Posted on 07/06/2006 8:53:37 PM PDT by NerdDad
We have been receiving numerous calls from (866) 325-2373 every day. When we answer, the caller hangs up. When we call back, the call is answered by an automated attendant. The company is not identified, all the operators are busy, and you have to leave a message.
We have left a message several times telling them to take us off their call list. Our number is on the National No Call List and has been since the first day we could register. We have filed a complaint on the No Call website.
Are other FReepers receiving these calls? I have searched the Internet and cannot find out who is behind these calls. Have other FReepers been able to identify this company?
Your advice on other measures to take would be appreciated.
If an (866) number is a toll-free number, just ask four of your friends to call it ten times every day for a week. Then have them each ask four more friends, etc.
Sometimes these things are fax machines that someone puts the wrong number into. If you hear a beep ... beep ... beep before it hangs up, chances are that's what's happening.
Caution: Some of those 8XX numbers are foreign and end up charging your phone a significant fee. Not all 8xx numbers are toll free.
And leave very long messages... Maybe some annoying music.
Your phone company may have a call blocking feature which will block calls from specific numbers.
I blocked all foreign calls and twice I have had to have a collect call that was never received reversed on my phone bill; however, the identified nymber did answer and the operator agreed to cancel the charge.
Anymore of our Missippy folks getting these calls? I found a post on another forum about these calls. It is so profane, I'm not going to take the chance of getting banned by posting it. If yall are getting these calls, what are you doing about them? My dear darling CDBEAR was literally screaming her message into their recorder when I got home. I say recorder realizing that it's probably just a bit-bucket that beeps and pretends to take your message.
Not a fax machine. My wife and I are both IT types and are familiar with the fax beeping.
BTW, if you have a record of the calls on your caller ID, turn them in by going to the do not call registry website.
Thanks for the heads-up. We will keep a watch on that.
At that point, I set up my Winfax pro to continuously dial them and fax them a nasty letter asking them to remove our # from their list, (I thoughtfully included a full page black bitmap, too) I let it run for about a week during the day while we were at work. The calls stopped.
Wife will be filing a complaint with local law enforcement tomorrow.
There are many companies out there who will provide you with the info for $15 or so. Search for reverse phone lookup or similar.
My darling CDBEAR will guarantee you that if it is a collection agency, they are definitely calling a wrong number.
Speaking as somebody who has had, uh, a bit of bad credit history, that really does sound like a collection agency or creditor of some kind. Except normally, when you pick up, there'll be several seconds of silence while they transfer you to a human drone. If you don't pick up, most of the time they don't leave a message, and if they do, they rarely identify who they are.
}:-)4
I'll pay attention to the number next time, but yes, I have received at east 4 such calls this week.
I tried your link but it appears to be dead. I get taken to the Google cached page and when I try to search the number it dumps me to the lost page.
That complaint is already filed. I don't see it going anywhere though. All they do is put the number in their database.
If you have Caller ID (sounds like you do), a message reading "Toll Free" could be an NRA-outsourced solicitation.
Nothing against the Association, mind you, but they can be aggressive.
Could be a prank
http://www.ospenterprises.com/phone/
Nah. Only idiots answer calls from unrecognized, toll free numbers.
put an answering machine on your phone line and for the "announcement" have the sound of a fax modem trying to connect. Let friends and family know what you've done; then smile knowing the unwanted caller is going get a very confusing response the next time they call.
A few years ago some doctor's office got our fax number mixed-up with Walgreens.
They would fax me prescriptions.
Duhhhh.
Hahaha, for what? Battery with a ring tone?
I've been getting junk (spam) faxes to my dedicated fax machine/line. Some of these are graphic intensive and use a lot of my ink. This really irks me. So....... I use black paper (several sheets with white lettering) and fax back to them demanding they stop fax-spamming me. I wish I could figure out a way to do a continuous black paper loop.
I got an even weirder one last week. Someone called and I answered. A computer-generated Stephen Hawkings-type voice stated exactly this: "Watch out for the walking dude."
I have no idea, but the number was 303-191-9191.
If this is a computer-generated call, the # key tells the computer to null the number.
You shouldn't be bothered by that number again.
