Car Warranty Robot Calls Senator During Meeting On Capitol Hill
First they pissed off Verizon, then they pissed off the internet, the attorney general of Indiana, and Congressmen Mike Doyle. Now the group of companies responsible for the car warranty robocalls have annoyed New York Senator Chuck Schumer by calling him during an important meeting about health care.
Schumer called a press conference Sunday to announce to the world that he has had enough.
"I've had enough," Mr. Schumer said. "These are scam artists."
"It's bogus. Consumers should not have to pay for this or any other robo-dialed harassment."
The calls are coming from a "variety" of different companies all around the country — and have proved notoriously difficult to track down and stop.
(For example, when we asked for help figuring out who was behind the calls, we got dozens of emails finguring dozens of different companies.)
Schumer called for a national investigation of the car warranty scammers — and urged consumers to file complaints with www.donotcall.gov.
Schumer Urges Inquiry of Companies Behind Bogus Auto Warranty Calls [NYT]
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Comments:
Our Representatives will be outraged until the robo callers contribute to their campaign funds.
"...we got dozens of emails finguring dozens of different companies."
I know what you meant to say but "finguring" still made me chuckle.
If it was such an important meeting, why was his cell phone turned on, and why did he answer the displayed "800" number???
Whatever the case may be for auto warranties, I want to hire these guys for my next advertising gig!
maybe just pay them and see where the money goes?
Can we be serious here? When is Chucky Cheese Schumer NOT having an important meeting and when has he NOT had a Sunday press conference? It's his MO. He has these press conferences on Sunday to make it on the early Mon AM news/shows. He then pretty much forgets about the topic unless the news runs with it, then he "devotes" himself to that cause.
During the last election, someone did a figure on how much paper/trees he kills from his every Sunday Press Conferences. I don't have the figure in front of me, but it's a lot.
@Possinator: Chuck Schumer would like you to cool it with the sarcasm and pick up your pitchfork with the rest of citizenry.
This could be the first good thing he does
Well now that "important" people have been inconvenienced maybe the FTC will actually do something about this.
@dcarrington01:
The ones I get don't display as an "800" number. They come from different area codes and since I do business in different parts of the country it's hard to know which calls are related to my business and which are robo calls.
@Possinator: You just don't understand. Autodialers share the same values as we do, and they have the same dreams for their children that the rest of us have.
The Do Not Call Registry requires a company name. If you get calls from unknown numbers you can file an FCC complaint. This has worked for me in the past.
@White Speed Receiver: And they contribute to the American economy!
And by "American economy" I mean "Congresscritters' coffers."
@jnrcorp: That's a great tip about going through the FCC. I did laugh at the Senator encouraging people to file complaints with the FTC. I've been down that worthless road just like some other commenters here.
Lucky for us the FTC follows up on most of the complaints it gets.
Oh wait a min, no it doesn't.
Chuck Shumer is a scam artist. Basically Schumer calls a press conference every Sunday to announce to the world that he still exists and since Sunday is a slow news day, channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, and 11 send a crew out to cover it and he gets on TV.
I say again ... we need a law that requires telephone companies to refuse to complete calls unless the calls have correct and complete caller ID information (other than specific situations permitted by law otherwise, such as residential customers being allowed to block caller ID for a reasonable number of calls per day, law enforcement, etc).
@dcarrington01: Adding to what others have said ... he might have left the phone on because it's a special private number only a few people have ... and the robocallers are just generating numbers at random.
I wish they could set up something like a honeypot trap. Have someone give them a number that is fake but still goes through as though it were approved. If they can take money via credit card, they must have a bank account, Paypal, something that can lead to asset seizures, arrests, etc.
All the scam calls I get are coming from numbers owned by Digitcom. If someone really wanted to find out who the scammers are, a subpoena to Digitcom would probably do the trick. The fact that we're hearing a lot of ruckus, but not seeing any results makes me suspicious.
@Possinator: Then the elected officials will still be "outraged" but make sure that nothing of consequence is done to stop it.
It is too bad that politicians continue to exempt themselves from Do Not Call law.
StopPoliticalCalls.org is fighting for the privacy of the American voter.
1 - Creating a Political Do Not Call Registry
2 - Testifying in the US Senate about robo calls (Sen. Feinstein's Robocall Privacy Act)
3 - Forcing states to enforce existing robo call laws (CA, MN, NJ, etc..)
4 - Getting politicians to take a do not robo call pledge (7 have)
Here is a quote from a member recently:
"I'm a shift worker, working variable shifts. I depend on my sleep to be able to do my job safely and efficiently. I'm a locomotive engineer. Imagine the disaster were I to fall asleep, operating a freight train carrying hazardous materials in your neighborhood, due to fatigue from being awoken in my middle of the night on a continuous basis during election season. Please stop.."
Learn more.
