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joewho
Premium Member
join:2004-08-20
Dundee, IL

joewho

Premium Member

robocalls

We've been getting robocalls from Bankcard Services. I did speak to someone, once, and the lady said our number would be removed. Also, after they hang up on me, if I tell them I'm not interested, I call the number back and an automated message allows an opt out. But, it's not effective.

I'm thinking that they are using a computer to make calls and therefore should have an IP address attached to the number. 360-322-6708. Question is how to trace the IP? Should I have the calls routed through my compter and use a tool from this site? Is there any other way to fight back? I'm on the DNC, made complaints etc.

Ideas?

jaykaykay
4 Ever Young
MVM
join:2000-04-13
USA

1 recommendation

jaykaykay

MVM

Just hang up! Don't even bother calling them back as you're then telling them they have a live number, for sure. The DNC doesn't seem able to do anything with these many many calls now coming in. Many of them are political in nature, and those can't be stopped at all!

dib22
join:2002-01-27
Kansas City, MO

1 recommendation

dib22 to joewho

Member

to joewho
See »800notes.com/Phone.aspx/ ··· 322-6708

For info on that number....

Don't talk to them, they are scammers.
joewho
Premium Member
join:2004-08-20
Dundee, IL

joewho

Premium Member

Original question. bump.

I could dig out the old tone that signals a number is disconnected and see if it automatically removes our listed number. There are so many complaints by so many people about this particular company, I thought the friends at dsl reports could help.

The problem everyone is having with this company is that no one can get a physical location to exercise due legal process. If the phone is answered by my computer, could I get a better location than just the town? I'd at least get the isp, but the number may be spoofed.....I'm thinking along those lines.

What is a current telephone program I can use? Can you get isp info using skype? I'm not familiar with those types of programs.

Snowy
Lock him up!!!
Premium Member
join:2003-04-05
Kailua, HI

Snowy

Premium Member

said by joewho:

The problem everyone is having with this company is that no one can get a physical location to exercise due legal process....

Assume that you could track the call back to the computer that the call originated from.
What you'd find would be something like a SIP enabled hacked computer.
Then you'd be back where you started, no closer to identifying the miscreants.
These types of operations don't use their own resources for the obvious reasons, not including why pay for something when you don't have to.
Google "sipvicious" for more insight into the problem.

carpetshark3
Premium Member
join:2004-02-12
Idledale, CO

carpetshark3 to joewho

Premium Member

to joewho
Just as an example - years ago we had an HP fax machine hooked to a computer for ease of entering numbers. I found a number from Vancouver, CA in the fax log as outgoing a couple of times. The number was listed as belonging to a spammer on lookup.

Told my boss to either check the bill for the fax or let me do it. We were never billed for those outgoing faxes, so I'm still puzzled as to why the number was in the fax log. If he spoofed it, it shouldn't be in the log.

As soon as I saw the spam number in the log, the program for the fax on the computer got deleted.

The posted phone number hasn't hit me yet. All I have to hear is "Cocaine" and I check before answering. I had TMO disable VM since I don't like all the BS to get the messages, but I guess messages can be left anyway. I look them up on 800 notes.

One idiot, Texas number, supposedly some kind of consumer nonsense like yours, had the effrontery to leave a VM about dealing with VM. (They could help) I can read those messages from the TMO site. I can deal with VM - ignore it.
joewho
Premium Member
join:2004-08-20
Dundee, IL

1 edit

1 recommendation

joewho

Premium Member

Carpetshark, Are you using googlevoice or something similar? What is TMO? T-mobile?

I read a novel about using a Ca. college to spoof a number and access the govt. Can't remember who wrote it. It's fiction, but sounds familiar. Anyway, thanks for your comments. I did check out sipvicious.

In the old days, I recorded the "line is disconnected" tone to the answering machine. It worked. Wonder if it still does? Didn't like legit callers having to hear the tone and possibly hang up before hearing my message, "don't hang up". lol.

