"There's nothing wrong with your credit car account."

[Stephen Tashiro]

I put my phone number on the national "don't call" list, but several times a year I get scam-type recorded advertising calls that have the same pattern. They begin with a phrase like "Stand by for an important message about your credit car account." Then they say there is nothing wrong with the unspecified credit card account. Then they give a phone number than I can call "for more information".

On the one hand, this is really clever technique given how many of the aging population refuse to admit they have a hearing problem. On the other hand, I have to wonder why the originator of these calls hasn't been sued out of business.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Stephen.....I would suggest it has nothing to do with the aging population having a hearing problem. I would suggest it is more taking advantage of those naive enough to believe it's official, ignorant enough to believe it's official or stupid enough to believe it's official.

While my credit card company does call periodically because my wife and I travel separately a lot and she buys things using the credit card when she is out of town, they always give specific information that will identify them as the card holder bank but.....if in doubt, I can call the 800 number on the back of the credit card and validate anything through the customer service department at that bank.....and I know to whom I'm speaking as I originated the call.

[Jim Koepke]

Those calls have made me want to strangle the callers.

I am sure they are a scam and have reported them to the "do not call" web site.

I have not received one in a while.

They would tie up my line so that hanging up on them would not end the call. They would hang up on me when I asked why they called.

I finally asked the last two to not hang up on me and gave them a piece of my mind. The last one was almost in tears when I was done. She asked why I was so mean and I explained that she is the one working for what seems like a scam and called me in spite of my request not to call.

So far I have not heard from them again. Maybe they are out of business or maybe they have concluded that calling me is not going to get them anything.

Either way is fine with me, but I hope they are cooling their heels in jail.

Just glad I do not have to have my blood pressure checked right now!

jtk

[Dan Hintz]

My business line has been VoIP for a while now, and I just transferred our home line to VoIP, as well. One huge advantage is I can block specific numbers, send them to a special mailbox, etc.

[Ted Calver]

I keep getting the same calls. They refuse to take my number off their list and hang up rudely. I would gladly call in an air strike on their headquarters if it could be located. Short of that, administering a severe public beating to their boss would partially pay me back for the aggravation they have caused. If anyone has any ideas on how to stop these pests please share.

[Chris Kennedy]

Just as a generality, one of the things I have found when dealing with questionable calls -- simply ask what business they have with me. Official calls know exactly why they are calling, there is no pause to collect their thoughts or whatever. The person identifies himself and states why he is callig. Charities will identify themselves immediately and launch into their spiel. But they are up front. If you are ever uncertain, just keep asking questions. They ever pause, stumble, whatever -- you know they're fake.

Cheers,

Chris

[Myk Rian]

I keep getting the same calls. They refuse to take my number off their list and hang up rudely. I would gladly call in an air strike on their headquarters if it could be located. Short of that, administering a severe public beating to their boss would partially pay me back for the aggravation they have caused. If anyone has any ideas on how to stop these pests please share.
Call the number back on the phone you just got the call on.
It will/might be an automated answer with menu.
Listen to the menu and press the number to remove you from the call list.
Works for me. By law, they must have a way to remove yourself.

Call your Congressman and complain LOUDLY to fix the law. BAN THE CALLS COMPLETELY. Including their own.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Cheer up - it could be worse.
You could be related to a deadbeat.
We get between 6 and 20 calls a day - seven days a week - from 8:01am until 8:59pm, from collection agencies.
This has been going on for nearly five years....

Nothing works to stop these calls. Nothing. I've tried everything. Even threatening the deadbeat with bodily harm....
We just let the answering machine answer the calls, then delete them each day.

[Dan Hintz]

Cheer up - it could be worse.
You could be related to a deadbeat.
We get between 6 and 20 calls a day - seven days a week - from 8:01am until 8:59pm, from collection agencies.
This has been going on for nearly five years....

Nothing works to stop these calls. Nothing. I've tried everything. Even threatening the deadbeat with bodily harm....
We just let the answering machine answer the calls, then delete them each day.
The VoIP works perfectly for that. As each call comes in that you don't want a repeat of, add it to the black list. those calls can be either sent to the void or sent to a specific mailbox.

On the flip side, you can whitelist numbers you know are good, and those ring through directly. If a number is not on either the white or blacklist, it is sent to a mailbox. You can also have a code for them to punch in... if they don't know the code, they get sent to a mailbox, if they do it rings straight through.

[Curt Harms]

I like Ted's idea, the severe public beating would result in less collateral damage :D but Myk's is worth exploring. SWMBO keeps a list of numbers.

[Matt Meiser]

Or get the deadbeat's former phone number. The power company was the worst until I discovered a flaw in their automated system that revealed confidential information about the deadbeat to me. The person from the executive office who that issue make sure I didn't get called again.

I've been getting ones lately on my cell that say something like "This is Rachel" about credit cards, maybe 1 every 2 weeks. A year ago I was getting ones for a home security system up to 3x a day. All came from fake numbers mostly in weird places like remote places in Montana, North Dakota, New Mexico. I submitted a list to the Michigan Attorney General and got a response that they've had numerous complaints but that the numbers are faked and they haven't been able to track them down.

