Posted on 08/08/2017 10:50:57 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
Telemarketers have a new trick to get you to answer the phone — and it’s hitting close to home.
Caller ID spoofing, a technique to fake the number a call is coming from, makes detecting pesky robocalls more difficult. One increasingly popular way telemarketers are getting people to answer the phone is by mimicking the user’s number — copying the recipient’s area code and sometimes even the first few digits of their number.
Not even the head of the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates phone lines and telemarketers, is immune. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told NPR he’s been targeted by telemarketers using the tactic.
“(The call will) seem to be coming from the 202 area code, which is here in Washington, and then our prefix for these BlackBerries,” Pai told NPR. “And I know for a fact that, you know, it’s probably not someone calling from the office.”
Joel Whalen, a professor of marketing and business communications at DePaul University, says caller ID spoofing can make consumers more comfortable answering a call.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
When Publisher's Clearing House calls at random to tell you you have won $10 million dollars, you are probably out of luck. To me, silence is worth the risk of missing out. :)
Been happening around here for awhile. Just don’t pick up, anyone legit will leave a voicemail.
Had it about a year and a half on our landline and it’s half full already.
I have a VOIP line I use to call them back when they don’t leave a message. If they answer as an obvious telemarketer or the number is not in service they get blocked.
If the person talks to me I start using every filthy disgusting verbiage I can,and when you hear them suck in their breath you know they crapped themselves. I then tell them never call me again and as I hang up I question their parentage. There are shyster lawyers that can get you thousands of dollars to tamp them down forever.
Happens to me. I answered ONCE.
I live in Texas, but my mobile number is still a Minnesota area code. Now any time I see an incoming call from Minnesota, I automatically assume it’s a scammer.
They never have a clue how to argue against that, so they just say "thank you for your support" and hang up.
I get so many calls from my area code, which is in CA, yet I’ve been living in TX for five years. I don’t answer.
I also live in Texas and, when I purchased a new cellphone, asked for a new number. My new mobile number is a New Mexico area code...Roswell, to be exact.
Any time I see an incoming call from that area code, I automatically assume that it's an alien ...
I pickup the phone and remain silent. Telemarketers don’t know what to do.
I’ve had this happen. It takes me a second longer to hang up on them, but hang up I do.
FBI Fraud Investigation Division, how may I direct your call?
We are getting several of these per day, with the same area code and at least 2 if not 3 of the first three digits.
We cut our cable and went from Comcast to Comcast Business, and they don’t allow/permit no more robo calls.
I’ve had people call me and ask why I am calling them.
I explain “spoofing” to them.
These people that do this need to be punched in the face until they can no longer use a phone.
“since they apparently are doing NOTHING to prevent this abuse - I hold the telecommunications companies EQUALLY at fault as co-conspirators.”
They are selling our numbers to the bastards or the bastards are using their service.
You may choose to blast them with hip hop, I’d rather drown them in sludgy Norwegian black metal.
I like that one. I may start using it.
I think I may tone it down though.
AT&T fraud hotline, please hold.
Fun, isn’t it? I do that too.
Call it antisocial, but if your NAME doesn’t show up, I don’t pick up. If you don’t leave a message, I don’t call back.
Telemarketers can GFTS. If you’re SELLING, I’m not buying. If I’m BUYING, I might call you.
No apologies.
PS: and on the rare occasions I DO pick up the phone, the first word I say is “NO” in case this is some kind of scam to put my voice in your ‘puter as consent for whatever.
Yup..have been having that happen to me. Its a call from a outfit that claims to be reps of a hotel chain I have stayed at. They want to sell me on a ocean cruise.
Earlier today, I just blocked on (our landline) our area code/first 3 numbers of our exchange using a call blocker because since early July, we started getting these calls - no name shows up, just the state so it looks like a cell call. No message is ever left. It started with a call a week and has increased to pretty much a call a day - last 4 numbers are all different, no repeat numbers. At some point in the past (year or so ago), we also got a call from our very own number, including the caller ID name .... that’s another trick they use. That specific number has been blocked - since we don’t call ourselves from our own number, blocking it is no problem.
Same situation is occurring on my cell phone - lots of calls from the same area code/exchange - numbers are unknown to me and leave no messages.
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