Fighting non email spam

Some countries have a central mandatory do not call list. In the Netherlands these are Bel-me-niet for blocking sales calls, MOA Onderzoekfilter for blocking market research calls and Postfilter for blocking direct mail.

General

1. Always try the find out who is bothering you.
2. Call the chamber of commerce and find out who are on the board.
3. Find out their home phone numbers.
4. Call one or two board members at home and tell them what you think about the whole lot. As it turns out, giving these thugs a taste of their own medicine has proven to be very very effective indeed.
5. If possible, be buzzword compliant in your criticism. That way you're much more effective in actually getting through to these morons.

Phone spam

1. Get a Caller ID (CLIP) display.
2. Do not answer calls without a CLIP.
   Some number displays will disconnect your phone if there's no number. So, if you can't identify who's calling you, your phones won't even ring!
   Some telcos provide ACR (Anonymous Call Reject), which does the same.
3. If possible, try to hook up your CLIP to some sort of database system displaying the name and address of the caller. Sometimes this info can be obtained from a reverse directory website.
4. Do not answer calls from commercial entities unless you have reason to believe that they won't bother you with pointless drivel. For instance because you asked them to call you.
5. You could have all anonymous calls answered by a fax / modem.
   Eg; Start minicom and type ATA <Return> whenever you receive an anonymous call.

#!/bin/bash
exec minicom -c on -S "/home/rob/bin/pd.scr"

expect {
	"OK"
}
print "\r"
send "ATA\r"
expect {
	"NO CARRIER"
}
exit

Horizon spam