Your cellphone rings from a number you don’t recognize. You pick it up. At first there’s silence. Then the sound of a call center kicks in and a person asks, “Hello, can I speak to Karen?” It’s a telemarketer, or a debt collector, using an autodialer. And they just broke the law. And just for funsies, you can collect $500 or $1500 with just a few hours of work if you go after them. [More]
autodialers
Auto Warranty Robocallers Call Indiana Attorney General At Home
By 5.7.09
Protip for telemarkers: If you’re going to engage in random robodialing to unlisted cell phones, pray very very hard that you do not dial the attorney general of a state in which you plan to continue doing business.
Here Are Some Of The Companies Behind The Car Warranty Robocalls
By 4.29.09
Verizon continues its recent campaign of turning robocallers into charitable contributions, this time by settling a lawsuit against two of the companies behind those awful car warranty calls. Last time it was for $25,000; this time it’s for $50,000, all of which is being donated to the Joyful Heart Foundation, which Wireless Week describes as “a nonprofit devoted to empowering survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse.”
UPDATE: Calls From A Stranger
By 4.21.06
Courtney tips that she’s received a Spanish spam call, this time from 301-392-8219, based out of La Plata, Maryland and registered to Verizon. We’ve also received reports about 305-503-8068. If anyone gets calls from these numbers, report it to your cell phone company and even the police. The police have the ability to access the records to trace these calls back to their source.
UPDATE: A Big Break in ‘Calls From a Stranger’ Story
By 4.17.06
More answers and more questions about our mysterious phone spammer.
954-678-8026 Voice Spam Translated
By 4.17.06
Hundreds of people across America have received a strange message in Spanish on their cellphone from one number. We hunted down who the number belonged to, got a copy of the message uploaded and now have a translation.
954-678-8026 Voice Spam Uploaded
By 4.17.06
For your listening pleasure, we have the message that an auto-dialer has been leaving on hundreds of people’s cellphones the past month. All the calls came from 954-678-8026
We Know His Name. Calls From a Stranger: UPDATE
By 4.14.06
We have a name. George Martinez. Found by shelling out the twenty bux at Intellus.us. We are lazy P.I’s. Unfortunately, no address… yet. We caution, however, the information may not be current and there are a ton of George Martinez’s in Ft. Lauderdale, including the Office Director of the U.S. Commercial Service in Florida.
UPDATE: Calls From a Stranger, 954-678-8026
By 4.14.06
So this number is auto-dialing people across the nation and leaving marketing messages in Spanish and we’ve decided to try and track them down.
UPDATE: Calls From a Stranger, 954-678-8026
By 4.14.06
We’ve been having a devil of a time tracking down this phone-spammer. None of the reverse phone-lookup services gave us more information than that the number used to be with “Global Crossing Local” and is now with the MetroPCS cellphone company. The number is listed as being in Fort Lauderale, FL, sleazy marketing capital of the world.
UPDATE: Calls From a Stranger, 954-678-8026
By 4.14.06
We just received an email from Ben who says that he just received an unsolicited call from 954-678-8026 around 10:39 EST today.
UPDATE: Calls From a Stranger, 954-678-8026
By 4.14.06
The Consumerist wanted to open its doors as a P.I, get all private investigation styles, baby.
Calls From a Stranger
By 4.13.06
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.
