Calls From a Stranger

Clampants has been getting strange Spanish phonecalls on his cellphone. Once, when getting off a plane in Austin, he and his wife, neither of whom speak Spanish, had muffled Spanish voicemails from the same number.

He writes:

    “Today, I had a call from 1-954-678-8026 which was another muffled Spanish recorded message…and a failed call from 1-305-503-8068 which, when called back, led me to a Spanish-language menu system (pressing 9 got me to a Spanish-speaking operator…but, I ended the call). Both of these numbers seem to originate in Florida (305 is the Miami area and 954 is Broward County).”

Several other bloggers have noted the phenomenon recently. A couple of people found Clampants blog by searching for the same phone numbers and reported they also received the calls.

“No clue what this is,” writes Clampants. “If it’s some sort of scam, well, the language barrier is certainly hindering the scam attempts.”

Would any Spanish speakers in the audience like to give call the numbers up and report back what’s going on? What kind of company are they, what are they selling, why are they leaving mass Spanish messages?

UPDATE: We just called the numbers and there’s a busy/disconnected pulsing tone.

UPDATE: These are autodialers using pre-recorded solicitation messages. It is illegal. If you receive one of these calls, enter the area code and prefix here at Telcodata.US. Complain to the customer service of the provider listed. They will shut the unsolicited phone spammer down.

UPDATE: Verizon sues some telemarketer using the same tactics. And here’s one man’s story of how he successfully sued a telemarketer who called him at 5 in the morning. He also provides a slew of resources for tracking down phone solicitors.

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