Reader Brian says that he’s getting weird scammy calls about “lowering his interest rates” and would like to know what he should do about it.
Brian says:
The recorded message said I urgently need to talk to someone about my credit card. It then assured me that there was no problem with my accounts, but I need to talk to someone about lowering my interest rates. All very serious business. It then said my options were to press 1 for a rep or 2 to be removed.
My phone number has been on the do not call registry for years. I’ve tried telling them that before, and they just hang up. So this time, I asked for information about the company. The rep said I had to join their services to get that. So I asked for a manager. The rep said “ok” then hung up on me. The only information I have now is the phone number, and a company name of “Card Services” or “Card Service”.
Can you clarify what rules they’ve broken (auto-dialers, pre recorded messages, grossly misleading messages)? What can I do better to get myself removed from their call lists? Pressing 2, threatening with the do not call registry stuff, etc doesn’t work.
Well, without knowing which company is calling you, its not possible for us to tell you for sure which rules they’ve broken. Basically the rule is this: If a company doesn’t have a business relationship with you, it can’t call you. If it does have a business relationship with you it can call you, unless you tell it not to — at which point it has to stop calling or face a fine of up to $11,000 per call. It doesn’t sound like this outfit is selling anything legit — (What kind of company makes you sign up before they tell you what you’ve bought?) So it’s definitely time to start reporting them.
First, since you’re on the “Do Not Call” list, you should report them. You can do that here.
Secondly, you could contact your state’s attorney general or department of consumer affairs to report a possible scam. If your attorney general has a “fraud hotline” you can call it and see if they are interested. It’s possible that other consumers like yourself have reported the same company, particularly if they are as shady as you say they are.
Unfortunately, unless you’re willing to take the time to figure out who exactly is calling you and file a lawsuit against them, that’s about all you can do.
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I get these calls and if you say anything remotely questioning (who they are, what company, etc) they just hang up. its a spoofed #. I’d *LOVE* to report them, but it seems impossible to.
excerpt from my conversation with lady at “card services”:
me: this number is on the federal do not call registry
her: well, obviously it isn’t or i wouldn’t be calling you
jerk.
@midwestkel: The hotel has a ‘Resort Rewards’ linked to them, for advertising special deals and a points system. I think they are called Wyndham Rewards now, though they used to be Triprewards. I get the calls here and there for both, though I do use the hotel one.
I just reported the Auto Warranty one to the FCC and BBB though. Here’s the info I got out of them so anyone else that needs to complain can do so:
General Warranty Services, Inc.
282 Main Street
Salem, New Hampshire 03079
[generalwarrantyservices.com]
I get both the “lower your interest rate” and “your auto warranty is about to expire” call on my cell phone and office phone several times a day. The irony is that I do not own a car at all and haven’t in about 15 years (and it was registered in NJ at my parent’s address back then). I always send any number I don’t recognize direct to voicemail and the bizarre area codes are always a tipoff it’s them. Occasionally I will answer and press 2 to be removed, but that does nothing, of course. It’s also amusing that every single message they leave says it’s the last notification I’l receive! If only!
I got one of these auto warranty calls. I told them that my name was on the Do-no-call list and asked for a supervisor. I aksed the supervisor the name of the company and the phone number (info which they legaly must provide). It did not surpise me that the company name was fake and the phone number was to a sex line.
For those having problems with telemonkeys ignoring DNC list:
Buy a Nokia smartphone (E/N-series, some 3/5/6 series phones are smart too, just make sure they run Symbian Series60) and buy Blackballer/Blacklist/whatnot. See http://www.my-symbian.com for call blocking apps.
Theres similar apps for Windows Mobile, I just dont know anything about them because I have never touched WM.
@krispykrink:
AH HA HA HA HA HA!!!
Can I borrow that one?
@HogwartsAlum: I’m pretty sure he borrowed that one from Bob and Tom. Here’s the link to the whole call, and it is pretty funny.
I haven’t gotten any of the warranty calls or credit card calls (I don’t have a credit card), but at work, we get the copier scammer calls. Those are the ones where they say,”Hi, this is customer service on the copier.” They try to get you to give them info and then they bill you for an insanely expensive cartridge you won’t get. Then they dun you for the money, claiming that “You agreed to purchase this.” If you ask them what company they are with, they hang up.
