I just got a call from this number (May 13, 2013, 9:42 a.m. Pacific Time) and have some info based on my calling them back. First, the caller ID identified them as "STNSN BLNS CA." The phone rang, I said hello, then heard absolutely nothing on the other end of the line. Perhaps they were hoping a female would answer. In any event, I called back and a male identifying himself as Erik Thorton answered. His name could be spelled Erik, Ehrick, Eric, or some other variation. He had a southern accent. He said, "The state FOP just kicked off their fund drive," then proceeded to tell me my donation would benefit "officers that have been tragically killed in the line of duty." He said the organization is the Paternal Order of Police California State Lodge, and their website is www.cafop.org. I asked him if he was aware that many people think calls from this number are scams. He said he could not answer my question because he was in training. He had a very impersonal, official-sounding voice. Frankly, I don't trust this organization and wouldn't recommend donating anything to them.
This is definitely a robocall. It's very sophisticated using a recorded actor and voice recognition with a query processing engine, but it's definitely not a person on the line. Or maybe there's someone listening and manually triggering the recorded responses. Call the number several times and you will hear the same perfect digital audio, the same script, pronunciation, cadence, etc.
Ask the bot an oddball question or two and it will stumble, offering to send you to a supervisor. I did so and the very "supervisor" admitted he worked for a company called Avatar Technologies out of the Philippines. Note that they likely chose the rural 415 area code residential number as a tactic to increase the chance of people picking up. The voice actor's twangy voice and patriotic wording are also clearly designed to pull at the heartstrings and obscure the fact that this is a non-us company.
I suspect they are operating legally, if only just by the skin of their teeth. Assuming this is not a scam, the real culprits here are the California Fraternal Order of Police. This is rude and unethical and you should be ashamed of yourselves.
I did answer the call form STNSN BLNS CA #1-415-534-0208. The man was certainly high pressure, authorative and interuptive. The premise involved the California Fraternal Order of Police and 'our support' and can we count on you for 'a pledge'. It sounded like he had a script all written up and read from it without wanting to answer any questions. The man I talked with was not an automated voice. When I finally did get to ask a question, it was this; "What is your Non for Profit Licence # for California? That stopped him, he was silent and jokingly I asked "hello...hello?" He came back with a 'maam, the toll free number is..." but I interuped him repeatededly until he finally quit talking and told him that was not a non for profit number, something sounded fishy, I couldn't participate and good-bye. Interestingly, we are on any and every 'do not call' list. This man addressed me as 'maam', I think he was waiting for that 'pledge' I called our local police station and reported the caller I.D. and phone number and gave a recap of what type of conversation