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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?"
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?
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.
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.
What does Caller ID tell you? You mention that the caller routes through various numbers, but do those numbers have something in common? Find that common denominator, and block it. I make almost zero international calls, so if I were getting calls from southeast Asia, I think that I would just block any calls from southeast Asia. Or, are they routing through South America on one call, then through eastern Europe on the next? Is Caller ID capable of distinguishing the country and/or region of origin?
"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
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.
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.....
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.
These people often use Magic Jack or other VOIP based calling options so they do not appear to be international.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
Though the OP didn't state such, there is a rise of debt collection scams, eg, there is no real debt. It's just a matter of harass somebody using debt collection tactics until they give you money. It's criminal action, by the way, but doesn't garner much attention from the law enforcement because it's so difficult and costly to track. The fake collections agencies are basically using legitimate collections "tools" illegally.
Paying the fictitious debt is actually the worst thing one can do, since it simply causes you to be marked as a hitable target and thus escalates the situation.
@Whee
I listen politely, then try to sell them my products ( www.f3.to if you want to take a look). I actually sold an Antbot this way once. It does work.
Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
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.
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?
Yea but you are going to have to pay an intern at least minimum wage. Depending on what country they are calling from, it might be cheaper and more effective to hire a local hit-man.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
I understood perfectly. It was all a clever ruse, and I have ensared my first victim!
Yes, the solution to this is witty ripostes! Shame them! Make them feel bad!
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."
You don't need a 2nd landline. A voip DID for $1 per month will work. If you only give your number to friends and family you will never receive telemarketer calls.
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!
The main reason for this is how unrestricted the legitimate debt collectors are. When there is an unchallenged predator in any environment, there will always be those trying to masquerade as one. The only way to stop this is to make it illegal to have debt collectors outside of the jurisdiction of the callee. But that's not going to happen. Local police can always verify that a certain so-and-so is a private detective. Why shouldn't they be able to verify that a certain so-and-so is a legitimate debt collector? As it stands, even the mob can get into this business. As long as the callers are outside of the jurisdiction, there is no way to challenge them in case of abuse. This is why many people feel vulnerable enough to submit to such scams.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
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.
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.
Caller ID is a garbage in/out system it take whatever arbitrary info the caller sends and spits it back out. This is for anything more modern than old school PSTN analog interface.
No sir I dont like it.
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.
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.
It's also ignored by the law enforcement because before you are taken, there's no loss, so they tell you to ignore it (no matter how hard that is) and if you have lost money, it's already outside the US and mostly untraceable, so they don't try. More working with people being targeted would lead to bringing them down, but that's real work, so it never happens.
Learn to love Alaska
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.
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.
Agreed, I'm so utterly obsene and racist when I get an email from a Nigerian scammer, I doubt I hear from the same one again. I'm pretty descriptive and imaginative in my replies, couple it with some American history and close with my wishes for their family. I relegate all that sort of crap to my "spam catcher" accounts anyway.
I began years ago, when I was home from work, shed my clothes and was nursing a beer in front of the tube. The doorbell rang, if they came to see me, they were close enough to not mind my underwear. Wul, LOLZ , it was the Jehovah Witnesses, "well, come on in brothers, what can I do for you today? Beer?" "Sure, let's pray for my household., my cat's been lethargic.". Never came back again... Not exactly scammers, but, the seed was planted, I can de-troll my life by being the biggest, most unpleasant jackass , that no one could imagine being told those unimaginable things by. Being a big lager lout and part time hoodlum didn't hurt either. There was a time I could cut through Christmas crowds at the mall with just a scowl, a Manson T-shirt, and more spikes than a leather convention. I could make debt. collectors cry and call their manager, Neighbors minded their own damn business. I was fucking invincible. Then all of a sudden, it was just too much effort to be a prick. I was pricked out. I gave up and accepted the nomination and became your Pope.
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.
#1 is wrong. Don't ever make a verbal contract that you agree you are in debt to the person.
