OT - Tired of receiving calls to my cell phone to lower credit card rates

[kat-21]

Just as annoying as bandit signs are spam calls and texts to your cell phone. Two to three times a week I receive calls on my cell phone where a recording tells me they want to lower my credit card interest rate. I have told them repeatedly to stop calling and that I am on the Do Not Call List. Every time they call, its from a different number and when you try to call it back, it's a non-working number. There has to be a way to track down who is making these calls.

Lately, I just ignore the calls, but its annoying. I have answered the calls on a number of occasions and go along with their sales pitch telling them, yes, I have a lot of debt, etc., just to try to find out who they are. But if you ask too many questions, they hang up on you. One company called themselves Card Member Services out of Florida and another said they were Financial Services out of California.

Any suggestions on how to track down these scumbags and report them for violating federal and state laws?

[BarryG]

I get them all the time too. Report to the FCC here: File Complaint | FCC.gov

[kat-21]

How can you report them when you don't know who they are or what number they are calling from ???

[BarryG]

How can you report them when you don't know who they are or what number they are calling from ???

They always show up with a caller id number for me.

[PhilaCap]

Would you like to lower your credit card rates? Call me to find out how.

[Jayfar]

Every time they call, its from a different number and when you try to call it back, it's a non-working number. There has to be a way to track down who is making these calls.

They always show up with a caller id number for me.

Per the original post, they are apparently spoofing the caller ID. It might still be traceable if you specify the exact time of the call in your complaint.

I recall that the feds did eventually nail the people who were running similar scams a few years ago for automobile extended warranties. I was actually a victim of blowback from hundreds of those calls, as my phone number was one used by the spoofers. After receiving dozens of callbacks from recipients of spoofed calls in the course of a couple days, I ultimately ended up putting an answering message on my phone explaining that the calls did not come from me (and yes I also notified Verizon). It could have become very dangerous for me; one angry caller demanded that I stop calling his girlfriend.

[ColeenH]

OP, I'm getting the same calls. It's infuriating.

[amberstreet]

You can call the do not call # 8883821222 it is for cell phone and they are not to call,except I did receive a call this day

[Sailaway]

I guess I'll wade in with how I slowed down the calls.

Putting your name on the Do-Not-Call does absolutely nothing to prevent this kind of call. These scammers know full well what they're doing is illegal, and you'll find they either spoof Caller ID or call via modified disposable cell phones.

Filing 1088s (the FCC Complaint form) can help a little but if you've worked with FCC, you know they are one of the most abjectly hostile, anti-consumer government agencies around. You absolutely have to ride them, meaning call them, complain, perhaps even threaten to contact your congresscritter and request a reduction in funding to FCC (and follow it up with a letter to said congresscritter asking for just that.) FCC can be prodded into action but be aware you'd better have a cattle prod.

Try contacting your carrier directly after the couple calls or SMS spams. They won't do a thing: most if any have no proactive abuse policy in place whatsoever, and if you get an honest rep, they'll tell you that outright rather than patronize you. The reason to contact them is that by the time you receive your third or fourth call or SMS spam, you can mention in the comments/info box of your FCC complaints that you've tried to enlist your carrier's help, but that your carrier is making no effort to control abuse. In the case of VZW, you'll probably start getting calls and letters from management in Connecticut. THOSE folks will help. They'll tell you to contact them each and every time you get an unwanted marketing call or SMS spam and they can get the source identified and nuked fairly quickly so that few other people will be victimized. In effect, for those who've worked with email abuse, they are functionally similar to an abuse@isp.com address, once you've reached this point.

Keep in mind, though, that this won't totally eliminate unwanted calls or SMS since, again, there are no pro-active or rapid-response mechanisms available to consumers.

PS: Never reply to an SMS text or contact an "opt-out" number, website, etc. Replying STOP or otherwise opting out only verifies to the spammer that they've hit a live cellphone and that you've taken the time to read their text or listen to their message. Unfortunately, reps at phone carriers often advise people to opt-out, and that's when the real flood starts.

[szekely]

There seems to be a new law stating that these calls have to have an opt-out option. Listen to the message for a while and see if there's something like this:

to stop receiving these messages, press 5.

This does not apply to spam calls from humans, but it does apply to robo-calls.
It worked for me. I was getting those messages that say "There's no problem with your credit score right now, but..." I don't get them anymore.
Good luck.

[ArcticSplash]

When I'm home I forward my cell to my Vonage which I wired to my phone jacks in the house.

When I get one of these when I'm in the house I just push and hold down a number so the idiot on the other end gets a DTMF tone in their ear. I just mash it down until they give up.

[emmalineaccurso]

Cell phone jammers can really be a good item to keep the phones quiet in the public places. Although it is traditionally used in military field, it can be taken into application in many other circumstances I think.