Unsolicited/Nuisance/Fraud/SCAM/Prank telephone calls are here to stay. Robotic calling technology is readily available and unscrupulous people will exploit it. Get a life and deal with it.
What can you do?
1) Block the calling number. Most cell phone service providers (and some cell phones themselves) have blocking services. Many land line phone providers also have blocking services. Contact your service provider (cell or land-line) to find out how to do it. For a nominal one-time investment you can purchase a simple plug-in add-on device that allows you to manually block numbers to your land-line (Google "call blocker"). Note that these callers don't use a number very long before they switch to another and hit you again. Get used to it. It's an unadvertised perk of having phone service.
2) If you do answer a call and get a real person talking to you, you have established a "business relationship" which takes you out of any Do Not Call Registry restrictions with them….as if they were abiding by those regulations anyway. Engage them in non-committal conversation as long as you possibly can. Act VERY interested. Mess with their minds. Give them phony credit card numbers. Give them fictitious addresses. Make up names. Consume as much of their time as you can. While you are taking up their time they cannot harass someone else, so you are performing a vital civic service. When they do finally hang up, block their number on your phone.
3) DO NOT call them back! DO NOT select the button that is supposed to remove you from their database. These actions only registers your phone number as valid so they can add it to their list to sell to other scammers. Such action also establishes that you have "done business with them before" which takes you off of the Do Not Call Registry for them….as if they would even consider abiding by the law anyway.
4) Telephone communications are regulated by state and federal governments. Carry a card with the phone number of your State Attorney General (who has the responsibility of enforcing telecommunications laws). When you get an unsolicited call tell them that they have caught you on a phone that can't be used for personal use (or they've caught you on your cell) and ask them to call back on a different number. Give them the Attorney General's number, hang up, and immediately block their number on your phone.
Unsolicited/Nuisance/Fraud/SCAM/Prank telephone calls are here to stay. Robotic calling technology is readily available and unscrupulous people will exploit it. Get a life and deal with it.
What can you do?
1) Block the calling number. Most cell phone service providers (and some cell phones themselves) have blocking services. Many land line phone providers also have blocking services. Contact your service provider (cell or land-line) to find out how to do it. For a nominal one-time investment you can purchase a simple plug-in add-on device that allows you to manually block numbers to your land-line (Google "call blocker"). Note that these callers don't use a number very long before they switch to another and hit you again. Get used to it. It's an unadvertised perk of having phone service.
2) If you do answer a call and get a real person talking to you, you have established a "business relationship" which takes you out of any Do Not Call Registry restrictions with them….as if they were abiding by those regulations anyway. Engage them in non-committal conversation as long as you possibly can. Act VERY interested. Mess with their minds. Give them phony credit card numbers. Give them fictitious addresses. Make up names. Consume as much of their time as you can. While you are taking up their time they cannot harass someone else, so you are performing a vital civic service. When they do finally hang up, block their number on your phone.
3) DO NOT call them back! DO NOT select the button that is supposed to remove you from their database. These actions only registers your phone number as valid so they can add it to their list to sell to other scammers. Such action also establishes that you have "done business with them before" which takes you off of the Do Not Call Registry for them….as if they would even consider abiding by the law anyway.
4) Telephone communications are regulated by state and federal governments. Carry a card with the phone number of your State Attorney General (who has the responsibility of enforcing telecommunications laws). When you get an unsolicited call tell them that they have caught you on a phone that can't be used for personal use (or they've caught you on your cell) and ask them to call back on a different number. Give them the Attorney General's number, hang up, and immediately block their number on your phone.
Caller type: Scammer
Caller: Rachel
Company: Credit Card Services
Number: 906-209-8746