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I have been getting calls that immediately start with, "Thank you for choosing Marriot Hotels!" for a couple years now. The message goes on to say how I am getting this great offer because I am a valued customer. On a couple occasions, I stayed on the line to get a human, they ask yes/no questions (are you over 28? do you have a valid credit card?). I just replied with questions of my own, and they immediately hung up. I can continue to ignore the calls, but they are always from a random local number and I get nearly twice as many of these calls than I get legitimate calls.
I did a search and found this has been around for a while and Marriot is aware:
http://news.marriott.com/2015/05/marriott-international-responds-to-continued-phone-scam-updated-oct-20-2015/
I have deliberated about posting, but I don't see the FCC [US Federal Communications Commission] as being able to act unless I can provide them something more than the spoofed phone number. Providing the number(s) probably won't help as they are spoofing the caller ID. I know that this is a long shot, but is there anything anyone can suggest beyond creating a spreadsheet of phone numbers, dates, and times to log these calls? Would that even be useful?
It seems that something is fundamentally broken with the current phone system, if this spoofing is even possible. But that is a side topic here, the real question is, what can I do, if anything, to get the data the FCC would need to shut this down?
(Score: 1) by anubi on Wednesday March 15 2017, @12:06PM (10 children)
It will take some doing from all of us, but there is a lot more of us than them. So if you get a telemarketer's call... and we really want to put an end to this. Waste His Time.
This will make telemarketing so prohibitively expensive they will stop doing it.
However, the drawback is that you may get a bunch of stuff you did not order, but the telemarketer you try to hold accountable shows his phone record where you were connected to him for 45 minutes. and claims you ordered the thing. We all know the ease of editing media files. And unless we have duplicate recordings of the telemarketing business call, we might not be able to defend ourselves against a claim by a telemarketing business backed up by a shimmied call monitor file.
Or worse yet, the telemarketer may get even with you for deliberately taking up his time that he puts YOUR number on his spoofed caller-ID so YOU end up with all the ire of all the hangup calls.
So far, I haven't had the guts to deal with these telephonic pains in the arse, so I end up routing all my calls to voicemail, and occasionally check up on what showed up and return those I recognize.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1) by ewk on Wednesday March 15 2017, @12:37PM (3 children)
Just answer: "Ooh.. that sounds interesting, can you hold one minute, I just have to put the baby in bed..."
And continue with your usual tasks (which may or may not include putting the baby in bed :-) ).
Eventually they will get the (non-)message and hang up.
It nicely takes care off 'accidentally' ordering stuff as well.
I don't always react, but when I do, I do it on SoylentNews
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 15 2017, @03:13PM (1 child)
> ... the baby in bed
Careful, this might result in a baby bed being delivered to your house...!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 15 2017, @04:52PM
Back in the day when I still had a land line the way I would handle this is that I would politely say "Could you please hold for just a minute?" Then I would set the phone down and let them stew until they decided to hang up. Sometimes I would come back a minute or two later and say "I'm really sorry about that. Could you please hang on for another minute?" Lather, rinse, repeat until they decided to hang up. Yes, I am totally evil.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Wednesday March 15 2017, @08:50PM
Just answer: "Ooh.. that sounds interesting, can you hold one minute, I just have to put the baby in bed..."
Why not just ask them to talk about their stuff? These guys have verbal diarhea anyway. But ask them to talk very slowly and loud "because you are a bit deaf".
If you have the time, listen to the finish, perhaps prompting them for more, and then say that they really need to speak to your wife/husband/bum-boy, "fetch" them to the phone (change your voice) and ask for it all again.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MrGuy on Wednesday March 15 2017, @01:15PM
The problem is that it will take some doing from ALL of us. To some degree, this is like saying the solution to spam product advertisements is for all of us to agree to ignore it.
The people savvy enough to avoid these scams, and the people who might know that "waste their time" is an option, are not the target audience.
We have a little more "leverage" with robocalls to help other people out than we do with spam, since just ignoring spam doesn't hurt the spammer at all, where picking up a robocall wastes their resources. But the robocaller can always hang up if they suspect you're wasting their time, and move on.
Ultimately, as long as there are victims who will respond to these calls and will actually hand over money (or personal details that a scammer can convert into money), they will likely continue.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by shipofgold on Wednesday March 15 2017, @01:49PM
I do this on occasion when I am bored, but the problem is that wasting his time generally is a waste of my time. I normally don't have 45 minutes to string them along.
