OT phone solicitation

[Joe J]

I'm just checking if anybody here has any thoughts about my problem.

Just moved from a different state in May and now have Cable, Internet and Phone from Time-Warner. We are inundated with calls for 3 specific people from debt collectors. 5-9 calls per day. Each time I have requested to be placed on the do not call list and tell them they have the wrong number. Each time they tell me this is their first time calling and they will remove me. It doesn't happen, the calls keep coming.

Problem #2 I keep getting calls from a credit card insurance company that shows up as a local number with caller ID, but it is a solicitation. I have demanded they put me on their do not call list and they claim the number is "computer generated" and every time I answer, I will get ten more calls.

OK, I've stopped answering, but how do they disguise their number into a local caller ID number? I am signed up for both the state and national "do not call list".

It's really getting annoying and I'm wondering if anyone has any solutions.

[LouB]

Tried calling Time-Warner and complaining?

[dpb]

Unless change your number, until every creditor of the previous has been notified (and, more importantly, pays any attention to the notification) they have the right to call the phone number on record for the debtor so don't think there is much you can do about that.

As for the number, there's nothing that prevents them from setting up a local dialing center controlled remotely. On that legality, if you've ever had any dealing with the company then they have the loophole of the "previous business relationship" they can fall back on. I don't recall whether there's an expiry date on that or not; probably not short enough to be of any use to you if so. If they are indeed blind calls then the don't call should be honored. But, ime, the list is useful only as a feel-good for the complainant who gets themselves listed; afaict there is almost no enforcement of ignoring it so it has no real effect on the telemarketers.

Fortunately, we've had the same phone number for 50+ years so it's pretty immune to the problem of prior occupants.

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[mm]

Debt collection calls I think are covered not by the do not call list but by provisions of the Fair Debt Collections Act, or something like that, which even before the donot call list gave, iiuc, even the debtor ability to get them to stop doing certain things (They used to do worse things like calling family and bosses, sometimes for debts that didnt' exist. Threaten to get them fired.) So you may need a idfferent formula of words than the dnclist. Check out the fdca rules.

I used to get calls for one guy I had nothing to do with, knew nothing about, and denials did nothing. A friend of my brothers told me that was the wrong approach, to say I didn't owe the money. YOU ALSO don't want to say you do owe the money, that would be bad, but he said to say: I won't pay. and then they would go to the next step which was to actually sue the guy, and when they organized their paperwork, they woudl figure out that you and he weren't the same. All I can tell you is the calls stopped coming.

This was 10 or 15 years ago and maybe their usual routine has changed, but maybe not.

What difference does it make? Either they have an office near yuou or they have a phone nearyou and use call forwarding. You are still supposed to be on the donotcalllist. One thing people do is say Wait a second, then go cook read a book or wallpaper the bedroom, comign back often enough that he doesn't hang up. I don't know how well that works but it seems like fun.

[JoeSpareBedroom]

Can Time Warner arrange to block these callers for you?

[RicodJour]

Right you are. It's the Fair Debt Collection Act that holds sway - at least for bill collectors.

You ask for their contact information, then inform them that "as per the Fair Debt Collection Act I am making a formal, legal request for you and your company to cease and desist from contacting me in any form." You could also ask for a fax number and fax them the same thing, along with your inclusion on the Do Not Call registry (might as well cover your bases), and informing them that the person from their records has moved on, and they should update their records. This tells them to either step it up and sue you, or go away. Since the 'you' is not you, no problem. They'll figure it out on their own time.

R

[HeyBub]

Every time you get a junk fax, trot down to your local small-claims court and collect $500 (up to $1500). This is federal law, enforceable at the state level.

[HeyBub]

[HeyBub]

Get the name of the person they're after.

Send them a letter, over "his" signature, demanding they stop bothering you. Under federal law, once they receive such a letter they may contact you ONE more time to acknowledge that they've received your notice. The penalty for violation of this law is SEVERE (I would tell you what it is, but I can't spell disembowel).

On a more prosaic level, Time-Warner may have a facility for blocking incoming 'phone numbers.

