A while back we started receiving calls from ‘419’ (apparently all telemarketers cold-callers all know how to conceal their real number from caller-ID). Turned out to be a taped message – audio equivalent of a form letter with blanks to fill in – saying they are looking for [garbled, garbled]. If you’re not [garbled, garbled] please hang up. After getting barraged by these we decided to listen to the rest of the message even though we’re not [garbled, garbled]. Turned out to be a collection agency. We called and told them we’re not who they’re looking for and they stopped calling – for a while.
Recently they’ve started calling again, looking for someone different. We have had our phone number for over 30-years and been on DNC since its inception. But we’re still bother by this call and a slew of other calls, including 8xx numbers. All numbers that when googled turn up as entries on a bunch of ‘who called me from xxx’ sites.
With phone service using digital technology, all incoming messages, including from these cold callers is automatically recorded. Even with this clear trail FTC seems unable or unwilling to stop these pests.
(And we can’t block these calls because FIOS only lets you block full 10-digit numbers)
I don’t think I get it. The Do Not Call List is to block telephone marketers. It sounds like the people calling you are a collection agency that keeps getting the wrong number. What am I missing?
I’ve suffered similar problems on both my home and cell numbers. The “Do Not Call” list is no help, but my “Do Not Answer” list been surprisingly effective. (Everybody’s on it until I know who you are.)
I think the assumption that it is a wrong number is flawed. They do call people telemarketer-style, only instead of trying to sell them something they are trying to use their knowledge to help them collect debts.
I don’t know what the logic is, but at least twice I’ve had people call for former tenants. They had taken the trouble to track down my brand-new number by reverse directory, and aggressively insisted I put them in touch with the debtor. (Impossible, of course.) Another time, I had them contact me for someone else with my surname, who just happened to be a relative. For all I know, they might also call people at random within a certain ZIP code. In other words, they use telemarketers’ techniques to call people, so why shouldn’t they be bound by the same rules?
The shadier of them are attempting to collect on long-discharged debts that don’t need to be paid, and the scummiest are basically robocalling everyone they can in hopes of bullying the elderly and/or naïve into paying for “debts” that aren’t even theirs. It’s difficult to tell which category the assholes fall into when they first begin harassing you, so after a couple of failed attempts to get my number removed from their shit list, I just don’t answer anymore. It takes months sometimes, but eventually the calls seem to stop.
So you are telling me that the “Do Not Call” list was not intended to cover people who telephone strangers with solicitations related to the caller’s business? Really?
I don’t see much difference between strangers bothering me at home by telephone for money in exchange for goods or services vs. for information in exchange for nothing. The latter, if anything, is worse.
Even though the DNC list has exemptions that I don’t agree with, it has made a SIGNIFICANT difference in the number of telemarketing calls that I receive. There are some companies that ignore the law, but they are few and far between. And apparently the FCC takes violations seriously.
What I’d like to see happen is some technology that makes spoofed numbers impossible. ID blocking should still be possible, but it’s possible to block calls that have blocked ID.
Incidentally, the DNC listings DO expire periodically, so make sure to re-enter your phone numbers if you haven’t done that lately. You might also be interested to know that you can report telemarketing calls on the same website as you use to put your number on the DNC list.
This is the problem. Someone gave a credit company your phone number and then didn’t pay their debt. As for your next step, I’m not sure. Try telling them they have the wrong number. Maybe say “From now on, please correspond only in writing” IIRC that legally requires them to stop calling.
To get back to your original question. If you tell your friend Matt to stop calling you after 9pm and the next night John calls you at 9:30, you wouldn’t be mad at Matt, right? That’s what you’re doing with the DNC list. The collection agency has nothing whatsoever to do with the DNC list.
I had a sleazy collection agency trying to collect a debt that we’d paid off years ago. Yes, telling them to contact only in writing helps, a lot.
Also, it’s possible that the OP’s number is LISTED as a deadbeat’s number in some private database. Or that the deadbeat is giving out the number, on purpose or accidentally.
Possible but not likely. See what these bottom feeders are usually doing is looking up the debtor on a subscribed Search List, they then call all the “potential neighbors”. It is legal to call a known neighbor on a debt collection call- but ONLY to confirm if the debtor still lives next door (or whatever). But of course, the nature of the call can not be divulged.
The bottom feeders are using this loophole to call a possible neighbor in the hopes that you will go next door and tell Bob the Debtor “Hey I got a call for you from XYZ company at 800-555-1212” and this will shame Bob into paying up. Illegal as hell. And as **Vinyl Turnip **sez, in many case, the debts are not valid anyway.
I do call them back, deny I have ever heard of Bob (even if I have), and demand they take my number off, and then report it to the FTC. We all should do the same.
Tell them to stop calling. If they keep calling send them a letter demanding they stop calling. If they keep calling. Send them a certified letter demanding that they stop calling. If they keep calling. SUE!
I’ve been having a number of robo-calls at work trying to sell me “labor posters” that are available for free from the govt. They represent themselves as “working with” the state dept of labor. It usually means I have to stop re-stocking or helping customers to respond to what is a fraudulent representation.
If Conservatives really wanted to help small business that would go after these scum suckers who prey on new businesses. Instead they take the side of the people commiting fraud.
If you don’t like receiving annoying phone calls, then for God’s sake don’t ever get involved with TruGreen. We had them spray for bugs a couple of years ago and it practically took a restraining order to get them to stop calling.
The story is slim on some key details. What did she get the $7,500.00 for? What actual economic cash money damages did she have? Yes, she was being annoyed and harassed but wouldn’t that fall under punitive damages?
It would have been a lot more helpful if she had scanned a copy of the complaint.
We were getting calls simply because we had the same last name as someone who owed money and it was somewhat unusual. They never identified themselves they just asked for this person I didn’t know. I finally figured out what was going on and asked directly “is this debt collection?” and they told me it was. I told them I don’t know this person they were looking for and wanted them to stop calling my number, and hey, it worked.