This number calls daily now. I've answered in the past and a foreign person asks me to verify information they already have for free magazines. Then they insist on getting more names - which I do NOT provide. They also ask for my name and I give them a phony name. That way if they call and say Mary / Joan / Louisa / etc said that bla bla bla, whoever is answering the phones will know they are lieing. The number is now on my bogus call list and when they call again and again I will pick it up and hang it up immediately. So tiresome these scam-idiots.
Said she is with Consulting Specifying Engineering magazine wanting our
VP of Mfg. He's not interested. She asked for him yesterday and I told
her he wasn't in but she wouldn't say who she was, she called today
right after he went to lunch but this time identified her company.
Been calling where I work persistently every single day asking for the same person who hasn't worked for the company in YEARS. They ask if they can talk with someone who has taken the position and I transfer the call. I suspect the people I transfer to don't take the call which is fine - not answering a caller they don't recognize. But they still keep calling and asking for the same person no longer with the company every single day!
I just received the umpteenth call from them and this time I simply hung up. Next call I won't even answer. We don't do any business in North Dakota anyway. It's about time I quit being so polite and say no to anything they ask or simply hang up.
I still have to be somewhat cautious because the company I work for does "international" business and we do deal with a number of foreigners and people with accents, etc. But once I see a number is reported on this web site I feel I can hang up, not take the call, etc. and not be too concerned.
The calls seem to go in cycles. I had another recently who seemed to call every single day for weeks asking for the same person (who does work for the company). I'm sure that person either wasn't taking the calls (when I transferred) or was too busy - WORKING!!! That one seems to have stopped but again, you start getting calls for another.
I'm pretty sure it's for one of those "free" industry publications where they are only trying to mine information for their own gain. I've dealt with these calls for years. On the surface it seems fairly harmless but at this point it's annoying the heck out of me and takes away from everyone's time who is trying to WORK. I don't care if these publications are "free" and gee why don't you want something that's "free" - well no you people are just annoying everyone you talk to and you're not going to profit off our information for free - that "free" publication is no fair exchange. I've eyeballed a fair number of these publications over the years and they're mostly full of advertising (very little editorial content) which is where I guess they make their real money.
Oh, and a real kicker is not only do they ask for people who haven't worked for the company in years a few times I've gotten calls where they ask for someone who I know died some time ago! Kinda sad but crazy. Where do they get their outdated info from?
Right now there's a small stack of these industry publications sitting in front of the mail station at work. All addressed to people who no longer work for the company and some people I have no idea who they are. How long is that "subscription" for? I don't think they ever stop. We leave those magazines out for the taking instead of immediately tossing them and guess what - they just sit there and a week or two later I wind up transferring them to the recycling receptacle.
Sorry for the vent but this is over 20 years of dealing with/knowing about these phone calls. At a company I worked at years ago if you were working the switchboard or a department secretary you could spend half your day (it seemed) just fielding phone calls from these so-called "free" publications. Yes, it's been going on for that long and longer, I'm sure. Now you also have the option of receiving the publication via e-mail ... great, more SPAM!!!
Get this number every couple of weeks or so, but not doing any work in North Dakota so I don't bother to pickup. I'm a professional consultant, and after reading all of these posts and from personal experience with other trade magazines that I receive, it appears that one or more of these trade magazine publications have outsourced their free renewal phone call work to a clearinghouse for multiple trade magazines; and apparently it is located in India (based upon the accents I have heard). There are some good trade publications, but somehow I magically get signed up for other ones that have absolutely nothing to do with my work. Then of course I get the phone calls to renew. So I wouldn't worry about scams here, just pushy 'sales' people (they must get a commission on how many people they get to renew because they are pushy as hell!).