[FatterDumber& Happier Moe]

Have some fun with them record it and put it on youtube. Standard answers The hell ya say. Then again, The hell ya say. Do you take credit cards, when they say yes, tell them "I an't got one, I was just wondering? Send me proof and I'll pay it. What color are your eyes? What are you wearing ? You know that reminds me of a story,...... and start telling a long story, a real long one but drag it out and try to keep them from hanging up. Some from youtube.

original.

[mm]

BTW, I don't really get any spam calls anymore since the dnclist, but another thing I'd like to say, to hear their answer is, You're already breaking the law by calling me. Why owuld I want to start a business relationship with you.

However note that it's a good sign for the ecomony that they credit card companies, even crooked ones, are trying sign up customers,

[JimT]

I let the answering machine pickup all unknown callers. I basically gave up.

[Doug Miller]

In article , "Joe J" wrote: [...]

Have you reported the calls to the appropriate state and Federal agencies? Here in Indiana, the state is very aggressive in pursuing violators. I used to receive 3 or 4 telemarketing calls every night; by a few months after the Indiana law took effect, that dropped to 3 or 4 a _year_.

Read this:

particular attention to (b)(3) "Private right of action" -- bottom line is that if they keep calling you after you've notified them to stop, you can sue them for $500.

[ransley]

The bill collectors need a working number to contact you, you could just not use the line for phone and get a cell phone. I think if you disconnect it they will find your cell number, so you have given them a number, it will cost you but you will get peace and quiet. There may be other ways like others have said, but collectors do this for a living and know tricks to harass you, The extra line works, they think they are bothering you and are happy.

[rlz]

qwest has call blocking feature for a couple of bucks a month. It allows up to 15 different phone numbers to be blocked. I used to get 2-3 calls a night, usually from charities, which i think don't have to follow the Do Not Call list. I just jot down the caller ID number on the second call (first one is when I tell them not to call) It works pretty good for me.

[h]

It can be weirder than that. After we had lived here for about 15 years, I started getting collections calls from one of the local hospitals. The bizarre part, was that not only had I never heard of the person they wanted, but they would call 5-6 times a day looking for different people. I didn't bother calling back, I just deleted the messages. Then we started getting calls from the same hospital, but they were appointment reminders, and again, for different people we'd never heard of. After I came home and found the entire message tape completely full with this stuff, I called the hospital. Very long story short, after EIGHT MONTHS of back and forth with these people, and threats of lawsuits, we finally connected with the guy who programmed their auto-dialers. He checked the code, and if the system didn't have a valid phone number, it had randomly decided to use ours!

Problem finally solved, but if anything like that happens again, I'll go right to lawsuit mode. The attorney general's office had been unable to help us, because since the hospital wasn't calling for us, they considered it just a "wrong number".

[Dimitrios Paskoudniakis]

Check out Google Voice

[Frank]

As for the debt collector, I'd go to the state ag. I did this once with AT&T. Even if you owe them money, which I didn't, there are limits they can go to in pestering you.

As for the cold callers, and faxers, they have been getting bolder lately. A lot of these calls come from outside the country and there is nothing the US can/will do about it. I tried to get on the Canadian do not call list but they only accept Canadian numbers. Also a lot of the phone numbers are fake.

[Jim Yanik]

"Joe J" wrote in news:i2copb$a7k$ [e-mail]:

Get their address and mail them a "cease and desist" letter from your lawyer.

If a company already "has business with you" then the DNC list doesn't matter.How they figure they already have business with you is yet to be determines,I think.

I use my answering machine to screen all calls.If I don't recognize their name or I know I have no business with them,I just delete the call.I'm getting calls from American something-or-other about a debt,when I know I have no debts. I Googled them,and they have a history of calling the wrong numbers and endlessly using an robocaller to leave messages.And not correcting their mistake when told about it. IOW,answering their call just encourages them to call more. Right now,they seem to be listening and just hanging up when they hear the message.

[Kurt Ullman]

Isn't there some wav file or similar that you can put on your computer that answers the phone with some kind of tone indicating the line is not in service that the robocaller then thinks the number is dead and pulls it out of the computer?