Thank you for your hard work. I've received numerous phone calls from these numbers and they are all threats of jail, high legal fees. I don't pick up if I don't know who's calling. They are extremely annoying. I block the numbers but they get new ones as you stated above!!! I applaud you for your hard work and thank you!!!
Hi people, I too have been getting harassed. 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 figure out how to stop them. I just got called by their new number, (list in this thread), and pressed "1" and was routed to a "Keith" who when I said I was writing information about this call down, he hung up.
First some known facts, then I will follow with some action we can take to stop these illegal
behaviors.
1) The calls are apparently originating off shore, spoofing the CallerID, then when you answer, it is forwarded to a call center here in the states. They ignore the do not call list. All of my phones have been listed on the do not call registry since it started in 2003. When you get one of these calls, you are encouraged to go to donotcall.gov and if you are registered, file a complaint. If you are not registered, do so, it will take a few weeks for the new registry to get you on the list, but you can't file a complaint until you do so.
2) They are spoofing the Caller ID number. If you own your PBX hardware (phone switch), you can change the number that it reports in your phone's caller id function. It is not legal, but if you're off shore, you don't care. There is a document filed by the North Dakota Attorney General's office that describes this situation. Please read it at:
That means that the number you see in your Caller ID is not really who is calling. Calling them back will only take you to the number they put into their PBX to fool us, which is likely a non-existent number.
3) Answering the phone or 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.
4) Here is a 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 and Flint, Michigan among others.
714-209-8684
801-533-9777
800-463-3339
603-214-3668
701-625-5008
701-625-5758
216-501-2998
901-268-4934
302-394-6888
810-232-0555
810-715-1369
810-238-6889
701-920-9647
701-920-9732
701-920-9871
701-920-9939
912-447-3244
865-292-0385
515-989-9889
438-876-4557
516-734-0880 (their new number as of yesterday afternoon)
As they add new numbers, I'll update this list.
5) The companies that purchase this illegal service include a credit reduction scheme, a home security
system provider. As I we hear of other companies, I'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.
2) Register your phone at donotcall.gov. After that you should file a complaint each and every time they call.
3) 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.
I have also spoken with a person from Utah's Consumer Protection Organization, an investigator. He tells me that there are several ways this person, or people can do this, we are thinking that it may be pre-paid phone, and/or a software package that allows one to spoof the callerid. He also pointed out that we have an uphill battle since annoying phone calls are one thing, but people losing real money get priority from the investigators both at a state or federal level. He also said, and I agree that answering the phone, calling them back lets them know you are a real person and likely will set you up for more calls from these folks. I called back months ago, (when it first started to happen), pressed "1" and the call volume has gone up ever since. I get anywhere from two to a dozen calls weekly.
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.
Scam caller stating that he is calling from US Treasury regarding an enforcement action. The voicemail message didn't even name the party he was calling for. That's okay, we had a similar scammer call about two weeks ago and they used the wrong last name. Both caller voices sounded like they were calling from India. I guess Buy Best and other companies mustn't be doing as much outsourced help-line operations in India and these people need to find other ways to make/scam money.
Scam caller stating that he is calling from US Treasury regarding an enforcement action. The voicemail message didn't even name the party he was calling for. That's okay, we had a similar scammer call about two weeks ago and they used the wrong last name. Both caller voices sounded like they were calling from India. I guess Buy Best and other companies mustn't be doing as much outsourced help-line operations in India and these people need to find other ways to make/scam money.
Thank you for your hard work. I've received numerous phone calls from these numbers and they are all threats of jail, high legal fees. I don't pick up if I don't know who's calling. They are extremely annoying. I block the numbers but they get new ones as you stated above!!! I applaud you for your hard work and thank you!!!