Ask Slashdot: How Would You Stop a Debt Collection Scam From Targeting You?

Fax machine by Anonymous Coward · 2013-11-24 06:14 · Score: 5, Insightful

Plug in a fax machine.
If they're using anything decent it will detect the fax signal and remove you from the calling.

Re:Fax machine by Deathlizard · 2013-11-24 06:27 · Score: 5, Informative

Setting your answering machine to 6 rings seems to work for us. they usually stop after the 4th ring and flag the number as dead since they assume everybody has an answering machine.
Another option is to use a thrid party call screener like nomorobo or Google Voice, but I've never tried those so YMMV.

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Re:Fax machine by girlintraining · 2013-11-24 06:52 · Score: 4, Informative

Plug in a fax machine. If they're using anything decent it will detect the fax signal and remove you from the calling.
A good idea in theory, but not in practice. They don't remove your number when detecting a fax machine at first. It takes multiple attempts; as you said, if they're using anything decent... then they know you're a residential line, and if they have no other phone number, it'll typically assume it's a dual-purpose line and keep you on the list.
These robo-dialers are listening for particular frequencies that are in the human vocal range -- that's why when you pick up and say hello there's a slight pause. That's because it is routing it to a person... they know that, say, only 1 in 50 will pickup, so they make 50 calls whenever someone becomes available.. and route the 1 that answers to the available rep.
Hanging a fax machine off the line will keep it from going to a person, but it won't get you dropped from the list; not if it's a residential line. now if it's your work phone... it'll probably do the job quite nicely.

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Re:Fax machine by kilodelta · 2013-11-24 07:02 · Score: 4, Informative

Or if you want, on fourth ring play SIT tones. Some of the robo-dialers recognize that as number out of service too.
Re:Fax machine by tchuladdiass · 2013-11-24 09:12 · Score: 3

That's why whenever I don't recognize the phone number, I'll pick up but don't say anything. If it is a human on the line, they will eventually say hello.
Re:Fax machine by mrbester · 2013-11-24 09:15 · Score: 3, Informative

Wait a minute. You're saying that they can call you when *you* don't want them to, and then sue you for *their* wasted time because you didn't want to talk to them? Nice fucked up country you've got there. Here that constitutes misuse of the telephone system and gets them a £5000 fine *for every infraction* at the very least.

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Re:Fax machine by Anonymous Coward · 2013-11-24 09:36 · Score: 4, Informative

And legal will just take out a court order for the money against you ex parte in many states.
Bullshit. There is no jurisdiction in the land where a civil ex parte will be granted without the other party being able to respond. You will always have to prove you have made good faith efforts to serve the defendant (and no, phone calls aren't proof) before you will be granted ex parte.

I work for a nationwide legal firm specializing in debt collection (not as a lawyer) and I am extremely familiar with the process.
Re:Fax machine by Mateorabi · 2013-11-24 10:46 · Score: 4, Interesting

You can purchase a commercial device that spoofs some sort of disconnected/out-of-service tone just as you pick up the receiver. To normal humans it sounds like a quick beep, but to the auto-dialer software it makes it think the number is no longer valid and removes you from the list without handing it off to a human rep. They tell you to expect some calls with no one on the other end for a bit, while you are in the process of being auto-removed from various lists.

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Re:Fax machine by jamstar7 · 2013-11-24 18:42 · Score: 3, Interesting

Or just put the receiver on the desk, and waste a bit of *their* time.
That only succeeds in informing them that your number goes to a live person, and further that said person isn't taking their calls; That's a good way to get out of the collections department and into legal. And legal will just take out a court order for the money against you ex parte in many states. You'll find your bank account zeroed and good luck fighting back then, since you won't be able to pay the court fees to file a counter-suit, or retain a lawyer.
Poor people are at a distinct disadvantage in our justice system. Whether the court action is legitimate or not, without money you can't prevail. And odds are, the money you'll spend will never be recovered.
That's for a LEGIT debt collection agency. The scammers won't bother calling their lawyers. For the legit agencies, they have to document the debt, show that it is a real live debt, give you 30 days to dispute it in writing by sending you a real live dunning notice that has the 'mini-Miranda' clause: 'This is an attempt to collect a debt. Any information gathered will be used for that purpose'. In the US, these activities are governed by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Violate the 'rules' of the FDCPA, you lose your license.

