I’ve noticed recently that a few telemarketing companies have stopped masking their Caller ID info so that they can get through to people who prevent calls from unidentified callers. One of them is from a town in Texas called Nacogdoches - which has to be one of the most awkward town names to pronounce. 
Anyways, anyone else noticed this trend?
Pronounced like “matches” with and N instead of an M.
Um… not 'round these parts, Grendel72- Nacogdoches, I’ve always heard pronounced “nak a do chez”. I think what you’re talking about is the town of Nachez.
Hehe - I was wondering in what the heck happened to all those extra syllables. 
I noticed that this week - I had something called Dialamerica Marketing in the 502 area code try to call me 7 times between Monday and Friday - I wasn’t home any of the times though, so I only assume it’s a telemarketer.
Getting back to the OP…
I’m not so sure if it is a new trend. Shortly after I got Caller ID for the first time a few years ago, I quickly learned that whenever the Caller ID said “Unknown Name, Unknown Number”, it is almost always without exception a goddamned telemarketer. I just never answer the phone when I see the Caller ID flash that. This trend has actually been around for at least three years.
Yesterday I saw on the Caller ID that an outfit called “Market Metrix” was ringing me. It had been so long since I had seen an “unmasked” telemarketer that I was actually surprised to see this on the Caller ID.
Some outfit called the Collegiate Fund has made at least two attempts to reach me every day for the last three weeks. They’re calling long-distance from the 727 area code, and never leave a message. You think they would get the hint by now.
It’s actually Collegiate Funding Services, they’ve been calling me since about August, same 727 area code, at least once a day, sometimes as late as 11 pm. Weekends, too. I got a piece of junk mail from them about refinancing my student loan, so I’m assuming that’s what the calls are about.
At first I was going to call back just to stop the calls, but now that I know it’s not a collection agency (I had a one-year deferment on my student loan) I’ll just let them waste their time and money. Once I refinance with another company, they’ll probably stop.
Yep. Magazine subscriptions, a very small percentage of which is donated to charity.
Isn’t there some policy or law that prohibits telemarketers from calling after a certain hour? (Like 8 or 9 pm?) And not before 8 am (I think)? Certainly calling at 11 PM is flagrantly in violation of that. I can’t believe they can get away with that with no possible consequences.
It is indeed a telemarketer; I worked for Dialamerica for about two months in college, in Athens, GA. I was so ashamed of it though that I had to quit. It was a horrible job; I was releived when someone hung up.
Dang. I meant “relieved” of course.
Oh them. They pestered me several times a week all last summer and Fall because I made the mistake of consenting to them sending me their “info packet”. I finally got fed up when one of their minions insiuated that I was rude because I had requested the information and not filled it out and sent it back. I told him that I had NOT asked to be sent it, I’d merely given into their requests to send it, and I had no interest in consolodating my loans at the time. At which point he whine something about rates not getting any lower in 2002. So I threatened to report the company for harassment, and have not heard from them since. At least by phone, anyway. The junk mail still cometh, but I plop it into the recycling bin unread. <shrugs>
Heh. Collegiate Funding Services. I finally got rid of them by telling the last rep who called: First thing, put me on your Do Not Call list. Secondly, I have no loans to refinance. (Which stopped the ‘But you’re missing out on a great deal!’ spiel right in its tracks.)
And, back a bit more towards the OP… Maybe they finally figured out it saves them time (and therefore money) if people can see who they are before they pick up the phone. If people don’t pick up the phone, the answering machine (normally) will pick up. I would think that that is quicker than having a person pick up, having the calling machine realize it’s a live one, switching the call to the rep, then having the rep get hung up upon as soon as the ‘call-ee’ figures out it’s a telemarketer.
<< It works better if you plug it in. >>
Telemarketing act of 1999 states that NO Calls can be made for Telemarketing purposes before 9am or after 9 pm in the area being called.
So, if you get a call outside of those times, report them to your States Attourney Generals office
Power to the People
I’ve noticed it. I have the *77 activated to reject anonymous calls on my home phone.
On my cell phone, though, I can trap the number and make it ring with a different ring so that I know it’s a spam call and I don’t kill myself trying to answer it.
We have “Privacy Plus” on our phone - which means that, if it would turn up “Unknown Name/Unknown Number” they call doesn’t come through unless the caller actually gives a name or number. For a long time, we weren’t getting any of these, even. Now, suddenly, we are. And they’re all recordings - mostly for satellite systems.
Then there are the Spanish-speaking people who keep calling our fax line (which doesn’t have caller ID) asking for Senor Rodriguez…
It’s very odd, my friend’s phone number used to show up previously (she lives in Arkansas, so I know who it is). But lately, her number has been showing up as “Unknown”, and occasionally now I pick up and it is her. 
If she’s using one of those calling cards that require you to dial an 800 number and enter a PIN, that could be why. Since the call comes out of their switch, it won’t show her number.
I just picked up one right now and whoever it was hung up.
When I lived in barracks and called someone with caller ID, it always showed up as Unknown Number or some such term. That was just part of Barracks Phone Service. So if you know someone in the service who lives in barracks, he or she may be trying to call you.
Most of the time I get “unknown” or “out of area” it’s my mom. Makes it hard to screen telemarketers