Harrassing Phone Calls - Inquring Minds...

[chasfm11]

... have a couple of questions.

This morning opened up with a phone call telling me that I just won a Disney Vacation. All I had to do was press 1. I get this one at least once
per week.

A couple of hours later, "Cardmember Services" called to help me lower my interest rates. Press one to take advantage of this offer. I get this call at least 2-3 times per week and have done everything that I can to try to get them to stop calling. I've hung them on the phone as long as I could, until they asked for personal information. I've asked to be put on their do not call list. They keep calling. So this morning, I regret to say, they got to hear me deliver that crude two word phrase that ends with "you."

Questions:

1. Am I being profiled? I cannot imagine Cardmember services calling the entire US with the frequency that they call me. My paranoia is thinking that I'm being targeted with information through a credit bureau or other means. The fact is that I don't carry balances on credit cards but I do have some and I think the bureaus may sell lists of credit card holders. Perhaps my profile comes from another source.

2. I'm on the Federal and State do not call lists. I'm guessing that attempting to do anything with either of those is fruitless. Has any one had any recent success with them? I did renew the Federal one but don't remember how long ago that was. Perhaps I'm my own enemy because I haven't been diligent enough with those to keep them as current as is required. Does anyone have a success story with the do not call lists?

I regret to say that the NRA is also one of my frequent callers. I'm a member, believe in the organization and supplement my membership fees by making periodic contributions to the ILA. But the calls keep coming and the caller ID gives me no clue who is behind the call. I'm just not as able to give as much as the frequency of the calls. The blood care outfit at least waits until I'm eligible to give again before they start their harassing phone calls. I want to give blood, I do give blood just about as frequently as I can. I'm not permitted to give if I've got health issues (this year has been terrible for colds and allergies and I've had a couple of weeks where I could not truthfully answer one of their first questions - are you feeling well today?) but the calls keep coming.

Is it just me or is it that the more that you do, the more that you are asked to do? Sorry but I'm just getting frustrated at the almost constant barrage of phone calls. My considerations about discontinuing my land line include my expectation that a large part of this harassing phone call traffic would go to my cell phone. I really don't want that.

I really wish for a return to the day when my phone ringing actually was someone who wanted or needed to talk to me, not someone who wanted to sell me something or ask for a contribution.

[bayouhazard]

I don't pick up unless I recognize the number. I suspect answering gets people on some telemarketer DO CALL list.

[Keith B]

You get on the Telemarketrs lists and your number spreads quickly. There are a few options available.

1: Get your number on the state and national Do Not Call registry.
2. Use Caller ID and don't answer any unknown business name calls or 800-type Numbers that show Out of Area or Private on them
3: Check with your local phone company and see if they have a feature that blocks totally private calls. At&t has a service called Privacy Manager that will not allow a call to come through without at least showing the calling number. If it is totally blocked by the caller they are required to announce their name or hit a button to display their number. When i see these come through with an 800-type number on them I ignore the call.

[Jim Beaux]

The Do Not Call mandate allows entities that you have conducted business with (past 30 days?) to call you. Never give your phone number out to any merchant when checking out as they can bug you. Lowe's was bad about trying to get my phone number.

Be disciplined. Report every call to the FTC.....https://complaints.donotcall.gov/compla ... check.aspx It is not 100% effective but it does help somewhat.

Years ago I too was getting a ton of these calls. I recorded the SIT code and then played it back on my answering machine while recording my out going message. It will cull your phone number from the robo-dialers; but you must be patient as your number is on several call lists. This explains the SIT's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_information_tones and this is the tone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IC_SIT.ogg

Start recording the SIT a second before you start with your answering machine greeting so if it is a friend calling they will generally leave a message when hearing your voice.

You can also buy SIT generators but they cost more than I want to pay.

Today I hardly get solicitation calls.

[jimlongley]

The Do Not Call mandate allows entities that you have conducted business with (past 30 days?) to call you. Never give your phone number out to any merchant when checking out as they can bug you. Lowe's was bad about trying to get my phone number.

Be disciplined. Report every call to the FTC.....https://complaints.donotcall.gov/compla ... check.aspx It is not 100% effective but it does help somewhat.

Years ago I too was getting a ton of these calls. I recorded the SIT code and then played it back on my answering machine while recording my out going message. It will cull your phone number from the robo-dialers; but you must be patient as your number is on several call lists. This explains the SIT's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_information_tones and this is the tone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IC_SIT.ogg

Start recording the SIT a second before you start with your answering machine greeting so if it is a friend calling they will generally leave a message when hearing your voice.

You can also buy SIT generators but they cost more than I want to pay.

Today I hardly get solicitation calls.

It appears that we have another sneaky telephone man in our midst. Before anyone knew what Caller ID was I was using it (I was actually one of the beta testers for Bell Labs and Bellcore) and used to have a grand time with such things. Then they figured out how to spoof it, and I used to use the * codes to get the actual numbers and then call them back and tell them that I didn't accept calls from liars and any further calls from them would be dealt with as harassment. These days such calls come from auto dialers that are buried within huge call groups and finding the originating number is virtually impossible, so I usually just waste their time and money by pressing one and then putting them on hold or something.

I have used recorded "reorder" busy signals on my answering machine in the past, just never thought of using a SIT.

[DocV]

You are not being profiled. Junk phone calls are more annoying than email spam and must be more effective as junk calls seem to be on the rise.

The Do Not Call lists Do Not Work. No enforceable penalties. However, if someone from Texas is calling you using a Texas phone number in order to scam you, the Texas Attorney General's office is a good place to contact. The AG has a special unit for just such things.

