Called bright and early today just as the overnight curfew ended, and promptly abandoned before the fifth ring. So already we might have a Telemarketing Sales Rule violator. Caller ID CNAM indicates yet another "hero charity" fraud. I have two good guesses as to which commercial fundraiser is behind this, but I'll need to speak to a call center drone.
Answered this call without checking caller ID. Looking for pledges for homeless veterans. Choice was $50 or $30 commitment. I hung up but now they continue to call multiple times a day. Caller ID says Vets Support FN.
Called bright and early today just as the overnight curfew ended, and promptly abandoned before the fifth ring. So already we might have a Telemarketing Sales Rule violator. Caller ID CNAM indicates yet another "hero charity" fraud. I have two good guesses as to which commercial fundraiser is behind this, but I'll need to speak to a call center drone.
Charity calls are commonly placed by a commercial fundraiser, hired by a purported nonprofit group. Like all non-sales calls, these are exempt from federal and most state no-call registries, even though the call centers executing the recurring campaigns are very much for-profit and pocket most of what is collected.
At times the ''charity'' client is itself a closet profit enterprise, compounding the deception. Never forget that "nonprofit" is a tax category, not an indicator of actual earnings and not a guarantee that anyone who deserves your generosity will benefit. The "hero charity" is perhaps the worst offender. This category includes barely legal soundalike names allegedly collecting for firefighters, police, war veterans, and breast cancer patients.
As commercial entities, the hired call centers are expected to honor an internal no-call list and add any number upon request. Break that order, the FTC declares, and ''the telemarketer may be subject to a fine of up to $16,000.'' They can also be spanked for excess call abandonment, transmitting inaccurate Caller ID, and calling outside default hours.
Because the amounts collected are rather small, these call centers are quite motivated to repeatedly hassle you. The worst of the industry will "reload" a donor multiple times a year, preferring forgetful and easily confused victims. Most if not all such phone farms assume that your no-call order, when given verbally or by keypress, conveniently expires when a client's campaign ends.
In comments from November 2012 and June 2013 linked below, I've discussed simple steps I took to rid myself of a major pain fundraising boiler room by politely rubbing its face in federal laws. You will note that I never rely on verbal cease-communication demands.
Called yesterday, left no message on my answering machine. Caller id on my phone said "Vets Support FN", with this Rhode Island number. I returned the call (with my own caller id hidden) and a recording of a female voice pretended to be with the Veterans Support Foundation, which has no presence in Rhode Island. And this number is in the name of a fictitious resident of Bristol, Rhode Island. So I blocked the number, as it is obviously a scam. The identical situation applies to (401)200-8655 which called me yesterday, and I also have blocked.