Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Wednesday March 15 2017, @10:37AM   Printer-friendly
from the with-a-90dB-horn? dept.

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?


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by martyb on Wednesday March 15 2017, @09:19PM

    by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 15 2017, @09:19PM (#479583) Journal

    It just so happens that yesterday morning I was expecting a phone call and answered as soon as my phone rang, only to see that I did not recognize the area code. As I had not yet said anything, I just kept quiet and waited. Sure enough, after about 5 seconds of dead air, the caller hung up.

    I get a couple of random calls each week and usually from a non-local area code. I just let it go to voice mail and they never leave a message.

    Last idea, play a recording of the Special information Tones [wikipedia.org] but that has become less useful as a result of the use of Telezappers [wikipedia.org]. Still might be worth a try.

    --
    Wit is intellect, dancing.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2