I usually don't answer spam calls. Cordless phones all over the house, caller Id on them and audio caller id on the tv. This particular company is especially annoying, since it's a credit card scam, and my wife works for JPM. JPM is scam enough. . Don't tell my wife I said that. Have a good night folks.

dib22
join:2002-01-27
Kansas City, MO

dib22 to joewho

Member

to joewho
said by joewho:

If the phone is answered by my computer, could I get a better location than just the town? I'd at least get the isp, but the number may be spoofed.....I'm thinking along those lines.

What is a current telephone program I can use? Can you get isp info using skype? I'm not familiar with those types of programs.

Not really... technically if you are running your own VOIP system AND they were calling using only a VOIP system.... you might be able to... but I suspect they are dumping out to the POTS network with old school systems (just guessing on my part).

What you can do is contact your provider and have them activate "call trace". That would allow you to dial a star code after the call that would tag it in their system, so that you could then compel them legally (through police or other proper legal channels) to give you the origination information.

Contact your phone provider and ask them about call trace.

carpetshark3
Premium Member
join:2004-02-12
Idledale, CO

1 edit

carpetshark3 to joewho

Premium Member

to joewho
I'm not using Google Voice. It was more PITA than it was worth. TMO is TMobile.

I do my own ringtones and have them set by groups. I can tell who called and if it's worth pulling over to answer while driving. If it's family, I know and will answer. The phone is in a holster and the seat belt covers it so I have to pull over to get to the phone.

You can't get the SIP tones on a cell phone. Wish you could. You can change your greeting, I think, but what I want is obscene. Not wanting VM goes back to the days of limited minutes. The greeting to get into your voicemail was so long that it ate up a few extra minutes. There were plenty of complaints about those greetings in cell phone fora. The greetings are still annoying. On TMO, if you log into your account, you can read the VM messages for free on the computer.

Election season is coming up. Prepare for more robocalls and surveys.

deke40
deke40
Premium Member
join:2003-01-23
Texas

deke40 to joewho

Premium Member

to joewho
My Panasonic home phone has a 30 blocked number system on it and I use it regulary.
Once a number is blocked it will only give about a half of a ring then block it.

My cell would cost to block them so I just label them PITA1 through whatever and when I see that come up I just do a quick disconnect. I'm to cheap to pay for this service.

MacGyver

join:2001-10-14
Vancouver, BC
·TELUS
Actiontec T3200M
Arcadyan WE410443-TS
Sipura SPA-2102

MacGyver to joewho

to joewho
With my VoIP line I just block the caller ID number. If anyone calls, it just hangs up.

Or you can have some fun and forward the nuisance calls somewhere useful, like the FTC, or in the case of politicos, the opposite party's office But you do pay to route calls around, where hanging up automatically is free.

carpetshark3
Premium Member
join:2004-02-12
Idledale, CO

carpetshark3 to deke40

Premium Member

to deke40
said by deke40:

My Panasonic home phone has a 30 blocked number system on it and I use it regulary.
Once a number is blocked it will only give about a half of a ring then block it.

My cell would cost to block them so I just label them PITA1 through whatever and when I see that come up I just do a quick disconnect. I'm to cheap to pay for this service.

There are free blockers for Android and I assume IOS. More trouble than they are worth. I do the same as you but have shocked some TMO employees when they checked a new SIM. I wasn't as polite. I called them MF1 totally spelled out.
It's my damn phone. I didn't buy it from TMO on contract so they have no say.

Telly Boot
Premium Member
join:2002-05-15
Vancouver, BC

Telly Boot to joewho

Premium Member

to joewho
I've noticed in the last six months that the robocalls are spoofing random 'neighborhood' numbers that are very close to ours, so they look like they might be from a local business or maybe one of the kids' friends or soccer coaches- so presumably that is to get around people blocking the old-style 'one annoying number' repeated calls.
However I have bought a set of Panasonic home phones as suggested above and am setting it up this wekend to block as many as possible.
We have TV bundled with DSL from our ( Telus / phone) ISP, so the incoming numbers show up on the TV screen and we have the kids trained to yell out "Junk Call" - this works great for those robocalls programmed to hit when you are cooking dinner, and saves quite a bit of cursing.
Otherwise it's a situation where you only answer calls where you recognize the number, and let the others all go to voicemail.

