The same company has been harassing for the better part a year now wanting to buy a property I don’t own. I have filled a DO NOT CALL registration, I have blocked their numbers multiple times, I have told them to stop calling and to remove my name from their list, and now I’m getting maybe 1 or 2 calls a day and multiple texts.
You don’t own the property, so tell them you’re willing to sell, go through whatever process they give you, wasting as much of their time as you are willing to, then inform them that they’ll have to talk to the owner to finalize the deal.
this is the way. i had to break it to my friend recently, these scam callers don’t have a DO NOT CALL list. they just have a list where they call you more.
i got my cell number decades ago. for many years i would get calls for a Sabrina. i explained to them many times over the years, i don’t know anyone by that name and i’m not interested. every time, they’d wait about 6 months and the calls would start up again. about a year or two ago i was in the shop working, and got a call. i decided after that moment that i was Sabrina and i was interested in whatever it was they were selling.
a few days later, i got a call, told them i was Sabrina, was down for whatever services they had. i managed to get the person to give me the address they had listed, under the guise of confirming it. before the end of the week i had 3 different roofing contractors scheduled, all to show up at the same time, same day.
my only regret was that i couldn’t be there to watch the drama unfold. when they called back later i told them i had no idea what they were talking about.
in the year and a half since that incident, i have received no more calls for Sabrina.
moral of the story, sometime the best answer isn’t the honest one.
I’ve been known to text them back some very very NSFW images. That tends to put a stop to it (until the next batch of wannabe flippers gets that number).
I sent one a sex hotline number and actually tricked the guy on the other end. Still didn’t stop them.
I love zipping up the craziest furry porn I can find into a .zip folder, telling them that my bitcoin wallet code is in there, and then watched the poor assholes unzip the file and starting the wailing and gnashing of teeth. I suppose I could start bundling malware, but I really like the psychological effects of hardcore CBT furry hyper airplane porn better. Memories that will last a lifetime :)
That’s cool, but I kinda feel bad for Sabrina, who likely had no idea they were trying to contact her instead of you.
Assuming USA, sue them. They owe you $500 per call after your number has been on the do-not-call registry for 31 days or after you told them not to call you again. If the violation was willful, they owe $1500 per call.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_Consumer_Protection_Act_of_1991
The hardest part of this is generally finding the correct entity to serve.
A while ago, there was a story about a man who made pretty good money from filing lawsuits against companies that ignored his do-not-call requests. If the laws still allow it, it might be a good way to make them stop.
I believe that all he had to do was to keep notes about the businesses and numbers that called him and when he asked them to add him to their do-not-call lists.
I remember that and tried to find him, but it looks like there are whole law firms doing it now. Probably worth it if you have a good backlog of records. Also, now that I think of it, the guy I remember did spam faxes, which were outlawed before do not call. He worked on other people’s behalf, too, pocketing some of the payout.
I tell them I’m accepting offers of $2,000,000+. My home is worth about $100,000.
Where do you live that any home is only worth 100k? Even looking 100 miles away I can only find undeveloped land or dilapidated, former hoarder nests for less than 150k.
This. But where do you live in where you can find undeveloped land or dilapidated, former hoarder nests for less than 150k?
More than double that in my country.
Middle of nowhere Nebraska. It’s not a good option, but it exists
https://www.redfin.com/NE/Nebraska-City/1110-4th-Ave-68410/home/90952016
And there’s a 1/1 in the same city for $95k
Downtown Huntington, WV definitely does have houses in that range, but it’s had a combination of elderly houses and significant population outflow over the years, and the houses date to an era from before when cars were really a thing, so you’re likely not to have a garage.
This is basically my strategy as well but I give them a number I’d legit be willing to sell for, currently it’s 3x what I paid for it, as-is with a required waiver on inspection.
It’s the top for the range of what I could sell my house for if it was in prime condition with the current markets, so it’s not unreasonable. Prime condition it absolutely isn’t (it needs several thousand worth of fixes, in addition to the several thousand I’ve already done on this cheap pos. It’s 140+ years old. It has problems), hence the waived inspection and as-is clause.
If they still want it, I’ll sell. It would save me tons of money getting it saleable.
But they never call/text back… not ever…
Apparently top of market price for the property plus “as is, waived inspection” will get them to leave you alone… and if you’d be willing to sell for that and they go for it, you win. They know you know your shit, so aren’t worth bothering, and you win if they go for it.
I consider it my civic duty to waste as much of their time as possible. It can also serve as an outlet for creativity and have a bit of fun. Think of it as a reverse prank call.
I think my favorite was when they called on my work phone and I tried to set them up as a customer, with my most pleasant voice asking about their billing address and quoting our consulting fees and that I’d be happy to answer any question they wanted as soon as they were set up as a customer. They told me to fuck off and hung up 15 minutes later.
