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Ask Slashdot: How Would You Stop a Debt Collection Scam From Targeting You?
An anonymous reader writes "I'm currently being targeted by an overseas debt collection scam. My landline rings every 10-15 minutes all day every day. I considered getting a blacklisting device to block the incoming calls, but the call center spoofs a different number on my caller ID each time, and it's gotten to the point where I've just unplugged the phones. I'm already on the Do No Call Registry and have filed a complaint with the FTC. Aside from ditching my landline, changing my number, and/or blowing a whistle into the receiver anytime I actually pick up, are there any real solutions out there? Has anybody had luck with a blacklisting device?"
What kind of clever comebacks and/or tactics have you tried on the scammers to make yourself not worth the time?
Plug in a fax machine.
If they're using anything decent it will detect the fax signal and remove you from the calling.
I'm already on the Do No Call Registry and have filed a complaint with the FTC.
Why would an overseas debt collector care about the Do Not Call list that is only enforceable within the US?
Aside from ditching my landline, changing my number, and/or blowing a whistle into the receiver anytime I actually pick up, are there any real solutions out there? Has anybody had luck with a blacklisting device?"
Can you not simply block international calls? Do you routinely get calls from people overseas that it would matter?
what's a landline?
But then again, "don't pay the dane gold".
If they are spoofing ANL data what criteria will be your blacklist be doing blocking by?
Time for a new phone Number
Rick B.
...just change your number. I know you said you're looking for alternatives, but, if you have your phone unplugged already, then you're not able to receive calls. Unless you need to call out and have your number recognized, it might just be easier to change it. I'm not sure what sort of device will be able to blacklist random numbers without missing some calls that you actually want to receive.
What you want is a whitelisting device, not a blacklisting device so that it rejects any number not part of your known contacts.
Hire an intern that will take the calls and fill them with bullshit.
You can get Whitelisting devices that only accept calls from known numbers. Alternately chnage the number to a premium rate and collect the money!
port your number to a voip phone and use a whitelist only...
There are companies you can hire to screen your calls.
All your calls are forwarded to them and they'll answer the phone.
You give them instructions on how to handle your calls and they'll only pass through the calls that you want.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Maybe one of these might work:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_information_tones
put it on auto answer. preferably so that it doesn't hang up if it can't negotiate.
someone, somewhere, is paying for those calls somehow and this can maximize that and tie up maximum resources from the caller.
or an answering machine that has just "hello? helloo??".
obviously you aren't using the phoneline for anything now anyways..
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Are you so sure its a scam? Are you sure you were the one being scammed? That sounds like an awful lot of persistence and effort for some confidence man to go thru.
I would think by now the nominal scam-er would have determined you are not being taken in by it and moved on to try their grift on some other mark.
If I were you I'd get a credit report and make sure someone had not stolen my identity and opened a bunch of other credit lines that these guys are now trying to collect on because some other fraudster used your name.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
I tend to just answer, and then say "Just hold on a sec..." and then put the phone down and continue watching TV. Like someone else said that then costs them time/money. If my father in law is visiting, I just hand him the phone and he can tell stories from his childhood endlessly. He loves an audience.
1) "I'm going to send that RIGHT AWAY! Please give me your full name."
2) Put the phone down on the table, and go about your business.
3) Three minutes later, hang up the phone.
Whitelist important people in your life so that the phone rings when they call. Take all other calls on voicemail. Anyone who actually needs to contact you will be fine leaving a message.
Didn't some company come out with a device that would send out the tones that you get when you call a disconnected line? That way the auto-dialer that the scammers are using would mark the line as disconnected and stop calling. Or you could setup an answering machine to answer the line with those tones...
You're messin' with my Zen Thing, man.....
Debt collection calls are not considered unlawful, but constant calling all day and night might be considered a harassing call.
Might be worth a call to the unlawful call center. You will be expected to make legal charges and you will have to pay for a line trace fee, and all of this may be for nothing, but endless constant calls goes beyond what I would tolerate.
Answer the phone. Find out who is calling. Tell them not to call you again. THEN you will have info to file a complaint.
I had a co-worker who was getting harassed on her work line from a fake money collection organization. So I started calling them, and calling them, and then they discontinued their number.
They then started calling her again a few months later and it took even less time for them to shut down that number.
As far as I know she hasn't had another call since.
Oh, and if at all possible try to figure out where they are calling from and try to use the differences in culture to insult them. Like calling them shoe lickers or something. Just calling them regular english put downs aren't as effective.
Also you may want to try the "why not do something better with your life" talk, after all a lot of times these people are better educated than many of their peers and could make a significant difference in their community if they weren't intent on trying to scam those rich dumb people from that rich dumb country.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
This is an interesting if annoying form of Denial of Service (DoS) attack.
I used Googled Voice a little bit while in the US.
I think it has features where you have to press a number for the call to go through. So you could just start using a Google Voice number that rings your real landline. For your old number to work, you could do something like this:
1. Get a 2nd landline. Private phone number, don't give it out.
2. Get a Google Voice number, route it to your new landline.
3. Route your current landline to the Google Voice number.
4. ??
5. Profit
Get them to start calling you on your "new" number which cost them a huge sum to call. Then put them "on hold" why you consult your finance department over the outstanding payments they keep calling you about.
The idea of a public numeric address that forwards all incoming communication to you, regardless of source, is an outdated approach in modern communication.
Instead of using voice phone services like people did in the 20th century, update to an authenticated system like Facebook or Skype where a pre-existing relationship must already exist. Or make it so your phone simply rejects all calls by default and white-list your contact list. Area codes can be used to deny huge swaths of the population as few people have legitimate communication coming in from more than a handful of area codes.
There's simply no good reason to ever receive an unsolicited call, whether it's a sales person, a debt collector, or pollster. Send that shit to /dev/null.
It all depends on the specifics of your communication habits. Asterisk will definitely do what you need it to, but it's probably overkill for most.
That is naive. I've had people try to collect money for things that I did not owe. Which part of "scam" did you fail to understand? The "international" part should be a hint, at the least.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Try the whistle every time they answer. If that fails, try Asterisk + Lenny:
http://www.itslenny.com/
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Can you forward the line to someone interesting? The president, the RNC, the Phillipine embassy?
