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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: 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