[NA]Extreme telemarketer[NA]

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Touchdown! Greaser!
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Feb 23, 2005
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west Texas
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Display name:
Dave Taylor
So today in the middle of the busy day I answer the house line which I have piped in to work. (it's been very handy for other reasons, so I need to be able to answer there)
and a telemarketer robot comes on so I press zero in the (perhaps vain) hope that telling a real person to take me off their list will reduce these calls and a guy comes on with his initial spiel. I say, "Please take me off your list and don't call me back on this line" and hang up.
He calls right back and says very politely in an Indian or Pakistani accent, "Please suck my ____ (4 letters starting with c; part of male anatomy)". I didn't hear him the first time so he repeated it for me, so I could be sure there was no misunderstanding. You know, I would love to think there could be some type of retribution for such people - FTC or whatever but I fear there is little anyone can do. I have signed on for all the do not call lists. The caller ID says a local exchange, my exchange (in a town of 1000) so I have a reasonable chance of talking to someone I need to.
(Doubly annoying that a phone number can be spoofed so easily but when I asked AT&T to spoof my outgoing calls to clients as my main number (vs the private line I call them back on) they were clueless)
 
This is a cut and paste of my original post in March 2017:

True story. (can it be? A true story from Ravioli?)

I had a telemarketing firm call my mobile phone at 8:30PM to give me a 'free trip'. The auto-bot asked if I was over 18, US citizen, and had a credit card. Awesome! You're eligible. I was so unexcited...

So I held the line to talk to someone. I asked for the name of the business and told him they had violated the TCPA. He replied with some insults and slurs.

I made a report. Now the offending company is going to pay me $500 to retract my complaint.

So, my advice is if you get these dumb calls when you're not interested in what is on the tube or punching rivets on your homebuild... take 'em around the block for fun (and maybe profit)

(Cue up the usual cadre to call me an ass)
 
How do you identify them? (the number is bogus and likely getting AT&T to chase it would be futile). I doubt it's as simple as getting the company name. Maybe keep them on the phone til you get some more identifying info?
 
Like I said, I answered their prompts until I looked like a fish, and then when the live person came on I asked the name of the company and then informed him that I would be filing a complaint. He then said, "Do whatever you want you ___ son of a _____.

Took about 2 months to get the check!
 
I inform them the call is being recorded for both local law enforcement and the FBI because they are committing a Federal felony even if they are using a VOIP line thru Dallas or Altlanta. I don't get past the middle of the sentence.
 
Hmm, trolling telemarketers for fun and profit... I now kind of wish I kept the land line.
 
I made a report. Now the offending company is going to pay me $500 to retract my complaint.

You sold us out! If your complaint had gone through then maybe something would be done to stop the offending company.
 
I
You sold us out! If your complaint had gone through then maybe something would be done to stop the offending company.

I looked at the BBB website last night. This offender has been dealt with quite harshly, and appears to have been selling its goods without proper licensure in the state they operated. Past tense.
 
I went to the Better Business Bureau website.
 
little disappointed in POA, was at least hoping for some snappy comebacks even if juvenile; ie
"I would except I can't find it; do you have a microscope by chance"
 
Them idiots call my cell phone every day!

Me too. EVERY SINGLE FREAKING DAY!!!

I bet I field at least a couple per day on the work phone, and at least 3 on the cell phone. I rarely answer on my cell anymore, but I have to answer the office phone. I'm so sick of it.
 
I have a different slant. I talk... if I’m in the car or otherwise bored. I play along.
If its about my Medicare enrollment. Sure. Talk about all the diseases I have, talk about uncomfortable for them topics like HIV, std’s and my prostate... talk about how I need the best of the best plan as I’m very sickly.. I’ll tie up 10-15 min. Then when it’s time to make the sale-tell them that I’m not Medicare eligible yet and I am 41 br give me a call in 25 years. They get ****ed and click.

The car warranty guy.. talks about cars I had. Have want to have. Want the best of the best...I have 10 cars that I was looking for this. Start listing them. Pinto, chevette, you name it... tie up 10-15 min then start talking about the plane- tell them no deal if they can extend the warranty on the plane- on a ‘65 Cessna.
Then click.

