Credit call services - this is one of the numbers! I am on the do not call registry. These people call from several numbers and they call all of the time. Have done everything I can to stop it. So far - just today - I have received 7 calls. I can't stand it. How can I get it to stop!
Credit Card Services - they understood me when I started to talk with them. Suddenly when I told them they were in violation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the call became choppy and could not understand me. They were talking in the background about lunch and laughing. I plan to fila against them since they were already warned.
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 time stamps of calls. The more information the better. See my note about Utah's Attorney General's office and
their lame response to their citizen's issues.
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.
5) The companies that purchase this illegal service include a credit reduction scam ("Card Member 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 we hear of other companies, We'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.
If I do not recognize the called, or it is private, or no number, or even a wild number, (I've also been called by number 69, and 488, and a few other
incomplete numbers), I don't even answer. I pull a browser, check google against that number, if it turns up here, I add their number to my trash contact
list, enter a do not call complaint, ( https://complaints.donotcall.gov/complaint/complaintcheck.aspx?panel=2 ), and update my phone list here to help to
get the word out on this number.
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. A note about Utah's Attorney General's Office, I have tried to get their attention to this matter, but I
was told that their office only works for the State, not the citizens. Weird times we live in here. I suppose if I'd have given to their campaign fund, I
would have gotten different results.
3) 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. Mean yes, but some swear by it as a method that works.
4) 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.
5) 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. Maybe somebody could pretend to want in on their little scam and act as a double agent, find out what's really going on, how do they get our
numbers? How do they distribute their phone lists? How are they spoofing, exactly how? If we some answers, we can find who is really behind these scams,
and maybe then we can get some satisfaction like getting these scammers behind bars.
I have also collected my local FBI office, in Utah it is:
FBI Salt Lake City
Suite 1200, 257 Towers Bldg.
257 East, 200 South
Salt Lake City, UT 84111-2048
And a fake credit card number, string them along, have some fun because remember time is money to these criminals.
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.
Here is a link from a Director at the FTC about this, http://www.komonews.com/news/consumer/141850693.html
New tip;
OK, so you came to this site to tell someone to stop calling you. There is no one here that can stop the calls, you have to take action yourself. Forget Do-Not_Call or FCC or BBB or Attorneys General.
There is a simple way to stop any automatic predictive dialer from any calling phone line.
Get a telephone answering machine:
Wal-Mart, AT&T 1739 Adjunct Answering Machine System $16.46
Target, AT&T DECT 6.0 Cordless Answering System (EL52100) $29.99
Radio Shack AT&T Corded Digital Answering Machine $19.99
etc...
then go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:VC_SIT.ogg to hear the 3 tones played twice.
Press RECORD and play the tones from your computer speaker into your microphone on the answering machine.
After the 3 tones are played twice, begin your personal voice recording:
BOOP, BOO, BEEP pause, you have reached (your phone number) we are not available to take your call at this time. Please leave your name and phone number
and we will call you back as soon as possible.
If you are home, when you hear the name and phone number, you can pick up the phone if you wish to talk to the caller. Otherwise the telemarketer dialer
will automatically remove your number from their fish list.
This also works for cell phone voice mail.
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General Info: SIT Tones
There are eight Special Information Tones or SITs played before telephone company recorded announcements. They are used to tell automated dialing equipment the call did not complete.
The VC_SIT tone indicates: Vacant Code; this number is not in service, so remove this number from your calling list. (however your number really is in service, you fooled the auto dialer into not calling again)
Good Luck from the Phone Guy
I can attest that this has helped considerably. I had not gotten a call for over month by using this method. Good luck!
By complaining here does nothing this is just a place to vent your frustrations. Write your senator/congressman, you can find out their email address by going online and putting in their name. Bombard them don't just do it once.
IT FRUSTRATES ME TO NO END THAT THE LOSER TELEMARKETERS CAN FIGURE OUT A WAY TO SCAM THE SYSTEM, AND AT&T (FOR ONE) CAN'T FIGURE OUT A WAY TO STOP IT. SO APPARENTLY AT&T ISN'T AS SMART AS THESE FOOLS
Yeah, that's a great idea -- write your so-called "representative" in government LOL. But remember to enclose enough of a campaign so that you outbid the telescamming industry for his or her favors. And don't forget, pols are some of their biggest customers!
So good luck with that!
Or you could just buy a whistle and when you get one of these subhumans on the line BLAST AWAY.