CallerId4U, Inc. - Millions of Illegal Telemarketing Calls

These idiots are trying to frame you for making a threat to rape somebody. Wouldn't the FBI be interested in that? I mean, how hard would it be to track down this fool's IP address? If the poster is who I think it is, then he is talking about the sexual assault of HIS OWN WIFE. Ewwww. These guys are really, really sleazy.

The phony posts from "JD" show that Callerid4u has apparently become very desperate in their attempts to silence critics of unsolicited telemarketing.  

It seems that they have resorted to impersonating other people in an effort to communicate bogus threats of violence against themselves, which can then be provided to law enforcement as their flimsy pretext for silencing consumers.  

It's almost comical to believe that anyone would actually make a threat like "we pledge violence."  Nonetheless, this is a very serious issue and is clearly defamatory.

Just to point out, just a few weeks ago, CallerId4u was making unsubstantiated claims that the "aryan brotherhood" was making threats against them:
http://telemarketerspam.wordpress.com/2013/02 ... icit-robocalls/

If you read the fake post on the previous page, it talks about "flying to Seattle" to commit some act of violence or another. Um, this idiot does not live in Seattle. Nice try, PM.

CallerID4U has clearly initiated a campaign to "occupy" the search pages with their own crap. When you searched the company previously, all the results were complaints posted on various telephone number search sites about illegal telemarketing calls.

Now do a search. Dozens of new results with crap generated by them. Solution: keep making legitimate complaints to as many different sites as possible using CallerID4U in the subject and the text areas of the post. Don't let them "legitimize" what they are doing by occupying the web search results. The public and unwitting companies that may do business with them deserve the truth. Clearly, this is an orchestrated campaign, anyone with internet search knowledge that can supply information on how to further defeat this ploy, please post the information.

These purveyors of illegal telemarketing calls are trying to appear legitimate and hide the truth about their activities; let's do something about it.

Poor boy kimelman sounds like he's going nuts. I have my proof. Your days of stealing and pranking are slowly coming to an end. Leave everyone alone.

You and your brothers use false names in postings all the time. Even with your scam companies.

You are more mental than you realize.

Again, nobody here knows what you are talking about. Paul Maduno and Luis Martinez own and operate CallerID4U. If you have some evidence that someone else is involved, by all means, post it. Otherwise, you are just talking to yourself...I have "proof" I own the Brooklyn Bridge, by the way.

Trying to sell it, let me know if you are interested.

I think I have found one method these scum scammers are using to harvest numbers. I bought an ATT pay as you go phone about a year ago and put the SIM card in my existing flip phone. I never give the number out and don't sign up for anything, anywhere, anytime. About 3 weeks after I got the phone I started getting these scam calls. I never answer an unknown number and add them to a silent ring. After a few weeks the calls would taper off but then a few weeks later they would start up again. I could never figure out why or what I was doing to get my number on their lists. Then, 3 days ago I discovered what I think they are doing and in hindsight it matches what I had done over the past year when these calls would start happening again. I had not been getting any calls for about the last month to six weeks. I was bored and used the phone to access ATT MediaNet browser since it was part of the unlimited plan. That is the BIG MISTAKE. Within 6 hours the phone calls started and I'm getting 6 to 10 a day, almost exactly an hour apart. Now that I think about it, it matches with previous rounds of calls and accessing MediaNet. Mine is not a smartphone, just a flipphone with limited web access so I hardly ever used it for that reason. The last time I used MediaNet was at least 2-3 months ago which was when I also had to put up with the last round of these calls. I just didn't put 2 and 2 together until it occured again this time. I'm convinced this is what happened in my case and I will never use MediaNet again. I know this is not the only way they get numbers but this is one way I have never heard being addressed on these forums. Just something to keep in mind.

Arrgh!  How about a little formatting so that people can read what you have to say! ; )

Let's explore your idea a bit.

I should start by saying that most of these "aha, gotcha!" theories don't pan out.  

In many cases, no one has your number.  Instead, they are just playing the "random dialing for suckers" lottery.  

You should also know that there has been at least one documented case in which a computer was used to dial in to a CID data logging system, spoofing every number within the NANPA domain.  This resulted in the compilation of every CNAM associated with its corresponding CNUM.  In other words, they compiled the info for every number in the country, regardless of whether it was a published number or not.  It is unknown how this data was being used.  So, the bad guys have lots of means to acquire targets.

When people get an unwanted call, they start looking for an explanation.  They tend to attach the phenomena to something they did or experienced recently, especially if it was out of the ordinary.  This is known in behavioral psychology as "superstition".  It can lead everyone from lab mice and pigeons to clever primates down the primrose path.

I'm not familiar with the MediaNet browser, but I assume it is an ordinary feature phone browser.  How might such a device leak your information?  It might be using an intermediary server at AT&T, but AT&T already had your cell number, so why would they wait until you browsed to suddenly notify the bad guys?  I suppose such a server could be compromised.  Of course there are DNS servers and such in the mix, but they don't seem like great candidates.  FWIW, I do use AT&T smartphones, possibly using these same resources, but I have not experienced any such calling on my cellphones.

