Needing a telephone ring delay...

[sympletonne]

That sounds like a variation / update of the old "Telemarketer torture" script for Asterisk & FreePBX; that uses voice menus to endlessly redirect telemarketers transferred to it..

Very cool, and it does sound like that was a predecessor! I stopped tinkering with Asterisk several years before that plan.

JR actually answers incoming calls with a realistic sounding human voice, it pauses when the scammer speaks, it asks them to repeat what they said, etc. The idea is to waste as much time as possible, not to get the telemarketer to hang up, but to waste their time, lowering their efficiency and costing them money. Instead of a pointless (for them)15 second call, you can often waste 5-10 of their minutes. Some of the overseas pharmacy scammers get SO angry they gang up with several of them, shouting profanities at the AI bot, questioning it's sexuality and heritage. Those scumbag show their true colors quickly, and they seem to really feel that they are getting the best of someone.

I enjoy it so much that I set up an extra Google Voice number, forwarded it to JR then posted it all over the internet, just for the enjoyment of hearing the calls it produces. In fact, there should be a euphemistic name for the act of baiting scammers to call you like this, maybe gnihsihping something. Baiting specific scammers is spear gnihsihping.

 

[Gerry_D]

There's a seller on Amazon that makes a device to suppress the first ring: FRS22100 First Ring Suppressor Silencer for Robocall blocking services

I'm not associated with the seller, I'm just a happy customer of the device.

Tell you what, this device is working perfectly!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BPFMHPD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It suppresses the first ring and the only way I know that a "tele-monster" called and NoMoRoBo blocked him is either by seeing an incoming call on my TV or by reviewing Comcast's phone log!

Now the disclaimer, I get nothing from the seller for this link, just that others may want to find it on Amazon.

Outside of NoMoRoBo, I get maybe one ( 1 ) "tele-monster" call a month, typically I get zero.

I own my own cable modem with a telephone tap but without Wi-Fi, I just plugged it inline between the modem and my home telephone circuits and it worked just fine. I still have to put in an auxiliary line to feed my stand alone caller-ID device and connect it ahead of this device.

I bought a modem w/o Wi-Fi as Comcast tends to take charge of the Wi-Fi and broadcast an open Wi-Fi connection like a lighthouse. I prefer to get the full bandwidth I'm paying for and not sharing it with other Comcast customers. I use another router/Wi-Fi, (ASUS, RT-AC56U running Tomato), after the modem which is in bridge mode. And a Netgear, M4100-D12G for my in house connections.

 

[sympletonne]

Wish we could see the circuit. I would have already ordered one, but cannot find them in stock.

An alternative is to get a Vtech or other brand of home phone that allows custom ring tones, and just record one with 7-8 seconds of silence at the beginnng before the actual sound. That might accomplish the same thing.