Catholic Info

Traditional Catholic Faith => Fighting Errors in the Modern World => Topic started by: Maria Regina on December 04, 2018, 12:23:15 PM

Title: Phone Scams
Post by: Maria Regina on December 04, 2018, 12:23:15 PM
Utility Service Department

A robo call with a recorded message (not a live person) identifies itself as "Utility Service Department" and calls us two times per day every day.  When we hang up, then the recorded message ties up our phone line for up to 5 minutes each call. This means that we cannot make any other calls nor receive them. If an emergency should happen requiring the police, fire department, or paramedics, we would be without phone service.

The recorded message tells us to press "1" or "9" or hang up the phone.

Press "1" for more information
It does not tell you that you could be charged $200.00 or more per minute for a long distance call.

Press "9" to delete your phone number from  this service
Again, the recording does not inform you that you could be charged $200,00 per minute or more for a long distance call.

Note:

I have not pressed "1" or "9" as this is a common scam to defraud the public by charging long distance fees.
Instead, I hang up, but this harassment has been ongoing now for six months with no relief.

I reported this phone scam to the local Department of Water and Power.

I tried to report this to my local phone company, but there was a 30 minute wait to do so.

In this thread, please list your experiences with phone scams.
Also list numbers that commit this fraud.
We can do this together. We can end these scams.

The local phone company will not help. Instead, they tell us to pay for a private phone number. More money for them.
Title: Re: Phone Scams
Post by: Stubborn on December 04, 2018, 12:58:14 PM
I can pretty much tell which calls are spam, or I'll answer and hang up if I hear silence (or a recording). Very rarely do I get fooled anymore, but if I do, I just hang right up. I've been getting anywhere from 3 to 7 or 8 spam calls a day for the last 2 months or so. 
Title: Re: Phone Scams
Post by: songbird on December 04, 2018, 05:02:26 PM
Maria: in 1983, we were new to Luke Base, AZ. And you have to pay all your phone people and all.  Well, I was getting phone calls, and no one answering.  I called the phone company after tolerating it enough.  They answered me with ideas, which all cost money, and the phone company, $$$.  So, I said, You know, for all in know, you could be the ones doing this to me!  You put paranoia in to hang ups and you get the result you wanted.  This person laughed.  I said, oh, I just might be right yeah.

the phone calls stopped never to return!  How about those bananas!
Title: Re: Phone Scams
Post by: Seraphina on December 04, 2018, 06:02:54 PM
Cant you just block the numbers?
Title: Re: Phone Scams
Post by: Maria Regina on December 04, 2018, 11:14:55 PM
Even though I have registered and blocked my incoming calls, they still come. The only way to avoid these calls is to get a private line and pay a monthly fee to the phone company. This is by design as it leads to more monthly income for the phone companies to compensate them for the loss of robo call revenues.

With a cell phone and a list of suspected phone numbers, it is possible to do an online search through duckduckgo.com as there are hundreds of new online companies that feature reverse phone subscription services to root out the robo calls. However, many of these online subscription services could also be a scam.

I have several friends in Arizona who have worked in various industries. Away from the residential areas, there are rows and rows of warehouses where people work in assembly lines,  in repair shops, or in fulfillment centers where employees handle online orders or phone orders These warehouses do not have air conditioning so the employees must work during the cool hours from about 8 PM until as late as 2 PM.  During the day, the temperatures during the spring, summer, and fall can reach 120 degrees.

Also In the Phoenix area, there are rows and rows of warehouses where people work from 5 AM to 8 PM. These are the robo call centers. They have rows of desks in a huge warehouse campus with very little air conditioning, the minimum allowed by law, so that the employees sweat in these warehouses.  Yet, these employees , men and women, are expected to wear dress shirts and slacks or skirts.

In these robo call centers or call banks, the employees are surrounded with phones, which constantly light up the moment a person hangs up. Computerized phone banks dial preselected phone numbers that are sold to these robo call centers from businesses who have done business with these customers. Thus anytime a customer gives his phone number to a business, that business could resell that phone number to another business.

The people employed by these centers are given minimum wages with bonuses for the first three months, which includes about three weeks of training. After training or even during training, they can be fired. After training, if they do not answer the call as soon as it rings, or if the person on the receiving end hangs up quickly, then they are charged for a dropped call or for a hang up call, but they are not told this during training. In addition, if they are talking to a minor or a senior citizen, the contracts and warranties do not apply., so they are also charged for that missed opportunity. In the end, these employees rarely make enough to support a family, and must depend on food stamps.

If the employee succeeds in obtaining a certain number of contracts, they are rewarded with flags and/or balloons of recognition.

These companies are not unionized, so breaks are not given.  They are not paid for lunch time or for overtime, but they are allowed to have coffee or food at their desks while they work. If they miss work due to illness or if they take too many toilet breaks, they are fired. From what I was told, there is no health insurance, no dental insurance, etc.

These robo call centers sell everything from home insurance, car insurance, home warranty protection plans, home security plans, appliance warranties for washing machines, dryers, refrigerators, and computers, etc.

ATT, Verizon, Frontier, etc., are all involved in these phone scams. They are the ones fronting the money for these robo calls centers. Therefore, after the contracts are sold, the employees at the robo centers do not get any renewal bonuses for all their hard work. Those renewal revenues go to the phone companies. This means that the employees must generate new contracts in order to stay on the job. Those who generate the most new contracts per month get bonuses. Later on, they will be given raises and be promoted to teach the new employees. Few employees make that pay increase as most employees are fired with new trainees being hired each week to take their places. Folks, this is nothing more than a grand pyramid scheme.

The local Department of Water and Power sells lists of phone numbers to solar energy contractors, home repair contractors,  and building contractors. These are the most egregious of the robo calls I get. They are aggressive.