What other leaks might there be?  Well, web sites, on-line games, pr0n videos, and other such things seem like good possibilities.  So where did you go with your browser?  I'm thinking these are the sorts of things which make good candidates for phone number theft.  And then there are risks like placing a call to a toll free number, where caller ID blocking will not protect your number (ANI reveals it anyway).

So, meaning no offense, I am not persuaded that your number was previously known to your unwanted caller. But if this was the case, there were many ways they could have obtained it - some of them directly related to your using the Internet from your phone, but not necessarily related to the fact that it was through a particular browser.

My point is simply that you *might* be right, but I would suggest that you investigate some of the other possibilites before you draw a firm conclusion.  Not the least of which is the option that they did not "have" your phone number, but you simply got lucky ; ) .

regards,

-LS-

I was told by an Oregon PUC regulator: It is believed that these telemarketers (who are often off shore) actually use the Do Not Call list as their telemarketing call list.

So there you have it folks, the system designed to protect consumers is actually directly used to exploit them.

That is not correct.  My cell number has been on the Do Not Call list since the day I got it in 2002.  I get less than 5 telemarketing calls per year.  If the scammers were using the list as a source for numbers I would get a lot more.

The Do Not Call list has stopped most of the honest telemarketing calls.  I haven't gotten a photography studio or time share sales call in years.  The few calls that I do get, I know they are dishonest because they have broken one law by calling me.

nM said,

"The few calls that I do get, I know they are dishonest because they have broken one law by calling me.
Reply !"

Great point.

I stopped putting my phone numbers on the DoNot Call List because I figured it was being used as a telephone directory of "good" numbers for companies who engage in unsolicited ,repeated phone calls.

It's true it stops the honest telemarketers. But these robocallers are already breaking the law so they don't care. Any business can sign up, promise not to abuse the list, then download five area codes of phone numbers for free and subsequently buy more. telemarketing.donotcall.gov.

I swear up and down this is what I was told by a regulatory official.

The best way to avoid telemarketing is to take your number off any lists anywhere.

I've posted a number of times on this subject. I don't doubt anyone's word that some bureaucrat mouthed off with an opinion, but those folks are generally not the best and the brightest, and I wouldn't consider something as a pearl of wisdom just because it came from the vent of a GS-whatever. Usually it is quite the opposite.

Let me offer you a dissenting position:

(1) Some bad guys are playing the "dialing for victims" lottery, and don't "have" your number.

(2) There are lots of companies in the business of selling targeted calling lists. This was so before the Internet, and it continues to be the case after the Internet was opened to the general public. If you want a list of people by education level, income level, who have gone bankrupt, donated to "Save the Tapeworms", have tax problems, whatever you think makes them a good victim, you can buy it, and usually at a cheap price.

(3) There is also a black market in "lists", some of which include SSN, credit card #'s, etc.,. They operate on black hat web sites and IRC, with money flowing through various means (like the largely moribund bitcoin), including stolen credit cards. List swaps are also a common practice.

(4) At least one activity using spoofing, CID logging, and automated dialing to themselves in order to map the entire NANPA CNAM/CNUM "genome" has been detected, and presumably the resulting comprehensive telephone user map is floating around in malevolent hands.



So, why would you use an unqualified list, whose only established demographic is that these are people who take active steps against phone predators, and are therefore far less likely to fall for your scam, and far more likely to attempt to take legal action against you. Does that really sound like a plan to you?

In a world where options 1,2,3 and possibly 4 are readily available, free or very inexpensive, far more likely to yield success, and whose use is a better utilization of dialer/agent resources, why would anyone waste time and energy messing with the DNC list to target their scammy calls?

Just because there is only one "readily available big list of phone numbers" in the minds of consumers doesn't make it so. And it certainly doesn't mean it is a list any tele-predator would find attractive. Quite the opposite, in fact. Has, or will, some predator dial from the DNC list? Maybe. There are a lot of stupid crooks in the world and almost every bad idea has at least one adherent.

Is it a common practice to use it? No, I don't think so.

In years of fighting this stuff, running honeypots, and logging traffic to phone numbers spotted around the US, I have never seen any evidence that putting a number on the DNC flags it for traffic from the bad guys.

I'm sure that there are those in the "legitimate" call center business who would love for people to stop using the DNC, but I think you are making a big mistake if you let the telephone boogeyman scare you out of taking advantage of something which will greatly reduce the total number of unwanted calls you receive.

One thing is certain, I use it, and have no hesitation about doing so. As always, YMMV.

regards,

-LS-

I'm sure at least one regulatory official does believe that scammers use the Do Not Call List as a source of numbers.  But that's just his opinion.  I have met several regulatory officials who didn't know what they were talking about.

If scammers were using the Do Not Call List as a source of phone numbers I would get far more calls than I get now.

I protect my phone number like Fort Knox. I don't give it to Facebook.  I don't give it to store loyalty cards. I don't post it on the internet.  I don't give it when I make a purchase.  I don't enter drawings.  And I don't get more than 5 telemarketing calls each year.  

The calls that I was investigating when I found this site were not telemarketing.  They were from a legitimate bill collector looking for some deadbeat who gave a fake phone number on a loan application.