Shaun Dakin
CEO
[www.stoppoliticalcalls.org]
A non-profit fighting for the privacy of the American voter
@YouDidWhatNow?: Mine don't even display a number on my cell phone- just a blank field after "Call" whereas it typically says "Call (555) 555-5555"
@Sudonum: Indeed, these scumbags are (illegally) using spoofed caller ID to make it seem like their calls are coming from random "real" telephone numbers. This is yet *another* violation of the Do Not Call law, which requires all telemarketers to properly identify themselves.
less than a minute after reading this, they called my work number. I stayed on the line, this guy from the "Warranty Services Call Center" (WSCC) answered, and then I asked him to give me the address of the WSCC, and he said that after a few questions he'll direct me to someone else, I insitested on the address, he said they were just a call center, I then said I want the call center's location, and he said they'll place the phone number on the do not call list. They called a business number, it's really annoying having to pick up about 3-7 of these per week.
The more the robocallers that call Schumer, the better.
After all, he tells us Americans really don't care about "porky" spending projects.
Cheers to Barack Obama seeing Bush's record setting deficits and raising them four times. $1,800,000,000,000 is going to be FUN to pay back because like Chuck said, we don't care. :)
I'm going to continue to post the phone numbers of every congressman and politician i can find, to these robo-callers.
I'd rather the senator take calls from robo-callers than talk anything about health care.
Keep it up robo-callers!
Oh please, the DNC list does nothing. Every few months the same HVAC company calls me trying to get me to buy their A/C duct cleaning or A/C checkup. Every time I say "don't call me, I'm on the DNC list" and file a complaint, yet they continue to call.
After four years of this I've taken a different tactic: "Oh, yes, I'm in the market for that. Unfortunately I don't support companies that cold call. "
It still doesn't work. The calls continue to come in.
Shows how effective and powerful our Do Not Call laws are: ever try to report someone? Now even our Congress cannot stop them. Maybe if we gave the scammers President Obama's cell number? Bet we would "get 'er done" then!
Yeah, and how about caller id? Even the millions of canned political calls we get prior to an election are unidentified.
@Mollyg: Yeah. Damn that FTC- I complain to them about robocallers all the time and they don't do anything!
Of course, the FCC might. If you called them.
@howie_in_az: I just shoot my phone with a pistol every time. It must work, because I never get any cold calls on that phone again.
costs me a fortune in phones though.
@Skaperen: I see no reason why Caller ID should be blocked, ever. If you don't want the person you're calling to know it's you then don't call.
What needs to be protected is the system that Caller ID uses, it's way too easy to spoof.
I managed to get myself removed from their lists.
First I tried politely telling them I wasn't interested and asking to be removed. They called back a few weeks later.
Second I tried yelling into the telephone that they needed to stop calling me. They called back a few weeks later.
Third I tried costing them money. They never called back.
As soon as they finish with their opening line I tell them that I'm definitely interested and can't wait to buy whatever it is that they are selling. Then I tell them to hold on while I find my credit card. I put the phone down and go back to whatever I was doing and pick it back up after 3 or 4 minutes and tell them I'm still looking for my card and that I must have left it upstairs. I reassure them that I'm seriously interested and that I just need to find the card and I put them back on hold. I continue this behavior for as long as possible. My record is 52 minutes.
One time I even got an angry call back from them after they hung up saying that I needed to stop playing games with them. The guy was seriously pissed and was yelling at me through the phone. I calmly reassured him that I wanted an extended warranty and that if he would just hold on for a few minutes I would go get my credit card. He hung up and they haven't called me since then.
I use this tactic with all of the robocallers and it works every time. Plus, it amuses me greatly to know that they are wasting their time and money on hold while I'm simply ignoring the phone.
I enjoy our new Robo Overlords. I like to keep them on the line and then let them know at the end my car is a 1982 Subaru Brat with 450,000 miles
@Shaun Dakin: Please - talk about hyperbole! Turn off the ringer on your phone if you really can't be disturbed, Or if you are so disinterested in the electoral process, don't register to vote.
While I agree with you about robo-calls and the need for states to enforce the laws they do have, you cannot have a political do-not-call list AND have a working Democracy. It would put a substantial additional economic burden on running for office which just help to ensure that incumbents get re-elected. Any serious politician should allow you to opt out after the first call where they talk to you in person, failing to honor a request to be manually deleted would be indication that they don't intend to listen to their constituents if they are elected. But a Do Not Call list like the commercial list which requires companies to pay for access to list would make direct calls to voters a burden on any challenger who is just starting the campaign process and so would favor incumbents or those with ties to big money donors.
@AlxFherMana: I'm probably going crazy, but i swear there was a commercial that had "Follow the finger" as a catchphrase.
There are someplaces on this Earth I would and would not follow a finger.
As said previously, until laws are passed to regulate this sort of thing, the ONLY way to combat it is by wasting the callers time....
If you keep them on the line pretending to be interested, while never actually spending money, read off a few bogus cc numbers to them, insist they are correct, and bla bla bla, they will eventually take you off of THIER lists, after their profit productivity goes way down.
We had 20 lines at work that i systematically did this with, one at a time, over the summer, it was pretty fun after a while....
Senator, that is what happens when GM (Government Motors) calls the shots now.
Welcome to my world, Senator.