Why do so many of the telemarketing calls have Oregon area codes?

I get telemarketing calls on my cell phone. It's not an Oregon number and I don't live in Oregon. I visited once but only called State Parks since I was camping there, yet 99% of the telemarketing calls I receive have Oregon area codes.  As soon as I get a telemarketing call I mark it as "add to reject list", so my phone doesn't ring, but the other day I was looking through my "reject list" and noticed that almost 99% of the calls were from Oregon numbers. I'm curious to know why this is and was wondering if anyone had any idea. Also, listing my number on the do not call registry and painstakingly filing numerous complaints has not ended or reduced the number of telemarketing calls I get on my cell phone.

Hi - I'm not sure why that would be, but I'm guessing that virtually every area code in the US (and country code overseas) has been the source of telemarking calls. Either there's a connection with your camping trip there, or it's just coincidental.
As to your second question, I don't doubt that you've filed numerous complaints, as have hundreds of thousands of other people. I read somewhere that the DNC registry fielded around two million complaints in 2011. I'm sure they're doing the best they can with the resources and staff they have available.

Here's the source for my 2,000,000 complaints figure --- interesting reading from the FTC -- you'll have to scroll down to page five:

http://www.ftc.gov/os/2011/11/111130dncdatabook.pdf

Your right...I get them too, and I am on the do not call list as well!!

This is just my opinion, but I have a feeling that it has to do with unemployment.  The higher the unemployment, the greater the welcoming of these robocalling companies.  That is, the more people you have sitting around, twiddling their thumbs at Worksource, the more willing the powers-that-be in any given state are to allow anyone and EVERYONE in who even so much as whispers a three syllable word beginning with the letters "EM."  The state of Oregon is hurting, just like everyone else.

From what clw and consumer have to say I'm guessing it's just coincidental then! Thanks for the info clw, I won't be as quick to criticize the FTC next time!

It has nothing to do with the economy in Oregon or any other factor like that. It's because all of those Oregon area code calls are coming from the same telemarketer.  And I'm willing to bet they're not in Oregon at all.   You should all be aware that a Caller ID number can be easily faked to make an incoming call appear to come from just about any number.  The phone companies know it and they just look the other way.  These telemarketers making hundreds of thousands of calls a day are their best customers, after all, so they have no incentive to stop the practice.

I get almost an equally high number of telemarketing calls seeming to come from the 407 (Orlando FL) area code and I never answer any of them. None of the numbers are working numbers.  

Having your number on the Do Not Call registry means nothing to these clowns until they get caught.

You have a lot of it right.  They aren't necessarily spoofing the numbers, they may legitimately be Oregon numbers, but spoofed or not, this is the old stage magician's trick of misdirection.  I strongly doubt they are in Oregon, and they may be anywhere in the world. BTW - just because you can't call a number back, does not mean it is spoofed.  It is all a very SIMPLE matter of configuration.

I have to strongly disagree with you on this, however: "The phone companies know it and they just look the other way.  These telemarketers making hundreds of thousands of calls a day are their best customers, after all, so they have no incentive to stop the practice."

It is easy to analyze these things in a context based in the technology of the past, but which no longer holds water.  The days of "Ma Bell" POTS service are behind us.  These calls are traveling over the Internet using voice over IP technology.  There are thousands of VOIP providers in this country alone, and callers are not limited to using US based providers, even when they want a US based phone number.  I can use a US provider to get a number in Hong Kong, and I can get a US number from a provider in Hong Kong.  (Pick a country, that was just an example.)

Actually, the traditional phone companies have a lot of incentive to stop this stuff, because it is killing their business.  Very little of this traffic emanates from their systems, because their lines are so traceable.  But people are abandoning Ma Bell in droves, in part from a mistaken belief that they will escape these sorts of calls.  

However, while Ma Bell has the incentive, there is very little they can do about it.  The smart thing for them to do is to offer sophisticated call filtering, but their management brains are to ossified to allow for such a smart move to see the light of day.

Just to illuminate my point about where the traffic comes from, look at this PARTIAL list of VOIP providers, on the lower half of the page at this link (impoverished Bangladesh has 220 of them!):

<http://www.voipproviderslist.com/>

Oregon and Pacific Northwest numbers have been far out in front for months in terms of delivering junk calls, most being credit reprice scammers and vacation cruise sales hawkers. The travel calls have been hiding themselves behind a fake survey and even the name "Political Opinions of America".