dandelion
MVM
join:2003-04-29
Germantown, TN

dandelion to joewho

MVM

to joewho
IMO no good answer to the phone situation besides simply caller ID and not answering. I would actually like a program for my landline that whitelists numbers. There are only a few that I wish to answer, the rest can leave a message if important.
mysec
Premium Member
join:2005-11-29

mysec to Telly Boot

Premium Member

to Telly Boot
said by Telly Boot:

I've noticed in the last six months that the robocalls are spoofing random 'neighborhood' numbers that are very close to ours, so they look like they might be from a local business or maybe one of the kids' friends or soccer coaches- so presumably that is to get around people blocking the old-style 'one annoying number' repeated calls.


I've noticed this also.

My solution for some years, using a cell phone: If the caller is not in my contact list, I don't answer. If the caller is legitimate, she/he will leave a message. (I've never had a telemarketer leave a message.)

If no message left, I enter that number in my contact list as a "Spam" number.

----
rich
OZO
Premium Member
join:2003-01-17

OZO

Premium Member

said by mysec:

I've never had a telemarketer leave a message.

Well... good for you. I've started getting messages (so far 5 in the past several months) with content, similar to this:
"ATT - visit www.attdolarpoints.com and log in to your account to redeem $500. At ATT we care about you."

Message is completely useless. They call form different numbers 1-800-1XX-XXXX. And as you can see, they provide deliberately invalid numbers (watch for '1' in wrong place). Moreover, the web sites are different all the times and addresses are incorrect too.

So, what is the point of those robocalls if everything is fake and even if I wanted to, I can't reach them??? It frustrate me not only they bother me with those stupid calls. They (ATT?) also use my air time (and personal time too) to remove all that trash left in voicemail...

lev
Anyone else remember ISDN?

join:2001-05-30
Goodyear, AZ

lev to joewho

to joewho
said by joewho:

In the old days, I recorded the "line is disconnected" tone to the answering machine. It worked. Wonder if it still does? Didn't like legit callers having to hear the tone and possibly hang up before hearing my message, "don't hang up". lol.

My VOIP provider allows me to specify that certain numbers get a disconnected message when they call, complete with the tones. It doesn't stop the calls. They change the numbers they use near the start of every new month. I get three weeks of peace and then a week of ringing until I set the the new numbers to fail.

Don't think you can outsmart them. You can't. Best you can do is get a phone service that lets you stop numbers from being able to ring through.
HarryH3
Premium Member
join:2005-02-21

HarryH3 to joewho

Premium Member

to joewho
What I find most sad about this is: If they didn't make money from these calls, then the calls would stop. This means that there are some VERY stupid people living among us, keeping these dolts in business and dialing for dollars.

Ken1943
join:2001-12-30
Brighton, CO

Ken1943 to joewho

Member

to joewho
I don't get that name. I get Card Services. The last one was from visa, checking on card purchases. They did not not ask me for any information. Just did you make this purchase, about 10 of them.

I do keep watch on my accounts. Even the ones that are not very active.
joewho
Premium Member
join:2004-08-20
Dundee, IL

joewho

Premium Member

This company's recorded pitch sometimes says they can lower interest rates. At other times the recording says this is the final notice. At any rate, if you get to a live operator on the first one, you must answer yes to the first question or the hang up on you.

Having the technology to spoof a massive amount of calls, get one credit card # out of 100, drain money, send it to a mule and collect later? Wow.

When I was advertising computer repair on craigslist, I would sometimes follow through on scams for entertainment purposes. It's interesting to observe. One of them sent me a phony check for 5000, I called the legitimate owners of the account and they offered me a job. On another phony check, I called the legit owners and it was a pizza joint in Brooklyn. Seems that the guy knew it was going on.

Pirate515
Premium Member
join:2001-01-22
Brooklyn, NY

Pirate515 to deke40

Premium Member

to deke40
said by deke40:

My Panasonic home phone has a 30 blocked number system on it and I use it regularly. Once a number is blocked it will only give about a half of a ring then block it.