Now they are trying a new approach: the friendly salesperson. [in chirpy voice] “Hi! My name is Leona and I’m calling with the customer service on the copier!” I just hang up on them.
@snoop-blog:
I’ll watch this when I get home since I have no speakers on my work computer. 
Cool! Thanks.
@ChuckECheese: “I called the DMV and explained it to them, making the point clear that somebody was selling DMV information to spammers and junk mailers. They insisted I was wrong. I don’t think I am.”
It’s been DMV policy in many states to sell all their data to data brokers (ChoicePoint, ACxiom, etc.) for years.
So, yea, it’s an inside job alright.
i work in an emergency department and for some reason, we get a ton of telemarketer calls. answering the phone “emergency department, this is X” really shuts them the hell up.
unless it’s a recording…. 
@ChuckECheese: …to follow up…
See [www.washingtonpost.com] for an example.
To the calls that are done by recordings:
I like to tell them that I am recording, and when they say I don’t have their permission, I inform them that during the pause between their auto-dialer and human response, I too played a recording that said by staying on the line you give permission to be recorded for whatever reason. Fight the machine with a machine!!!! If they can do it, why can’t I?
Might as well have fun with the Telewhores.
XYZ County Attorny’s Office, Chief Criminal Investigator ShoveItUpYourArse speaking.
XYZ County Jail, Warden’s Office, we have room for 9 inmates, can I make you a reservation?
In my experience, it seemed that the live person had no idea which number the computer called.
Have fun with that. Even if they have your number, they’re too busy trying to scam than to waste their time with any personal revenge.
How can the credit card companies get involved? I’m sure that this scammy operation causes headaches for chargebacks, disputes and overextending their customer’s debt and killing the cash cow.
Follow the money… I often wish I had a bogus credit card number – not to defraud – but to somehow trace back the merchant and identify the business/caller. Is there any legal way to get more information by baiting the hook a little better? I’d LOVE to get solid information on these people, trace back to their robot dialers, get a log and get them prosecuted for every single call made in a week’s time.
Is there a credit card number you can give that won’t let the charge go through until you specifically allow the charge, but only after it is attempted?
@midwestkel: I think pressing the opt out button on these calls does nothing, or even worse, just alerts them that there is someone home and it’s a good number to continue trying.
People that don’t even own cars are getting these calls. They are random calls, hoping someone takes the bait. How many households have cars? How many households have cars whose warranty likely expired? It wouldn’t take long at all to find someone to fall for it.
I’m sure if you called that some third-rate, third-party auto warranty company would answer the phone and sell you a crappy warranty on your car with dozens of restrictions making it basically worthless. They’d try to make you think it was the same company you got your original warranty from at the dealership. Or it could just be a flat-out identity theft scheme.
Another one has a vague but official sounding recording stating it’s a collection agency, you have an unpaid debt, and you have one week to settle before they take you to court. I did some research on this one and found when you call, they ask for your social security number and all your personal information, including mother’s maiden name, to “look up the debt for you.”
My strategy is to pretend interest long enough to hook them in, then have an emergency (“Oh my daughter just fell – she’s bleeding can I call you back?”) That’s enough to get a business name and number to report, then I request to be put on their do not call list. I log the call and report it to donotcall.gov. I have yet to receive another from the same scum bag.
@snoop-blog: Good idea, telling them you’re 14 when they call your cell number.
Must admit it’s disgusting. These ‘urgent’ calls about your credit card and the vast number of ‘your car warranty is about to expire’ mailers. I can just see all of the elderly who get pulled into these traps thinking their doing something necessary.
@HogwartsAlum: The copier scam is an old one. It actually started off as a paper scam back in the 7o’s. Same M.O. Different product.
Excuse me, folks, but isn’t it the case that you have to RE-REGISTER your DO NOT CALL status every few years?
It could be that some peoples’ protection has lapsed in consequence…
I’m starting to get these calls all the time on both my home and cell phone. The calls start off with a voice recording telling you this is the “last chance” to lower your rates and to press 1 to talk to someone or press 2 to remove yourself from the list. Pressing 2 doesn’t remove you from their list, it just means they’ll start calling back more often.
