The bot will waste the telemarketers time, which is the most expensive thing that these companies are paying for. Do this enough times and the calls drop off rapidly.
There's no way I'd pay money for that. I've tried wasting telemarketer calls for years under the theory that it costs them. It's not working anymore, their strategy has changed. They are being trained to detect and hangup, and call back again and again later.
Even the ones that have options to hit '2' and add yourself to the do not call list are not only not adding you to any do not call list, they are confirming there's a human listening and increasing the call frequency. I just had that call 5 minutes ago, after attempting to opt-in to their do not call list twice this week.
I used to waste their time when I could, but now I just have to let it go to voicemail.
The best call I had was when they called at 9:30pm... saying I won a trip, and I just needed to give them my cc so they can verify I was 18+.
I talked to them like I was interested, and when they asked for my cc I told them i had to go find it quick.
I put the phone down and watched an episode of South Park and forgot they were on the line yet.
I get back and pick up the phone and tell them I just found the card. I start reading the information off of it, but using the wrong name, and numbers, etc.
He was so excited about it that he kept telling me about all the fun I was going to have. Then he got a sad tone and said the card was rejected. I acted surprised and asked him to read back to me what he had since I had no idea what I gave him.
It got rejected another time, so he suggests we call the number on the back to do a three way call with my cc company to figure out what is going on.
I give him an 800 number that my cousin and I found by accident when we were like 12. I read him a phone sex number. He started to dial it and all of a sudden I heard a recording of some lady moaning. He immediately hung up and never called again.
I just signed up. Thank you. I don't even care if it works. I get up to 6/day, and if I can turn even just one of those into a bit of fun, it'll all be worth it.
I've become irrationally irritable because of these calls. I have started subconsciously turning off my ringer, causing me to miss actual important calls. Jolly Roger may be my saving grace.
I have varying degrees of success with it. I do have a few recordings of calls (JR will email you an audio recording of the call after you hang up) that are quite hilarious.
The bot will waste the telemarketers time, which is the most expensive thing that these companies are paying for. Do this enough times and the calls drop off rapidly.