If they harass you about it, just claim that it was an accident...
Normally I dump everyone else to voicemail, but they could still tie up your landline and fill up your voicemail box. If they're robodialing you, you could drop anyone not on a whitelist into a voice menu system that requires a couple of button presses that requires a couple of button presses to get to voice mail, and disconnect them after 10 or 15 seconds if they don't press a button.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
There used to be BBSes that shared the line with normal use. The trick was to call, have it ring twice, drop the call, call again. The software would suppress the first two rings and only pick up when rung up twice.
No reason why you couldn't do something similar for family and friends, and perhaps shunt the rest to an answering machine.
I understood perfectly. It was all a clever ruse, and I have ensared my first victim!
Pick up the phone. Ask them who they're calling from, have them spell your name specifically, state you "do not recall" such alleged debt. If you can, record the call. ("It's for my own records" if they ask.) Don't ever give them ANY information. If they insist on collection, ask them to send you a physical claim. If such arrives, find a defect and tell them about it when they call back. (unless, of course, they have an actually-toll-free number, which they have to pay for.)
Oh, and always, ALWAYS make them repeat themselves. Repeat yourself ad-naueum, as well.
Just don't make any false statements, or agree to the validity of any debt you are not willing to pay.
(Honestly, though, I'd expect a scam to drop at "I'm recording this call, and your name is?")
They should be able to see that you are being harassed and block the call for you.
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
I believe anyone can get a 900 number, or one of those "costs $0.50 to vote" numbers.
Can you forward your phone line to one of these?
(Note: Caller ID can be spoofed, but the charge collections system uses ANI, which *can't* be spoofed.)
Switch to Google Voice. Aside from the call screening feature, it also automatically spam-filters your calls much like Gmail.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
I had success by porting my landline to Google Voice Account, which has global spam filtering.
First, get an AT&T GoPhone ($20). Then port to Google Voice ($20), choosing AT&T as the option.
You are asked for a transfer id that you will need to call AT&T for... It is NOT on the phone, and not available without calling AT&T's support #.
I don't know your story, but this also makes you more flexible to either drop your current landline, or move to a cheaper provider (likely).
Either way, Google Voice does wonders at spam filtering, but some still make it through. Best of luck!
temporarily forward your number to another debt collection agency. let them battle it out.
let ur friends know to contact u via your cell in the interim.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
No matter what they ask. over and over again.
That is horrible advice and you should feel bad for giving it.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
Give us your number. We can fix this.
I have a portable phone/answering matching on landline with me DSL bundle. I kept getting this call from India about credit card problems even though I dont own a credit card, my credit is sooooo bad I destroyed it when I was 18 and got sued by banks which I never showed up or paid and since I own no assets they wasted money suing... Now I'm in my 40s
Anyhow the trick to stop the shit India calls coming in 4 and 5 times per day was sadly be as offensive and racist and vile and shocking as possible, become a Chan kid as if they od'd on Ritalin hehe
I had some chick get so mad she was screaming at me in a foreign language, the a supervisor took over her call and acted as ic was going to apologize, so I blasted him with racist to sexual to US outsourcing call centers so they can make 50 cent an hour blah blah. He got to yelling in his own language, I kept having fun looking up how to give death threats and rape daughters in their language. The line goes dead ....
Its now been a year and 2 months and my phone has not range once except for my family and occasional doc appt reminder
Go nuts and go the sicker the better, it works and you'll enjoy the cathartic moment of destroying them to the point they start screaming some foreign gibberish while you laugh and know them dumbasses won't call you ever again.
You can't stop them calling you unless it costs them money do change your number to a premium rate one. Give your friends and family your cell phone number.
1000s Warcraft Gold while you sleep
You have Caller ID already, just don't answer the phone for numbers you don't recognize. If it's legitimate they'll leave a message on your answering machine. Also do as someone else suggested and crank up the number of rings before your answering machine picks up the call. People who know you will wait for an answer. Legitimate callers will either wait and leave a message; if they don't then it obviously wasn't important enough to even leave a message, so you shouldn't worry about it. Also change the outgoing message on your answering machine if you state your name on it, or better yet if it's got a pre-recorded generic outgoing message, use that instead of one recorded in your own voice. If necessary send an email or give a call to family and friends explaining the changes so they're neither put off by it or worried that something drastic is wrong. I know this all does sound drastic, but personally I don't see any other alternatives; these sorts of "organizations" are ruthless and persistent (kind of like African honey-badgers), but if you can convince them that you've changed your number without actually having to do so, they'll lose interest in you and stop wasting their time trying to harass you.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
set up an asterisk pbx. whitelist numbers you want and send everything else to a blackhole that is the "this number is disconnected" recording.
you can whitelist your entire area code so it's easy to block everything else.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
No one puts that much time and effort into a "scam". Scams operate on the principal of trying to hit as many people as possible because the response rate is so low. If someone is putting this much effort into contacting the poster they clearly have a legitimate belief that he owes them money.
Could you forward your landline to free google voice? It might not take long for them to give up.
Have gvoice send legit calls to a cellphone, even if you have to spend $20 for a throwaway phone. Gvoice can also send you emails with the call source, transcribed msg, etc.
I'll add my voice to the chorus suggesting Google Voice. By the time the user is asked to give their name and wait while Google Voice rings all of your phones, telemarketers give up. At least, I haven't gotten a single telemarketer since switching. Now, some of your friends may not have the patience to wait a few extra seconds either, but maybe that just proves they're not real friends.
Set up a whitelisting system. Meaning, calls you enter into the white list are passed on to you. Everything else gets forwarded to my mentally ill mother.
Now, before anyone says this is cruel, she LOVES talking on the phone. In fact, if it were an Olympic sport, she'd be on the podium each time. In fact, I have to keep her number blacklisted because she'd call me 400-500 times a month.