Before I setup my Asterisk box to avoid them, I use to do "hold on for a second" and log how long it took for them to hang up. Most bailed at around 90 seconds. A couple went to 3-4 minutes after asking "helloooo are you there" to which I would respond: 'yep...just a sec'.
The problem is the grunts at the other end of the call are in most cases just trying to earn a living. There are the occasional malicious ones (This is the IT department and we have detected a problem with your computer), but they are few and far between.
These days I just filter with asterisk and "please press 9 if you are not a computer".
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Wednesday March 15 2017, @01:50PM (2 children)
It will take some doing from all of us, but there is a lot more of us than them. So if you get a telemarketer's call... and we really want to put an end to this. Waste His Time.
This will make telemarketing so prohibitively expensive they will stop doing it.
I already do this, but it won't change much even if we all do it.
I get calls from "telemarketers" on a pretty regular basis. But these folks don't want to sell me anything. They are scammers looking for credit card info and other PII.
It's very rare that I receive a call from a legitimate telemarketer that's actually trying to sell a product or service. I think that's mostly because I placed my phone number on the "Do Not Call" list [donotcall.gov]. That restricts most legitimate telemarketers from calling, as they don't want to be fined for calling someone on the list.
[N.B. I know, I know, the do not call list is just another example of illegal, crippling big government "regulation" designed to suck the life out of small businesses. It guts the entire idea of freedom, if businesses can't reach into your home to try to sell you things, we're all going to die slow painful deaths in the poorhouse.]
But I digress. When I do receive these "telemarketing" robocalls (usually it's either "let's reduce the interest rates on your credit cards" or "you've been selected for a free cruise!" or suchlike), the goal for these scammers is for me to give up my credit card info.
Depending on how much time and patience I have at the moment, I'll generally wait a moment or two to be connected to a live person (if they're talking to me, they aren't trying to scam someone else), and give bland, pleasant (and fake) responses to their questions.
When we get to the big moment (or before, if I'm bored or in a rush) and I'm asked for my credit card info, I take one of two tacks:
1. If the scammer is male, I point out quite earnestly that "when I was fucking your wife last night, she didn't mention anything about this." and then describe other sex acts with their spouse until they lose their cool and hang up or I get bored and hang up.
2. If the scammer is female, I make the (objectively true) statement that they "should go back to turning tricks, as it's more honest work." and continue along those lines until I get bored or they hang up.
However, the drawback is that you may get a bunch of stuff you did not order, but the telemarketer you try to hold accountable shows his phone record where you were connected to him for 45 minutes. and claims you ordered the thing. We all know the ease of editing media files. And unless we have duplicate recordings of the telemarketing business call, we might not be able to defend ourselves against a claim by a telemarketing business backed up by a shimmied call monitor file.
Again, the do not call list is probably the most helpful for "legitimate" telemarketers who actually have a product or service to sell. The scammers won't respect the do not call list since they're engaged in wire fraud [wikipedia.org], for which the penalties are much more severe than calling someone on the do not call list.
Or worse yet, the telemarketer may get even with you for deliberately taking up his time that he puts YOUR number on his spoofed caller-ID so YOU end up with all the ire of all the hangup calls.
So far, I haven't had the guts to deal with these telephonic pains in the arse, so I end up routing all my calls to voicemail, and occasionally check up on what showed up and return those I recognize.
I think you've got the right idea. These folks generally won't leave a voicemail, and if the call is something legitimate, they'll leave a voicemail and you can (at your discretion) call them back at your leisure.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Wednesday March 15 2017, @08:57PM (1 child)
When ... I'm asked for my credit card info, I take one of two tacks:
Why not give them fake credit card info? Like this [google.co.uk]. Then they will waste even more of their time later when they try to apply it.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Wednesday March 15 2017, @09:08PM
When ... I'm asked for my credit card info, I take one of two tacks:
Why not give them fake credit card info? Like this. Then they will waste even more of their time later when they try to apply it.
I tried that. These guys are pretty well organized and will check the card for validity on the spot.
So now I just waste their time and then insult them.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by fubari on Wednesday March 15 2017, @05:58PM
Case study: How to deal with a Telemarketer by Tom Mabe [youtube.com]
Give it 40 seconds, it may change your life :-)