harassing phone calls
Complaint
Leota Larson
Country: United States
I have received numerous calls from card services which are unsolicited both on my home phone and cell phone. I am a psychologist and when I am called on my cell it is disrupting. I have tried to take the calls telling them not to call me again to which they hang up on me EVERYTIME. I have tried to call back but the number does not ring. Is there anything that can be done?
Comments
U.S. Constitution:
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such Government, and provide new Guards for their future security.”
Therefore, We will continue to report the known criminals;
The most recent active “cardholder services” scammers are;
Client Services Inc, MO, KS, TX, FL, NY, 636-947-2321, 636-255-3120, 636-255-3214, 800-521-3867, 800-521-3236, 877-655-3439, 903-337-2000, 903-416-6900, 903-337-0770, 407-660-7878, 212-532-1815.
Concord Financial Advisors LLC, AZ, NV, 888-583-1956, 888-654-2988, 800-525-2956, 602-620-1460, 480-703-5818, 480-981-0138.
American Debt Negotiators LLC, FL, 561-483-7337.
Associated Accounting Specialists Inc, FL, 877-982-7526.
FIA Card Services/Bank of America DE, TX, 800-655-1491
Some more suspicious “companies”:
Sonkei Communications, Sonkie, & Sonkie One, Phone On Hold Marketing Systems 805-214-0927
http://www.ftc.gov/os/2011/11/index.shtm
virtual collector.net based in CA has 50 different names attached to them. 949-425-1132
They then run through charges of around $800 or more for their "services".
It's basically a "bait-and-switch" scam, with charges inflated AFTER getting card information through deceptive disclosure, followed by threats and intimidation to disuade people from disputing fraudulent charges.
They typically operate under multiple name variations, and use many changing phone numbers to interfere with attempts to block calls, sue, or prosecute for violations of the Do Not Call laws.
FTC recently sued one such scam, where the robocalling and telemarketing was run from Costa Rica to try to evade U.S. law.
In the last month, their complaint rate has been going through the roof, on this and other sites. It appears they are setting their autodialers to call blocks of numbers repeatedly, often several times a day for days. It does not appear that they are dialing numbers from phone listings, although they may be collecting information from earlier calls to focus later calls on active numbers, or numbers that answer. They may also be specifically targetting blocks of cell phone numbers as the most likely to reach a live person, which is the only way they can play this con when calls back get nowhere.
It appears that they have no concern for even the consequences of repeated harassing calls interfering with their ability to close their scam "sales" in the few cases where someone punches a key to express interest.
That would imply that their sales rate is extremely low, and that they need high levels of robo-screened leads to sift through to have any chance at closing and profiting.
It also implies their ideal target victims are unsophisticated, and therefore both likely to have some available credit but be in difficulty with high interest rates, and be likely to fall for the scheme and not know how to file bank fraud disputes.
This type of mass robocalling is increasing to the point where it is beginning to affect the integrity of those parts of the economy that depend on the phone system. It may even be affecting medical and emergency services.
Contact FTC to file Do Not Call complaints.
Include in your complaint that in medical services it is important to be reachable on short notice, that the high levels of harassing robocalls is interfering with your ability to receive legitimate calls from other care providers or patients, and that their continuing number changes make it impossible to block their calls.
By the way, you CAN block all autodialed calls to your home landline. There are boxes that you can get that are inserted between the incoming line and the rest of your phones, that play a recorded message like an answering machine, informing real live callers to punch a code to ring through. Scine robocallers don't understand voice messages, they can't ring through, while real live people have no problem.
Note that this is not even the typical "privacy manager" answering machine or call screening function provided by some phone companies, as it allows new customer calls by real people to ring through with minor delays.
If the telecom companies provided a similar mechanism through their systems to all customers, this plague would stop overnight. Currently, they actually make money on those phone plans that charge for received calls, although this level of robocalling must be loading their networks and interfering with normal traffic.