---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
Funny story. A couple months ago in Arizona, a guy was pulled over for a rolling stop at a stop sign. The police decided his ass was suspicious (literally) and got a warrant for a butt rape. The doctor at the local hospital told them to fuck off, so they went to another hospital (out of county) where the doctors fingered him (multiple times), gave him an enema, and finally, a colonoscopy. At no point were drugs or anything other than poop found in his asshole. The hospital later sent the butt rape victim a bill "for services rendered." The best part was: the warrant was only valid within the county and had expired by the time the colonoscopy was performed.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
and simply ask over and over "How did you get this number?" Never a deviation, and after a bit they quit.
For a while (until the computer died) I used to run an Asterix server at home.
It let me do all sorts of call management, white-listing, black-listing, special automated menus, (you can even program an infinite looped one for them).
Call bridging, and petty much anything you'd like to do with an incoming call.
You'll need at least an old PC and one card to plug the phone line in.
He was likely joking, brah.
If it's a real person calling, pretend you're a debt collection scammer yourself: "Hello, this is WeBuyDebts.com. If you are calling to confirm you're ready to settle your debt, please press one. If you want to renegotiate the payment plan, please press two. To speak to a debt settlement advisor, please press 3..."
http://www.itslenny.com/
Done.
If you use Google Voice you can set it to ask each caller to say their name before it will ring your phone. That's enough to stop practically all automated calling systems.
It's $20 to port your number to Google Voice, but then everything else besides outgoing international calls is paid for by Google spying on you.
https://support.google.com/voice/answer/1065667?hl=en
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
When the phone rings, pick up and say:
911, what is your emergency?
When asked, say that the phone number is automatically being forwarded and any further abuse will be the police involved.
Go for the bluff.
www.slightlycrewed.com - Because aren't we all?
Just recite your own version of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgmO32IdwuE
. I still have mine only because it's needed to connect a water alarm system, and although I'm not the target of any particular scammer, I get robocalls all day long on it. The "Do Not Call" law we passed so proudly just a few years ago has totally broken down under the robocall onslaught.
Talk to them once...
Ask to be unlisted from their list...
On next call report them to the donotcall registry people.
On third or more calls, speak with them. Make it a game. Ask them for the spelling of their first and last names in full. Then ask for the debt collectors social security number, home phone number, and home address. After the second or third question they will hang up on you. If they don't keep asking questions. Do not answer any of their questions without 2 of your own questions.
whenever a scammer calls I tell them I am dead.
You know, the one where callers pay premium rate to call...
Or do a credit check on yourself.
Arstechnica.com just did an article on how easy it is to steal an identity complete with a credit number for $30 on the blackmarket!
Someone could have just taken your identity and bought a car, home, and maxed 5 credit cards and the debt collectors are going after you to pay for it. Always watch your back as that FICO score is your life and you can't buy anything or move into a new job without that reputation score high enough.
http://saveie6.com/
I have a Linux box and a serial port V.90/92 modem. I've read a bit about vgetty and mgetty but does anyone have a simple recipe for setting up an answering machine/fax machine with it so that I can do whitelisting? I'd like to be able to script everything and then I'd write a web interface for my networked devices to play back and handle recordings. Asterix seems like overkill for what I want, isn't it?
That will only be a funny story when cops are prosecuted.
Perhaps a little overkill, but this is what I use .....
Asterisk, a cast off computer, and an FXS/FXO card. The phones don't ring here and when they do my wife and I get nervous. I have an Asterisk system set up with only inbound routes with CID set to folks I want to get through - they ring our extensions automatically. Everybody else gets a call routing announcement to press 1 for me, 2 for my wife (or dial an extension) and it goes to our respective voicemails. Folks I don't particularly care for get hung up on, banished to hold forever, or other inventive things. If you don't make a choice, it goes to general voicemail. Keeps the telemarketers away and only friends and family know they can get through. It's been up and running for a couple of years now. Bonus for SIP and IAX links to friends with systems to so I can "intercom" them.
Total cost was around $100 for the card. Cast off computers I acquire from time to time so that was $0. I have an exact duplicate spare in the closet ready for when this machine dies. Only problem is I have it configured so well I don't want to upgrade due to having to reconfigure and perfect everything again!
Cheers,
Miser
Say you're happy to check your records and if you find you owe them you'll mail a check. Then ask for an address to send it to.
Once you have an address, send a certified letter asking that they stop contacting you (assuming you never want to hear from them again). Then, if they keep contacting you go see a lawyer.
This assumes you really don't owe anything. I'm not a lawyer - if you need legal advice you should hire one.
I once told the person on the other end of the line that, because on his previous call he had left a message on our answering machine, we had a recording of his voice and were contacting the FBI. They never called again. Of course, in hindsight, the NSA has the call recorded anyway.
Thanks - good point.
Or borrow one. This is what kids are for, specifically toddlers. My two-year-old niece *loves* answering telemarketers, tech support/collection scammers. Them, not so much.
Read up on the Federal Do Not Call Registry. It is a useful tool, but you may also want to check if your state has its own registry. The Federal version is pretty toothless...but ours here in Tennessee actually has teeth. I reported a violation and the state not only fined them but followed up with me to send me the associated filings.
I use PhoneTray Pro (http://www.phonetray.com/). It works pretty well for me. It has black and white lists and an online blacklist. You just need a cheap voicemodem (get the one they recommend) and you're off to the races. I get 1 ring on blocks, then they hear a disconnect phone recording.
I work for a phone company in the US. There's basically no way to stop these. When the call comes in, there's no way to know where it came from. Just change your number. You could do some things to try and get off their list but the fact of the matter is, if you're on their list, you're on THE list and this wont be the last problem you'll have. Your number will get sold and re-sold.
Lastly, to get targeted the way you did usually means they got a "hit" on your number... meaning one of their cons worked. If you're not already aware of them ripping you off, you should check your finances carefully to be sure they haven't already gotten some money from you. If they're calling you that much it's because they think you bit before so you'll bite again.
For my house POTS, I do the same: I tell all my family and friends that I screen my calls, so when I hear their voice, I'll pick up.
Also, I set the phone ringer to low, or silent, so I wont be annoyed by all the ringging/hang-ups of the bots.
For my cell phone, I mostly use it for texting, and thankfully most cell phones 'whitelist' as it says if the caller is a contact you already put into your cellphone's memory.