I get this type call occasionally, but I don't record the calling number. I heard a story that this is caused by automated calling machines that call a block of numbers at once, and more people answer than there are solicitors to talk, leaving dead air. Sometimes I can hear people talking in the background.
My phone number is only about 5 months old and my phone announces the number calling me and then I hear my factory default announcement asking them to leave a message..and they hang up.
I am on the DO NOT CALL list.
One time I picked up and there was a 4 second delay before the person with an Indian accent started to speak.
It was a mortgage lender selling the idea of refinancing.
Without fail, the number showing up on the screen is "unknown" or "private".
We've gone back to the old fashioned answering machine (digital) that lets us screen each call. If we recognize the caller (announced by the phone), we answer. Anyone else gets to leave a message, and we might pick up mid-message. Problem solved.
Now unwanted faxes are another matter. I disconnected our incoming fax number because I was getting 10 ads a day for cruises and aluminum siding.
Heck, if you want to commit harrassment plug the # into the dialer on a modem and let it call it non-stop till you are satisfied they have been sufficiently irritated.
I understand that some collectors don't follow that rule to the letter...
"that really does sound like a collection agency or creditor of some kind. Except normally, when you pick up, there'll be several seconds of silence while they transfer you to a human drone."
We've fielded our share of those calls in the past as well. This is not one of those. After we answer the call hangs up. We couldn't get the collectors to hang up. We screamed and cussed. We even made lovemaking sounds. They just kept right on with their script. And if we hung up on them, they just called back.
So glad we are past that point in our lives.
Can you tie your fax machine into your computer? I had it set so the computer would answer incoming faxes, so all the junk faxes were just saved as bmp's, ready for deletion.
Hadn this happen a few years ago, Local phone company asked me to open a Police report, once that was done they logged all inconning calls and stepped on the offender, it worked.
Sounds like a night at your house could get quite interesting.
for now you can keep changing numbers. but someday there will only be one number...
Just don't call 867-5309.
"could be an NRA-outsourced solicitation."
NRA Life Member for 30+ years. I don't get their calls. Funny how that works. Paid them $250 for a life-membership and haven't heard from them since.
Can't you tape several sheets together in a loop and let it run through the machine?
Hmmmm.
Sounds like a lead, at least: they occasionally have "Urgent Legislative Updates", etc. "Do Not Call" exempts companies from which you've done bidness in the past.
"Sounds like a night at your house could get quite interesting."
Hey, when you're dodging bill collectors, you get inventive. Now that we're nearly debt-free CDBEAR loves to get calls from credit-card companies. She toys with them like a Viking Kitty toying with a troll. Then she asks them if they've ever heard of a guy named Dave Ramsey. Shortly after that, the call ends.
This reminds me of a time about 8 or 9 years ago when a telemarketer was harrassing me daily and even late at night. They would just laugh and say they were untouchable and then hang up and call again over and over. After having this go on for several days, I decided to take action. While I couldn't get directly to the telemarketing office, I called the company that hired the telemarketer and got the name of the CEO. I then called his office and told the secretary I had an emergency message for the president. When I got him on the line I unloaded on him and told him I would be calling his office 20 times day until the telemarketing harrassment stopped. To make the point very clear, I told him his home phone number and everything I knew about him from the Internet like where he went to school and where he had a residence, etc. He then agreed to have it stopped and he also gave me the name and number of the telemarketer president. So I then called up that guy and he was also totally stunned I was able to track him down. I told him I had more than enough information on him from the Internet to make his life totally miserable unless my name got taken off their calling list. I never got a call from that telemarketer again. Sometimes you just have to fight back.
This could also be someone looking for fax lines. They will call all numbers in a prefix and list fax lines. Then the list is sold to toner vendors and other of this ilk. If they call back again and again, they are also supid.
The "walking dude" is a character in the Stephen King novel, "The Stand."
Keep the faxes you get and send them to the FCC -- unwanted faxing is prohibited.
The FCC does go after them.
I was getting tons of unsolicited faxes and was at my wits end, then I searched and found this. Then I just bundled the faxes and mailed them to the FCC -- it stopped them in its tracks, the unwanted faxes slowed to a trickle, I think it's time for another little carepackage to the FCC.
Go to this site, they have all the info:
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/unwantedfaxes.html
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