Last year you would have thought that all of the nation's junk callers had relocated to Errol, New Hampshire, a bustling megalopolis of 291 residents. There was no possible truth to that geographic origin, and it's obvious the same ruse has shifted westward.

For the longest time, I had been getting constant calls from spoofed Florida numbers, almost all ending with 9999.  Before then, the numbers were from Califonia (310) and Nevada (702.)

503-902-8479 (an Oregon number)  called at 5:07pm on 4/6/12.   Caller ID showed PACIFICTEL.    Couldn't dial through because I hit the block button on my call management device on the third ring.   Now they are on the "don't EVER answer" list.   If they try with another number I'll just block the whole area code.

A couple of 'telemarketing firms' have moved into the general area in which I live and they've been welcomed as job providers.  These are outfits that, when I looked them up and checked with my AG, delved into business as diverse as marketing surveys to debt collection, never mind the disparity between the two.  As far as the local power brokers are concerned, it's all jobs.

I don't doubt that some of this crap is voip creeps from overseas.  But, there is, believe it or not, a market, a LEGITIMATE market for people who will do this:  pull out script number 1 for one day and call people on a certain call list about getting a new security system and, lo and behold, the next day, pull out another script and threaten folks to pay the next.  

Do those calls from Oregon?  I don't know.  But, I'm leaning toward thinking that they do.  When was the last time that you drove through the guts of Oregon - La Pine, Chemault, Madras, Bend?  The military is big there (war is a sure thing for jobs, no matter the consequences when things turn south) and when the military pulls back as it is now, it's a classic power vacuum just waiting for some new business to fill in the gap, such as telemarketing.  It's a big business.  They make tons of money.  Tons.  

I get these phone calls from a variety of different places as well and they do seem to follow a geographical progression - for the longest time they were coming from western Montana and then, Nevada.  They might've been really from those places, or maybe not.  The way I see it, there was an economic driver behind the possibility that they might've been actually from those places.  But, maybe not.  Of course, this is all just my opinion.

I wasn't thinking overseas, so much, as just "anywhere but where they say they are".  But you make a good point.  If you have trouble getting people to do sleazy work for very little money, why not go where people are desperate?

When it comes to the cruise/survey scam, they operate under a thin pretense of legality, and may not feel the need to hide.

If you take a look here, <http://licenseinfo.oregon.gov/index.cfm?fusea ... k_item_id=14827> Oregon seems to have some requirements for telemarketer licensing.  They are also getting lots of complaints to the state about telemarketing operations targeting residents and non-residents.

Of course, we also have slimeball operations like this one: <http://www.telemarketing.net/states/Oregon.html> promoting Oregon as a phone spammer's little piece of heaven.  

Here is what monster.com says about the profile of a typical telemarketer in Oregon:

$15,080.00 - $35,200.00
Typical Salary for Telemarketer in Oregon
(48 Respondents)
Source: Monster.com Careerbenchmarking Tool
Education / Training
Some College Coursework Completed
37.5%
High School
20%
Associates
20%
Bachelor's
17.5%
Some High School Coursework
2.5%
Certification
2.5%
(40 Respondents)
Source: Monster.com Careerbenchmarking Tool

All in all, you may be right.  Almost makes me wish I was in Oregon to look under the rocks for maggots wearing telephone headsets. ;^)

I've noticed a lot of Oregon calls lately as well. When I look them up here, most of them are "Tom" with the home security pitch. So those are all coming from one outfit. Discounting those, I don't think I get any more calls from Oregon than anywhere else.

There are a number of phone companies that have been specifically set up to cater to the scammers like "Rachel from Card Services."

One of these is "Pacific Telecom Communications Group." They operate in Oregon, Washington, Montana, and North Dakota.

Look up the following OCNs (Operating Company Numbers) in telcodata.us:

272G (WA)
215G (OR)
913F (MT)
975F) (ND)

I've never had a legitimate call from any prefix or thousands block that they control. I've programmed my Asterisk system to send any of their calls to a fake IVR menu that goes nowhere.

Other OCNs worth blocking are:

555F (CallerID4U in Washington)
6967 (33 Wireless in California and Nevada, seems to be a rebranding of Digitcom Wireless)