Caveat: I used to be a debt collector. And yeah, you can collect on what they call 'bad debt', or debt that's so old it cannot be sued on because it's past the statute of limitations for that debt. A lot of 'bad debt' is sold for maybe 5 cents on the dollar to what we used to call 'chop shops' that called it 2 or 3 times to get a quick fast settlement over the phone for whatever they can get for it. The 'chop shop' collectors would bully the hell out of the debtor in an attempt to get what they can. The biggest thing to remember about old debt is, they can't sue you for it because of the statute of limitations. And yeah, it is a violation of the FDCPA to threaten to sue someone when you have absolutely no intentions of suing them. You can tell the debtor 'You may be sued, and if so, and we receive a judgement against you, you will also be responsible for court costs and interest on the debt, liens may be placed against your property in that event' and so on.

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Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
Re:Fax machine by EdIII · 2013-11-24 21:02 · Score: 5, Interesting

Fax tones are not something that will stop them. That strongly implies the number is live and capable of picking up the phone. Since this is a residential target it will be assumed that it's not dedicated. Only some very old people I know still have dedicated landlines for fax machines these days.
The only thing that I know works are SIT tones. That *is* interpreted by almost all systems as an indication the number cannot be routed to, or is out of service. Most of them receive that information via out-of-band signalling anyways so the fax machine negotiation noise isn't even looked at it either (that's in-band signalling). A debt collection service would be murdered on cost unless they were VOIP, so while it's possible that fax is supported, it's also highly likely it's not implemented in code. Either way, that's a shit disposition flag to be resting the fate of your sanity on.
Unfortunately, since the poster does not want to get rid of the landline, they need a blacklist device cheap. That's still going to require at least a dedicated machine and a pair of FXS/FXO ports. I know you can get some of that stuff as cards or USB devices.
Assuming you have all that it's rather trivial to set up Asterisk to drop the call before even answering it based on CLID matches. It's also fairly easy to set up a minimalist IVR that plays a message and asks the person to wait before it's connected. You could even go so far as to ask a CAPTCHA like question. Ask them to press a random number to be connected.
The most difficult part about this solution is needing to keep the land line.
I know many people that have debt collectors all over them. Very few walked away unharmed from Wall Street's greed finally blowing up. Anyways, I created a few systems with Asterisk, some old VOIP adapters, and a CLID based blacklist system for friends. Works quite well and after a few years now people hardly get any calls at all.
It costs $10-$30 to port a number to VOIP. I would highly suggest that and a nice VOIP phone for the house. Makes everything cheaper and more flexible for solutions in the future.

landline? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-11-24 06:15 · Score: 5, Funny

what's a landline?

Re:landline? by tepples · 2013-11-24 06:33 · Score: 4, Informative

For purposes of this story, a landline is a phone shared by all residents of a single-family dwelling. In the United States, landlines offered unlimited minutes to local and toll-free numbers long before cell phones did.
Re:landline? by PopeRatzo · 2013-11-24 08:16 · Score: 3, Interesting

I've never once gotten a nuisance call on my cell phone. I wonder why I have been so blessed? They always come in on the landline, which is why we have an old-fashioned answering machine and basically just set up all the numbers of people we know with a specific ring and any other number has a silent ring.
So, using this old digital answering machine, and its ability to set up personal ringtones, we're able to create a white list. If someone needs to call me who is not on our phone list, they can send an email or call the celly.

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You are welcome on my lawn.

Why not.. by carbuck · 2013-11-24 06:16 · Score: 5, Informative

...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.

You want a whitelisting device. by Anonymous Coward · 2013-11-24 06:16 · Score: 3, Insightful

What you want is a whitelisting device, not a blacklisting device so that it rejects any number not part of your known contacts.

Re:You want a whitelisting device. by nurb432 · 2013-11-24 07:14 · Score: 3, Insightful

I call that an answering machine. :) If you don't talk to it, and i don't know who you are, i wont even bother getting off the couch.

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---- Booth was a patriot ----
Re:You want a whitelisting device. by Endo13 · 2013-11-24 07:40 · Score: 5, Interesting

This is why Google Voice is awesome. You can whitelist or blacklist easily, without knowing anything advanced about phone systems. Thus it's almost impossible to be trolled or scammed this way at your actual Google number, and since that's the number you would give out, your number you actually forward to can be changed whenever necessary.

