So here’s a new twist on unwanted telemarketing calls: A telemarketer that won’t give me any contact information so that I can’t even identify them.
The first time I received a recorded call from “Dish” on my new business line, I pushed the prompt to talk to a live person so my number could be removed from their list. When I mentioned this, the person in the boiler room at the other end immediately hung up on me without giving me any further information.
The second time, a few weeks later, when they asked me “are you ready to sign up for satellite today?” I said maybe, and that I needed more info. He asked me how many TVs I had, and I asked to get their phone number since last time I got disconnected. He gave me an 800 number which turned out to be bogus.
When I asked to talk to his supervisor he said “no”. He sounded like a sneering 18 year old. When I asked him the name of the company, he gave me a smart-aleck answer like “so that’s it”. He then hung on the line for a bit saying nothing and I got disconnected.
Isn’t this illegal? What can I do? I used the automatic redial feature on my phone and the number of my last incoming call was… (can I post that here?)
Hmm. I’m getting pretty pushy phone calls from the same people. I initiated it the first time (I called them), but was rapidly disenchanted with the sales pitch, and the guy was giving me information I knew was false, financially and technically.
(On telling him there was a mountain between me and the satellite, he told me the installer would just mount the dish “upside down.” When I asked him how that would move the satellite, he mumbled something about how mounting it upside down “always solved those problems.”)
When I refused to give him my credit card number “just so we can send someone out to look,” he said “I knew it! I knew you weren’t serious!” and hung up on me.
Now they call back about twice a month fishing for a credit card number. Note that this isn’t “Dish Network” per se, but one of their reseller companies. Unfortunately I tossed their literature, and as you’ve noticed they don’t give their name – they call themselves “Dish Network” and only admit they’re not if you press.
Call your local telephone company. There should be a number in the front of the book. Explain to them that you suspect that these people are operating a telephone scam. Also tell them when they called, and any info you have about the number they called from.
In a similar vein, I’ve been getting repeated phone calls, as in almost every weekday for more than a month, from the same 719 number. When I pick up the phone, I invariably hear silence for about 5 seconds before they hang up. I called the number back once and got voicemail for something like “Acme Call Center Solutions,” but the mail box was full. Will calling the number **saorise **mentioned be effective in tracking these idiots down and bringing them to heel?
Generally speaking much of that behavior is illegal under federal law (TCPA of 1991). Telemarketers are required to give you valid contact info, let you know who they actually are, not mask their phone number from your caller ID and so on. Many of them do not pay any attention whatsoever to the law and it’s hard to catch them.
You may have to be very persistent to get the telemarketers to obey the law. I have had to file multiple complaints, spend some of my own time tracking them down, etc. I don’t know if the phone company will help you get their phone number unless you start a police report regarding threatening phone calls, you’ll have to ask.
Follow the FCC’s procedures and COMPLAIN. Get info however you can and communicate it to the FCC. If they get enough grief about a particular caller they will take action (after I filed many complaints about fax.com - junk fax outfit - they got hit with a $5.4M fine, so the FCC will act eventually).
Good luck! I’m currently working on “Dorothy from the mortgage company!” who is wardialing our company’s office numbers, cell numbers, etc. over and over and over every single day.
In some(most? all?) areas in the US there is a number you can dial after a call you think may be illegal, the ANI (caller ID info - and more) is not available to you but to the police, and they can use that to investigate your claim. Check your yellow pages (the reall yellow pages from your local phone company).
In nearly all areas, it’s *57. It’s usually called Call Trace or something along those lines. You’ll then need to call your local police and file a complaint and let them know you have *57 records. I imagine it varies from one jurisdiction to another, but you’ll probably need to have two or three traces from the same originating number in order for them to proceed. It’s most often used for harassing or threatening phone calls, but it probably works in this context, as well.
I’ve gotten these exact people before, and nobody answers. I will be sending email to the agency that takes care of this, if it starts again. They can supena the phone records if they want and trace these assholes. I am on the do not call list. The state of Wisconsin will track them down and prosecute. They stopped just before I did something about it, and when it starts again they will pay.
The only telemarketing calls we get are from prerecorded messages. It’s annoying as crap. At one point, we were getting at least one or two a day, every week day. Oftentimes they’ll do some lame-o, “Oh hey, I’ve been trying to get back to you, but I guess I’ll just go ahead and leave a message…blah blah blah refinance blah blah blah” BS. One time I tried to call the number they left at the end of the message (to be put on a do not call list), and it was decidedly not the company they’d said it was. I don’t get how it works when it’s a prerecorded message and they leave an invalid number–how are they getting money off of anyone?? And how can I report anyone? Do I just go with what caller ID says? (Anonymous calls are blocked.)
Thankfully our phone is programmed to give a special ring for calls coming from autodialers. My solution is to pick up and immediately hang up. I think it’s helped; we’re down to about one soliciting prerecorded message every week or two.
During our primarly election we got calls from politicians’ campaigns from both parties. Every call was a telerecording singing his/her praises. No prompt to conect to a person, no contact info, and both the name and phonenumber were blocked from CallerID. We’re on the Do-Not-Call list, but political parties seem to be exempt. The week before the election we’d get like 3-5 per day. I ended up writing my own name in for a few offices. We get alot of “Dish Network” calls to. My grandfather gets them to, but he has a rotary phone so none of the prompts work and he doesn’t really understand that a machine is calling him so he’ll try to talk to them. He also has a very hard time saying no and will cave on just about anything to avoid upsetting someone (polar opposite of grandma).
FWIW, *57 is not nullified by *67. It logs the last call you received and then the next day you can call and get the number, when I had to use it for prank phone calls, when calling the next day, I had the option to press 2 to report it as a harassing call. From what I recall, the phone company stepped in and handled it.
I now have a bill collector that calls me 6x a day. They were incredibly rude the first time I talked to them. I explained that I am systematically going through my bills and paying everyone off and if they would give me their information, I would add them to my list and call them as soon as I was able to make arrangements. I assured them it would be within the next two weeks. I was in tears by the time I got off the phone, the guy called me everything but his mother.
They are now last on my list of people to pay back. Respectful callers I either pay or make arrangements with immediately.
I have had to install a modem on my phone, install software on my computer to block the calls. I have had 21 calls from them in 3 days. From what I can tell, there is no legal limit to the number of times a day they can call you. If I find out there is, the software I am using logs all their calls.
Just so you know: My husband got into a problem that threw our finances into a tail spin. I’ve been killing myself trying to get us back on track and have been doing so diligently. I do intend to pay everyone. I am not trying to dodge legitimate bill collectors.
If these are collection agencies, the only way to get them to stop calling you is to send them a “cease and desist” letter. You should send it registered mail.
If they continue to call you after you send such a letter, they are in violation of the law.
This does not change the fact that you owe the debt; it simply stops the harrassing telephone calls.