Pressing 1 gets you to a live person. I tried to ask the person to remove me from their phone list, but he hung up on me.
Unfortunately it’s impossible to report these people to the Do Not Call complaint since they forge the caller id information. Trying to call the number that displays gets a message saying that the number has been disconnected.
Question:
My cell phone number is in another state, which state’s attorney general or department of consumer affairs should I contact?
The state I am living in or the state the phone number is in or both?
@jpdanzig:
Yes, a lot of people probably have forgotten that the registration needs to be renewed, including myself a few months ago.
However, the fact that these twits forge caller ID, refuse to give out any business information until they’ve got your financial information and hang up on anyone who requests to be put on a DNC list maybe, just maybe, implies that don’t give a crap whether someone’s DNC registration has lapsed or not.
@howie_in_az: “As an added benefit, if you’re with TMobile you can register your GC# as one of your MyFaves numbers. Anyone calling you through GC then uses MyFaves minutes, which are free.”
Does that work if you tell GC to pass through the caller’s number for your callerID? I suspect you need to have the GC number passed instead.
This call, along with the warranty is about to expire, comes in about once a week on our support cell phone number.
@snoop-blog: Yep. That was pure inspiration!
@linus: I’ve been in that position (USAF Police), back before caller ID and the Do Not Call Registry existed. Informing them of who they actually called got our number removed from their list rather quickly.
I agree that you will not get any useful info from the caller ID or any contact info they give you. Instead, I do a public service by keeping them on the line. After playing along a while (the length of that depending on what I am doing when the call comes), they always ask for the a card number or the 800 number on the back. “It’s on my dresser…I have to get it………………” and I put them on hold until they give up.
@The_IT_Crone
“Not to mention we’re getting about 10 calls a week from debt collectors from the previous residents of our house- who haven’t lived here in 6 years…”
I had that happen with my new number when I moved into a house – The debtor was the previous owner of the the number, but he had lived on the other side of town. The number was reassigned only two months after he skipped out on lots of debts. Of course the debt collectors tried to get info out of me (some politely and some aggressively.) I got lots of info about the debtor from the friendly local video rental store that had by phone number already in the system. [this was before researching phone numbers was available on the net.]
There were two months of 4 or 5 calls a week and then it faded over another couple of months. I took it as a project to learn about debt collector’s tactics and responses to various attitudes. [which later came in handy when my phone company started double billing me with two different accounts and then sent it to collections. The bills came from different departments that would not talk to each other. Even the executive office couldn't get them to talk to each other. A complaint with the Public Utilities Commission ended the problem (although for a few minutes the collection agency tried to tell me that they were not bound by the PUC - I faxed them the PUC complaint acknowledgment that stated the laws and they gave up forever).]
@The_IT_Crone
“I’m finally giving up and changing my number and re-registering for the DNC list. I don’t know what else to do.”
If you haven’t given your number to too many people and didn’t print cards or stationary, then that is probably the best tactic. I just put up with it because I work at home and I refused to eat the indirect costs of changing the number again.
“expiring auto warranty”
I get these too – I just ask “Which car?” and they hang up because they cannot continue the fraud of pretending to be your warranty company.
With all these scams, the odds are better to take a fresh call at the first “miss” in the phishing and phraud rather than try to save it. I isn’t your witty or shock comeback that makes them hang up, it is simply that you left their script.
@jpdanzig: I’ve been on the DNC since 2004, and I checked today to make sure it was still valid.
Yup.
It doesn’t matter to them. Just like the handgun conceal/carry debate, CRIMINALS don’t care about the LAW.
@jpdanzig: You used to need to re-register every five years, but not anymore:
From [www.donotcall.gov]
Your registration will not expire. Telephone numbers placed on the National Do Not Call Registry will remain on it permanently due to the Do-Not-Call Improvement Act of 2007, which became law in February 2008. Read more about it at [www.ftc.gov]
But as far as what you’re getting at, we’re not getting these calls because of any expired DNC status or because we forgot to list our number, or anything like that. There are simply some scammy organizations that try to get away with as much as possible. They’ll even call your cell phone with an autodialed recording, which is illegal even without being on the DNC list.