I try to get them to hang up on me. I tell them i'm more than happy to speak to them.. once I have the address to send the invoice. I'll talk as long as they want but I charge £200 per hour.
I am a free slashdotter. I will not be modded, blogged, DRM'd, patented, podcasted or RFID'd. My life is my own.
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/
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
Right, except never acknowledge the debt is legitimate. Imply you're checking your records instead.
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.
Scammers? Get a 900 number and make EVERYONE pay to talk to you. I guarantee you'll spend LESS time on the phone. Why should you take a loss when people waste your time with their inane babble, needs, wants and desires? I suppose you could get a private cell for those close to you, but, the general public, business interests and anyone WANTING something needs to pay toll.
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
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.
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.
Do you ship those antbots in the US? They look pretty cool, and the price seems right.
I'll have to read a bit more on your site regarding the control via the audio jack. I'm not quite clear on how that works, but I've only given your pages a cursory look.
Good job.
You are welcome on my lawn.
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
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.
Some years ago I coded an answering machine based on a voice modem. With it, any number that was not on my list of “friends, relatives, or businesses”, went into the game. The game consisted of a series of questions by a robotic voice which required a key pad response. Anyone willing to play the game finally ended up with a reply of “Invalid response. Goodbye.”. I used mgetty, festival, and a few minor pearl scripts to interface with an old US Robotics voice modem. Worked like a jewel once the bugs were out. My new computer doesn't have a serial interface so that answering system is on a shelf for now. But, it was fun to sit back and see if anybody wanted to play.
hah... nice. reminds me of Port Knocking
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
"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?
It's "danegeld". Geld (also gild) means tax or fine; for instance, a weregild is a fine paid for having murdered someone ("were-" meaning "man"). The danegeld was a more efficient and universally better alternative to Viking raids -- the Vikings would extort money from a town in exchange for not attacking. This meant they assumed less risk, and the town had fewer casualties and kept more of their possessions.
This works out fine for towns that can't hope to fight off the Vikings. For towns that can reliably fight off the Vikings, they can refuse to pay, which leads to battle; eventually the Vikings will learn to concentrate on other towns because it's safer.
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.
Just get a USB to Serial adapter.
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.
Spoken like someone who's never used (or rather tried to use) one.
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 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.
A change of number does fix this, since the only reason they're calling you is that you have someone's old number that they think they can collect on. They won't trace you to a new number, because they don't know who you are in the first place -- if they did, they'd know it wasn't the guy they wanted.
It's annoying to have to change your number because of this sort of crap, though. Like admitting defeat.
I am not a crackpot.
Make an automatic answering machine that gives the impression of listening. If no one is talking on the other end It should randomly pick a very diffuse question like "i'm confused about this whole deal?" and "i'm still not sure what you want" and "are you really sure you have the right person" and so on.
After picking 10 random of these it says "bye" and hangs up.
Find a VOIP provider that has an IVR option and you could accomplish the same sort of thing. I use voip.ms.
I have the same number as a taxi company in an adjacent area code so I used to get a lot of calls for taxis when the bars close so I created a timed rule to forward to voicemail after midnight. I never thought of using the IVR for that but I may give it a try.
Some of what I say is fact, some is conjecture, the rest I'm just blowing out my ass...you guess.
I use one all the time. It's hard to get serial console access to a firewall, switch, or router without one when your laptop only has USB. So much for your smug know it not attitude though :)
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
No, usually the people on the other end are just poor souls with a lousy job. They are often not the ones running the scam.
Being rude to the call center individual doesn't help. They will still call you back. If you hang up on them they will just call the next person on the list.
The scammers' big investment is in the human time at the call center. Take all the human time you can to make the calls expensive. Ask them questions about the details of the fake bill. Describe how someone already called but they described it differently and ask them to tell you why it is different. Or tell them stories about your pet, your days in school, describe your favorite youtube videos, talk about politics, or (as was posted above) try to sell them your own products. Sometimes you can even try the line that you need to do something (check on the baby, go to the bathroom, call on the other line, etc) and put the phone down for five minutes as they wait on the line.
