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Blocking Annoying Cell Phone Callers?
RobertB-DC asks: "Twice a week, for the past several months, I receive a call on my cell phone, from a 'Restricted' number. It's always the same: 'Please hold for an important non solicitation message.' It then tells me to call 1-800-842-0640 for further instructions. When I call (from a CID-blocked work phone), all I can get from them is the company name: NCO. They won't tell me more about their company unless I tell who I am. Verizon says they can't block the caller. Short of exposing my own identity to someone I don't know, how can I get rid of these annoying calls?" Are there cell phone carriers who are progressive enough to offer call blocking services of some kind?
all I can get from them is the company name: NCO. They won't tell me more about their company unless I tell who I am.
Short of making up a social security number, I see nothing wrong with making up all the personal info you give them.
Dont ask that they kindly block the number, but instead report it as harrassment and threaten leagal charges. Have Verizon put a trace on the calls (you'll have to work with them on that one) to figure out where they're REALLY coming from, then contact the BBB and your state's Attourney General.
As far as I know, making unsolicited calls to a cellphone is illegal since YOU are paying for them to do this to you. Next time they call you, call that 1-800 number and tell them to remove your information from the database and that if they sell it you will press charges.
I know I'd be really pissed if I were in your position.
As everyone says:
.. probably 3 or 4 calls a week.
NCO is a collections agency.
This means that you owe them money (because someone else you owe money has transferred that to them).
This means that you have a business relationship with them (because your debt was transferred from a company that you did have a business relationship with) and they can call your cell phone.
Note: Verizon cannot block the call because it's not CID available. If it were to show on CID, it could quite probably be blocked at the service level - but it can't.
On the other hand: If it is NOT you that they are looking for (I got to deal with this quite a bit when I first got my new cell phone, with it's new #), such as in the case where you have just received a new cell number, then they don't have a right to call you, however, you need to identify yourself to them before they can discover that!
So, if you're not identifying yourself to them because you're trying to avoid the collections agency, you're gonna continue to get phone calls. If you're not the person that they are wanting to collect from, then you have to identify yourself to them, so that they will stop calling you.
I had every utility company in this state calling my cell phone trying to reach the guy that used to have the number.. and it took a good 3 or 4 months of sending calls to voicemail, with a message saying "This is NO LONGER THE PHONE NUMBER FOR -former owner's name-. If you are looking for him, please do not call back."
"Champagne for my real friends - and real pain for my sham friends!" http://ericblade.postalboard.com/
If it's NCO the collections agency, and *YOU* are the debtor they're after, you've probably got them nailed.
Third-Party collections agencies (professional debt collectors) are bound by federal law called the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). This stipulates that they cannot disclose any debt to anyone but the debtor and the creditor; hence, the stonewalling until they find out who you are. Even telling somebody that they know who you are can be a violation, since how would they know you if you didn't have a debt in collections?
This is, however, beside the point. The kicker is that the FDCPA prohibits a collector from incurring expenses to the debtor in attempt to collect the debt -- more to the point, they cannot call collect or on a cell phone. I've done work for collection agencies before and they're very careful to make sure they never contact a debtor on a cellular phone, since that allows a debtor who knows "the act" to create a legal morass that's more trouble than its worth.
You might as well tell them who you are. If you're not the one they're looking for, they'll take your number off the account and leave you alone. If you *are* the one they're looking for, you can make a stink and they may write off the debt as uncollectable.