I don't know how useful that "sh*t list" feature is since these telemarketers always spoof different numbers. Some of them do call from the same number over and over, but vast majority it's always a different number. I think at this point, a white list would be more effective. Someone on this site talked of something like this: you put your family, friends and anyone else you DO want to hear from on a white list and their calls get through right away. Everyone else gets something like "Press 1 to connect your call". I have OptimumVoice from Cablevision and have been hounding them to add something like this, but so far my suggestions have fallen on deaf ears. If anyone were to make a handset that can do that, I would buy one in a heartbeat.

bhan261
join:2001-02-12
New York, NY

bhan261

Member

My wife uses Callcentric for her business line and it can do that. Their list of call treatments is quite extensive.

infixed
join:2014-03-16
Melbourne, FL

1 edit

infixed

Member

But the advantage of having a actual blacklist is you can forward the calls to a virtual very-slow customer and waste their time.

»www.itslenny.com/

Sample:

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· bK3zUIsk

carpetshark3
Premium Member
join:2004-02-12
Idledale, CO

carpetshark3 to joewho

Premium Member

to joewho
It's legit businesses, too. Somehow or other our office got pestered for three days straight by Visa. All our business had to be done by check, so we had no need for a business account. None of the idiots would take no for an answer until my boss got on the phone and told one rep to "stick it where the sun don't shine"

I found out when she called back. I told her she should have taken no for the answer then, and the insult was her own fault.

And with those credit card calls - go see the Scam and Phishbusters forum here and look for Telemarketing: die, heather from Card Services, die
»[Scam] Card Services relentless phone calls revisited

therube
join:2004-11-11
Randallstown, MD

therube to joewho

Member

to joewho
Perhaps ... How to stop robo calls

CylonRed
MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County
·Metronet

CylonRed to joewho

MVM

to joewho
said by joewho:

The problem everyone is having with this company is that no one can get a physical location to exercise due legal process.

The above is by design of course...
PX Eliezer1
Premium Member
join:2013-03-10
Zubrowka USA

PX Eliezer1 to joewho

Premium Member

to joewho
Get a good VoIP provider such as CallCentric or VoIP.MS

You can blacklist and whitelist to your heart's content.

You can send the telemarketer calls to a recording of screaming monkeys.

You can easily block whole area codes if you want. I'm in New Jersey, I have blocked Canadian area code 902 (Nova Scotia and PEI) because the only calls I get from there are crap.

Less aggressively, with CallCentric I can easily make any callers coming in from Nevada or Washington State or Oregon (99 percent of such are crap calls) dial an extra digit before the call connects. That eliminates almost all such calls coming through.

The telemarketers are using VoIP to call YOU. The best way to fight back is to use it in turn.

-----

Cable company phone services like Optimum Voice, traditional POTS lines, mobile/cell providers, and constipated old-fashioned VoIP companies [we mean Vonage] mostly do NOT offer this capability....
PX Eliezer1

PX Eliezer1 to joewho

Premium Member

to joewho
said by joewho:

I'm thinking that they are using a computer to make calls and therefore should have an IP address attached to the number. 360-322-6708.

That is a CLEC number, thus VoIP by definiton.

Info on that number:

13603226708:
CNAM: BANKCARD SVCS
State: WA
Ratecenter: SEATTLE
LATA: 674
OCN: 555F
Company: CALLERID4U - WA
Prefix_Type: CLEC

And this is the company. Mass-market calls are a main business for them:
»www.callerid4u.com/
dave
Premium Member
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio

dave

Premium Member

said by their web site :
Callerid4u is a provider of caller ID phone numbers and Compliance Services to the high volume dialing industry.
Translation: we make money selling to scum.

ITICharlie1
Ass Mode
Premium Member
join:2003-01-22
Saint Louis, MO

ITICharlie1 to joewho

Premium Member

to joewho
I use VOIPO and have a whitelist setup...if you are not on the list you get the SIT tones, then "We're sorry, you have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service. If you feel you have reached this recording in error, please check the number and try your call again." Wish I could set this up on my cell phone. I also have it setup if the caller ID is "Private" it is blocked.