I love the ones about how I’m owed money from a medical lawsuit for my hip replacement. (I don’t have one) or my a fib medication ( I don’t have that either). Since I’m a PA I get into real detail about the problems I have. Tie up 10-15 min.

The didn’t pay your taxes guys are fun. Get real scared. Ask how and where can I send them money. Get confused constantly about what I owe, constantly repeating wrong numbers.. I can do that for awhile.

I quite enjoy the crazy thick foreign accent coupled with the most American of names...BOb, Jim, Terry. Lol. I Usually respond with an crazy southern accent or Boston accent with a very foreign name.

They way I see it. They more time I spend on the phone the more time they waste now making a sale. Also the less time they might call an older person and snag them. I’ve had patients fall for this sadly. The medical guys stopped calling. They got the message. They others will too. Do not call lists are joke. Don’t get frustrated. Have fun with them!!!
 
If I got a call while driving on the car, I would play a game on speaker phone to see how far I could string them along for. I would "mis-hear" or "mis-interpret" every other sentence then irrupt and start firing back questions off that like a senile old man that heard the statement wrong. Good times.

But I also had a relentless several times a day call from one telemarketer...after pushing through to get to a human I was greeted with "There is no do not call list you c@#ksucker!...deal with it". It is amazing there is not a larger crackdown.

Now I do not even bother to answer any unidentifiable calls on any line.
 
It is amazing there is not a larger crackdown.
Enforcement simply has not caught up with technology, and likely will not for many years - if ever.

Gone are the days when the telco could easily trace a call to its origin. With VoIP, I can place calls to anywhere in toe world, at nearly zero cost (zero cost if I steal service from others, as many do). I can make that call appear with any caller ID I choose, change it with every call, deliver a recorded message, all with a chance of getting caught approaching zero. I can use servers and networks in parts of the world where there essentially is no law, or if there is it's completely unenforced. Your own telco is very likely either clueless, incompetent, or just plain does not care because they have not been forced to care by regulation or cost (which they would simply pass on to you with another "fee").

I will say that the number of robocalls and telemarketers we've had to deal with has declined sharply since we ported our number over to Ooma and turned on their call blocking with Nomorobo. We do still see robocalls, but the number has dropped by probably 80% or more and they're generally easy to spot. Virtually no one with the same area code and prefix ever calls us, and that's how the majority of the illegal calls arrive now.
 
I will say that the number of robocalls and telemarketers we've had to deal with has declined sharply since we ported our number over to Ooma and turned on their call blocking with Nomorobo. We do still see robocalls, but the number has dropped by probably 80% or more and they're generally easy to spot. Virtually no one with the same area code and prefix ever calls us, and that's how the majority of the illegal calls arrive now.

Using Comcast's VoIP "service" and Nomorobo has really cut into the garbage calls. A single ring and we know it was intercepted and dealt with. Now, once it gets past that I look at caller ID and if I don't recognize it, it likely will be ignored (unless my wife picks it up in another room). I hate telemarketers. Sorry, I know you're trying to make a living, but I still hate what you are doing and how you waste my time.
 
The only problem with messing with these guys is the more resourceful ones will use your number to spoof their calls, then you end up with hundreds of irate idiots calling you to tell you to stop calling them. Happened, saw it on the news, must be true.
 
I’ve been getting them at work for the past few months. I finally started to play along and when a human picks up I cut them off and say, “This is a United States Government internal phone. You are instructed to removed this number from your system immediately”.

If they don’t hang up in the middle of the statement I’ll typically get a humorous “Uh apologies, yes Sir!” response. :D
 
I've found that the best solution to telemarketers is to get a cheap or free VoIP number, and give ONLY that number to anyone other than family or close friends. And then never answer it. Let it go to voice mail. When the telemarketers get it (which they inevitably will when someone either sells it to them or gets hacked), change the number. I change it every three or four years on average.

