FTC Targets Massive Car Warranty Robocall Scheme 361
coondoggie writes "Robocalls are a scourge, and the Federal Trade Commission today took action against one outfit by asking a federal court to shut down companies that have been bombarding consumers with hundreds of millions of allegedly deceptive robocalls in an effort to sell vehicle service contracts. According to the FTC, the robocalls have prompted tens of thousands of complaints from consumers who are either on the Do Not Call Registry or asked not to be called. Five telephone numbers associated with the defendants have generated a total of 30,000 Do Not Call complaints. Consumers received the robocalls at home, work, and on their cell phones, sometimes several times in one day. Businesses, government offices and even 911 dispatchers also have been subjected to the calls, the FTC said."
Reader powerlord points out that another such company, not named in the FTC filing, raised the ire of thousands of internet-goers, who struck back by rickrolling the company's voice mail and digging up personal information on the company's president.
At least 3 complaints from me... (Score:5, Informative)
If you get one of these types of calls, just go Here: http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm [fcc.gov] and fill out the form. In a week or two you get the print copy mailed to you of your filing.
Im glad they are acting on these @holes.
Re:This is why... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:How about.... (Score:5, Informative)
Wrong. I get called once every few months by my visa card due to something that sets off their software. It hasn't been real identity theft yet, but they do call you before shutting off the card. Shutting off the card is done if they can't contact you.
But yes, it's safest not to believe it when someone calls you. I always hang up and then call the number on the back of my card to make sure I'm talking to the CC company. The last few times I did that they forwarded my call directly to fraud without going through voicemail, despite just calling the general customer support number- they must have had the phone number on the card flagged.
Re:How about.... (Score:1, Informative)
In most circumstances, you cannot spoof the caller id on the CPE side of the line. Since your having to use a major carrier to send your call through, the carrier will ignore the caller id information you provide and override it with the caller id information specified on your account (i.e. Business name or Given name).
Re:Hurray! (Score:0, Informative)
Regardless, we should call at all odd hours of the day, just to make sure. You wouldn't mind, would you?
Re:Hurray! (Score:1, Informative)
Re:How about.... (Score:3, Informative)
Wrong. I get called once every few months by my visa card due to something that sets off their software. It hasn't been real identity theft yet, but they do call you before shutting off the card. Shutting off the card is done if they can't contact you.
Your experience is limited. Banks can and do shut your card down and then call you. I've had it happen a number of times when I've made online purchases - large ones late at night and foreign ones (DVD orders for non-domestic DVDs). They block the transaction, then they shut you down for any new transactions and then 8 hours later they robo-call you to tell you they shut you down and that you should call them back.
In the many cases where it has happened to me it has been excessively stupid because I use disposable credt card numbers which means I have to log into their website and generate the disposable number before I can make a transaction. So I've just authenticated with username/password before making the purchase. What's worse is that when you return their robo-call, they want to verify it is really you so they ask you stuff only you "should" know - like what were the last 3 purchases on your card, or where is your billing address -- all information readily available to anyone able to log into their website, which I just proved I could do by placing the order in the first place...
So yeah, its a pet peeve of mine and I remember the many cases so well because they have all been so brain-dead stupid about how they handle the situation.
Re:How about.... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:How about.... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Exactly. (Score:5, Informative)
I don't know about the USA, but can say that this would be completely impractical in the UK.
For various complex reasons, major users in the UK (like call centres) frequently buy their incoming telephony and outgoing telephony from completely different companies. It's not uncommon to have several companies providing each. The incoming numbers used may not even belong to the call centre. It is increasingly common for these to be allocated and routed dynamically in real time.
(This is exactly the service my company provides - to known, legitimate customers).
There's no way that the outgoing Telco is going to be able to unscramble or keep up with this.
Re:First Post Rick Roll (Score:3, Informative)
Ive actually rickrolled those guys calling about the warrenty thing (as well as making several complaints to the FCC about them). I would hit 1 to speak to someone when they called, and placed the phone next to a speaker with "never going to give you up" playing. (and those of you who say i should just tell them to remove me, i did, many times and they would just hang up on me and not remove me) Anyway i hope the government throws the book at them, or places them in stocks and let the public throw books at them.
Well, they do care. Caller ID isn't what they use (Score:3, Informative)
At my former company we got fed ANI *automatic number identification* which is a whole heap load different than what caller id is.
We could not be spoofed, it just doesn't happen.
No all caller id services are created equal. The fact that your local provider is more likely playing with it versus "evil long distance company". I guarantee that AT&T or whomever had it nationally past it on to the local. The local filtered it. What your getting as a spoof is probably some trick which passes through just to hit cid devices.
Put it this way, the service we needed was to ID the exact place an employee called in from; this was to log them in at work on site for rent-a-cop stuff. We had all sorts of attempts to defraud the system. Caller id blocking didn't stop us - in fact that is a local only function and a joke. Think of it as a way to separate a fool from his money, kind of like what caller id you pay for is. We had people use business lines, cell, conference out of state, you name it they tried it
Re: BAD comment. MOD PARENT DOWN. (Score:1, Informative)
last i checked, the president has nothing to do with oregon state government function or disfunction.