Too Quick on the Draw
| Wed Oct. 21, 2009 3:37 PM PDT
I just got a phone call from "James" at the "National No Call List Department." I hung up before he got any further, and now I'm sorry I did. Was this (a) the most brazen telemarketing call of all time, or (b) a fantastically misguided effort by the federal government to survey people about the Do Not Call list?
Almost certainly (a), and now I wish I'd stayed on the line to find out was the scam was. Unfortunately, my telephone reflexes got the better of me. Maybe he'll call back.
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Comments
Do me the courtesy
Submitted by Drew Robertson (not verified) on Wed Oct. 21, 2009 4:21 PM PDT.
I've been trying to get in touch with you. Please call me at 888-297-1776 and return my call. Thanks.
Caller ID
Submitted by Nick Nemec (not verified) on Wed Oct. 21, 2009 4:21 PM PDT.
I never answer the phone unless I know the name on the caller ID. If it's important they will leave a message on the machine.
I'm getting almost as many calls as I did
Submitted by Julia Grey on Wed Oct. 21, 2009 4:22 PM PDT.
before the Do Not Call list was instituted.
The loophole that allows anyone you've ever done business with to call you is too huge. Apparently businesses can "pass on" their exemption to another business. Hence the calls we keep getting from various people about a time share we sold 13 years ago.
And I've even gotten calls on my cell phone recently. REALLY pissed me off.
When they (finally) got a Do
Submitted by Bruce the Canuck (not verified) on Wed Oct. 21, 2009 5:21 PM PDT.
When they (finally) got a Do Not Call list going in Canada, the predictable happened: the telemarketers and scammers picked up a copy of the list, and treated it as one big juicy pile of otherwise unknown cell phone numbers.
Some kind of cruise ship prize outfit has called me, and everyone else who made the mistake of signing up, every week for over a year. They're outside the country, and apparently nobody can stop them.
Now if you could just get the Mother Jones people to not call me
Submitted by RobertSeattle on Wed Oct. 21, 2009 8:08 PM PDT.
...At the very time and I trying to put my 3 year old twins to sleep.
Google the phone number
Submitted by gyrfalcon on Wed Oct. 21, 2009 8:17 PM PDT.
There are several sites that collect info about companies/organizations that call people on the "Do Not Call" list.
My favorite is the one that
Submitted by thersites on Wed Oct. 21, 2009 9:54 PM PDT.
My favorite is the one that starts out being about my credit card account. I'm in deep enough shit that I feel obliged to pay attention. But as soon as they say "there is no problem with your existing account" I know they're strangers.
How many telemarketing calls am I getting?
Submitted by Swift Loris (not verified) on Thu Oct. 22, 2009 7:50 AM PDT.
I have no idea. I have my answering machine set up so I can't hear either the machine message playing, or any message the caller leaves. If a message is left, the machine beeps discreetly every 15 seconds until I turn the sound on and listen to it. If it's a telemarketer, I just immediately delete it.
But the machine does make an almost inaudible click when it takes a call. If I happen to be near enough to the machine to hear the click and look over at it, I can see the call disconnecting before the machine message finishes. Almost never does the caller (automated or otherwise) wait through the recording and leave a message of its/their own. I'm sure many more calls come in that I don't notice and that leave no trace.
I don't have caller ID. I don't need it. If I'm expecting a call I want to take, I turn on the audio for a message being left and pick up when I hear who it is.
I don't understand why *everyone* doesn't do this. If they did, telemarketers would have to give up. (I am on the Do Not Call list, BTW.)
"now I wish I'd stayed on
Submitted by MaynardHandley on Thu Oct. 22, 2009 9:36 AM PDT.
"now I wish I'd stayed on the line to find out was the scam was"
Don't waste your time. These people have zero interest in explaining anything to you. The moment you indicate that you have a functioning brain and start asking inconvenient questions (like a simple "I'm sorry, who is it you work for") they will just hang up the phone.
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