The other day, I got 11 telemarketing calls.  I’m on the Do Not Call list, but that doesn’t seem to matter.  They call my home phone, then my 800 number.  The calls are recordings, urging me to join their program to make “legitimate” & “automated” calls with the promise of earning thousands of dollars a week.  What makes them think I would buy their system when they make me pay for their commercial?   Because I have an 800 number, it’s free for others to call me, but I pay for every minute.

So, what are they selling?  I think most of them are selling the program that makes these robocalls.  They’re more than annoying.  They’re frustrating!  There’s no way to avoid them.  And there’s no way to stop them.  I’ve checked with Vonage, my land line phone company and my toll free company.

When I posted this on my Facebook wall, it started a discussion of what these calls really are and what we can do about them.  I learned about LeadNetPro, an online program that you can buy for $397, plus a monthly charge.  I watched a LeadNetPro video.  With a few mouse clicks, they can choose a company and narrow it by country, state or city.  The program scrapes the Internet and extracts phone numbers, addresses and email addresses.  Then, the program robocalls each number and plays a prerecorded message.  Now that I know how they’re compiling their lists, I don’t think pressing 9 will help.  It’s too easy to just generate another list.

I shouldn’t be getting these calls.  I’m on the Federal Trade Commission‘s (FTC) Do Not Call list.  According to their site:  “The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) amended the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) to give consumers a choice about whether they want to receive most telemarketing calls. As of October 1, 2003, it is illegal for most telemarketers or sellers to call a number listed on the National Do Not Call Registry.”  Telemarketers and sellers are required to register with the FTC and search the Do Not Call Registry every 31 days.  They must “drop from their call lists the phone numbers of consumers who have registered.”  “Violators could be fined up to $16,000 per incident.”

My Facebook friend, Jennifer Fisher, has taken a proactive approach and shared her system with me.  According to Jennifer . . .

I actually listen to the message now, where as I used to just press 9 and hang up.  Every second that recorded message plays, they are paying an additional charge.   If you’re going to use the system then pay for the privilege of annoying me.

Some of them give a website so I go to that website.

If there is a contact email address down at the bottom, it is usually going to be directed to the owners of the program, not the voice spammer.  Sometimes I have to dig through the Terms of Service to find it, but if I do, I send the owners an email suggesting they stop their voice spammer from calling me… give the name of the person, their phone number, time they called, etc…

And I also let them know if they do not STOP the person from abusing our phone numbers, I will report them to the FTC and their Attorney General’s office.

In most cases, what these people are doing is in violation of their contract, they just don’t take the time to read it.  And because we don’t take a stand, they just keep doing it and doing it.

If it’s an email spammer, and they’re hocking a Network Marketing Company, I’m forwarding the email to that company with the same message.   I don’t know this person, didn’t ask for information… They’re scraping email addresses and phone numbers off the internet. Stop them NOW !

I agree with Jennifer and I’m going to follow her advice.  I’ll explain what I’m doing in the next post.

Related posts:
• Do Not Call Registry
• Phishing Scam