CALL the FCC and report the number. I did this with Capital One whom I didn't have an account with and received calls from 3 to 4 times daily! I stopped receiving calls the next day.
I too have been getting harassed. I am trying to organize a way to stop these unscrupulous
people from calling our "do not call" registered phones day and night. It costs us money,
time, and energy at a time that we as a nation have little or none of to spare. We have to
raise awareness of what's going on and stop them.
1) The reason that these people can call you while you're on the DO NOT CALL registry is
straight forward. These people harassing you aren't in America and aren't subject to any do
not call regulations! Well if they aren't in America, how are they calling with domestic
phone numbers you ask? Major USA telecom companies have reseller businesses where they
resell VoiP phone services to consumers all over the world and they use virtual phone
numbers that have american phone number exchanges.
Why then are these American Telecom
companies providing these foreign people with phone services to harass American consumers
and use the services for illicit activities? The truth is they're not, in fact most of the
major American Telecom companies aren't even aware of who is using the services and what
they're being used for as they're reselling them to different foreign vendors who then sell
the service to foreign consumers.
So the question then becomes, what are my options and what
can I do to prevent this? The best thing to do is contact your STATE Attorney's Office with
the phone number harassing you. Be very specific about what these illicit individuals are
doing with these phone numbers and what information they are trying to obtain from you.
What will your local STATE's Attorney's Office do about it? They will subpoena the carrier
who actually provisioned these telephone numbers from the national pool. If these numbers
are operated by another carrier, the carrier who owns the number will contact their reseller
and will hopefully comply with terminating the number or potentially face legal action from
the STATE.
Contacting the FCC won't do anything, trust me. Contact your local STATE's
Attorney's Office and complain, complain, complain but be very specific about who called
you, what they wanted and exact timestamps of calls. The more information the better.
2) Answering the phone, calling them back and pressing "1" to be removed only confirms that
they have a real person on the phone. I believe they have "war dialed" to find your number
and if you've answered or called back, they now know they have a real phone number and it
only makes you get targeted for more calls, I've managed to get a second phone on their list
via calling back from another line.
3) Here is a growing list of the numbers they have used (spoofed), note that this list is
from places that have a very light population density and therefore lots of free and unused
or available numbers, places like North Dakota, New Mexico and Iowa among many others. When
I get another call from an unfamiliar number, I google that number and usually it is here on
this web site. I then now that I got called by another scam/telemarketer scum bag.
714-209-8684
801-533-9777
800-463-3339
603-214-3668
701-625-5008
701-625-5758
216-501-2998
901-268-4934
302-394-6888
810-232-0555
810-715-1369
810-238-6889
701-920-9647
701-920-9732
701-920-9871
701-920-9939
912-447-3244
865-292-0385
515-989-9889
438-876-4557
316-789-1356
731-256-3580
631-291-4014
505-369-1289
876-587-9183
702-418-1175
876-290-2766
865-291-1569
818-201-6758
503-902-8259
800-444-4444
201-305-5031 (their new number as of today)
As they add new numbers, I'll update this list.
5) The companies that purchase this illegal service include a credit reduction scam ("Card
Services" who try to get you to give a credit card number, a home security system provider.
I have also been called by folks telling me that I've won a prize and can I give them a
credit card number to pay for taxes. Recently the National Diabetic Association, fishing for
more identity and Medicare related information. This morning, it was "Card Member Services",
and Jessica Morgan was what the caller told me was her name. I asked her where her call
center was located, and she told me it was against the law to tell me that, when I mentioned
that I was on the do not call list and her call was against the law, she promptly hung up,
(although she at least said have a good day). As I we hear of other companies, I'll update
this list.
Actions we can take:
1) To help on my phone, I've created a trash contact which has a silent ring tone and each
time they change their spoofed number to a new one, I add them to this contact so at least I
can continue my meetings and meals without interruption once I have their new spoofed Caller
ID number. It helps, a little.
2) Find the link to your STATE Attorney General's office, bookmark it. You'll be using it
frequently to report these calls. Take note of as much detail as possible, pretend to be a
fool and not on to them to gather as much information as possible to give to the STATE AG
office, include the number and exact time and date and any other information. I'd waste
their money by trying to see how long I can keep them on the phone, I talk *very* slowly to
give them the impression that I am a potential victim. Once they realize that you're not a
legitimate target, they'll hang up, usually I never get a call from the same number after
this treatment of their call. There are others who've been called who report that by
screaming, whistling, or making other loud noises into the phone, gives them some kind of
satisfaction, but your miles may vary. If you're interested have a loud whistle handy, some
measure of satisfaction can be garnered from knowing that their ears will ring for the rest
of the day. To do this, they have to (usually), wear a headset, if you speak softly to them
so they raise the volume, you'll get better results.
3) Register your phone at donotcall.gov. After that you should file a complaint each and
every time they call. I have never had anything happen as a result of this, but I did feel a
little better by doing it. Senator Hatch's office most recent letter indicated they have
serious funding issues, (no surprise here) and do very little, but at least you have the
information filed.
4) I recently complained to both of my senators and my representative, I have gotten a
letter from the FCC noting my complaint, giving me a case number and a phone number to call
to complain, that number is: 888-225-5322
Call that number and complain when you get one of these unwanted calls and you're on the "do
no call" list. The telemarketer has to try to sell you something. So when they call press 1
to get to a live person then let them go through their whole sales pitch before telling them
you're on the do not call list.
Then when they hang up on you, call the FCC and file your complaint. Ultimately, we can find
the companies that enable this behavior and get the feds to help curtail it by bringing them
to justice for using illegal telemarketers. There are now several cases of successful
prosecution of companies that enable this behavior.
Together we can stop these illegal people from calling night and day, and moving to new
numbers. The businesses that purchase this company's product, their telemarketing services
without regard to the do not call list. They've messed with the wrong nest of people, the
hornet's nest.
Thank you everybody who has helped to contribute to this document.
I received a call from this number today...it told me that i could lower my interest rates and to press 1 to continue....some woman came on the phone and told me how this would not affect my credit but would in fact raise my credit score by 30 percent....she then told me that she needed to verify the customer service phone number on the back of one of my credit cards....i told her that i was not going to give her any information and that this was a scam....she said why do you think this a scam do you not want to lower your interest rates...i said "HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF THE US GOVERNMENT AND THE NATIONAL DO NOT CALL LIST"....she abruptly hung up