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Screening your calls by TubeSteak · 2013-11-24 06:17 · Score: 5, Interesting

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.

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o0t!

Re:Screening your calls by Grampa+John · 2013-11-24 10:24 · Score: 5, Informative

We had a similar problem a few years ago. Although it was not a debt-collection scam, some sort of bot was calling many times/day and all through the night. Really annoying. So we talked to our provider (the local cable company) and they set up an interception service that forces callers to affirm that the call is legitimate by hitting a couple of numbers before the call comes through to us. We have not had a robocall since then. We can whitelist numbers so they don't get challenged, but have not done much of that. We pay perhaps a dollar/month for the service.

find an old modem by gl4ss · 2013-11-24 06:18 · Score: 3, Interesting

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..

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world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.

Re:find an old modem by ewieling · 2013-11-24 06:28 · Score: 4, Informative

Landlines do not normally pay to receive calls in the USA. Only cell phones and toll free numbers pay to receive calls.

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Is it really scam? by DarkOx · 2013-11-24 06:20 · Score: 5, Insightful

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.

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Re:Is it really scam? by PaperGeek · 2013-11-24 07:38 · Score: 3, Informative

It sounds very much like a scam my wife experienced. I can't figure out what they mean to get out of it but it is not legitimate. We had these calls for weeks, at all hours of the day and night, asking for someone who's never had this number (not in the last few years). On several occasions I asked who are you trying to collect this debt for? And the answer was, The Lending Club. I contacted the Lending Club and was promptly answered by a guy in their fraud department, who was very helpful, and told me they do not employ any debt collection services operating out of India using spoofed caller ID. He said this is fairly common and gave me contact numbers for the FCC and FBI. Unfortunately there's not much that can be done. She ended up changing her Vonage number. I strongly suspect that had I ever asked the question "what do I have to do to make these calls stop?" the answer would be something like "just give us your credit card information and we'll put a one-time charge for (fill in some two-figure number)" It's robodialling with operators who get put on the line when someone appears to answer and they are probably getting paid next to nothing. I can't come up with any other conclusion given the facts in my case. It's possible this is the same..
Re:Is it really scam? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-11-24 07:43 · Score: 3, Informative
Sadly, the only way to stop this likely involves pretending you have no bank account, but that you can send a cashier's check, asking for the address where you should send it, and then sending:
- a bag of feces
- a live rat
- a dead rat
- a rotting fish
- a swarm of killer bees
- a box filled with (hungry) venomous snakes
- a SWAT team
- a nuclear missile
beginning with the first one, then escalating the response with each subsequent call. I'm not quite sure how to pull off the last two, but chances are a scammer will stop after about the second or third, and almost certainly after the sixth, so the last two are probably moot anyway.
[Editor's note: Sending almost any of these things through the postal service is illegal. This post does not constitute an endorsement of mailing excrement, animals (living or dead), trojan horses filled with mercenaries, or nuclear armaments through the mail.]
Re:Is it really scam? by taustin · 2013-11-24 08:43 · Score: 3, Informative

If they're calling every 10-15 minutes, it's a scam by definition. It's illegal for debt collectors to all that often.

Leave the call open by smist08 · 2013-11-24 06:22 · Score: 5, Insightful

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.

Re:Leave the call open by Anonymous Coward · 2013-11-24 06:30 · Score: 5, Funny

THIS.
I have done this a bunch of times to great amusement. Leave it open for 3-4 minutes, then pick up and say "I geez, I forgot, sorry, let me get that statment (or whatever)..." Then put the phone down again. Call out to an imaginary spouse, and respond to their unheard questions a few times. Maybe make the doorbell ring...again, leave the call open a good ten minutes. Similar variations involve giving them the wrong card number or whatever, repeatedly. A great couple of hours fun can be had, all arranged around your own schedule, of course. Like the previous poster said, this costs them money.
Re:Leave the call open by earthforce_1 · 2013-11-24 07:25 · Score: 4, Informative

Works just as well if you hand the phone to a toddler. They love to chat.

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Re:Leave the call open by houghi · 2013-11-24 07:36 · Score: 4, Funny

http://egbg.home.xs4all.nl/counterscript.html might be another way of going about it.

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Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.

Spoof the line as disconnected.. by bev_tech_rob · 2013-11-24 06:23 · Score: 3, Interesting

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...

