Evil Phone Scams!!! It is really pissing me off!

[Dagorion]

I have never gotten a phone scam call (as far as I can remember) but I have gotten survey calls and advertising calls. I remember I got one from a hotel guy who said same jargon about taking a holiday and if I was interested in going their hotel. I said no and he said why and I said, "Because I’m 15..." and he took it well and said in a genuinely friendly way "Ah. Then you are no use to me..." and I said goodbye and he said goodbye and that was the nicest telemarketing call I ever got.

[Sir Goulum]

Originally posted by Dagorion: I have never gotten a phone scam call (as far as I can remember) but I have gotten survey calls and advertising calls. I remember I got one from a hotel guy who said same jargon about taking a holiday and if I was interested in going their hotel. I said no and he said why and I said, "Because I’m 15..." and he took it well and said in a genuinely friendly way "Ah. Then you are no use to me..." and I said goodbye and he said goodbye and that was the nicest telemarketing call I ever got.

Thats a first!

[RevRuby]

legally if you ask to have your name taken off their list they have to give you a time frame during which you may still recieve calls but afterwards you shouldn't. some states have a statewide do not call list, pennsylvania just put theirs into effect. if they get pushy ask for a supervisor. with credit cards anyone under 18 cannot be sold and it's effective to tell them so and so is under 18. some states are no rebuttal states, at least as far as credit cards go. in other words if you say "not interested" they have to give you a closing statement. some company's believe only the contact person can say "take our name off your list" but it's not true, at least not according to some law, i forget which, i just know at my old company we were told the neighbor kid can say take our name off and we had to comply. you should not recieve anything because karen kept saying she wasn't interested on the recording. the marketer was probably using a cassette tape and rewound it eachtime to record over, luckily most telemarketing compnaies have digital recording through their computers, so if it starts and they stop it they can't rewind to record over it. also it is illegal to record you without permission, they must get permission to record on the recording! it is also the only way they can have sale without permission to record, they must record you saying no to recording. i have found it effective with phone company marketers (they call for nathan all the time because we don;t have long distance) that if they call while he is here and object to me saying no because i am not him, i hold the phone ot his mouth and tell him to say no, he knows what;s going on. also, dont think that if your spouse is being called that you can't pretend to be him/her. it works because there are some strange names out there. also if you get in the habit of answering your phone in a foreign language....then it works to say "no speaka ingles" saying hello in a southern drawl then saying "no hablo english" however does not work.

most of all tho contact your local phone company for information on how to get your name off a lot of lists, adn maybe which part of your local gov't to contact about the laws for telemarketing in your state. *69 won;t work because those number are blocked.

Originally posted by Larry_OHF: Alright, my wife received a phone call while I was here typing away on the PC...and then she come to tell me what it was all about. It was a phone scam,,,and she thinks the name of the company was Venus Connections...but she is not sure. Anyway, she said that the woman promised to take her name off of the calling list if she would only verify information, if she was not interested in the prodict. My wife heard about the product, told the woman no, and said to take her name off the list now. The scammer proceeded to say that all my wife needed to do was to verify the street address. Karen told her to read what was on her screen, and she'd verify if that was correct or not. The scammer did so, and then said that she needed to record Karen saying the street address. Karen started to do it, then in the middle of the recording, threw in at the last moment, "But I am not paying for anything, nor wanting to be billed for anyhting." The woman thanked my wife for her participation on the call, and said that she needed to record her once more from the beginning that she had been told about the product, and that she was aware of her benefits therein. Karen started the recoding by saying..."I have heard the sales rep mention this product that I am not interest in, nor do I want to be billed for it"....and the scammer hung up the phone to not allow Karen to continue talking! If I get some sort of shit in my mail...who do I contact to close the freaks down?

Why did your wife talk to this person at all? Never NEVER give out information, never verify information do NOT talk to those people. I finaly had to pay the phone company extra to block all calls that dont have caller ID available. I have not had another call from a telemarketer in the last 3 months. I used to average 3 to 4 a night

[Scholarcs]

If they are recording without your permission, it is illegal. I think the only people who are allowed to do that is the government or police.

[DragonMage]

Originally posted by MagiK: Why did your wife talk to this person at all? Never NEVER give out information, never verify information do NOT talk to those people. I finaly had to pay the phone company extra to block all calls that dont have caller ID available. I have not had another call from a telemarketer in the last 3 months. I used to average 3 to 4 a night

This was why I had to put Privacy Detector on my phone. I would get calls all day while I was at work (could tell from the caller ID), then I'd get several calls at night. Some even as late as 1am!!!!! I never got mad at people who were telemarketing for a legit company and have a legit job even though I *did* still say I'm not interested. But I was truly evil to those who were too persistent and trying to scam me. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[ 11-10-2002, 06:34 AM: Message edited by: DragonMage ]

[Leonis]

Thankfully, it's still reasonably civil in Australia.
I'm always on alert if they ask - "May I speak to Mr or Mrs (Surname)"
It's either the bank or a telemarketer.

I usually say straight away I'm not interested, they say "ok, thanks for your time" and that's it. Pretty painless. I used to work for a phone company helpdesk and don't like to be slack to people just doing their job for minimum wage. At least they're working for their money right?

I do like the idea though of saying in my normal average Aussie accent "sorry, I don't speak english"

[Warhammer]

I've only had a couple of those kind of calls, it went like:
- My name is ** I call from **. May I disturb you for a minute ?
- No you may not
- Ok. Goodbye

[Timber Loftis]

I always ask them to remove me from their list. I then let them know that I am on the "no call list" (which is usually untrue, as only certain states I've lived in have them, but it's quite scary for them, and they likely *will* remove you). Finally, I let them know that the Gramm Leach Bliley Financial Remodernization Act prohibits them from sharing any of my personal information with any other company, whether affiliated with them or not. This is also an unfairly expansive reading of the law, but they usually leave me alone soon thereafter.

I have followed this pattern for about 1 1/2 years now. Now, I get less than one a night.

[Wurm]

Well Ladies and Gentlemen, be rest assured that this stuff happens all over the world. Here in Germany we have them too. My favorite is the guy that calls every 2 to 3 months trying to get me to buy Laser Printer Toner that is supposed to last longer than 5 normal ones but 1 cartridge costs FOUR TIMES as much as the stuff I normally order for my firm.

Me "But how is my printer going to know it has your super toner in it? It is still going to use the same amount of powder.."

Him "But Mr Adams if you order just one you will see I'm telling the truth and if it doesn't last as long I'll give you your money back."

Me "How am I to know if it lasts as long as 5 times longer? Tell you what send me one for free and let me test it, if it lasts 5 times longer like you say I'll buy a bunch of them and if not it saves you the return shipping and banking costs."

Him "I can't do that Mr Adams"

Me "And I refuse to order something that I am sure is bogus." Good day *click*

And sure enough 2 to 3 months from now the telephone rings and its the same guy pretending he has never talked to me before [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[ 11-11-2002, 12:29 PM: Message edited by: Wurm ]