Uh, Linux geek since 1999.
Get a trumpet, learn to play a very loud note.
Salut,
Jacques
Calling you costs nothing. Talking to you costs wage/hour. Just talk to them. Get a comfortable headset and get into it.
I read a while back that someone had used one of those non-900 but still costs the caller to call them numbers. Also, the caller has to pay by the minute. If I had one of the I think I'd gladly answer the phone, even talk about all the options. When they got their first bill I'd think they'd take you off their list. Sure, this means changing your home phone number, but it sounds like you're not taking any more calls here anyway.
A computer, a modem with callerid capability, and an expect script to answer and immediately hang up when caller id "NAME =" matches one of "unavailable", "lower rates", "customer service", etc. etc. I get 5 spam calls a day and this solves that problem for me. Script can match on "NAME =" or "NMBR =" so lots of flexibility.
Have gnu, will travel.
http://www.privacycorps.com/products/?id=20
This or similar devices will allow you to put a 'whitelist' on your phone of numbers you accept and all other numbers are diverted to voicemail. Most scams won't waste time leaving voicemails so you never even know they've phoned and every time you get a message from a legit number you can call back and/or add them to your white list.
I was targeted by mistake several years ago - a debt collector thought my number was the number of someone with a debt - and the calls were non-stop every day for a month or so and then they suddenly quit. A bizarre experience, since I have never had an unpaid debt and barely use credit at all. I did some research into what was going on and found a sleazy underworld of debt collectors that surprised me by just how vile it was.
These sort of calls should be made illegal in the UK, not only do you get annoyed and the most inconvenient times (inc. Sunday), you are usually places in a blank queue until someone can handle your call or worse, a machine tried to sell you something... Make it illegal to cold call a house hold with this spam...
"Look, I know you're a criminal trying to scam me. You're not getting any money from me, ever. If this is a real debt, sue me, so that the court will make you obey the law, but it's no, its' a scam, and you're a criminal, so you don't dare do that."
Make it clear they're wasting their time, and they'll go elsewhere. The scam is a business, and lost time isn't profitable.
Aside from that, this is the outlet to all your frustrations. When you're dealing with a criminal to begin with, you can say anything, be as abusive as you want, and there's nothing they can do about it. If you threatened to firebomb their office, they wouldn't dare report you (and the NSA doesn't share).
Had a bad day? Scream obscenities in to the phone. Didn't get laid last night? Tell them you're masturbating while you talk to them. Relatives giving you a bad time? Question their mother's mating habits. Take out every frustration you have on the criminal. I will personally send you real money if you post a recording of you making the scammer cry.
Which wouldn't work if, as the OP mentioned, they call with a different number each time.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
people still use them? I thought they are extinct like the telegraph key/morse code. Just kidding
And then tell your friends about it so they know to wait for the beep.
If you're up for it, just run the calls through an Asterisk server running off a 800 number or PRI from a provider that actually gives you the real caller data.
At that point you'll have the real ANI instead of the CPN (caller ID). Grab that number, track down who owns it, then get a lawyer to serve them with a cease and desist.
Tell them you can't pay because you have no job, but if they hired you you could pay.
They had an epic screwup many years ago. One month I paid the bill, and instead of deducting the amount on the check from the balance, they added it so the next bill showed a past-due amount that was exactly double what the previous bill had been. Calling their customer service was useless - you would wait in the queue for 45 minutes only to find out that their "computers were down" and there was nothing they could do. This went on for days. Eventually I thought I got it all taken care of, and then out of the blue 6 months later I started getting calls from a collection agency. I started sending some rather rude letters to the CEO after this - eventually they admitted the problem.
It was nearly 30 years ago, but to this day I refuse to have anything to do with Sprint.
If it's a scam, it a law enforcement issue. Tell the cops. Even if they don't help, you've got a paper trail. Your state's Attorney General's office may have a division to investigate consumer frauds and scams, as well.
There are some other possibilities. First off, are they asking for you specifically? There's always a possibility that they're a junk debt collector that's trying to collect on something that's actually been paid off, cancelled or otherwise dealt with that another debt collector with (deliberately) shoddy record-keeping sold them. Could also be an actual debt, but one you shouldn't really owe because it was fraudulently or accidentally applied to you instead of someone else. This can be a real PITA to sort out.
If they're not asking for you personally, it may be someone else's debt. I've had bill collectors call me repeatedly because someone who had my number before (allegedly) owed someone money. Convincing them they got the wrong guy took many tries, and sometimes they just sell off the debt to another junk collector who'd try again. One guy even asked if I knew the new number of the (alleged) deadbeat. Really? It's a phone number -- It's not like I sold someone my car. Those calls only went away with a change of number when I moved.
Unfortunately, Fair debt collection practice laws don't seem to be as helpful to people who don't actually owe a debt. I guess the authors really didn't expect that issue to come up, but it does.
I am not a crackpot.
I use a hybrid PSTN/SIP setup at home with call treatments that has been highly effective in dealing with annoyance calls:
* Private/Anonymous callers are answered by the "number has been disconnected" message.
* ~50 number blacklist for scammers that have called previously. Their calls are answered by the "number has been disconnected" message.
* ~200 number whitelist for family, people, and companies we do business with. Their calls ring straight through to the handset.
* Default forwarding of new unknown numbers to voicemail.
Basically, the people who we want to talk to, get to talk to us right away. Those we do not want to talk to think the number has been disconnected. All others are offered a chance to prove the good reputation of their number by leaving a voicemail message. IMHO this approach is far better than the cloud-based "robo-dialer turing test" that launched recently. Do you really want to have to explain to your elderly relatives why their calls no longer go through because they couldn't type in the answer to a question fast enough?
Good luck.
This call may be recorded for your public humiliation.
No matter what they're saying, I keep discussing sex in clinical detail. Sometimes I vary it to sound more luridly creepy than dry, but always with explicit detail. You can't just say, "I love fucking." You have to get very specific, including description of sounds, bodily fluids, cavities and orifices, and all the rest. Hell, sometimes I'm still talking long after they've hung up on me.
