You may have seen the story this morning on ABC’s Good Morning America about the outrage against prerecorded calls that warn you that this is your last chance before your car warranty expires or that it’s your last chance to reduce your credit card interest. I have my own outrage – figuring out who to complain to when those sneaky telemarketers spoof Caller ID so you can’t tell who the company really is.
According to another story, Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller, after getting these calls himself, filed a lawsuit. Sen. Charles Schumer of New York says he wants a federal investigation into the “robo-dialer harassment.”
I get calls from one particular company (which seems to be different than what got AG Zoeller and Senator Schumer all riled up) almost every week and can’t figure out how to stop them because I can’t figure out who they are! If you ask, they hang up on you. If you tell them you are on the Do Not Call list, they hang up.
Why don’t I just check Caller ID and then Google that number? There is a number on Caller ID, usually one in the 386 area code (northern Florida). I say ‘usually’ because the number changes every time they call. If you call the number reported on your Caller ID, it is always a disconnected number. In other words, they are spoofing Caller ID – the number you see is not their number. (I didn’t realize it is so easy to send a fake number to Caller ID. Wikipedia has an interesting discussion. A detailed history is here.) If you happen to know how to defeat this kind of spoofing and find out who is really calling, let everyone know by adding a comment to this story.
It’s bad enough to get unwanted phone calls when you know who is calling. It’s absolutely frustrating when you feel you have no recourse because you do not even know who is calling you!
Document the Calls
Before you can complain to someone, you will need to document the offending calls. You’ll need to know the day and time the call came in. You’ll also need to know the number that shows up on your Caller ID. You can get that from Caller ID. Or you may have a program that will do it for you.
Here are the options I looked at. If I knew who is actually behind these calls, I’d probably just file a claim in small claims court).
Block the calls
Some phone companies let you – for a price – block calls from a particular number. (My phone company has that ability, but only – they say – to block in-state calls.) Of course, because this company is spoofing Caller ID, this probably won’t help you much.
Filter the Calls
Again this isn’t much use in the case because of the always-changing numbers the company uses. But it may be useful in other situations. A few years ago I found an inexpensive ($22.50) program called Phone Calls Filter. It sits quietly on your computer until a phone call comes in. Then it looks at the Caller ID number. If that number is on your ‘filter’ list, it responds according to how you’ve set it up. For example, it could play a certain message (which can be different for every number). Or it can play a sound – for example it can play those sounds you hear when a number has been disconnected. Apparently, this tells a computer that is calling you that your number has been disconnected. The computer then tells itself to take your number off its list of people to call in the future – or at least that’s the hope.
File a complaint with the Do Not Call registry.
Before you go to that trouble, read their Q&A. Question 38 says that all they’re going to do is add your complaint to its ‘Consumer Sentinel’ system that’s available to law enforcement agencies. “[T]he FTC does not resolve individual consumer problems…” Then, to add insult to injury, the next question tells you to do anything law enforcement needs the telemarketer’s name and phone number. Uh huh. Because I don’t know who this company is or what their real phone number is, this sounds like a dead end if I ever saw one.
Email the Do Not Call folks
Email dncconsumerinquiry2@ftc.gov and tell them your frustrations. Anyone think that’s going to help?
Complain to your state Attorney General
I filled out the contact form on the website for the Virginia Attorney General’s office. A week or so later I received a polite (but useless) response. They suggest I file a complaint with the Do Not Call folks. Uh huh. Right. They also suggested I file a written complaint with another state agency. After spending too long trying to find that form and then, after finding it, discovering that again they want to know the name of the company, etc., I tossed that out as being a probable loser.
File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission
The FTC’s website says it is “the nation’s consumer protection agency.” All right! That’s what I need. They even have a special website to make it easier to file a complaint.
However, the first thing I read is this:
The FTC enters all complaints it receives into Consumer Sentinel, a secure online database that is used by thousands of civil and criminal law enforcement authorities worldwide. The FTC does not resolve individual consumer complaints.
Forget it.
Complain to your phone company
Even if you and I can’t figure out who is behind those spoofed Caller ID numbers, the phone company should be able to. Right? And it should be easy to go to the phone company’s website and find out how to make a complaint about someone who is abusing their system. Isn’t that what you’d think?
It took me almost an hour of searching around Verizon’s website before I finally found a group called the Unlawful Call Center. I called the number and, after listening to a long recorded message that said much of nothing, I spoke with Jack. He was nice enough to talk with. But the only suggestion he could offer was to file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission.
File a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission
This seems the most promising – though I’m not sure how promising even that is.
The FCC is responsible for regulating phone companies (among other things). They have a special Internet complaint page.
The first page is easy enough. They just want to know your name, address, email, phone number, etc. Fill it out and click next.
Whoa! The next page of the form is anything but simple.
It’s a good thing that Phone Calls Filter, that program mentioned earlier, keeps a log of all calls. The FCC wanted to know not only the date but also the time I got the last call. It also wanted to know the dates and times of other “identical prerecorded message.” By looking for these ‘Florida’ calls from the 386 area code, it was easy pickings.
Next, they wanted to know the name of the company. “Refused to disclose company name” was my response to that one.
They asked for caller ID information. That I provided. It asked if Caller ID accurately reported the name or the calling number. I said no. “How did you determine it was not accurate?” The form gives you 999 characters to vent. I calmly explained that I called the number and it was disconnected. Since I still had characters to spare, I listed the other Caller ID numbers and reported that I had called them and they were disconnected also.
Did they claim to represent a tax-exempt organization? No.