On my old phone I had a app that would identify spam calls, pick them up and hang up without ringing--worked pretty good. Unfortunately the iPhone can't do that.

[Brian Ashton]

Along the lines of the VoIP is to add a message to the black listed numbers that states if the caller chooses to continue and leave a message and or talk to the holder of the phone number they agree to pay an admin fee of $200 or they're to hang up immediately. I've seen this work against a collection agency that was continually harassing an innocent person. That person actually sicked another collection agency on the offending one and got a pay out because they agreed to the fee by leaving a message more than once...

[Rich Engelhardt]

Dan,
I'm not sure if that would work or not.
I've gone through the whole routine of getting a name, company name, supervisor, etc and told them Mr. Deadbeat was not located at or could be reached at, this number.
The calls tapered off, but started up again a few weeks later when a different collection agency called & the whole circus started all over again.

I just gave up trying to stop the calls.

[Gary Hodgin]

I'm on the state and federal govt. do not call lists. I'm not sure how many calls the lists prevent, but it doesn't stop this card scam and political calls. I've filed complaints about the card scams but nothing gets done. I've talked to the state people and they require me to know more than the callers tell me in order to act on the complaint. Loop holes all through the law.

I feel the only way this stuff is significantly slowed down is if people organize and really jump down the pols throats. I think I could put a stop to it personally if I could ever meet one of these scums personally, but I don't think that is possible.

[Jim Koepke]

Call the number back on the phone you just got the call on.
It will/might be an automated answer with menu.
Listen to the menu and press the number to remove you from the call list.
Works for me. By law, they must have a way to remove yourself.

Call your Congressman and complain LOUDLY to fix the law. BAN THE CALLS COMPLETELY. Including their own.

The credit card company that was calling me was using a fake return number.

The call was a recorded message. If the phone was hung up, a moment later coming back to use the phone, the recording was still going on.

Every time I asked to be taken off their list, they would hang up.

To heck with the law, these people do not care about the law. They are trying to rip people off. (IMO)

As I said, maybe something happened to shut them down since I have not received a call in a over a month now.

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

Before the do not call list my way to get off of calling lists was to have what is known as an SIT (Special Information Tone). If you have ever dialed a disconnected number, you have heard the one I used.

Automated dialing equipment recognizes this tone and will purge numbers if the system is set up to not dial useless numbers. I had it on my computer and the computer was next to my phone at the time.

My friends all knew about this and would just wait for me to answer after the three tone SIT.

I have often thought with the others, a good way to handle them is to connect a tone generator to my line and have it give them an earful of a piercing tone. Since most of those droids wear head sets, it might actually inflict just enough pain to make them think about doing something else for a living.

jtk

[Steve Baumgartner]

Despite having our phone listed on both national and state do-not-call lists, we get multiple unsolicited calls per week, sometimes even two or three on the same day. It's gotten so bad that we never answer unless we recognize the caller ID. Most of them hang up when nobody answers, but the few that leave messages usually tell us that they can reduce or eliminate our mortgage/credit card debt (a good trick, since we don't have a mortgage and don't carry a credit balance).

I had considered starting our answer message with the three-tone SIT signal for an out-of-service line. You can find recordings of the signal if you search online. But I concluded that it wouldn't be effective. These callers so plainly have no prior info about us that I have to believe they are computer dialing at random, in which case there isn't a list to be removed from!

But an even sadder sign of the times is that we have started getting cold calls from local contractors offering anything from carpentry to lawn care. Evidently these people are struggling to find work and either hope that nobody will turn them in or believe that the FTC won't bother to prosecute them.

[Matt Meiser]

I've been pretty successful in the last case in making sure the offenders don't call back. Most value their BBB rating and the BBB doesn't take kindly to illegal activity (unethical they are apparently OK with, but illegal is where they draw the line.) I settle with them for $100, an apology from their owner/CEO with his/her personal email and phone, and an agreement that they pay me $200/call for future offenses. I've gone after three or four and all have written checks. Only one has had to pay the $200. They tried to get out of it by claiming it was their competitor calling me to try to make them look bad. The BBB basically told them to get the check written. The check is nice. Knowing that the owner/CEO had to waste his time dealing with the whole thing is priceless.

The story I got from a couple of the contractor types was that they buy their list from a service who is supposed to scrub it against the DNC registry. I tend to believe them as I had an outbreak of them a while back and its gone away. I'm guessing they bought their lists from the same place and went after them.

[Jim Koepke]

These callers so plainly have no prior info about us that I have to believe they are computer dialing at random, in which case there isn't a list to be removed from!

The computer dialer has a data base of numbers. When it gets back the SIT it scrubs the number from the data base.

