Card services telemarketing! 808-250-7460
Complaint
draya
Country: United States
They keep calling my phone to tell me that I need to act now on my credit card. They gave me the option to "press 1 to speak to an operator" and when I did, I asked her why they are calling my phone. (Prepaid, btw, so it is costing me $$$$$$$). Yikes! She just hung up on me. Now I'm upset.
I dialed the number back and it cannot be reached.
So.... I looked up the number in 411.com, found out they are going through Hawaiin Telecom. (Those are the next people I am calling, along with the BBB.)
I dialed the number back and it cannot be reached.
So.... I looked up the number in 411.com, found out they are going through Hawaiin Telecom. (Those are the next people I am calling, along with the BBB.)
Comments
I have reported this three times through www.donotcall.gov. Next stop -- FBI.
Was told "it's ingnorant [***] like you that lose out on lower intrest"........then hung up............I called the number that was on my call display and only had the option to be taken off of there call list.
At a friend's suggestion, after being pestered by subsequent such calls, I tried pressing the # symbol rapidly and frequently for many seconds, supposedly to disrupt their robotic dialling equipment, but given the persistence of their repeated calls, I doubt that this action did anything other than terminate the call. Otherwise, simply pressing the handset button did not immediately cut off the automated call. Woe betide if one needs to make an emergency outgoing call at that moment!
I did call my local telephone company service representative, who told me that my only defence is to terminate the calls immediately by pressing the cut-off button, then to dial our CALL-TRACE *code. However, two problems exist with this method: Only the police are allowed access to the information from the traced calls; and, according to our local regulations, police will not act until at least 5 calls have been marked for trace within a 2-week period. Somehow, the scammer(s) were cleverly managing to evade the threshold for police action. Of course, scammers are fly-by-nights anyway, constantly on the move, so as to evade capture.
YES, do report these calls to your local BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU and CONSUMER PROTECTION AGENCY!
NO, DO NOT REGISTER your telephone numbers with the 'DO NOT CALL REGISTRY' because, according to information that I have read on the Internet, anyone can purchase such lists for a fairly low fee, which, of course, all scammers can easily afford. There does seem to be a conspiracy out there!
DESPERATE SITUATIONS DEMAND DRASTIC ACTION!!
RECOMMENDED DEFENCE: I purchased last year (for $9.99 Cdn. from the electronics department of London Drugs) a simple device, called a SCREEN MACHINE, which is specifically designed to screen out ALL telemarketing calls (both legitimate--but still annoying, and illegitimate). The exterior of the product box explains why it is superior to all other brands on the market. The enclosed instructions and diagrams are clear and explicit. It is equipped with a (harsh) factory-set default screening message, which I chose to use initially, but it can be replaced anytime any number of times with the owner's version. Several suggested versions of outgoing messages in various degrees of firmness are provided with the package. The Screen Machine is connected first in the sequence from telephone jack to telephone machine. Next, I connected a DIGITAL ANSWERING MACHINE (between the Screen Machine and my telephone, which, unfortunately is not display-capable). Result: ALL robotically dialled telemarketing calls were automatically screened out (indicated by the machine's blinking light and a slight 'blip' sound) because the Screen Machine message requests that the caller press a specified single digit, which automated equipment is UNABLE to do; consequently, in such cases, the caller's equipment becomes instantly DISconnected. (NO invasion of privacy! NO abuse! NO risk!) Any "live" telemarketers who choose to proceed, despite a stern message warning about the consequences of tele-harassment, are invited to leave a message on my answering machine. As a suggestion, my outgoing answering-machine-message says as follows: "Greetings! You have reached Area Code XXX, RESIDENTIAL number XXX-XXXX. Electronic Butler is ALWAYS on duty, REGARDLESS of whether anyone is at home, so please speak after the tone!" With such wording, no caller knows whether I am actually at home, or whether I am indeed alone. I can intercept the message to speak 'live', or I can let my machine record the caller's message. Rarely do telemarketers, even local 'live' callers, leave a message. I inform frequent callers that they can simply "dial through" by pressing the given code number immediately, so that they need not listen to the first message fully every time. I have found that serious callers will tolerate the little extra effort and time required to reach me, the 'addressed' recipient.
Peace prevailed until I moved recently. Because I have not yet connected my additional equipment, I have been answering my 'naked' telephone directly. Today, I had a close encounter of the rude kind with a call from "CARD SERVICES". I pressed '1', as instructed, to speak to an "Account Representative" because I wanted some explantations. I had to ask the female operator to spell the company name because I could not understand her (Oriental?) accent in rapid speech. Then I asked her how she obtained my telephone number. Some fuzzy excuse. We argued about why I chose to speak to a 'rep' when I did not have an account. I was in the process of saying that I fail to understand how she could be calling about my credit cards when I do not have any, when the line went abruptly dead. Rudely cut off!
During my consequent call to my telephone company service representative, I was told that the called recipient ought NEVER TO PRESS ANY NUMBER DURING ROBOT-DIALLED CALLS because such action, despite what the "menu" claims, can surreptitiously cause one's telephone to become a LONG-DISTANCE CHANNEL FOR TOLLED CALLS OVERSEAS! We would be unaware that anything illicit had occurred until the telephone bill arrived with outrageous long-distance charges for calls that we had not made, yet were required by law to pay! Simply replacing the handset immediately, and dialling the *code for CALL TRACE prevents the fraudulent operator-to-innocent recipient contact that inevitably leads down the evil slippery slope to emotional damage and possible financial disaster.
NEVER DIAL A MENU NUMBER! NEVER GIVE THEM AN AUDIENCE! Hope that this helps.
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thanks! LOL I just called 3 times- just sat there and said nothing- stupid I know- but i feel better- ha ha
they have been harrassing me- calling forever-
Something has to be done to stop them but how. It is automated & when you call the number back, they say "do you want help with your credit cards." I tell them no, I want them to leave me alone!!!! They won't do it. The calls come from every state there is. They are driving me nuts.
Also an hour layer i found fraudulent credit checks in my name on my card.
FYI
This should be fun. Today the # was 208-300-7844, yesterday it was 316-305-4782.
Obviously a scam and probably not much anyone can do about it. I'll probalby start messing with them with funny accents and fake credit card account numbers. anyone know Obama's visa number? That might get the feds interested!!!