Just do not answer. Turn off the answering machine, turn down the ring volume. Get and use the Caller ID function.

There are some very effective technical features you can get to prevent such stuff. I get absolutely no junk calls on my VOIP service as it uses a telemarketer blocker. If you have an always-on Internet connection and are interested I will be happy to outline the steps that I use. Another nice thing about Internet telephony is that it is very cheap. I pay under four dollars a month for unlimited local and long distance.

As to NRA - call them and tell them not to call you anymore.

[n5wd]

Is it just me or is it that the more that you do, the more that you are asked to do?

In a word, yes. If a marketer is successful just once with you, their chance of being successful, again, rises exponentially the more times they are successful with you. That's basic marketing - some places call it brand loyalty, for example.

BTW, getting these calls on a cell is at least easier to deal with than on a landline. Most providers allow you to set an incoming number as 'Ignore'. You'd be surprised how few solicitation calls I'm getting now without a landline in my name.

[FrogFan]

Spam calls have been on the rise for me as well. For my land line, the solution, I think, is to find a device and software that allows you to maintain a "whitelist". There seems to be a few of them available and I'm about ready to buy one. The one I've picked out costs $100. Depending on the type of cell phone you use, there could be whitelist software available. I have a product installed on my android cell phone. It was free and it works.

The idea behind a whitelist is that if you get a call from a number on your list, your phone rings normally. If you get a call that isn't, you either send it directly to voice mail or hang up on it before you even hear the phone ring. I intend to use my address book as my whitelist.

[ELB]

No I don't think you are being "profiled" as in singled out, just unlucky in they have your phone number, and maybe picked you up from having a credit card. I get the Cardmember services one all the time on my cell, and it is always from a different number, which kind of foils the number blocking routine. If you jot down one of those numbers and google it, you will see lots of complaints about them.

I haven't read the link to the SITs yet, but that sounds interesting. Will have to check it out.

[WildBill]

I get the same calls, except the NRA has never called me.
Mostly I don't answer my phone at all. If someone really needs to talk they will leave a message.

[chasfm11]

You get on the Telemarketrs lists and your number spreads quickly. There are a few options available.

1: Get your number on the state and national Do Not Call registry.
2. Use Caller ID and don't answer any unknown business name calls or 800-type Numbers that show Out of Area or Private on them
3: Check with your local phone company and see if they have a feature that blocks totally private calls. At&t has a service called Privacy Manager that will not allow a call to come through without at least showing the calling number. If it is totally blocked by the caller they are required to announce their name or hit a button to display their number. When i see these come through with an 800-type number on them I ignore the call.

1. Check. Have done that and renewed on the Federal. Calls continue. There was a slack period a couple of year ago. Now back with a vengence.
2. Check. Have caller ID. Unfortunately, doctors and many legitimate business with whom we have recently dealt also block their numbers. Totally ignoring them could be a problem for us.
3. I'm with Verizon and don't think that they have the Privacy feature. I'll look into.

I rarely give out our number. I'm aware of the 30 day parameter if you have done business but other than the NRA, I've never done business with any of these groups. I did try to record numbers and look them up. The Cardmember services is a different number every time. Unfortunately for me, one of my legitimate banks also has a Cardmember services Caller ID.


Thanks for the input from all

[JSThane]

Dunno much about the vacation things. I hang up on them. Since they're offering you a "free" service, and not trying to "sell" you something (the sell comes on the cruise, I imagine), they're probably immune from Do Not Call lists. That, or they're scams, and won't care about DNC lists.

The "Cardmember Services" thing is definitely a scam. A few years ago, someone hacked one of the major credit card companies, and while they didn't get any actual card information, they did get lists of cardholder names and phone numbers. Now they're attempting to get you to give them the card numbers so they can run up charges; the call has nothing to do with actually dropping your rates. If you like, waste their time, play dumb, ask them to repeat themselves, and make a nuisance out of yourself until they hang up, but do not under ANY circumstances give them any information at ALL! This is an identity theft ring that uses internet services to spoof telephone numbers; I suspect some of them aren't even in the U.S. Try calling back one of the numbers they call from; it'll be a dead line, 9 times out of 10, and the last one will go to someone who has no idea what's going on and is unconnected to the scam, but has had their phone number spoofed.

[Jim Beaux]

NOTE: The link I provided for the SIT is cut short and may not work.

Here is a another SIT you may want to try. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gw6cR_XTYg

[The_Busy_Mom]

My dad spent his life as a telephone man and hates to talk on the phone. So he got an answering machine, and his message goes like this:

Hi, this is <TBM's DAD>. I don't talk on the phone. If you want to talk to me, leave me a message and I'll call you back if I feel like it.

He doesn't answer his phone, not even for me or my brother. As a matter of fact, he doesn't even turn the ringer on. If we want to talk, we call him on his cell.

TBM

[cb1000rider]

I'm starting to do some call center work on the technology side. I can tell you that it's relatively trivial to:
1) Impersonate a phone number, different from the number you're calling from, not that you have to be calling from a real phone at all.
2) Setup an IVR - Interactive Voice Technology - the "press one for blah blah blah" thing
3) Route a call that is recognized as answered halfway around the world for pennies per minute.
4) Dial automatically.. Dial repeatedly. And schedule re-dials.

DNC is great for legit companies... I suspect your call wasn't legit.
Complain to the FCC: http://www.fcc.gov/complaints" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
With enough complaints, they'll look into it.