!comment_text!
Top Comment
All Comments (291)
lowering credit card interest rates
Saving on credit card interest
The automated message was a female's voice and was rather fast speaking, making it rather hard to write down everything that was stated in the message. Bits and pieces were:
"Hi this is Ann from account services... with good news... Effective today ... Federal Reserve has just... stimulus...can reduce interest rate to 4.9% ... Need to respond immediately ... Consider this your final notice... press 1 now to speak to customer service agent to lower your interest rate."
There was NO option to "remove my number".
If you want to stop it at the source:
http://telemarketerspam.wordpress.com/
How it works:
http://onthespotblog.com/on-the-spot-blog-stirs-up-rachel-at-cardholder-services/ ...
http://onthespotblog.com/tag/cardholder-services/
We need CRIMINAL penalties against the companies that are profiting from these calls. Follow the money, slap them in jail, no one left to outsource to overseas boiler rooms, problem solved.
Since they are operating across borders it should become a federal felony and should be handled by the FBI under the RICO Act.
These calls are coming from call centers in Costa Rica and India and they are using spoofed (false) numbers, which in itself is illegal. They do cold calling for or sell the leads to numerous companies in this country and they know that what they are doing is illegal. Tomorrow this same number may be selling Cruises, Timeshares or Security Systems but if you follow the money it usually ends up in the hands of an American LLC. Keep complaining to the FTC and FCC, and start bugging our politicians to pass laws to make it punishable in criminal court instead of handing out fines that they don't pay. Another course of action is to contact phone companies to find out why they won't block spoofed numbers. With today's technology that should be an easy thing to do, unless they are somehow profiting from the use of their systems.
Robocalls are illegal unless you have given them prior permission in writing (not worded into some small print contract from a 3rd party) and are absolutely illegal to a cell phone. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act permits individuals who have received certain unlawful telemarketing, such as junk faxes or telemarketing calls, to sue the violator in state courts where they may be awarded up to $1500 for each violation.
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/robocalls/
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2012/07/robocall.shtm
http://transition.fcc.gov/cgb/policy/TCPA-Rules.pdf
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/donotcall/mediacenter.html
People should continually file complaints with their Attorney Generals office and also file with:
http://www.fcc.gov/complaints
https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov
If enough people keep complaining then maybe something will get done.
The FTC has already taken action against some of them however they just pay a small fine and are back at the same scam the next day:
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2012/02/afl_financial.shtm
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2012/02/voiceblaze.shtm
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2011/12/roycox.shtm
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/03/voicetouch.shtm
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/05/robocalls.shtm
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/12/robocall.shtm
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/09/twi.shtm
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2011/02/robocall.shtm
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/05/robocalls2.shtm
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/12/jpm.shtm
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/06/asiapacific.shtm
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/donotcall/mediacenter.html
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2012/03/asiapacific.shtm
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/08/voicetouch.shtm
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2011/11/sonkei.shtm
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/05/ams.shtm
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2011/01/khalilian.shtm
I will say it again, we need CRIMINAL penalties against the companies that are profiting from these calls. Follow the money, slap them in jail, no one left to outsource to overseas boiler rooms, problem solved. Since they are operating across borders it should become a federal felony and should be handled by the FBI under the RICO Act.

I agree with anomous. These Robocalls have to stop and our Government centainly doesn't seem to care about enforcing the DO NOT CALL LIST and protecting our right to privacy.
As pointed out, these outfits are posting false caller ID's and I cannot believe those Bozo in Washington supposedly can't do a thing to prevent it. That is bull!!! If we could find Osama or the FCC could fine a TV network for a minor "wardrobe malfunction" at the Super Bowl; you can't tell me that they can't trace & stop these kinds of calls to the innocent general public here in the USA that are being bombarded with these unsolicited calls.
If anyone knows the names, addresses & phone numbers of these scammers; please share it with everyone. That we will have some specific information to pass along to our Congressmen. Otherwise just reporting this number to them or the US AG will only get you a nice form letter.

as far as having "phone companys" block phishing scammers #s that is a joke at least with my cell T-Mobile, I called them and told them my problem, they misunderstood me and charged me an extra 5 bucks saying something about family plan, no no, I said I just wanted to block the #s I gave them. It's bad enough they are charging me more and more, but any way I finally got that charge dropped but still didn't get phishers blocked.
Here is something that might work for smartphones.
http://mrnumber.com/
There’s no charge to use Mr. Number as your app for texting, calling and blocking calls. Mr. Number Caller ID is also free if you agree to share contact information. If you choose not to share contact information with them, you can purchase Caller ID for $9.99/year or $1.99/month.