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You're messin' with my Zen Thing, man.....

Re:Spoof the line as disconnected.. by BradMajors · 2013-11-24 06:40 · Score: 4, Informative

You don't need a device, just play the disconnect tone. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/IC_SIT.ogg
Re:Spoof the line as disconnected.. by JLennox · 2013-11-24 06:43 · Score: 3, Informative

Pardon, you actually want the intercept, not no circuit, tone :)
Re:Spoof the line as disconnected.. by Telecommando · 2013-11-24 06:59 · Score: 5, Interesting

I did this a few years ago when I had a similar problem with a collection agency that was looking for a former renter. I changed my answering machine message to the intercept tone sequence, followed by a scratchy message that sounded similar to the telco's automated message:
"We're sorry, your call cannot be answered at this time. Please check the number or contact the operator... (3 second delay) Or if you're a friend just leave a message at the beep." *BEEP*
My friends thought it was hilarious and the collectors usually hung up long before the part about leaving a message kicked in. It took a couple of months, but the calls finally stopped.
Now a friend of mine who was being harassed took a different track. He would answer the phone and listen politely to find out who they were looking for. Then he would start yelling at the collector, claiming he was owed a large sum of money from the same person. He would accuse them of being a friend of the debtor, demand they reveal where he was and threaten to sue them to get his money back. The calls stopped soon afterwards.
Your mileage may vary, etc. etc.

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Tie them up by Jeng · 2013-11-24 06:25 · Score: 4, Interesting

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.

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Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.

Re:Pay the debt by KitFox · 2013-11-24 06:31 · Score: 4, Interesting

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.

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@Whee

Re:Need more information by spiritplumber · 2013-11-24 06:33 · Score: 4, Funny

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.

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Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.

Annoy, annoy, annoy by GameboyRMH · 2013-11-24 06:36 · Score: 4, Funny

Try the whistle every time they answer. If that fails, try Asterisk + Lenny:

http://www.itslenny.com/

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"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel

Asterisk, SIP Gateway, Whitelist by Greyfox · 2013-11-24 06:37 · Score: 4, Informative

I run an android call blocker with a whitelist to screen out telemarketers (who are apparently quite happy to ignore the do-not-call registry,) job recruiters and the occasional ransom demand from those guys in Mexico. Since you're on a landline, it's a bit harder. You could plug your phone into a SIP gateway and set up asterisk on some machine that you have on all the time. Then you could set the system up to only ring your SIP phone for numbers on the whitelist.

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.

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I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

Re:Asterisk, SIP Gateway, Whitelist by gregor-e · 2013-11-24 07:08 · Score: 3, Funny

No, I don't think you've jinxed it yet. What's your number?
Re:Asterisk, SIP Gateway, Whitelist by Anonymous Coward · 2013-11-24 07:40 · Score: 3, Interesting

You can also get a landline phone that has a whitelist function. (On my Panasonic phone it's called "night mode", because at night one only wants to be disturbed from important family and friends; you can set the "night" hours as you wish.)

Re:Need more information by noh8rz10 · 2013-11-24 06:41 · Score: 3, Funny

Yes, the solution to this is witty ripostes! Shame them! Make them feel bad!

Make them spend money by Planesdragon · 2013-11-24 06:42 · Score: 5, Insightful

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?")

Re:Pay the debt by superwiz · 2013-11-24 06:45 · Score: 5, Insightful

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.

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Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.

fwd ur number by schlachter · 2013-11-24 06:45 · Score: 5, Interesting

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.

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My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.

Re:fwd ur number by Kvasio · 2013-11-24 07:19 · Score: 5, Interesting

no, temporarily forward your number to the FTC. That should make them do something about US operators allowing spoofed CLID.
On my domestic (non-US) market, I remember only one incident of spooffed CLID. I asked my operator to check from which operator the call originated. I sent them polite email asking to consider preventing such incidents, otherwise the telco regulator will be informed. Did not occure again (so far).
Re:fwd ur number by Harik · 2013-11-24 08:01 · Score: 5, Informative

As hilarious as the forwarding suggestions are, if you forward to the FTC it will show up as your number originating, and if you forward to a 900 service you will get the bill.
Re:fwd ur number by rtb61 · 2013-11-24 14:25 · Score: 4, Informative

What is missing here is a lot of information, who is making the claim, where are they from, what are they claiming it is for. When I have had the odd nuisance call, I have gone the route of attempting to get as much information as possible, when a view of enabling prosecution. Names (person making the call, who they work for, managers name), contact numbers, addresses, everything I can get, oddly enough they always hang up before I can get enough info and I don't hear from them again ;). Dishonest people are always nervous about all sorts of honey pots.

