Posted on 12/22/2014 9:36:00 AM PST by JSDude1
This phone number has called my home repeatedly for the past week. I have an unlisted phone number and am on the national do not call list, yet the calling continues.
They called again right at 9 o’clock this morning to my unlisted, “do not call” number. The “do not call” part apparently does not apply to political and charitable calls. The caller ID says “Tea Party” and calls from (202) 750-2399. I figured I’d answer and see what was going on.
A lady announces that she is calling on behalf of the tea party effort to support Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)93%93%. She wanted me to listen to a brief message about the call. I consented. It was clear Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)93%93% had nothing to do with the call. The recorded message said the tea party was fighting to support tea party candidates like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)95%95% and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)93%93% and to stop the socialist agenda of Barack Obama.
Then there was a survey asking if the tea party should focus on the economy, immigration, or holding the President accountable.
At that point, some older man came on the phone. The lady had vanished. He wanted me to join the tea party for $100.00 — a special discount from $200.00 because he said they were trying to grow membership in my area.
(Excerpt) Read more at redstate.com ...
“They got hold of a list somehow of people like us.”
They buy the lists! If you have ever voted in a Republican primary, you are on the list. If you have ever donated to a candidate to the right of Mao, you are on the list.
If you have ever put a Republican candidate sign in your yard, you are on the list.
Anyone can buy lists of everyone that votes. Request an absentee ballot be sent to your winter home/summer cottage, yup...they have that info too!
If a name doesn’t come up on my phone or I don’t recognize the number, I don’t answer. If it’s important enough to the caller that they talk to me, they’ll leave a message.
1. I figure all unsolicited calls by organizations are scams.
2. Even if they are not scams, I do not want to waste my time with ANY of them.
3. I NEVER give money or information over the phone.
4. As soon as I hear boiler room sounds, a foreign accent, “My name is ...”, “Is this ...”, or “Is the man [woman] ...”, I hang up.
5. Finally, I immediately block the number using the Panasonic phone blocking capability. This last part is the best part because if they call back, the phone only rings once and then automatically blocks further access. Some orgs are really persistent and change up numbers when this happens, but I just block again, and pretty soon they too give up.
[OTOH, I do like to goof the Indian criminals that call and say they’ve detected viruses being emitted from my computer and want a lot of money to fix the problem. Either I pretend naivete and incredulousness, and lead them down the primrose path, asking how they could possibly know something like that, oh, and then you must know my IP number, and then, well what IS my IP number, until they know they’ve been had and abruptly hang up, or I say, “Well, that’s funny, because my computer hasn’t been turned on in a week.”, in which case they also abruptly hang up.]
AMEN brother.
We were being inundated with scam calls, the credit card scam mostly. They'd change numbers often so we couldn't get a handle on them. Multiple calls daily.
The 'Do Not Call' list only gives them 'live' numbers. Worse than worthless.
I had a full notebook page of phone numbers.
Bought a Panasonic cordless capable of blocking 250 numbers or groups of numbers.
Programmed all the obscure area codes. Not the codes in family or local areas.
Wow. THe end of the calls.
Best investment I've made this year.
I get these same calls constantly.
Not legit. There are false flag ops from hard left marxist groups using the name “Tea Party” all over.
And being on a do not call list doesn’t get you off. When I first got my cell number I got hundreds of calls the first couple months from debt collectors. Just in the past month I have gotten 10 calls a day from VOIP spoofed IDs telling me I recently requested info about refinancing, lower credit card rates, and, my personal favorite, a very angry sounding “investigator” saying I need to call immediately in regards to bad checks I’ve been writing. All robo-calls and all scams.
waste as much of their time as possible
People are using this as a scam technique because they know the POPULARITY of the TEA party movement (not being reported by the media)
But anyone who is a real TEA party follower knows this is not real. There was a set of commercials on Patriot Channel satellite radio during the last election trying to raise money for ‘TEA PARTY candidate (I forget who) but the actual organization that ran the radio commercials had nothing to do with that candidate and kept 90 % of the money for itself
WATCH WHO YOU DONATE TO! Only directly to candidates you support AND only directly to their official websites
I don’t know about Tea Party calls but my scam calls usually start out, “Attention Senior Citizens . . .” or, “We are calling to notify you about a serious problem with your Microsoft Windows account . . .” However, I’ve never gotten beyond those points in those calls. Political calls, I block or hang up on as soon as they come in.
That, to me, is a good principle for anyone that aligns to Tea Party values. I'm not sure how Tea Party groups would get their funding when following that principle, except at the local level, which I do.
“Tea Party”? Isn’t that Tom Coburn’s outfit? /snark
SCAM or GOPe at work.....
A scam.
Like the internet, anyone can claim to be anybody and no one knows. . .and spoofing caller ID is a favorite tactic they use to get people to answer the phone.
“. . .am on the national do not call list, yet the calling continues.”
A scam itself by the fed gov, as this list counts on the good intentions of telemarketers. . .and besides, when your number is put on the list any telemarketer can sell that list of “active” phone numbers.
I keep my landline because my burgler alarm needs it. . .so. . I turned off the ringer and turned off the voice-mail and that means it righs and rings and no one hears and no one answers. . .and the computers making the call eventually drop my number as "inactive."
I’ve gotten a couple calls from that number. The first time I promised a pledge but did not send a check. The address was DC and had a different PO box from the tea party group I looked up online. Now I just hang up.
I join you in singing the praises of my Panasonic phone that blocks 250 numbers. Best thing ever!
Given a quick check, it’s a VOIP number, with heavy VOIP spam reported.
So it’s coming from a POP in DC, but where the call center is, nobody knows.
Definitely scammy. . .
Definitely a scam!
Some Valerie J. operative must be really busy in the White House basement. And it's a threefer!
It discredits the real Tea Party.
Free money for the "progressive" coffers, and...
They get a list of the dimmest Tea Party supporters.
Stroke of genius!
Hmm. Glad I told them to eff off.
You're welcome.
I just learned about the great features of Panasonic cordless phones acouple of days ago.
I am in the process of choosing which model to buy to replace my 4-yr old set.
Unfortunately, one the most common users' and prospective buyers complaints is the dizzying number of models and features combination Panasonic has to choose from.
If Panasonic "perfects" the software, they will have the cordless phone market cornered.
I really hope that the "blocking" feature database memory in those phones is increased, AND a FIFO logic used to make it almost perfect to deal with unwanted calls.
Wish me luck.
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