I personally use a MagicJack for my "public" number. It's actually not horrible. It's dirt cheap, the call quality is no worse than VOIP in general, and you don't need to install any apps or softphones to use it. The only reason that call quality matters at all is because it's also the only number I use to call entities other than family or close friends, so they can't snag any of my other numbers from the Caller ID or ANI.

I have noticed that more and more places are insisting on a cell number, however. I refuse. If they persist, I tell them to close my account. So far, they've all backed off.

Sometimes they get my cell number anyway, however. I think it started when someone gave out my cell number for a job or loan reference. Two apps help with that. One is called Blacklist Plus. It just mutes all calls that aren't on my contact list and sends them to voice mail. It does light the screen, however; so if I happen to be looking at the phone, I can see that a call is coming in. It also has an option to pick up and hang up. I don't use that because once every few decades I do get an important call from a number that's not on my contact list.

The other app is called Cube ACR, which records every call. If a telemarketer does call me and I slip up and answer it, I keep them on the phone long enough to get enough evidence to hang them. That's perfectly legal in New York, where only one party needs to know the call is being recorded.

Rich
 
Sorry, I know you're trying to make a living, but I still hate what you are doing and how you waste my time.
I don't care if they're trying to make a living. So are burglars and muggers. It's illegal, and nearly every single illegal telemarketing call we get is either someone trying to outright just plain steal money (IRS scams, etc.) or selling worthless "services" and contracts that basically do the same thing -- steal money. They're criminals, and get absolutely zero sympathy from me. Given the opportunity, if I can't block them entirely I'll inflict whatever mayhem I'm able to.

Bad enough that the politicians carefully excluded political calls from the "no not call" regulations. They're almost universally thieves and scoundrels too, and the guys who run their robocalling operations are some pretty slimy characters.

OK, I'll stop now. :)
 
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I ran across a YouTube video that shows a would-be victim deleting files from the scammer's computer. (The deletion happens about 22 minutes in.) Apparently the scammer either didn't know that the remote desktop software he was using had that capability, or he didn't think any of his marks would know how to do it.

 
It would be nice if the mobile phone companies (either service providers or apple/android) made it easy to exclude large blocks of numbers. I’m way too young to still have a landline but my cell number is from an area code that I haven’t lived in for over a decade. Any number from my area code + exchange is guaranteed to be one of these spoofed “local” calls. I just ignore them but would be nice if they all just could be blocked.

We have some nerdy types here - could someone code a program that auto-answers any call from my area code + exchange with a fake recording that sounds like a human (hello... yes.. this is him... oh ok... yeah, hold on let me turn down the music... ok... I’m back... what did you say your name was again? Yes, that definitely sounds interesting... tell me more... ok... etc...) That creepy google AI would work nicely for that..
 
Yeah I don't understand why there isn't more effort put into enforcement and regulation.
I pay for this service for me to use it, not for scammers\thieves\sales people to harass me with it.
What's even more funny is that some services I will pay for and actually want to share with others I'm not allowed to...like my Hulu account.
 
Waste.
Of.
Time.
Totally agree.

Yeah I don't understand why there isn't more effort put into enforcement and regulation.
I pay for this service for me to use it, not for scammers\thieves\sales people to harass me with it.
What's even more funny is that some services I will pay for and actually want to share with others I'm not allowed to...like my Hulu account.
Yes to enforcement, but these scammers are already breaking existing regulations (wire fraud, violating Do Not Call, etc). More laws won't stop a crook. The various TelCos need to put some of their profits into securing their system- the first wireless provider to do so could use that for their marketing to pick up customers and maybe get that expense back as more profits. Maybe the regulations could be applied towards that end. I'm pretty sure someone could issue an executive order that, if the Caribbean "one-ring" calls aren't stopped, we'll disconnect all their telecommunications from that island until the government in that country shut the scammers down that operate there.

I think @SCCutler is an attorney. A class action suit against all Telcos might wake them up too. They leave unsecured networks open to scammers that invade our privacy, and render our phones useless. I know the attorneys get the lions share of the money in a class action suit but @SCCutler is probably deserving of it.
 
We don’t have this problem in Germany. Either people are less gullible or the laws are better. Not sure which.
 
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