I have finally gotten most of the spam filtered to VM but it still hacks me off. As I have impressed upon the Kall8 rep, "My major problem isn't the cost, its having to drop everything and grab the phone several times each day."
I have been raising hell with Kall8 and they say that they are close to getting it shut down but I somehow doubt it. Last year when this crap started for me, they were pretty indifferent but now acknowledge that there is a major problem with many toll free numbers.
So where do we find an ambulance chaser with the resources to hunt these SOB's down?
+1
John in NC
Getting them too. 310-738-2806 I am an insomniac, but even insomniacs do not like three am calls. Like the last one. Would really like this to stop.
My snarky (and inappropriate) comment must have struck a nerve... In the past 24 hrs, I am very close to setting a new daily record for silent / hangup calls. 7 have arrived via Kall8 and one via DeltaCom. Most of them overnight Saturday.
Now the calls are coming from FL, TX, CT, GA and VA.
From Number From City From State 832-850-4331 Buffalo TX 312-647-2151 Chicgozn01 IL 404-996-1760 Atlanta GA 860-856-5323 Hartford CT 430-200-0292 Texarkana TX 682-459-2650 Cleburne TX 904-834-4626 Pntvdrabch FL 757-657-4126 Holland VA
Let's get back to the project of tracking these idiot scammers down. I have forwarded a list of numbers to Verizon and will be calling the FCC Monday AM. If I don't receive a return call from the TRA Monday, I will call them back Tuesday.
Does anybody know exactly who administers and disperses the CID dipping fees?
I am posting this over on the yahoo group SilentTollFreeCalls@yahoogroups.com as well
Later,
+1
Ratt
Got a prompt call from Verizon today... Saying that they couldn't provide information on the calls other than caller ID. Which I already have via my toll free call report. I didn't get a chance to call the FCC today but it is the first thing on the agenda for tomorrow morning.
It appears that swamping the FCC and probably FTC with complaints may be the only solution now. I haven't heard from DeltaCom yet today.
Later,
+2
Ratt
| 1 reply
Well... I just had a pleasant conversation with a nice lady at the FCC concerning the silent / hangup / abandoned calls to my toll free numbers. She took a report on a single call that came in this morning a few minutes after midnight but asked me to fax a list of the calls for past few months.
She noted that she they had in the past investigated a number of these scams and in a few cases found that the toll free providers themselves were making the calls...
I have a list of about 150 numbers and call times to fax in a few minutes.
CALL the FCC at 888-225-5322 to report. The lady seemed to be genuinely concerned that they were calling toll free numbers and wasting my time and money.
I just faxed a list of almost 200 numbers numbers to the FCC complaints division.
If you are receiving silent / hangup / abandond calls to your toll free numbers, call the FCC and file a complaint and provide a list of the calling numbers.
a class action lawsuit against whom? the problem is, these calls are not coming from a single individual or organization. they each individually have to be sued. how do you propose to do that?
0
getthesebastards
| 1 reply
Our company has over 35 toll free numbers and have been getting a slew of these calls daily from the same area codes and many of the same phone numbers mentioned in this forum. The callers intentions obviously are not good. They waste our time and resources and cost us all revenue. At the very least we should all call our carriers often with the call times and phone numbers of these malicious jerks. If our carriers receive many adamant calls about the inconvenience and costs they will investigate!
+1
RainbowBear916
| 1 reply
We are getting serial spam calls too on our digital land line today. It's continued for 2 days now, the calls are sometimes 5 minutes apart from each other, and sometimes they appear as 30 minutes apart.
We have contacted Surewest Communications for assistance, and they told us to use a service called NoMoreRobos or whatever it was called. Other then that they told us we do have access to a phone feature where we can block up to 10 numbers, but so far each time they call, its a different number or area code so we would max this out in a hurry.
The calls start out by us picking up the phone, and then we keep saying hello, then we get the tone as if we dialed a call and its ringing on the other end, waiting for the other end to pickup. It's almost like someone is using Google Voice or some other call forwarding service to pull off this scam. I took my partners cell phone and did some reverse lookups online today and I also used Skype to try and call back some of these numbers, but calling these numbers , all of them failed.
I just don't get it. I really do praise this site however for helping us get to the bottom of these phone call spammers.
Sorry to hear that you are getting the calls now but I haven't received a single spam call to any of my toll free numbers since 11/1. That was just two days after submitting about 200 numbers to the FCC. I doubt that the complaint submission had anything to do with the sudden halt but am really glad that it has stopped. I suspect that the scammers rotate thru numbers randomly. However, is very odd that the calls to 3 numerically unrelated numbers (supplied by 2 different venders) stopped at the same time.
REPORT REPORT REPORT It only takes a few minutes.
Normally the FCC allows one number per complaint submission but while talking to the complaint taker, she said that they will take a single complaint and then allow you to fax a list of numbers to be added as supporting evidence. The FCC folks that I spoke to seemed to be genuinely concerned about the calls were coming to toll free numbers.
I posted this earlier but for some reason it disappeared shortly thereafter.
Are your toll free numbers published on the internet? I have been trying to correlate the timing of changing the toll free number on my web page to the beginning of the calls to that new number. One of the numbers that was receiving calls hasn't been actively promoted for 2-3 years but is probably still on some obsolete pages on my site. One was the current number that has been the main contact number for a couple of years and another was a better vanity number that I acquired earlier this year. I believe that the calls to the new number started just before it was published but am not sure. I have yet another vanity number that has never been published by me. I have considered hiding the previously unpublished number on my page to see if the calls start.
We are probably going to have to start putting our toll free numbers in an image instead of typed text just like we do email addresses to protect them from the email address skimmers.
+1
Mark
| 2 replies
I am getting calls on my Toll Free numbers that have either a fax or modem tones. The caller IDs are all over the place and point to real businesses, so white listing won't help. I suspect that the caller ID is spoofed and the calls are VOIP because I hear some fading and warbling. I doubt that unless the toll carriers can get real route info about the call that it will stop anytime soon.
I have tried forwarding my toll free lines to Callcentrics fax service but it has not captured any faxes. I will use Voip.MSs Automated Attendant to trap the calls (Press 1 to leave a message, else I send them to a SIT tone (tells automated equipment the number is disconnected).
Because of the sheer numbers of these calls, only the NSA has the ability to look at that many call detail records and tell who is calling who.
I have received a few fax/modem sounding calls but for the most part mine have been silent. My silent calls stopped the first week of November after I placed a complaint with the FCC. They restarted 11/25 on one number and a few days later on another.
I have only received about 7 calls total in the past couple of weeks instead of that many a day that I was getting.
Looking at the new posts on 800notes I see a number of other people complaining about silent calls but don't know if they are to toll free numbers.
Date CID Toll Free #
11/25 646-558-2000 A 11/25 786-358-0000 A 11/25 408-418-0000 A 12/08 509-414-5508 A 12/08 781-262-3840 B 12/08 330-935-9623 B 12/10 504-582-2382 B
File a complaint with the FCC. It only takes a few minutes and the folks there that I have talked to seemed to be especially concerned that these calls were coming to toll free numbers.
CALL the FCC at 888-225-5322 to report. They will only take a complaint on one number but will allow you to fax a list of numbers as a supporting attachment.
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