Greets fellow victims!
I've gotten calls from these folks for a while now!  They called last Friday & again today, Monday!  Does anyone else get calls from the same number over a long period of time? Not so much calling frequently but calling many times over a long time? I've been getting calls from this number for almost two years now! I've been getting quite a few lately who, when I call them back to see if I can find-out who they are only to get a recording from the phone company saying the number is no longer in service or has been disconnected. Magical calls from another realm?  How about calls from 000-000-0000 or my current favorite....011.  Didn't the phone company stopped using three digit phone numbers when they stopped using two tin cans & a long piece of string! Guess folks didn't like getting an ear full of soup whenever they had to answer the can!
I want to thank 'cconn' for mentioning the creeps who do nothing but harvest active phone numbers. Telemarketing companies pay big money for lists of verified phone numbers. By answering the call or allowing your voice mail to pick-up you've verified your number as active. You've got to disconnect the call BEFORE the circuit is completed. They only want to ascertain if the number is active!  Since there's a record of the call after the sixth ring you've got to disconnect the call by the fifth ring if for no other reason than you're charged for the call after the 6th ring.
IMPORTANT!!!  If for some reason you answer the call & are given the option of pressing a certain number to be added to their 'do not call' list' DO NOT DO IT!  This is rapidly becoming a popular way of harvesting phone numbers since you obviously listened to them long enough to ask to be removed. Truth is most of these jerks don't even HAVE a 'do not call list' it's more like asking them to ADD you to as many call lists as possible! To hell with 'do not call lists' an active number means a chance to sell, no matter how small the chance, there's still a chance & they KNOW the worst you can do to them is hand-up on them.  Many of them are scams to begin with & are using disconnected numbers or fake numbers & are completely aware you've no way of even turning them in!  You've got to be able to find them in order to turn them in!
Ok, one final little word to end things on an UP note!  My husband came-up with the idea (it's nothing new but I won't burst his bubble) but he's answered the most recent calls he's received from these $%^&*&^% morons by simply repeating every word they said to him.  If they said hello, my name is Fred & I'm calling from the Fred United Company, he'd say right back.....hello, my name is Fred & I'm calling from the Fred United Company.  Then the caller said no sir, MY name is Fred and I'm calling from the Fred United Company to which my husband replied, no sir, MY name is Fred and I'm calling from the Fred United Company!  The caller then says, Sir, I'm calling about a very important personal situation will you please be serious a moment?  So of course my husband says back....Sir, I'm calling about a VERY important PERSONAL situation, will you PLEASE be serious a moment?  At this point I don't know how it was he was keeping from laughing since I was already laughing so hard I was gonna have to get to the loo or deal with the yellow puddle but this was too priceless & I had to hear the rest of it.  Next the guy asks, sir, why do you keep repeating me?  It really is very immature of you I'm calling about a serious matter.....Ok, at this point I had to go but went fast & got back in time to hear my husband saying, of course I know how to take things seriously, it's YOU I'm having a hard time taking seriously.  The guy then says I will have to report this to the FAA (at which point I was EXTREMELY GLAD I'd gone to the ladies)  my husband now says....WOW, will you really truly call someone at the Federal Aviation Administration about me?  What are they gonna do, put me on a flight to some luxury vacation site which I'll be able to pay for with all the money I'm gonna have when I'm done suing you & your bogus company for fraud!  Next the guy is saying.........sir, you must take the FAA very seriously, I DO!!!  Now will someone PLEASE tell me where they come-up with these people because I didn't think anyone could be so stupid after being told what FAA stands for to continue to threaten someone!  My husband with his at times brilliant if deranged sense of humor then tells the guy he's going to report HIM & his COMPANY to the AKC & the CKC!!  At which point the guy comes back with sir, it will do you no good to report me to any of the utilities boards.  At that point the telemarketer hung-up!  I think that counts as a win for our side! If they hire employees who are such morons they act as if they are actually CONCERNED when you threaten to report them to the American Kennel Club or the Canadian Kennel Club is desperately in need of help, PSYCHIATRIC help!  
Thank you all for allowing me the opportunity to vent a little!  I hope I haven't given anyone a bad case of readers cramp!  Have some fun with these fools.  If anyone has any ideas, share 'em!  I think I'm gonna go read the ones which are listed here in the margin!!
Slainte',
Maegi Mac