As far as I know, I’ve only used my cell for school related stuff. Everything else, I use my home phone. But I keep getting these calls about being due for the second payment on my car insurance (I don’t have a car) and stuff like that.
Is my university selling out our phone numbers or something? What gives?
It’s a pretty widespread scam. Everybody seems to get 'em, and I think whoever is running things will just spam out calls to every possible phone number. See http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,501404,00.html for more.
How long have you had the cell phone number? Perhaps the person who had the number before you had auto insurance? Or you may simply be getting telemarketing calls. I think they just randomly call numbers and not caring whether they are calling landlines or cell phone numbers. Incidentally, are you sure that call isn’t saying it’s their second attempt at reaching you about selling you an extended warranty on your car? That’s one of the standard telemarketing calls I get (along with one about lowering the interest rates on my credit card and solicitations to donate to some dubious charity).
It isn’t someone else’s phone number that they’re trying to get. Our PA has had the same phone number for decades, and it’s getting these calls. It has to be random dialing.
My bet is random dialing. Every day for a week last month, my cellphone would ring with an offer for a free Mexican cruise. A few hours later, a co-worker would get the same offer, followed by another co-worker. They just happened to be wardialling our area code.
Do they ever stop calling when they get no joy from your number?
It’s really getting to be a problem. I think they’ve been behind a number of calls I’ve received in class. I’d put my cell on vibrate, but I just know that if I did that, I’d forget to put it back on ringtone again, and I’d miss all my calls.
I thought telemarketers couldn’t call cell phones because there was a law that you can’t make sales calls to a phone where the callee will be charged money?
You get charged for taking calls in the US?
Yes,
They also charge separately for text messaging, even though the cost of all of the text messages I send/receive in my entire life will not equal that of one short phone call.
A lot of these callers are probably unconcerned with such niceties as federal law.
I’ve also been getting the “car warranty” scam on my cell over the past two weeks.
If I have a few minutes and am really feeling ornery, I’ll talk to the sales wonk on the other end and really make it sound like I’m interested. When I get tired, I’ll say something along the lines of “I only have two questions. One - this number is on a national Do-Not-Call list, why did you stupid fuckers call me? And two…” Actually, I never get to ask two because they hang up on me about that time.
Wouldn’t work- it’s usually an auto-recording.
I’ve been getting a lot of “your car warranty has expired” calls on my cell and I HATE IT!!!
I just put my cell on the Do Not Call List and it seems to have stopped. Did you try that?
If it’s what we think it is, you will eventually get the option to press 2 to talk to a live operator.
Which won’t do any good, unfortunately. I’ve tried this. One time I told the operator that the call was a violation of Federal law - and the guy ARGUED with me. The best that’ll happen is they’ll say they’ll remove your nuimber… then won’t.
Also the “from” number is spoofed. Always.
It’s a scam, which several phone companies and I believe the FCC are all going after. Registering for the Do Not Call list can help. Otherwise, do what I do and don’t answer you phone if you don’t recognize the number and aren’t expecting a call.
I get these calls about once a week. I agree with everyone who’s said they’re just dialing every number in the country. My guess is they’re using VOIP from outside the U.S., so they don’t care about federal laws. Also, to just second everyone who said they’re spoofing numbers, every time they call it shows a different number on my caller ID.
By now I’m used to hearing the pitch when I see someone is calling from a number I don’t know. I use my cell phone for business, however, so I can’t just ignore it. I get to “This is your second notice…” but I’ve never heard any more than that, because by then I’ve hung up.
EDIT: and after positing that I read the link and find they’re calling from inside the U.S., so my guess is they’ll be shut down eventually.
I’ve been getting the auto warranty calls, and also carpet cleaning calls. When I point out that I’m on the Do Not Call list, they hang up on me. They also hang up on me if I ask for any info on the business they represent.
This reminds me, Sears called me too, wanting to extend a warranty. I need to get in touch with them and tell them to remove my contact info from their database, as we are not longer interested in being one of their customers.
You irritated someone and in revenge he/she put your cell phone number on a website.
It’s like when we were kids and the mean old lady would chase us out of her yard. We’d go to the library and fill out all the magazine cards with her name and address and check “Bill Me,” on them
I have been getting the auto warranty calls for a week or two, and today I was ready for them. I had the Arnold Schwarzenegger sound board all teed up, so I put them on speaker phone and had the Terminator screw with them. It didn’t last long, but it was very satisfying.