Keep them on the phone and tie up their resources. If they are busy talking to you (who know the scam) then they aren't calling the more vulnerable people. If you can keep a rep on the phone for a half hour or an hour, that might be twenty other people they don't call.
//TODO: Think of witty sig statement
Yes, we ship worldwide. We make everything either in the US or in Italy.
Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
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
The snag with doing this, this also wastes my time too. I don't want to be tied up on the phone talking to these jackasses.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
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.
There's a better solution: whitelisting. You could really go the extra mile if you like and set up an Asterisk-based PBX to intercept incoming calls and route them based on caller ID - if it's on the whitelist, it rings. If not, you get the number-disconnected beeps or a fax tone, followed after two or three seconds by a prompt to press a number to speak to the inhabitants. Robodialers will never get to you.
The above is the best, most easily implemented and workable solution of any of the responses that I have seen so far. I've done the above myself and it works extremely well. It generally takes only a few hours to port over and it all can be done online. I highly recommend that you implement this as the solution.
----- In Your Cubicle No One Can Hear You Scream...
The URL on your redirect page links to "http://wwww.robots-everywhere.com/", with four Ws.
regular man whom love computer (Also, fuck beta).
An opinion like that must be built from non-Linux experience.
Back to the OP, my experience with cards like these are usually fine in Linux:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815124081
From hell's heart I fstab at /dev/hdc
Spoken like someone who's never used (or rather tried to use) one.
what do you think arduino acts as? usb serial ports work a lot better and easier than pci serial ports ever did..
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
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.
I've tried several brands without success. The conversion is not straight forward and I can't seem to find the time to monkey with it anymore.
My guess is they are using hacked Asterisk servers. My servers get hit on a daily bases from all sorta of IPs, most from China er I mean East Asia.
A lousy job is selling legitimate products that entirely desirable (or possibly acceptable) by most call recipients.
A lousy job doesn't require fraud. I don't get the debt-collection calls, but I regularly do get those "you have one a million airmiles" bullshit scams. That's a scam, and fraud.
In one, you may go home feeling crappy and abused, but you keep your soul (for those that believe in such) and you're not going to jail if caught.
Yes it works great on Linux but I use it even with my Windows 7 laptop. Hell it even works with my Asus Transformer Prime.
I used to offer to help them get the FTC's $50,000 reward for stopping telemarketing abuse by turning in their boss. None of them took me up on it :-)
But that program's over, so I usually just ask them how their family feels about them scamming people for a living. Most of them just hang up, some of them get mad.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Depends on if they trace on name or number. A less than common name and a phonebook can lead to some strange results.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
No, usually the people on the other end are just poor souls with a lousy job. They are often not the ones running the scam.
Actually, they are running the scam, it's pretty much irrelevant if you think they're just a cog in the machine, they are a cog with a choice. They don't have to choose to try to scam people. So I say belittle and shame them to your hearts content. They're just as responsible for perpetuating this junk as anyone else.
On the original topic.. I'd just change my phone number personally.
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 ;)
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.
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)
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
A colleague of mine did this the other day to an Indian "Windows support" call.
Q Is your mother very proud of what you do?
A Oh yes, very proud
Q And your father?
A Yes, him too
Q And your brothers and sisters, do they know what job you do?
A Yes, my whole family is very proud of my job
Q I knew it, you're *all* a fucking bunch of lying scumbags.
I've never had one of the calls, which is a shame, I could have a hell of a lot of fun.
Probably cheaper and easier to get an old desktop PC off freecycle.
Try these for some pointers.
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 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
The URL on your redirect page links to "http://wwww.robots-everywhere.com/", with four Ws.
And our company proxy identifies it as a malicious site.
The snag with doing this, this also wastes my time too. I don't want to be tied up on the phone talking to these jackasses.
Then test out your prototype voice-activated AI program.
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!
