The electric provider concept is valid for Maryland. However there are may scam artists out there. Problem is that they have discovered that neither the Maryland Attorney General's Office (BTW, he's planning to run for governor of Maryland as soon as he can find an African-American to run with him), nor the Maryland Public Service Commission will take any action, including listing scammer numbers and names.
If 'Disgruntled' actually signed-up with this company, it would be nice to post the name of the company for the rest of us.
BTW, calling a number on the Federal Do-Not-Call list is definitely a no-no.
All of that said,
The FTC will not take any action without a "significant" number of complaints. They will not say what makes a "significant" number of complaints. I suggest you do the following:
(1) file a complaint at
https://complaints.donotcall.gov/complaint/complaintcheck.aspx?panel=2
(2) email or snailmail your congress-persons (Representatives and Senators) about the FTC's failure to enforce the Do-Not-Call list. Mention Donald S. Clark, Secretary of the Commission. This is the guy whose name appears on correspondence claiming they don't have enough complaints. (If you have a Republican, forget this step, they are not interested in our problems or interested in accomplishing anything useful).
(3) call the FTC, Donald S. Clark, Secretary of the Commission at 1-202-326-2514.
I RECEIVED A CAL FROM 446-563-1579 TODAY, 07/22/2013. I ANSWERED IT BECAUSE MY MOTHER I IN A NURSING HOME AND SOMETIMES THE NURSES USE THEIR OWN CELL PHONES. NO ON ANSWERED WHEN I SAID HELLO. I CALLED THE NUMBER BACK AND THE PHONE COMPANY (VERIZON) SAID IT WAS NOT A WORKING NUMBER.
Just like Barbara, I'm in MD and was called by this number today, 7/22/13, and my mother is in a nursing home. I don't answer when I don't recognize the caller ID, and they hung up on the answering machine without leaving a message. The caller ID said Baltimore MD. Is the fact that both out mothers are in a nursing home a coincidence, or will there be other similar reports from others?
I just received a call from 443-563-1579 CD Baltimore, MD. A guy asked me if I was the decision maker for the electricity in my house. When I replied my husband & I are. He asked for my husband I said he was busy and could not come to the phone. The guy said he would call back later & I hung up on him.
This number called me today. Hung up on the 3rd ring before the answering machine could get it. Just reading Sandy's post about it being electricity service related I wanted to comment. We had one of these companies call us some time ago and they promised to save us money on our electric bill by reducing the price of energy if we used them in conjunction with our normal provider. It all sounded good on the phone and we even called our power company who told us it's legitimate. We signed up and saved maybe 5% for 3 months. Then the next bill was over $800 for a month, when we normally paid out $2-300 a month. We called and were informed that we did not re-up our contract and that we were assessed fees because of this. They made it sound as if we were clearly told about this renewal clause when we signed up. No one on the phone ever told us about it when we signed up. I'm sure it was in some of the fine print somewhere, but it's obviously how they really make their money. We eventually got them to promise a discount on a future bill, which they never followed through on. They are now telling us that we need to sign up with them again to get the discount on the bill. No thanks. Just some friendly advice for anyone that may listen to the ploys of this type of company, you're probably better off sticking with your current plan.