Spam Phone Calls

I’ve been on the Federal do not call list (sign up your phones at http://donotcall.gov) so when I get a span phone call I get annoyed. Today one came in and asked me to hit 6 to talk to a representative. I did.

After a minute a person asked if I was holding to lower my credit card interest rate. I replied that “I am if you can tell me who I am. Other wise I am holding to see if I should file a Federal complaint against you.”

Amazingly they hung up before I finished my statement. Do you think they realized that they were breaking the law?  At least I figure I cost them time and money.

4 Responses to “Spam Phone Calls”

  1. Matt says:

    Amazingly they hung up before I finished my statement. Do you think they realized that they were breaking the law?

    I doubt that they care, really. We’ve had some similar calls here. I think with the magic of VoIP, they’re not even calling from the US.

    For a while now I’ve wanted a “firewall” for my phone. People with nonsense caller ID wouldn’t even ring through.

    Though I partially blame the phone companies. They know who is calling: if they didn’t, who would they bill for the call? Commercial entities with big data lines get ‘real’ caller ID, even when you block it. Why don’t we?

  2. Greg says:

    You’re entitled to legal action. I believe the settlement for violating the “Do not Call” list is $500. A simple small claims lawyer should take the case. What you need to do is get on the phone with them, take down the time, the calling individual, and the name of the business, and make sure to have proper accountability for them calling you. After that, make sure to keep the phone records, and you have sufficient documentation to make a quick case out of it. Make friends with a lawyer, and rack in the money.

    I remember seeing some TV news show do a quick report on it one day, with a stay at home mother who supplimented her husband’s income by about 30k/yr just by filing charges against companies that violate the do not call list. It should be a quick and easy with the right documentation.

    It’s worth the time to research it further. It’d be amazing to switch your outlook on one of these phone calls from, “Damn, they’re interrupting me again” to, “Awesome, you just gave me $500.” Imagine looking forward to those calls!

  3. Matt says:

    A simple small claims lawyer should take the case. What you need to do is get on the phone with them, take down the time, the calling individual, and the name of the business, and make sure to have proper accountability for them calling you.

    This presumes that they tell you who they are and that they’re in the United States. In my (admittedly limited) experience, they don’t and they aren’t.

  4. Mr. T says:

    I have a friend who has taken several of these companies to small claims court. You don’t need a lawyer and they are easy cases to win. The hard parts are identifing the company and collecting on the fine. Honestly it is not worth my time right now. Of course companies count on that.

Leave a Reply for Matt