (Clever Contacts: telemarketer from New Plymouth)
• 09-304-1513
• 09-886-7059 via Symbio
• 09-967-8781 (One NZ telemarketer; I'm a former TelstraClear/Vodafone customer and they're probably asking me to come back)
• 09-886-7405 (Red Cross fundraiser)

The charities mentioned above are very good causes, but cold-calling for donations must be a sign of desperate times. If only our nation's rich-listers did some actual philanthropy, instead of buying politicians.

 

I genuinely feel sorry for you (and I don't mean that sarcastically in the slightest). Three days ago—for the first time in a long while—I received a scam call again. Lately, the usual suspects have been renting phone numbers within the EU to gain access to the telephone network from outside EU. This time, it was a number from the Netherlands.

I subsequently checked my call log and noticed that there had previously been "ping calls" originating from the same number range. The beauty of this, however, is that these specific number ranges are well-known; consequently, by simply adding four short entries to my blocklist, I was able to instantly get rid of *all* future calls—which are *exclusively* unwanted—coming from four different EU countries all at once.

The log now displays the timestamp, the incoming number, and a notification stating that the connection was not accepted. And should it ever actually become necessary for a non-EU company to reach me—via a rented, low-cost EU phone number—for a legitimate service (hehehe, there are plenty of it 😉), I can enable that specific number. Unfortunately, everyone else must continue to remain locked out. Problem solved.