What's with the states of Washington and Oregon? 90% of these junk calls seem to come from there, and there's never a message. All I can say is thank goodness for Caller ID because frankly I don't even answer the phone anymore at all. Caller ID is well worth the few dollars a month that it costs. I just wait to see who it was who called, and if it's somebody I know I call them back. That's the only way to deal with these people.
What To Do When You Get an Illegal Robocall; http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/robocalls
1. Hang Up. Do not press 1 or any other numbers to get off the list.
2. Consider blocking the number (May have to pay a fee—may not be worth it)
3. Report it at http://www.fcc.gov/complaints
4. Report it at https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov
5. People should continually file complaints with their Attorney Generals office.
Register your phone numbers online at http://www.donotcall.gov or call (888) 382-1222 (must call from # you want removed).
Some carriers may allow you to block certain numbers up to 90 days. Contact your carrier to find out details on those types of services.
If you want to stop these calls then you need to dry up their revenue source.
Telemarketers are making money by sending bogus Caller ID information to your phone company. Telephone numbers are Calling Name (CNAM) provisioned and stored in a special database accessible to other telecom utilities. This means that for any outbound call that transmits a special code corresponding to one of their phone numbers, these criminals collect a fee for transmitting the caller ID information to the Local Exchange Carrier receiving the call. When you see a telephone number in your caller ID (along with some name like Card Services), your phone company has to reimburse the caller for downloading that info from the database where it’s stored.
These fees are typically fractions of a cent per call however when these fees are aggregated across tens of millions of outbound calls per week, it amounts to significant money.
Huge volumes of unsolicited telemarketing calls can drive significant revenue into the pockets of these scum sucking criminals. In return your phone company charges you a fee (it may be hidden or $5 to $15 on your phone bill). Since they only pay out a small portion of this fee this may have something to do with their inability to stop these calls.
Legislation is urgently needed making it illegal for carriers to charge each other for caller ID. If a telephone service wishes to operate it would need to provide the caller ID at no charge as part of the service.
Many of the disposable numbers come from Pacific Telecom Communications Group and they are currently under investigation and in the midst of various lawsuits. (The principals involved have been part of actions by the FCC under other business names). The Oregon Public Utilities Commission has revoked Pacific Telecom's certificate to provide telecom services in Oregon.
Here is an excellent blog site that explains how this company is getting away with this activity. http://telemarketerspam.wordpress.com