These are all about how many calls they make in a given time. They do not want to waste any time dialing numbers that do not connect to a person.

jtk

[Brian Ashton]

It's the same scam going on in Aus here. I used to keep getting these automated voice messages. They were actually being generated by the telephone company and are supposedly outside the don't call registry because it can't be confirmed who's sending them. I.e. the argument is it could have been a friend that initiated the message as opposed to a spam company... I stopped it by demanding the telephone company disable automated voice messages on my phone - no more spam...

[Ole Anderson]

And now those CC company's computers are calling my cell phone. But putting a poor girl into tears is like complaining to the stockboy about poor product quality. At least she is working and not on the welfare rolls. But I must admit, some of the guys are real jerks. My usual response is to immediately ask them to put me on the do not call list. The answer 90% of the time is "yes sir".

[Dick Strauss]

Before I step on my soapbox, I want to let you know about a new proposed bill that opens up cell phones for robo-dialers... http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h112-3035

I'm on the DNC list as well. Like Matt, I get the same "Rachel" calls here once every couple of weeks. They have started using fake called ID so that it looks like it is coming from a close neighbor (same 3 digit XXX city code in 1-123-XXX-YYYY). I've even see letters instead of numbers on the caller ID. The Opt-Out option with "Rachel" actually generates more calls. Blocking a number as Dan H. suggests doesn't work because they keep changing caller ID's through routing/spoofing. Caller ID must be too easy to fool!

I filed three complaints with the FTC after finding all of the right info online (the "Rachel" callers refused to provide anything more than the name of the company which is illegal in itself). Each of the first two times the online complaint with the FTC was kicked back. Somehow I was missing some important imformation so they couldn't fine the company even though I completed the forms properly. They asked me to correct the information but didn't highlight what was missing/incorrect. I finally got in touch with a real person at the FTC/Do Not Call division. They could see my complaint but couldn't identify what was missing either. They tried filing it again with slightly altered info to no avail so I gave up not wanting to waste my time!

Another tactic is the survey loophole (survey and non-profits calls are legal under the DNC). A local waterproofing company called after a big heavy rain. They wanted to know if I was having any trouble with flooding. I informed them that I was on the DNC list. They said "Oh, we are only conducting a survey". I said you are looking for work and I'll let the FTC know of your tactics. They quickly hung up very quickly once they knew what I knew...

[Matt Meiser]

Dick if that local waterproofing company is the one who's name rhymes with "feather sky", give me a call and I'll give you some additional information. I called the old lady who called from there some names I can't print here the 4th time she called me in 2 days. She was stupid enough to call me on one number and ask for me by name, then call my other number and ask for me by name again. Not too many days later I had a chat with their owner and he wrote me a nice check--my real demand was that he run advertisements on all local media outlets admitting wrongdoing and apologizing. He declined.

[Dick Strauss]

Matt,
Do you mean *v*r Dry? That's the one! Once the company was called by one neighbor (or insurance company) for help with a flooded basement, they called all of the neighbors trying to get more work (I assume they used the phone number lookup option where you input one number and request the phone numbers of neighbors).

I think they are afraid of the $11,000 FTC fine and happily settle with you by paying much less. Yes, I think I talked to this same lady.

[Matt Meiser]

Yep, that's the one. Call and ask for the owner (I forget his name but the BBB record lists it.) And let him know I sent you :)

[Matt Meiser]

Another approach I heard on the radio yesterday.
http://www.internetgoon.com/2011/08/answer-all-telemarketing-calls-911-tom.html

[Glenn Vaughn]

The credit card company that was calling me was using a fake return number.

The call was a recorded message. If the phone was hung up, a moment later coming back to use the phone, the recording was still going on.

Every time I asked to be taken off their list, they would hang up.

To heck with the law, these people do not care about the law. They are trying to rip people off. (IMO)

As I said, maybe something happened to shut them down since I have not received a call in a over a month now.

jtk

I have received hundreds of these calls. A "cease and desist" order was issued against the company a few years go - to no avail. The actual company making the calls os on the Asian-Pacific area and pretty much untouchable. (Got this information fro the FTC site).

Vlocking the number will not help since theu seem to generate a random number.

[Jim Becker]

These calls are rob-calls and are more or less scams. Just hang up. Being on the "do not call list" isn't going to stop them because they are not legitimate marketers. And it's pretty hard to sue an entity that is a fictional creation or located off-shore after multiple "hops" that disguise where the calls really originate.

[Brad Adamson]

We are on both the national and state do-not-call lists and signed up for them as soon as we knew it was available as we were getting so many calls per day the phone would not even be free to actually use during the day as they would keep on ringing. We are still getting political and scam calls now, though it has dropped in half. They call back 2-3 times when we hang up on them.

The new scam we have seen going on is how the local contractors, usually working the larger companies, are now calling over and over. They try to play on the elderly and the neighbors all cancelled their services with them but their scam is to come and fertilize anyway or do the lawn and then leave a bill stating it was already done and they thought the people still wanted the service. Even when the neighbors ask for confirmation numbers for the cancellations the staff there will say they have no record of it and so they have to ignore the bill or go through a lot of phone calls to clear it up. Many of them do not have the energy to do so and just pay it to keep it out of their face. A complete scam.