Getting harassing robo-calls? I am.

turbo

For several months I got weekly or twice-weekly calls from some outfit in Arizona that collects overdue student debts. The problem is that my college years are 40 years in the past and I never borrowed a cent, anyway. Eventually, those calls stopped, but I started to get robo-calls from "Cardholder Services" at least once a week. Apparently the scammers had no idea what card I have or any of my account information, and just wanted to fool an ignorant sod into revealing private information. Today, I got another robo-call from "Cat" wanting to alert me to the dangers of identity theft. This time, there was a new wrinkle. The call was made from a mobile phone (probably pre-paid and untraceable) with a Maine area code.

I'm getting really sick of this crap. Is anybody else having crooks trying to pull off scams of this type? If it wasn't for elderly parents (one with dementia and in shaky health) I'd seriously consider pulling the land-line and going all cellular.

Dadface

Try displaying some interest but ask the caller to wait a few seconds while you collect a pencil and paper.Then leave the phone hanging from the hook and go off and do whatever you do.

turbo

I would do that if there was a real person on the other end of the line, but there never is. They tell me to call xxx-xxx-xxxx to "protect my credit" or "protect my identity". This stuff should be illegal, with substantial fines for each incident of abuse.

Dadface

I wonder if your telephone company could take action such as blocking such calls.

turbo

I'm already on the national do-not-call list. I wish somebody would come up with device that would "clamp" the line on a harassing call, AND identify the caller so they could be prosecuted. I see a potential for abuse with such a device, but if someone is being repeatedly subjected to potential scams, they ought to have such an option available.

lisab

If I were getting such calls, I'd check my credit reports to see if someone has stolen my identity.

D H

There is, or I hope there is, a special place in the afterlife for Rachel, Cat, Ann, and their friends from Cardholder Services, aka Credit Card Account Services. Unfortunately, the law is apparently toothless against these robocalls from offshore companies.

turbo

I should probably do that. I haven't had any debt of any kind for well over 20 years. If I can't pay cash, I don't buy. When my wife and I bought this house, the realtor freaked when I hauled out my checkbook to pay. The lawyer is a good friend of ours and she told him just to shut up and take the check. It took most of the next year to get our old house sold for a good price, and a teller at the bank (that we had done business with for many years) didn't want to take the certified check from the mortgage company. When I was a young pup, people (even bank loan-officers) would take you at your word, and treat you like any other honest person. No more.

dlgoff

TeleZapper?

turbo

Thanks dlg. I doubt that would work with these scammers. They are pretty relentless and are likely well-acquainted with such devices. What I would like is some kind of device that doesn't allow their computer to disconnect, and will display their real number, not some alias they managed to hide behind by re-directs.

QuarkCharmer

Answer the phone "Attorney General's office...", and then never get called again.

turbo

There is never any real person on the line. It's always a pre-recorded robo-call with menus and no live people. If you get sucked into their call-center, I imagine things get a lot worse.

Evo

Turbo, next time, type their phone number into Google and you'll see what the company is and complaints about them. 800 notes is awsome, the even have non 800 numbers.

D H

If caller ID does show a number, it most likely is not the the true number. These robocallers typically use caller ID spoofing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID_spoofing

Evo

Every number I checked came up with the company info, because it is from people that answered the phone or called them back. It has nothing to do with caller id. The people that got the calls found out who was calling and reported it.

turbo

That's a problem. I could figure out who the crooks from Arizona were (collecting on non-existent student loans), but these other jerks are pretty much untraceable through reverse-lookups. The latest "identity-theft warning" even seemed to originate from my own area code using a mobile phone, though that is highly unlikely, given that we are the most rural state in the nation. The scammers have joined forces with cell-service providers to make their calls appear to be local while providing anonymity.

I'd be willing to bet that the crooks have contracted with the cell-providers to route their calls through rotating banks of numbers to eliminate the possibility that they can be prosecuted.

Like I said earlier, I'd be willing to ditch the land-line just to be rid of these creeps, except that my wife and I have elderly parents and other older relatives and we always want to be there for them.

Containment

Just don't answer your phone I'm 100% serious put it in a room where you can still hear it ring but it wont bug you when it does and have every call screened by your answering machine. If someones calling you and you know them they can just tell you to call them back in the message. I rarely pick up my phone and instead just let the answering machine pick it up unless I know someone is going to be calling me at that time.