Get a Google Voice number and just disconnect the landline for a while. You can program how incoming calls are handled, screen calls, block numbers, and set up individual voicemail boxes for people you know.
I had nearly an identical situation with a bill collector looking for the person who used to have that number and refused to take us off the list unless we identified ourselves. I switched over to Google Voice and they all went b-bye.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
What part of "scam" don't you understand?
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
"He's/She's deceased".
That'll stop it.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Plug in a fax machine.
If they're using anything decent it will detect the fax signal and remove you from the calling.
Once they you have a fax machine, you get on junk fax lists, and since most fax machines are in offices where no one is around at night, lots of junk faxes arrive at 3 in the morning. If you later reconnect a normal phone to that line and it's in your bedroom, you will be woken up by junk faxes in the middle of the night for YEARS. Yes this happened to me, because I had a fax at home for business purposes, and the number got on some list.
use a telemarketer torture script: http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+Telemarketer+Torture
Give up your landline and go with Skype. Buy a phone number for them ($6 a month) and give that to your friends. You can be called on that and can also use Skype credit to make calls. If someone calls you and hassles you, right-click and block the number.
You might want to try they telezapper (http://www.amazon.com/Privacy-Technologies-TZ-900-TeleZapper-900/dp/B00006881R) . My wife and I were being inundated with telemarketing calls a few years ago, and it worked wonders.
I also run an Asterisk server for my business. I have a slightly different issue in that I am receiving a spam(I presume) fax call from a constantly changing number(area code, exchange code, callerID always differs and appears to be random). Being a business, the whitelist jail isn't a great idea as you lose customers.
When a person answers the call, it's easy enough to hang up. But, when the call overflows to voicemail I start having issues. Apparently the fax sender isn't smart enough to disconnect and I get several minute(was 30 reduced to 5) voicemails with nothing but fax negotiation tones. I tried connecting a fax machine to see if the fax provided anything useful, but being a VoIP line it is too error filled to decode the fax. Blacklisting number after number obviously doesn't work either.
It's tempting to say 'screw it' and just delete the voicemails, but there are two major issues.
1. Voicemail notifications for the fax calls are annoying, especially after hours.
2. Being a VoIP line I get charged for the 5 minutes of fax tones. It's a nominal fee, but I HATE the idea of some Pakistani spammer costing me a nickel every day!
What to do?
i don't know if i should laugh or scream!!!
I was shocked the first time I got through to someone with the 'please do something better with your life' approach - but so many of these people are real humans, having to work nasty jobs to make ends meet - they don't want to have to lie to their families about what they really do at the office. They don't like remembering that they are having to steal to get by. Every time you remind them that the 'rich jerk on the other end' is actually a person, it gets them a little closer to being able to get another job. Maybe it''ll still be phone work - but crappy subcontinental support is still way better than working for a crappy subcontinental scams.
If it means that person finds a different job a week sooner than they would have otherwise - then it is a heck of a lot more valuable than the few minutes of my life I won't be seeing again.
Posted anon, since the message is the message.
My landline supports my 56K modem connection, you insensitive clod!
an old windows xp computer with a voice modem. The older version of phonetray was freeware I think they are charging for it now. You can input large ranges to whitelist like everything in your areacode using wildcards. You can turn the ringer off on your phone and set the computer to alert you for approved numbers. The computer can even read out the caller id information if you like. You can set up any wave file you want to play for your unwanted callers. You can even set up different messages for different numbers.
I've tried this but have yet to sell any chocolate-covered telemarketer heads.
Pretend you are a receptionist and ask them for their credit card number, name, date of birth, SSN, ....
It they ask why, say this is a pay service and you bill $100 per minute and will be pleased to pass the call to the person they are asking for; once the credit card verification is approved.
I run Asterisk at home. If a call comes in from outside my area code, and it's not one of a handful of whitelisted long-distance numbers belonging to friends and family, the dialplan directs the called to press 1 in order to ring my phones. Since most telemarketers and scammers use automatic dialling machines, the 1 is never pressed and my Asterisk box hangs up after about 10 seconds. My phones never ring.
I've gone from 3-6 telemarketing calls a week getting through to maybe one a month or so.
Get a second phone line and change the plan for the first, if necessary to the least expensive available with voice mail. Let your contacts know about your number change. Unplug the first phone but check the voice mail when ever you feel like it. After you no longer get calls from your contacts on the first phone you might give up the line. Then the person who next gets that number will have a surprise. It may be worth the extra cost.
I've had my phone number for 5 years and am still getting dunning calls for the previous owner. A side benefit from using the "new" number is that I no longer receive annoying "spam" calls.
Nate
A landline works over a wired connection to the telephone network. But by and large, end users don't care about whether a house phone uses a wired or wireless connection; they care about how much they have to pay and how long they have to wait to make or receive a call. And historically, in Slashdot's home country, landlines have been one to a house and have had unlimited minutes.
Back in the late 1990's my brother and I shared a condo rental and we had a digital answering machine. We'd get home and the machine said we had a dozen or more missed calls but no messages. We had the usual, lengthy greeting and apology for missing their call followed by an invitation to leave a message and that we'd get back to them.
One day I replaced the greeting with a quick and simple "Leave a message at the beep". The outbound call computer would call a large number of phones knowing that only a certain percentage will actually go through. They listen for tones from the telco indicating a phone was busy, disconnected or what not. They were able to detect faxes picking up and they'd get removed from the list. If a human answered, they then determined if someone answered with a short "hello" or if the talking went on for more than a few seconds, then it was an answering machine and they'd hang up and try again later.
After changing the greeting we had plenty of long messages where the caller would immediately start on his hard-sale without leaving any possibility for anyone to say "Sorry, I'm not interested". So after the caller gets through his 3 or 4 minute monologue, he would pose the typical question where you would automatically say "Yes" to, such as "...and you're interested in saving money, aren't you?" or "...and you want to protect cute little bunny rabbits from suffering, don't you?"
The caller would wait for a response from our answering machine and then start saying "Hello? Are you there? Hello?" and then a few times they would get angry and yell "I CAN HEAR YOU BREATHING!! I KNOW YOU ARE THERE!!!!" and then start spewing profanities.
