A caller (Caller ID TX FOP) identifying himself as calling for the Texas Fraternal Order of Police asked for a member of my family who was at work. When I offered to take a message, he said he would call back. Today he called, and again I offered to take a message again. Instead he gave his spiel about soliciting donations of at least $10 and offered a police decal for the car in return. When he asked me if I could send that, I said I would deliver the message and could I have a call back number. He tried to get off the phone. I asked for an address to which to send a donation, and he said "Good bye" and hung up. This certainly sounds like a scam.
The same thing just happened to me. They man wanted to talk to my wife. I had spoken to an FOP previously and he said that I had pledged $25. I said I had not done that, I had requested materials. He said that they had sent 2 letters already and would not be sending more and he wanted to take care of the money now and I could use my credit card, I told him I was not comfortable with that. He said he could give me an address, I said sure, and he said thanks for your time and hung up. Seemed like a scam. Big time.
We receive these calls at least twice per week and they won't talk to me, they only want to talk to my wife. We have politely told them on numerous occasions that we weren't interested and we have asked them to remove us from their call list. They assure us this will happen but we continue to get their calls.
Many times these phone calls are terminated before you answer. Their telemarketing machines do this regardless if you answer or not. The objective for many of these telemarketers is to get name and/or number to show up on your caller ID. If those numbers show up on your caller ID, then they (telemarketing group) are paid small amount of money (it is small, but multiply that times 10,000 calls a day and you have a business). The process is called DIP charges and they are paid by the local carrier to a third party vendor who maintains some control over 911 databases and SS7 switches. They make deals with these telemarketing companies to call these phone numbers in order to get paid. The third party vendors get paid and they pay these telemarketing companies in order to offset the telemarketers' costs. But here is the clincher, there are companies that are set up to do nothing but call your number and hang up and they get paid for it. The phone companies can't stop it because they don't get dinged on the duration of the call, but if the call went through with caller name or number on it. Major cities around the nation are set up with these bogus companies that do this. It is legal for now and you and I pay for it to maintain the 911 databases. Some idiots have found a loophole and exploit it, thus raising our cost.
Lastly, if it is an 800 number or so (or if they ask you to call back an 800 number) then the telemarketer may be getting paid twice. The 800 numbers may go to a lata where long distance termination is higher than usual. Even though these calls terminated in a high dollar lata, most likely it is being shipped by VOIP to another area.
Now YOU know. We can make this country great again. Stop these thieves.
These folks called me as well. My response was, "Can I make the donation at the local Police Department?" The gentleman was very plesant in responding I could do the donation online with my credit card (giving them access to it) or by mail through a check (in which they get hold of the account numbers and routing numbers), but never even responded to the original question, "Can I make my donation at the local police department... I would love to donate, but I just can not trust the old bob and weave, side stepping the question. If they really are are organization representing the police, they should be fully aware of why I hesitate and will not donate.