@The_IT_Crone: I hope there is some serious government enforcement against these people. They really need to make an example of them, or I fear that the telemarketing bans for people on the DNC list or even cell phones could become a joke.
@QuantumRiff: Listen carefully to the “no suc h number” response. I’ve heard some that were not Bell-provided no-such-number, but the scammers PBX routing you to that message to fool you.
@The_IT_Crone: Thanks for the link. Looks like that’s the case. Too bad for us.
@bbb111: I’d be a LITTLE less angry if it was the previous users of my phone number, but the HOUSE? That means that they KNOW another party bought the place, and are calling here anyway JUST IN CASE the previous owner is still living here. I can’t think of how they’d have the right name of the previous occupant even though it’s a different number. It’s just… dickish.
I called my phone company and apparently I can have one number change per year for free. Schweet.
I run the National Political Do Not Call registry, working to bring back privacy to voters who receive 100′s of millions political robo calls each year. Why?
Politicians exempted themselves from the law.
That said, It is critical that you take action around these slime ball telemarketing companies.
You must:
1) Fill out the complaint form at donotcall.gov. Now. Everytime. Without data, the Gov can NOT do anything.
2) If your state has a consumer dept and / or a do not call list fill out their complaint form as well. Again, data is the only thing that the govt can use.
3) Ensure that you record EVERY PIECE OF DATA ABOUT THE CALL. Time, who, caller ID number, day, content of the call, everything.
4) Go to a site like callercomplaints.com and fill out a complaint form their as well. This is a good site where you can see other complaints about the same company and number. The Govt. websites do not allow you to see into their databases.
5) Sign up for Free at StopPoliticalCalls.org
Regards,
Shaun Dakin
CEO and Founder
StopPoliticalCalls.org
I’ve been getting the same exact call and have pressed 2 atleast 4 times!
I reported them to the FCC and donotcall.
I’ve received these calls a few times and I always report them. Unfortunately, I don’t think it does much.
The first time I reported one of those it took me about 15 minutes to put a name and address to the phone number that came up. When I looked up the address on Google Earth, I found the address was actually a vacant lot in a maze of empty streets that was obviously a still-unbuilt subdivision.
Record your calls.
Capture the phone number tones their PBX dials to connect you to a sales person.
Use that recording to contact their telewhores directly whenever you wish to screw with their heads.
I’ve been getting calls from these twits for years now. Of course, I happen to be on a cellphone in Canada, and as far as I can tell we don’t have any laws right now that keep shady American companies from trying to scam me.
My advice is to string them along until they give you some call back information. Barring that, i would just scare the shit out of them by going one step further than “homicide” or “___ county sherrif’s dept”, I’d say something like ” SS fraud investigation department, can I have the phone number that you’d like me to trace?” and see what happens
I got several of these calls last month. When I asked the rep who they were, it was always a vague name like “Consumer Services” or “Finance Corporation.” I reported the numbers on my caller ID to donotcall.gov — but I began getting calls with numbers 11 digits long. I.e., they’re faking the caller ID as well as running some sort of scam. Without doing some sort of trap-and-trace on my incoming phone line there’s no way to identify these people. They don’t sound like they’re from offshore, though.
@TinyBug: At this point, they stay on the line while you give the CC company your account number.
Hmm, so much for the idea of a do-it-myself sting operation.
@rdm: We’ve been getting these too on both our cell and our unlisted home number. Naturally, we ignored them, but just this week, we’ve received a letter in the mail from these a-holes. I shredded it without thinking, but next time, I’m going to save it and see what I can do to make trouble for these jerks. There’s no telling how many people they’ve ripped off so far.
I have tipped consumerist on this before. I got a nice ‘Thank you’ email. I have vonage, and I am pretty sure it’s a voip call, but Vonage are less than helpful in trying to figure out where the call comes from.
Actually, if the company who calls has masked their company name and/or the phone number from which they’re calling, you can report that violation directly to US Congressman Aaron Schock of the 18th Congressional District. Just make sure you have the time of day when the call occurred, the phone number that received the call, and whatever information showed on your caller ID screen even if it’s nothing. Here’s the Congressman’s phone number: (309) 671-7027
Exact same thing has just happened to me. I see your post was made in 2008, now it’s 2011, and nothing has changed. Hope we can find a way to put these jerks out of business.