The sales calls stopped after a few days.
I have a call blocker, and I love it. Mine stores 1,000 numbers. When a sales, political, or otherwise annoying call comes in, I just press a button on the device to block the caller's number. No more calls from that number.
Some devices also allow you to block entire area codes. That should block them for sure, even if they use 50 different numbers to call from.
Sorry, but that's not true. My wife was dunned by debt collectors because someone with the same name as her died in a nearby city without paying his hospital bill.
Yes, they were unscrupulous, cowardly, untrustworthy, liars. And they wouldn't accept reasonable proof that she wasn't the person who owed the money. (Being alive didn't seem to count.) But when *SHE* traced down what the problem was and mailed them copies of the death certificate, the problem ceased. It did, however, take over six months of continual effort, because they wouldn't give her the information to find out who really owed the debt.
Paying your bill doesn't protect you against "errors". They want money, and they don't really care if the person who pays is the person who owes the money.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
Just get yourself a pppm phone number, and send the company in question an email with an "update of personal details" with the new number.
That way you can answer the phone with a smile on your face, knowing the scammers are now paying you.
I use Google voice to have callers announce and use the spam and block features. Works great with little effort.
That's quite an interesting set of morals you have going on there.
If I don't recognise the number on the caller-id, I pick up the phone and reply "Good Afternoon (Insert pizza delivery firm name of choice) pizza, may I take your order?" in the nicest, and sunniest, voice I can muster. After that you just need to stick to the script. Like: "I'm sorry sir/madam, we have no-one here by that name, would you like to order a pizza?" or if they pause in shock from the first part, get in there quickly and say "Hello? May I take your order please?"
You'll be surprised at how often the calls stop coming after that ;)
I remember looking into something like this when I worked grave. It basically answers and says press 1 to continue. My wife didn't like it the idea because it might confuse her dad(think Hank from King of the Hill).
http://www.privacycorps.com/pages/call-screener-review.htm
This is a bit involved, but will work if you have the time and know how to set it up.
You can likely port your landline number to a VOIP service and then setup asterisk. Use IVR to play a message when you are called. Have a code that your friends and family know that will allow them to break out of the IVR and ring an extention.. Funnel everything else to voicemail or whatever you want.. You will only get a ring when it is someone who knows the code.
Convert your number to a pay-per-call (80€/$/£/ per answer).... With that many rings, you don't have to work ever again!
This collection scammer would call and send snail mail until one day I dug deeper into the situation. I typed their number into Google and found out that they were a scammer on ripoffreport . com. With their letter in hand and permission to write as though I was the relative, I sent them my own letter. In it, I told them that they were a scammer listed on the website and warned them of legal action using various alphabet soup agencies. My relative was never contacted again.
If you get real people on the line, ask them about their mother. And whether they love their mother. Tell them you love their mother too. You love their mother a lot. Tell them you can't stop thinking about their mother, all day, every day.
Use a low, slow voice. Use unexpected pauses. Shout every now and then.
Then, at the end, ask them where their mother lives.
Religion is what happens when nature strikes and groupthink goes wrong.
by not replying, you do them a favor: you give them all the information they need to retry (noop => retry).
Try to put something like an answering machine, a hayes-modem with AT commands, Asterisk, whatever it takes to make sure you increase THEIR cost (the cost maybe monetary if they have no fixed landline costs or, other like human time, when they are on flat-fee) Likely, there will no shortage of such scams in the future, so you will get to re-use your equipment and effort.
Make sure you engage them otherwise, if everybody strays away from this, they have more chances to continue the scam.
btw. the Google Voice suggested by others is the right course/direction of action, if you have live business phone traffic coming in; otherwise, you risk your clients. (and if it is such the case, $20 is a no-brainer to better serve your customers)
Just an idea since I don't really have much experience with this.
You could pick up the phone and pretend you are interested. Just put down the phone and say something once every few minutes.
Then when they get angry and get close to hanging up you laugh at them saying you know there is no debt and they are thieves, hahahahahaha!
Don't think your number will be called often after that. And you prevented someone else from getting called.
Debt collectors other than the original lender all tend to be committing fraud one way or another. Here is one answer that has worked for me. You get a nonsense collection call. Listen to the pitch and then ask that since you were polite enough to listen would they listen to you for a moment. If they say yes you have set the hook. Tell them you would bet money that they were recently hired. The chances are that that is quite true. Collection companies try to claim to pay on a percentage of recovered money. Then ask the collector if the people sitting around him seem to be recent hires as well. Next tell him it is a scam to get him to work for free. The way it works is the guy will get two weeks in and even if checks have come in they company will not admit it or post it. After two weeks they will fire him for lack of collections and he will never receive a penny for his efforts. I have done this and the collector instantly confronted the phone room manager and loudly quit on the spot. The manager was the owner and he called back ten minutes later and said I could not do that as advertising for new help was expensive. I told him i would do it every time a got a call. companies sell these debts for a couple bucks each so the initial lender can charge them off against taxes, The supposed collector owns the debt but he may only collect on one in 500 debts he purchases. So if you are costing him money by causing his employees to quit he will take your suggestion to rip up the debt paper absolving you of the debt. Get them any way you can.
Lost of good suggestions here. If you have some time you can harass them by being annoying, doing roleplaying, rickrolling them or playing other sounds, or use a Duke Nukem soundboard like in this dubious classic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE3KdcTgrno
Asked as scammer if I could call him back in 5 minutes because I was busy once...MAN DID HE GET PISSED!!! IT WAS HILARIOUS!!!!
I am using VoicePulse, which has an option to respond with the "number disconnected" signal first for incoming calls. While this is hardly noticed by humans calling, and only slightly irritating, robocalls do detect it and assume its a dead number, and typically remove it from the list.
I plugged a TrueCall unit into my master telephone socket and then plugged a wireless handset base unit into the pass-through. I went from five unsolicited calls a day to zero. While this was (for the initial outlay) costly, not being harassed by cold callers makes it worthwhile.
