Keep getting home improvement scam calls. Decided to have a little fun with one of them.

Are any of these numbers you guys are getting start with the 858 876-****? There are a lot of complaints here starting with those numbers. Odd thing is there is usually only ONE complaint per number. In two days I have had 6 calls from the telescum, each with the last 4 numbers changed. One complainant said that they were calling for home improvement"... The few times I've answered there is no one there. I really want to get these scum I'D..

Have you looked under those 858 876 **** numbers?  Or do you expect everyone to suddenly come back to answer your very vague question?

Yes I have. Suggest you reread the post. As this thread is regarding home improvement and these calls are reported to be coming from a home improvement call center  maybe we can establish which call center they're coming from. Or people can continue to write "caller blocked" in their post or continue to criticize those who actually are trying to accomplish something?"

I've gotten several of these, too - and you can see my analysis about 1 page back. Generally from phone numbers similar to my own, all with the same Philippines sounding call center from "Home Improvement". All the referrals I received seemed to have Modernize as a common entity.

Tell them you want some home improvement (roofing is popular), give them a fake name, and see who calls you back. You will get calls asking for {fake name}. They probably won't know they got a lead from an illegal telemarketing call. Educate them.

Complain to everyone that calls you about getting leads via illegal robo calls and ask where they got your number. File a complaint with the FTC again the lead broker. Bonus points for complaining about the contractor that calls you to the BBB, Google Reviews, Yelp, etc about where they get their leads. This is called "Poisoning the Well", and the more complaints they get, the more it will hurt. Then the contractors will either stop using Modernize (or whoever), or Modernize (or whoever) will stop using these trash robo/DNC-violating calls to solicit business.

There are only one or maybe two reports in each of those numbers because callers like this change the displayed number with each call.  There are 10,000 possible combinations of those last four digits, and not everyone who gets called reports it here.
(Large number of possible displayed numbers) x (very low percentage of calls reported) = (little to no reports for each possible number)
I get a lot of "neighbor spoofing" for my area code and exchange and usually the threads for those numbers are empty.  I would post something, but after about 20 calls and never a message, I just blocked the whole kit & caboodle (my first 6 digits are for a community about 20 miles away, so I know none of them are my neighbors anyway.)

Please post the number in the correct thread!
https://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-580-649-9392
By posting in the correct thread your post will be very helpful to other visitors on this site.  Posting in here is useless as your comments will soon be difficult to find as other posts come in.  The search box is your friend.  😉

I get these calls many times during the week as well and they are all having India accents.  The phone numbers that they call from are local exchanges too!  I block the numbers and they still call me from a different local number.  I have missed calls from them and called them right back and the actual owner of the number will answer and they do not have an India accent and claim that they haven't made any calls for over an hour and that they have been getting people calling them similarly.  How do these people get these local numbers to be able to call from when the numbers are already taken by people such as myself????

It's called "spoofing" - and, of course, is illegal which says a lot about the caller.

Unfortunately GreggieD, there is a thing called "spoofing" and more specifically "neighbor spoofing."  Here is a really good news story on the scam of spoofing.  If it's any consolation, many states and the feds are trying very hard to stop this process.  Watch this news video.  It will explain it.
https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/ho ... 9267761?v=railb&

Make it your policy to never answer calls from numbers you don't recognize and NEVER call back.  If you find yourself the victim of spoofing, i.e., if someone spoofs your number, contact your provider.  They may be able to change your number.

I suggest you visit your favorite search engine and look up phone number spoofing.

The takeaway is that Caller ID is now an "unreliable informant". The FCC has a primer and this site has a whole thread on the fraud tactic. As you'll learn, the South Asian tormentors don't need any voodoo to hijack phone accounts from rightful subscribers, since that's not how it works.
Caller ID and Spoofing (FCC)
https://800notes.com/forum/ta-bac750fcdabfbf4 ... or's-phone-call

I have to partly disagree with my peers by underlining that Caller ID substitutions are not inherently illegal. (See, I even underlined it literally.) They are really a protected right, and useful for many benign purposes. Spoofing is a problem when sales callers, fundraisers, and debt collectors cause inaccurate Caller ID to display, per the Telemarketing Sales Rule and FDCPA respectively, and in general when the spoof is part of a planned fraud or crime or other harmful act.

A recent caller from "U.S. Home Improvements" fessed up that he was calling from Pakistan, not India. Then found corroboration via a Pakistani telemarketer's  LinkedIn Page that likely it's one and the same telemarketing campaign. USHI leads were usually sold to Home Advisor and Renovation Experts in past years.

Pakistan, India, close enough, and either way, they must be successful enough to keep scamming, and there is nothing US authorities can do about it.  It's up to us to stop them by not answering the phone when it is an unknown number.

This was just like mine. While the FTC can't bust the Pakistani's on this, tell them you're looking for a roof, and see who calls. Ask them who referred them to you. Then tell them the call you received was a violation of the DNC list, and that "{company here}" is getting you bogus referrals.  Report "company name" to the FTC.

I do this with every call I get. Businesses sign up with Home Advisor (and other) referrals because they think will get decent referrals. Poison the well. Give the businesses a bunch of bad leads - the contractors will not be happy if they are paying for crappy leads. Home Advisor (and other) will either lose money (and reputation) or they will change their business practices, and hopefully get cited by the FTC and other litigation.

As I've mentioned before, I think many of the foreign telemarketing firms are fronting for US-based companies. If you talk with them, you have a better chance of identifying them.