Have you given them permission to call? Heavens no!
Is there an established business relationship? Not in this world.
Have you specifically asked them not to call you and what was their response. Yes, during the calls themselves. Their response? They hung up without another word.
Finally, the form closes by saying “Your complaint will be most useful to us if you execute this sworn statement. The FCC will make every effort to take enforcement action against any party who violated the FCC’s rules.”
There’s the statement:
I declare under penalty of perjury that (1) I am over 18 years old, (2) I am authorized to make decisions regarding the telephone number listed below, and (3) the information I have provided today on this Federal Communications Commission electronic form is, to the best of my knowledge, true and correct.
Type your name, phone number, the date and click a checkbox next to the word “Execute.” The next page will give you a confirmation that your complaint has been filed and will give you a confirmation number.
So, let’s see if anything happens. I’m not holding my breath.
Conclusion
Maybe next time I’ll stay on the line and give the folks all kinds of bogus information. Maybe I can sweetly ask some innocent questions that eat up their time. If I waste enough of their time enough times, maybe they’ll do me a favor and refuse to call my number again. Maybe.
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This is a great article. My wife and I get at least one phone call a week on our two different cell #’s about our car warranty. Always to voicemail. I hate them. Thanks again for the tips.
I had one of these today. Very aggravating! Up until now, they have been entirely on my business cell # and always voicemail. Today was the first time on my home phone. Interestingly enough, the caller ID did read AUTO WARRANTY. I picked up on purpose so I could talk to them. I always ask these phone-spammers “Do you not subscribe to the Federal Do Not Call Registry?” They invariably apologize profusely and assure me I’ll be taken off their list, which is what happened today. We’ll see if they stop.
If not, I have a new home-phone solution I just installed that has a couple of features I think will help (it’s called Ooma–gives you your home phone service for free, and unlike Skype, Vonage and MagicJack, you get landline quality!). One feature is call screening: if I turn that one, I hear the caller leaving the voicemail message, and I can either pick up, disconnect, or allow it to continue leaving the message.
The second feature is blacklisting: I can either create my own blacklist of offending numbers (and add to it as I go), or I can participate in Community Blacklisting, which consists of a list of numbers used phone spammers contributed by other Ooma users. I can select one or both of these “blacklists”, and choose whether I want calls from numbers in each blacklist to be Blocked or Sent To Voicemail. I haven’t activated this yet, but I’m glad to know it’s there.
My wife’s favorite trick is to listen & respond enough to feign interest, then to say: “Sorry can you hold on a minute.” She then sets the phone down and walks a way. Our kids call our cell phones, so it’s unlikely to prevent an important call from getting through. Don’t know if it helps; don’t know how long they hang on; don’t care too much. It’s obviously not an option for cell phone calls, but there always the parade whistle for that.
A couple of months after listing a car on craigslist sellitnowmotors.com called my cell phone. They guaranteed they’d sell my car, for my asking price, within 60 days. Of course they wanted $200 for their guarantee. I told them, let’s do this…you sell my car and I’ll write you a check for $200. They gave me a song and dance about why they needed the $200 up front. They sent the literature I asked for (which shocked me). I Googled them and found dozens of complaints against them. They “take the money and run.” They don’t sell anyone’s car. They don’t return phone calls and they don’t give refunds when the cars don’t sell. There is no guarantee (i.e., they LIE). Now to the point.
They kept calling my cell phone. I answered the first few times and hung up immediately after realizing who it was. I added the number to my cell phone’s phone book (under the name SPAM1) and gave them a special ring tone…SILENT. Their robodialer uses (or spoofs) three different numbers. So I added SPAM2 and SPAM3 as needed.
It’s happened with other spammers and I’m up to SPAM5. Not knowing when they call is a beautiful thing. Not knowing means I’m not bothered. Life is beautiful.
I completely agree with the frustrations you share. We just moved and are receiving those calls. The very first phone call after our line went active was from one of these “We have spoken with you before and ….” I found the FCC site and thought it would be useful but we don’t have caller ID. We would have to hand document these calls. I doubt the Do Not Call Registry will help much on these robo-dialers. Good luck!
Posted by Clorinda Madsen, Office Assistant at Dyacon, on the LDS Professionals Group at LinkedIn.com. See her <a href=”http://www.pro-amfamilyhistorian.blogspot.com/”blog.
I have had problems with these types of calls and I hate it! I’d love to learn how to stop them
Posted by Kawika Heftel, Software Engineer, Web Developer, Owner of Heftel Studios, Recording Engineer, Musician, posted on the LDS Professionals Group at LinkedIn.com.
Has anyone feigned interest in their product to try to find out more about who these people are? I’m tempted to do just that.
Posted by Evan Harston, Storage Administrator at McKesson, on the LDS Professionals Group at LinkedIn.com
I hate these telemarketers! My wife’s phone got on their list somehow and now we get a call from them on the average of once a week! If someone has a way to get around their caller-ID spoofing or to get them not to call at all, I’d love to hear it.
Posted by Kawika Heftel, Software Engineer, Web Developer, Owner of Heftel Studios, Recording Engineer, Musician, on the LDS Professionals Group at LinkedIn.com
For cell phones it’s VERY EASY (see solution in comment posted May 18th, 2009 at 14:13). For land lines with caller ID it’s probably easy too (if you have the space in your phone’s directory and you can assign a special (i.e., SILENT) ring to the spammers’ numbers. For land lines without caller ID you’ll just have to follow Walt’s suggestions or grin-n-bear it or both.
Linked to from http://bookmarksurl.com/?p=1727