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Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Re:fwd ur number by AmiMoJo · 2013-11-25 01:27 · Score: 3, Interesting

This is why I use a premium rate service as my default contact number for any company I deal with now. It forwards to my real mobile number but costs them 50p/minute to call. The number starts 070 so most people think it is a normal 077 or 078 mobile number anyway, and I've yet to find an online form that wouldn't accept it.
My time is valuable, if you want to call me with some bullshit it's gonna cost you. Otherwise just write a letter, send an email or just wait for me to contact you when I need something.

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I had this happen a while back by Cito · 2013-11-24 06:57 · Score: 5, Informative

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.

This is when a bipolar family member is handy by sandbagger · 2013-11-24 07:08 · Score: 5, Funny

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.

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---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.

Re:Need more information by Anonymous Coward · 2013-11-24 07:17 · Score: 3, Funny

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.

Use Google Voice by Jah-Wren+Ryel · 2013-11-24 07:17 · Score: 3, Informative

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

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When information is power, privacy is freedom.

Re:Next few times they call by Anonymous Coward · 2013-11-24 07:26 · Score: 3, Insightful

#1 is wrong. Don't ever make a verbal contract that you agree you are in debt to the person.

Re:Solution by Billly+Gates · 2013-11-24 07:31 · Score: 3, Interesting

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.

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http://saveie6.com/

Re:Need more information by flyneye · 2013-11-24 07:52 · Score: 5, Interesting

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.

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*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!

Change your number by Charliemopps · 2013-11-24 08:11 · Score: 5, Informative

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.

Re:Asterisk by Nkwe · 2013-11-24 08:38 · Score: 3, Informative

Asterisk is a good solution if you can and don't mind hosting it (or having it hosted somewhere). I set up a simple IVR system within Asterisk that answers the phone and plays a simple message: "I don't take calls from robots, press 'H' for human to prove you are not a robot." If you press 4, then my phones actually ring and then go to voice mail if I don't answer. If you don't press 4, the call gets dropped and I am not bothered. This has eliminated the problem with robocalls for me. I still get an occasional manually dialed polling or sales call. However if someone, even a salesperson, bothers to actually make an effort and dial the phone, I don't mind talking to them, even if only to say that I am not interested. I did white list the local reverse 911 number because that sort of robocall I might want to hear. (For the non-US readers, reverse 911 is a system that allows governmental emergency services to call everyone in a city or neighborhood to play an automated emergency message.)

Re:Need more information by Yahooti · 2013-11-24 08:38 · Score: 5, Interesting

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.

I was targeted by Sprint once... by toonces33 · 2013-11-24 09:34 · Score: 3, Interesting

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.

Re:Need more information by Anonymous Coward · 2013-11-24 09:38 · Score: 4, Insightful

Spoken like someone who's never used (or rather tried to use) one.

Re:Which wouldn't work by Cordus+Mortain · 2013-11-24 09:45 · Score: 3, Interesting

My VOIP service makes it trivially easy to blacklist numbers on it's web interface. They also make it trivially easy to change number. So if I were in his shoes, I'd add a second number and give that to friends, family etc. First number is sent straight to voicemail so I can screen the calls, with a whitelist to transfer the call to the new number where I can remind people to change their phone books After a month or so delete the number the scammers are using.

Re:Need more information by Frobnicator · 2013-11-24 10:46 · Score: 5, Informative

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.

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Re:Need more information by Alioth · 2013-11-24 12:39 · Score: 4, Insightful

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.

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Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows

Re:Need more information by demonlapin · 2013-11-24 13:22 · Score: 4, Interesting

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.

Re:Need more information by Krojack · 2013-11-24 17:06 · Score: 3, Insightful

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.

Re:Need more information by billstewart · 2013-11-24 17:57 · Score: 3, Interesting

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.

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Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks

Re:Need more information by duke_cheetah2003 · 2013-11-24 18:42 · Score: 4, Insightful

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.

Almost All by JimSadler · 2013-11-24 23:10 · Score: 5, Interesting

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.

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