More details in the link below, but my major concerns (and outcomes) are here: -
ADSL - not affected
Friends/Relatives getting through - Callers listen to your announcement and then can choose to carry on with the call (announcing their name). The phone rings and the system tells you that "message" is calling - you press '1' to accept the call or '3' to reject it. At anytime (before or during) you can press '*' to add them to the whitelist or '#' to blacklist them (this ends the call immediately and reads them a "legal" statement e.g. "the caller wishes you to clear off and never return").
Control over the system - you can manage everything through the handset or via the subscription-based web console (the unit can connect up periodically/manually and upload/synchronise data and configuration).
All pretty awesome.
https://www.truecall.co.uk/call-blocker.aspx
I had a repeat offender who liked to call at dinner time and always asked for the lady of the house. The only female in the house was my miniature schnauzer, Runt Packet.
A few sessions of listening to her grown and bark and the caller stopped calling.
Caller: Could I speak to [Name] please? ... yadda yadda unpaid debt yadda yadda ...
You: What was the nature of your business with [Name]?
Caller:
You: You've just called a murder scene.
Caller: CLICK!
How one man turns annoying cold calls into cash...
This guy is my hero:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23869462
Use an Asterix system to give them the $25/minute with 60-minute minimum billing spiel and then have have the system read wikipedia at them.
Pay yo' damn bills!
They're scammers. There are no actual bills due, and giving money to the callers will only encourage them to call you more, because they know you're an idiot who gives money to people when called.
Complaining to abuse@bellsouth.net didn't help.
So I set a forwarding to automatically send back all bounce to abuse@bellsouth.
Didn't help
Next step: forward it to a couple of random bellsouth employee adresses found using Google
Didn't help either
Then, same thing, but this time with their customers.
Problem fixed in less than one afternoon!
Answer in Klingon
Answer, when you get a human,
say "I have dinner on stove, hang on ...", wait 2 minutes, go back ... what were you calling about ... oh, damn it ... someone is at the front door, just a minute ...", wait 2 minutes, go back ... where were we ... oh yeah .... hang on ... JEREMY PUT THAT DAMN CAT DOWN ... just a minute ... ", wait 2 minutes, go back
say "sorry
say "sorry
continue ad nausium ....
I had this problem for a while. I finally unplugged my phone and left it that way unless I was making an outgoing call or waiting for a call I knew was coming. After several months they seem to give up.
Idea: Is there an answering machine that uses PINs? I couldn't find one. Assign a discrete PIN to each person you know, each business you deal with, and add or delete as needed. SOMEONE must make this.
If a bad call manages to get through, disable that PIN.
I have also gotten calls like this and have been looking into stuff that could block along with just a new phone in general (mine is dying). You might want to look into some Panasonic phones for a land line.
Panasonic KXTG1061M
https://panasonic.ca/English/telecom/telephones/dect/kxtg1061m.asp
Panasonic KXTG4033B
https://panasonic.ca/english/telecom/telephones/dect/KXTG4033B.asp
I'm sure other brands have the call block. From what I have read these phones can block at least 100+ numbers, seeing as how they are always changing their info it might help with being able to block so many numbers. I don't know how well they work or how easy it is to set stuff up.
Could also switch to a smart phone with the same number and use an app to block numbers. Its also something else I have considered though not sure how the blocked calls would impact the usage of the phone though.
Personally I would love to see home phones come with an SD card slot with the block feature. All the numbers blocked by the phone would be put in a text file that could be edited at any time on a computer and it would be standardized so that you could move it from phone to phone and even move it to a cell phone.
Pick up the phone, and hit mute. Leave on speakerphone until you get the fast busy signal.
At least it will waste their internal resources while all they get on the other end is dead air.
Use a VOIP provider with call flow control.
Anveo has a visual programming tool for call flow. You could set up a simple Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system where callers have to pass your menu in order to be forwarded or rung thru to SIP.
I recently ported my U.S. landline number to Anveo. It took less than 1 week from CenturyLink (and my DSL stayed live).
With Anveo you could receive calls either with any SIP device (I'm using an Obihai) or forward calls to another phone number (cost per minute based on destination, US48 is $0.01/minute).
If prepaid for a year of incoming calls the total charge is $24. Yes, less than $25 provisions my number for incoming calls for a full year, no additional charge. This was the cheapest I found in what dslreports comments seem to consider a top-tier provider.
Outgoing calls are a separate issue. Simplest is to just use Anveo (US48 at 1c/minute). Cheaper options exist. For example, with an Obi110 you could keep your landline with a new phone number and route outgoing thru it. Or use google voice (until it goes away next May). Or use localphone.com. Or use a different provider for different destinations.
(Anveo also has a referral program so you could message me for my number, or not.)
The trick?
Make sure each call you are the Hannibal Lecter of prospects. Just get psycho with them, and work your hardest to place the most morbid, fear inducing, ugly, horrible impressions in their mind you can. Mix it up with near constant pleas to their humanity as you get them to empathize with the poor souls they prey on each day. From time to time, earnest pleas to get them to quit that job while you hold the line for them as they walk out is a nice, often finishing touch.
Do this a few times and mean it and don't break any laws and they will remove you from the dialer of their own free will.
My last call ended with "Oh Fuck! It's you." and that was the last I ever heard from those clowns.
Blogging because I can...
For some while, I had had call after call where some debt collection agency would call my number asking to speak to ... any of a number of people I had never heard of. For a while, I would politely reply that nobody by that name had ever lived there. The calls continued.
Then I started immediately asking for the company name, which would often get me some acronym. A quick google search and I was able to repeat to the CS person, "by (acronym) do you mean (company name from google)"? Invariably, "yes". I then told them, "you are warned: nobody by that name has ever lived here. If you call again asking for someone who has not lived here, you may be liable by law and I may seek legal recourse."
I kept a log of what company called, who they asked for, and when they called. I provided that information the next time that company called, and changed the "may" in my script to "will". I haven't been bothered by those companies again. ... One of them, the manager-type I got on the line cried "it was an honest mistake!" Yeah, like the other times they'd called looking for other people?
But as I said, these were US companies. The poster is having problems with a company outside the US harassing them.
