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I get the credit card calls and a few other sales calls but the worst by far are for a business that used to have this same phone number.
When we first moved here, we would just tell the caller that the business had moved and we gave them the new number. Fine.
But then it went viral all over google. They passed our phone number around so that we were getting at least five calls a days trying to "talk to the business owner." If you pick up and listen to the message, you get to press 2 to be removed from their list. If you don't pick up, you continue to get the calls.
We have contacted the real business owner and he has gotten some of the listings taken down from google, but there are many forms of google--google ads, google maps, and google everything else. Then it made Angies List too.
After about a year of it I called the FCC and sent in a form to them which did nothing. The phone company won't do anything but change our number--which we WOULD have done at first if we had known this was going to go on for years.
The initial problem was the phone company giving out a number so soon. When I asked them why they did it they said that they ran out of phone numbers because all the cell phones out there. Now my voicemail says, "You have reached X. This is NOT MM. If you would like to leave a message for X...." But now most of the calls are now robo calls from India so even that doesn't work. At least we are moving within a year!
Robo calls are not the only way scammers can trick you. Another way is to send out bogus emails that look legit. For example, I recently got an email from "PayPal" indicating that my account has been limited and I was to click their link, log into my account and answer their questions. BTW, the logo looked just like PayPal's logo, the email looked legit.
WRONG!
There are two things you can do to verify if the email is legit:
1. Hover the mouse over the link they want you to click on. This will display the Internet address at the bottom of the screen. In my case, it read, "www.paypal.ga" (I assume "ga" is for the country Georgia). Check the address very carefully, it only has to be one character off in order to be bogus.
2. Using your own shortcut or type the correct address in the address field and log into the site to see if there is a message indicating there is a problem with your account. Chances are, there isn't.
Bottom line, never click a link provided in an email! That is the easiest way someone can gain access to that account improperly.
I love that one. The Guy said he was from "Microsoft" and I had viruses on my Computer and he wanted access to fix it. Heavy Indian accent, like you said. I had him on the phone for almost 2 hours, while he was thinking I was doing what he told me to do, but I was not doing anything. He would tell me to go here, and then there, and do this and that, and I would repeat to him what he said, and was telling him what I was seeing, ( I am very computer literate) and then at the last moment, I would mess up his instruction, and make a change in what he said, and he would say "No, No, not that, and we would start all over again. After a half dozen times, he would ask if I saw this on my screen now, and I would say "No" and tell him the screen turned into a "Blue" empty screen, and we would start over again. Next time I would tell him all I saw was a screen that said "Installing Updates" and we would wait, and start over again. He kept getting angrier and frustrated and finally hung up on me.
I also made him talk slow, saying I could not understand him, and had him repeat everything. To tell you the truth, I enjoyed messing with him, like dangling a carrot in front of a jackass. Nothing wrong with having some fun with these guys.
We have been getting LOTS of these calls recently, too. The month of May was particularly bad for some reason - and our land line and both cell phones are on the DO NOT CALL list - but it doesn't seem to matter. The phone in our bedroom doesn't have caller ID on it - it's an old dinosaur that has a clock radio and phone set-up.
A couple of weeks ago - the phone rang and I answered it from the bedroom. It was "John" - the guy with the heavy accent - and I don't even remember now what his story was on that particular day. It varies from IRS grants, to YOU WON!!, or some such crap. I told him (again) to stop calling our number and that I know this is a scam - and he immediately called me a MOTHER F***ER (I kid you not) and said he will call whenever he GD feels like it. I disconnected the call. I told my husband. I was actually stunned.
In my own house, in my own bed, minding my own business, answering a private line that WE pay for - and I hear that? Sooo...I went out and bought several good old whistles - and put one by every phone in the house. Now, if either of us inadvertently picks up the phone and it's them, we just blow as hard and long as we can - and hang up. So far, the calls have dwindled down to less than 5 so far this month (June). If I could get my hands on just one of those asshats - you would see me on the evening news - I promise you that.
I worked as a telemarketer for a brief time many years ago when Do Not Call was first introduced.
I hated to use my scripted sales pitch on the elderly. I felt that many probably were low income, living off a small pension - but I had to do my job or be fired.
I think the problem is some people think that being rude and verbally abusive to the telemarketer, or slamming the phone down, or letting the unidentified call go to voicemail, or heaven forbid as another poster here pointed out - blowing a whistle (yikes ) is going to make the calls stop. That's not how it works.
When you receive a cold call like that you have to specifically say "Put me on the Do Not Call List". If you don't say that then the calls will continue.
Hey, I don't make the rules - I just had to follow them.
In relation to "scams" - all I can say is my sales stats were good because many people were very interested in the products and/or services I was offering. There was no "scam", I was representing a reputable company.
Also I just want to add that you have no knowledge of the telemarketer's private life or personal struggles that forced them to accept working at such a horrible, thankless job. No point in treating them badly.
Oh, and I'm not in India, lol.....I'm in Canada
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Perspective from a former telemarketer....
) is going to make the calls stop. That's not how it works.