I've done that with cardmember services. after about 10 minutes I explained I didn't even have any debt, and I was just wasting their time, and any time they wanted to call me back I would be happy to waste more of their time. The man with the Indian accent said a few choice words, which I laughed at, and then hung up. That was the last time they ever called me, and that was at least 6 months ago, if not more.
I have used one for past 6 years, 98% of the time it works great but that 2% it doesn't is a pain in the ass.
But little kids love telling people about their day or some big exciting thing that happened recently.
Time to offend someone
Or better yet get a real serial card that will work properly. USB to Serial adapters work fine for mice or Garmin handheld GPS units (data transfer only) but suck for other things.
Time to offend someone
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!
Obviously a nuisance call. Try getting the Fuzz involved and if they say that they can't do anything because its coming from outside their jurisdiction point out that it's being aided and abetted by a company (Your phone company) in their jurisdiction. HTH I know a few people who've had success with the above approach.
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
Really. I have a PCI serial port installed in my computer and WinXP and Win7 have never had issues with it, neither has Linux. I use it mostly for accessing my old handheld Garmin GPS, in an emergency with an old serial mouse, and a higher end timing GPS module continuously connected providing accurate time (+-7ns), raw pseudo range data, and subframe data at 2Hz. Granted I haven't used a modem in 13 years but I did find my old 56.6k U.S. Robotics modem so I could connect it if I wanted.
Time to offend someone
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.
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.)
I've make a habit of trolling the "There is something wrong with your computer" scams (I get a call ever 3-6 months and string them along for fun/public service)
I'd say about 50% actually know there running a scam, these will put the phone down the moment I start stringing them along (Me:Just a mo while I turn on my computer. Them: [click]). The other %50 act bewildered and answer back when I do the reveal and tell them I know its a scam, if they were in on it they would just ring off and get to the next call.
Its quite interesting to watch how their script develops. Originally they would talk me through opening event viewer so they can show me all the thousands of your computer is going to die warnings.... now they go straight for the logmein and the like. I used to have great fun pertending to boot a Windows 3.1 box and fire up Mosaic (with lots of crashes stringing it out). I'm going to have to perpare a virual machine so the can log in... I'm not sure what theme to go with ... eyewatering medical images for wallpaper, something that looks like a police or gangster computer or perhaps a straight linux box with a windows8 skin on it
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...
I thought "geld" meant removing the testicles (usually by means of a tight fitting rubber band)
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Im not getting how making illegal something that is already illegal will stop it from happening. Existing enforcement mechanisms already dont work, and its already basically impossible to track these scammers down. Are you hoping that if we get enough laws, theyll become so intimidated theyll stop?
I'm not sure what theme to go with ... eyewatering medical images for wallpaper, something that looks like a police or gangster computer
Video of a hairy naked fat guy sitting in front of a computer and poking at the computer, faked up to look like a webcam window?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Similar idea, get your number converted to a very expensive toll number and keep them on the phone for as long as possible. For as long as they don't work out what they are paying for, you make lots of money at their expense. Get yourself a secret mobile number that you give only to your friends.
Existing enforcement mechanisms already dont work,
They don't work because they are out of jurisdiction. Someone hires debt collectors. That someone knows your address. If they were penalized for hiring a debt collector outside of your jurisdiction, they (most likely a creditor with a reputation to maintain) would not hire debt collectors outside of your jurisdiction because it would expose them to greater penalties than any money they can possibly recoup. And if your debt collector was in your jurisdiction, they would not be abusive because they would be very easily checked through local courts.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
I am hoping that they would actually be subject to the laws. If a debt collector from texas calls someone in rhode island (i am using both of these as examples), the callee has no recourse other than federal courts. And good luck reaching the fbi to verify that some phone number in texas is a debt collector. If debt collectors had to be local, you'd see that the number is from texas and simply tell them that they have no legal way to collect your debt -- they are outside of your jurisdiction.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Send a lawyer's notice to Chairman of the Bank.
Casteism
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.