As for "it's a foreign company" and the FDCPA, they're still subject to the FTC rules because YOU are in the US. But reaction from the FTC won't be timely for you (unless you're a glacier with a land-line...). Too many scams out there.
How about a program we can run with speech recognition and generation that tries to tie them up for as long as possible? Fire ELIZA up.
well, you can log the calls and record any audio that you can. Then turn it over to the local police and also submit a copy to the FBI or US Secret Service. After that, change your phone number and go on with life. ALso, file a written complaint with your phone carrier and copy that to the relevant authorities. Now, I haven't been a target myself, but I know several people that have. They took the above actions and started having some peace and quiet in their lives afterward.
Understanding is much like a 3-edged-sword. in this: there are always 2 sides and the truth.
Whistles are for wimps. Use an airhorn. Hopefully the guys on the other end will have to blacklist YOUR number to protect their employee's ability to continue working.
I was getting 3 or 4 sales calls per day. So I bought a small office phone system and connected my phone to extension 9. As soon as the call came in, my system would answer with the line "If you want to speak with me, please press 9. If this is a sales call, please put this number on your do not call list." So my phone would not actually ring unless they pressed 9. In 4 years, only 3 sales calls got through.
Call the operator. Then ask for the company's Fraud and Abuse division. Trust me on this, the phone companies do NOT find this amusing.
mark "why, yes, I did used to work for telecoms...."
I'll just leave this here; it may offer the OP some inspiration: tom mabe / telemarketer / crime scene.
Are you so sure its a scam? Are you sure you were the one being scammed? That sounds like an awful lot of persistence and effort for some confidence man to go thru.
I would think by now the nominal scam-er would have determined you are not being taken in by it and moved on to try their grift on some other mark.
If I were you I'd get a credit report and make sure someone had not stolen my identity and opened a bunch of other credit lines that these guys are now trying to collect on because some other fraudster used your name.
"Annoy someone until they give you what you want" is the oldest scam in the book.
(The scam is that, once they give you what you want, you don't stop; you *KEEP* annoying them, because you know they'll give you what you want.)
I'm seeing lots of people recommending the use of SI tones ["SIT tones" is tautological].
I'm in Canada, first, so that may have some strange influence. Second, I'm on our national do not call registry - noting that one of the first things our government did was sell the list to spammers and robocallers, increasing the volume of nuisance calls for 100% of the people who supposedly "opted out".
About 10 years ago, I set my answering machine up with its default outgoing message beginning with the "Intercept" (number changed or disconnected) SIT. Having collected call statistics since before then, I can say with a high degree degree of certainty that **NO automated callers have EVER respected the SI tones**. Ever. Not a single one.
YMMV, of course.
Try an Obihai device if setting up Asterisk seems like too much. The link below shows a good example of how it can be used to filter calls:
http://www.macfringe.com/mb/2012/obi110-part-1-block-annoying-phone-callers/
of course, this is only good for the "white list" option.
Why would I give out my ideas here? I'm sure there are bad guys lurking here too
I moved out of a small town about two years ago. Had all utilities switched over to their name - usually involving both of us going to the utility office together, because it really did not make sense to have a disconnect and a reconnect scheduled - most services told us they could disconnect immediately but not reconnect for a week or two - however, they were all willing to just let me pay out my bill, and transfer the service over to the new owner. In other words, they closed my account, opened my account, noted on my account the service was already disconnected and noted on the new account that no connection was needed. Worked great..... EXCEPT....
for the water department. A few months after I moved out, I was talking to the new owner and asking how things were going. Things were fine except that they had the water turned off for some strange reason. Called the water department up, and everything was current they couldn't figure out why they had disconnected their service, and sent someone out to turn it back on. This seemed to happen about once a month for about 3-4 months.
A year later, I start getting calls and nasty letters for unpaid services at that address for the exact same time period, a bill that was now several hundred dollars because there was "tampering" charges now on the bill for the unauthorized reconnection of services. Luckily, the people who called were very polite, and said they were notifying the city that I was contesting the charge. Unfortunately, this did not take me out of their robo-call database or their robo-mail database. Sent a letter in writing to both them and the city demanding proof that I was the person the person who occupied the address at the time, and sent a cease and dissest all communications unless they had proof of said occupancy. They continued to call and send out letters, so I filed an FTC complaint. Calls and letters stopped within a few days.
Hope somebody mods this up so this gets seen a little - I tried the fax machine trick, and it has worked so far! The first day the scammers "only" called 17 times, then 3, and now it's been a few days of nothing. It's still plugged in for now, but I'm thinking of going back to using my landline again!
Interesting sidenote - they respect the sabbath. No calls on Sundays.
And to answer a couple questions -- the call center was in India, the spoofed numbers on my caller ID were usually within my own area code, the debt was not in any way real, my identity still hasn't been stolen (thanks to the poster who suggested that possibility!), and finally, all the pronouns used to discuss my dilemma were wrong because I'm female.
A massive thank you to everyone for your help!!!
Send a lawyer's notice to Chairman of the Bank.
Casteism
I had a friend with an answering type machine that would leave a short outgoing message, and allow friends/known callers to dial a 2 digit code to be able to 'ring through'. Give the code to your friends/family with instructions not to pass it on, and you are good to go, at least for a while.
What's wrong with blowing the whistle into the phone?
You could try turning off the phone ringer and connecting it to an answering machine (and telling your friends to always leave a message). The other thing that might work is telling the scammers that the person they are trying to reach is dead and that the phone number is about to be disconnected. Oddly, I've had this work on ordinary telemarketers before.
Depending on your phone company, you can use *57 after the call to report and trace. Once enough calls build up, the phone company will take care of it. I had something similar in the past. Check with your phone provider.
"Call Trace
Call Trace automatically initiates a trace of the last call you received. You can use this feature to trace unlawful or threatening calls that alarm, frighten, or harass you. The trace results include the calling and called number and the date and the time of the call. The results are sent to the Verizon Unlawful Call Center and are stored for future action.
Your phone is already equipped for Call Trace; there is no charge for the connection. Charges and fees for using Call Trace may vary."
Simple. Have no debt.