The second of two blows dealt this week to the Miami telemarketers autodialing people’s cellphones and trying to scam them. It seems the FCC is actually looking into the matter. All it took was a few months, Verizon to file an injunction, and a few gajillion consumer complaints, like those by reader Chris.
calls from a stranger
Spanish Tele-Scammer’s Pinata Busted by Verizon
By 7.20.06
Back in April, we were obsessed by a Miami telemarketing company scamming people, in Spanish, on their cellphones, using a robotic autodialer. After pounding the e-pavement, our efforts to angle in on the bastiches fizzled, since we were neither a telephone company processing the calls, nor an aggrieved recipient, we couldn’t do much about it, except advise people to report it to the police. Just last week we received a few complaints.
Calls From a Stranger, No More
By 6.12.06
Well, at least it will now be illegal. Last week, the House passed H.R. 5126, The Truth in Caller I.D. Act, outlawing misrepresenting one’s identity on caller ID, colloquially known as “caller ID spoofing.”
UPDATE: Calls From a Stranger
By 5.3.06
Reader Ben reports that 1) he received another strange Spanish phone spam scam call, this time from 401-200-9876 and 2) he still doesn’t speak Spanish.
UPDATE: Calls From A Stranger
By 4.28.06 — Updated: 10.25.12
Remember that strange Spanish phone spam scam that was going around? Two weeks after we first started reporting it, and hundreds of people complaining about it, it’s still going on. And from the same number, 305-503-8068 .
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
HOWTO: Extract Spam Calls From Your Cellphone
By 4.15.06
Say someone’s leaving unsolicited marketing messages on your cellphone and you want to save them to your computer so you can share them on the internet. How do you do it?
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.
