I receiced a call on a Sunday. I simply answered the phone and said hello. The guy on the other end just pronounced a name as if a friend was calling me and recognized my voice.
I said "you have the wrong number," so he asked if I was the owner of the house and I asked "why do you need to know?" So he said "OK, I'll call back later" and just hung up. What's up with that?
I called back on my cell phone and a guy answered and said "This is the FOP, thank you for calling us again." Again??? Really.
He then said that in order to assist me he had to record the conversation. I asked why he needed to do this and he said it was for my protection. Can you believe this? I would have expected the usual "for quality assurance and training" nonsense you always get.
So I said "For my protection? What do I need to be protected from?" He revised that to say that the recording was so that we would be on the same page. OK, not sure what that means either.
And during this time he is very persistent about recording the call so I kept stalling him a little bit by asking him what he does but he wouldn't tell me. He said that if I wasn't OK with the recording he would have to terminate the call. So I hung up.
If this was really the FOP, why the bizarre initial phone call, and why the evasive response when I called back? I would assume that if this was really the FOP, I would have been treated with courtesy.
Excellent information, thanks. I received a second call from a different area code (also from MD). I knew it was him but didn't bother to answer the phone. I retrieved the voicemail and all I got was some guy who said "hello" 2 or 3 times then hung up. But I did recognize his voice. How he missed the fact that he was directed to voicemail is beyond me, but whatever.
At this point, all this really amounts to is a couple of nuisance calls and the person calling me never identified himself by name or by organization so I don't know if DNC even applies here.
I called the FTC and was told that the phone numbers I provided will go into a database for someone to perform trend analysis. Geez, how much effort is it to have someone pick up the phone and call this guy?
So the FTC told me to contact the State Attorney General. I called and they said the best they could do is send a letter to the caller if I can provide a mailing address.
It kind of reminds me of a situation where some guy went to the SEC and handed the investigators a flashlight and a map to Bernie Madoff's office and TOLD THEM he was STEALING MONEY from investors. So they went to his office and came back totally clueless. Obviously a different set of circumstances here, but this potentially involves millions of dollars being stolen from hapless doners.
He obviously won't get any money out of me but I would like to help shut this guy down.