Same as everyone else, asking to update business listings for a web site, but they asked me if I was authorized to make changes to my service. I questioned them about this, and they hung up.
Same as everyone else, twice this week have received calls from heavy accented man wanting to verify company name, address, telephone number and the correct spelling of my name. He hung up on me yesterday when I started questioning his company. Called again today and asked same questions and hung up when I asked why I couldn't find my alleged free listing. Called AT&T - they put a third party block on my account which will not let third parties make any type of charges or calls to my number. I suggest everyone contact their phone company after receiving such calls.
I got the same call today. They say there are no charges; however, when the recording (which is very quiet) comes on, I am prompted to say yes to a line about charges. I kept saying "No" I am not authorized to make financial decisions. She repeatedly tried to re-assure me that I wasn't going to get charged for anything. I said, why does it want to record me saying "YES" to charges then. I eventually told her to call back another day and speak with someone else, she said she can't because she already started talking to me.
My company has been getting these calls numerous times throughout the day, everyday for the past week, and I have alerted all my employees to "just say no" and hang up when these calls come in. I know this is a scam; 2 years ago one of my employees answered the phone when someone with a foreign accent called to "update information for the yellow pages" (they have also called saying they want to "update their records"). The caller said "is your number still XXX-XXX-XXXX?" and my employee said yes, that was correct. The next phone bill came with a charge of $99.99 plus tax. When I called our phone company's billing department to question this charge on my bill and of course tell them to remove the charge, I had to jump through some hoops to get the charges removed. It was frustrating, wasted valuble time, and it took 2 months for the charges to be credited to my account, and they did not credit the tax. The phone company's representative was sympathetic, and said that even though caller ID showed the call as coming from Maine, she was able to futher trace the phone call as having originated in India, was routed to Turkey, then routed to England, then routed to Iceland before being routed to Maine so it would appear to be a call from the US. She said this happens a lot, but they really can't do anything to stop these predators from using this scam.
What I don't understand is why the phone company allows the scammers (or any other company for that matter) to bill your phone account in the first place. The phone company should be held accountable too for allowing this to happen. How many businesses or individuals have simply paid their bill without looking over all the charges? It's sad that you have to put a 3rd party block on your phones, and even that is not a sure thing. Just remember, these scammers are taping what you say, and the moment you say anything affirmative, they will bill you.
I received another call from a thick accented man today from # 601-670-1115 that came through on the name of Travez Moffett. He was calling regarding the USB Yellowpages. I have had dozens of calls from people claiming that they are from the same ?company? I have a business which is on the National Do Not Call Register. This is very frustrating, they use up your time trying to get you to answer their "yes" questions. I am calling my phone company to see if they can trace the number back as I could not get back to them after hanging up.