Wait, what? MBNA was bought up? Does that mean they’ll stop being evil?
Heheh. Amateurs. What you do is, get a human on the line, and then “Can you wait a sec? The dishwasher’s acting up again!”
Place phone aside, peruse reading material of your choice. Vaguely wonder just how long they’re willing to run up their phone bill.
From personal experience, the phone company is more persistent than the FBI.
No kidding, I’ve been getting these too. I wonder what happens if you just make up random credit card numbers to give them? I know that all card brands start with the same 4 numbers (i.e. Discover starts with 6 etc).
Visa starts with 4, Mastercard starts with 5, and Discover 6. All seem to be 4 groups of 4 digits these days. CVV2 codes are 3 digit.
Amex are 15 digits, just to be different. The various BINs are summaries on wikipedia - usual caveats apply. A full range listing is many many pages long.
Nothing like replying to my own reply…
I spoke too soon. Last night I got the same call with a different recording that told me to press THREE if I wanted off their list. I cheated and pressed 1 instead. The nice man (who was wearing Levi’s and a cardigan – yes, I asked) told me that HE would make sure my number was removed from the system because it was apparent there was a “glitch” in the automated removal process. Yeah, that must be it.
Oh, I had to give him my phone number because apparently, when you press 1 it comes in as a cold call for which they have no information. I figured giving him the number couldn’t hurt anything since they are ALREADY calling me, but I also thought pressing 2 last time would solve the problem.
Why these people are immune from the Do Not Call list is beyond me. Of course, if the number came up as something other than “blank” or showing a number that isn’t a working number, I could actually report them, but that would be just way too easy.
I now patiently await the instruction to press 4.
Just got another call - from a number that (as noted in various links) is disconnected. I punched 1 to get to a “human” and said “you are in violation of Federal law. Do not call me again”.
The guy ARGUED with me :rolleyes: “We are not in violation of Federal law, you signed an agreement with Mastercard or Visa saying that we could offer you lower rates”. I just repeated my spiel and hung up.
Scumbuckets.
Christ, I hate those guys. I’m a pseudo receptionist at my job. Six lines. They just cycle thru them… And their automatic message is so frickin loud.
The last time they called us at work, I stayed on the line and breathlessly told them I was soooo glad they called! And I could really use a lower rate! Do I have at least 10,000 worth of debt? (As their message says… "If you have at least 10,000 in credit card debt… ") Yes! Yes I do!
Then the lady told me I didn’t qualify and hung up on me. 
I was really bummed. I wanted to get her on the hook and then put her on hold for as long as possible.
Those cocksuckers don’t even usually respond to the press “2” to speak to an operator. How can you even scam someone if your war dialer system doesn’t work properly? I wrote my congresswoman to complain about these asswipe criminals. I’m pretty disappointed that she never responded.
I sleep days, but have to put the phone answerers speaker volume up because of a relative with health problems who may need my wife and/or me to help with an emergency.
Half the time Distressed Relative forgets my wife’s cell number or that wifes cell is on HER speed dial and calls the only number of ours she’s ever memorized.
I am on Do Not Call and get these “Heather from Card Services” calls constantly.As do politicians.
I wear earplugs. I can’t hear the phone ring, but can hear voices over the answerer if the wife maxes out the volume before leaving the house while I’m asleep . My instant response to a call that goes all the way through 5 rings to the answerer is to bolt to that phone in the next room, since it’s a sure sign that no one else is home.
Aside from anyone involved in the Heather Scam, my list of “People First Into The Gas Chamber Should I Ever Become Dictator” is full of–mostly Republican-- local politicians who will not honor the spirit of DO NOT CALL (Yes, I realize that the LETTER of this law gives politicians a pass, but courtesy dictates that one not use this loophole.).
Yes, we get at least a couple of these a week as well.
And they do leave messages on the machine, which are always half cut off and I have to listen to so I can delete them.
The number usually comes up as 000-000-0000.
I’ve never actually picked up - mainly because I only answer when the number is someone I know - or looks likely to be an actual individual.
Hopefully somebody is on their trail, these guys got spanked: First Caller-ID spoofers spanked | Network World