As you may or may not know, scammers have wreaked havoc in our home over the last few years. Their fierce persistence and back to back calling blow my mind. I’m talking almost 100 calls in one day. They have managed to swindle my mom several times. Most recently, she gave them enough information to call the Social Security office and change her direct deposit account number and steal her ENTIRE CHECK! The thought infuriates me. Not towards my mom, but towards these soulless cowards.
And how did that particular story end? After spending two days at the Social Security office, the bank, and several trips to the police department, we never got that check back. I actually have the new home address that was changed on the account. I’ve looked at the house on Google Earth. If I’m ever in Saratogo, CA, I might just pay them a visit (but probably not).
Anyways, that was just the most recent incident. There are others, like this one.
Ideally, I would love to find these gutter snakes and help the FBI or the CIA raid their shady operation, but until I figure out how to do that…I present, Telecalm®!
I’ve been using Telecalm® for quite a while now and it has taken away the anxiety and stress of dealing with Satan’s minions aka phone scammers. In my mind I rationalized unplugging the phone all together or taking the cordless phone with me when I left the house. I was desperate. Not the best solution, considering I might miss an important call, and paying a monthly phone bill for a phone that was in my car was a waste of money.
Telecalm® helps ease caregiver stress. It removes the anxiety you feel every time your loved one answers the phone. Telecalm® connects through your home wifi network. You can keep your existing phone number while controlling what calls come through to the house. The calls I do not approve are routed to a voicemail box that I can conveniently check through a free app on my cell phone. For any number I decide to block it is forever banished and unable to even reach our voicemail.
The mobile phone app is really easy to use. I created a safe list of family, friends and frequent callers. Those calls come through as any regular phone calls would. I also get a text alert anytime someone leaves a new voice message. The text informs me whether the voice message is from a listed contact or a stranger.
We haven’t used this feature, but there is also an option to filter what outgoing calls are allowed to be made. For example, if your loved one is always calling the bank or the home shopping network, you can put a filter on the phone that does not allow those outgoing calls to go through. And there is a “Quiet Time” feature that can be used at night to limit both incoming and outgoing calls.
I would never promote a product that I haven’t used myself and that I didn’t believe would be helpful to caregivers. Telecalm® has been so helpful, that I shared the advantages of using the service on a local news segment on the dangers of scammers.
Overall, the service has been extremely beneficial in helping to identifying and keep track of who is calling our home. If you or a loved one has been a target of telephone fraud I encourage you to give Telecalm® a try. If you have any questions about the service or how it works, please let me know in the comments below.
Telecalm® typically replaces your regular phone service and was reasonably priced at around $30/month at the time of this post. For a limited time, use promo code Vee20 and receive 20% off your monthly service fee.