HELP! Harassing Phone Calls

For the past 6 months, I have been receiving harassing phone calls 2-3 times a week from various companies calling for my deceased father. These phone calls are from time share companies wanting to buy his timeshare property that he sold 4 years ago, 2 years before he passed away. I have called each one back and requested they not call again. Unfortunately I am unable to discover where they are getting their information from to stop these calls from the source. Obviously they obtained my phone number from an old list. The really ridiculous thing is that he never lived with me. He lived in Ohio, I am in California. Must have put my number down as an emergency contact.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to where I can start to find the call list to get his name removed? The calls are all coming from Florida companies. If anyone has any suggestions, please respond or email me at toyzott@aol.com.
Thank you!! Sad in Calif

Why not try this?

phone calls

caribbeansun said:

Why not try this?

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Why not change your phone number. See if you can have an unlisted number. I know it would a pain, you would have to give it out to people who need to call you.At least the timeshare co would not have it. Also, can you call your local phone co and tell them about your problem and see what they say.

have your number added to the do not call list, don't know the url but it should be easy enough to find. It's a service provided by the federal gov to prevent unwanted solicition. Keep a record of any calls for possible legal action. You can still be called by companies that you currently do business with (credit cards) so it's not perfect but it cut 95% of my nuisance calls.

I just did a search and there are a number of sites, I looked at www.fcc.gov/cgb/donotcall/ and it details how the list works and how to have your # included, best of all, it's free. How nice when something run by the gov actually works and is free, lol

And the company can be fined for each complaint,I think $1500. I don't know how many complaints it takes to start triggering the fines.

if the same company keeps calling you repeatedly you can also file a claim against them through the BBB.

I had to go this route with Bank of America when they kept calling my office number (5-6 times a day!). I called their customer service number repeatedly to cease the calls (I'm on the DNC list). Finially with the BBB complaint it stopped.

If you don't know the company name, try a reverse lookup on it.

We use a cordless phone with built-in caller ID along with our answering machine to screen our calls. Basically we don't answer calls from locations we don't recognize unless someone starts to leave a message and we hear that it is someone we want to talk to. If they get no response long anough, they will eventually stop calling. However, I don't think you will be able to instantly stop the calls you mentioned.

Thanks for your suggestions. I am on the do not call list already, and have started posting complaints and keeping a log of companies that have called. Easy solution I know would be to change our number, have had same one for 16 years now, would be a pain, but may be only next option.

I was just hoping someone might know where these lists originate from so I could go to the source. thank you all

I agree about the caller ID. We got it (and it's free from our phone company) and it is really great. I'm amazed how useful it is! And companies do give up after a while.

Also--if you don't have caller ID--I've noticed that when a telemarketing company is calling, there is a long pause after I pick up the phone and say hello. That's because the "seller" has dialed a whole bunch of numbers at a time and is waiting to see if anyone picks up. So there's a delay while the "seller" notices that you have answered and picks up at his end. During that delay, HANG UP. Don't hesitate. If it's someone who you really want to talk to, they'll call back. (They'll be steamed, but they'll understand.)

toyzott said:

I was just hoping someone might know where these lists originate from so I could go to the source. thank you all

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The "source" at this point is undoubtedly a list of timeshare owners including contact info which these companies purchase. Every time you answer one of these calls, that validates your contact info. There are likely so many of these lists in circulation that it's unlikely they will stop calling you for a long, long time - unless your "Do not call" registration meets with success.

wackymother said:

Also--if you don't have caller ID--I've noticed that when a telemarketing company is calling, there is a long pause after I pick up the phone and say hello. That's because the "seller" has dialed a whole bunch of numbers at a time and is waiting to see if anyone picks up. So there's a delay while the "seller" notices that you have answered and picks up at his end. During that delay, HANG UP. Don't hesitate. If it's someone who you really want to talk to, they'll call back. (They'll be steamed, but they'll understand.)

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Actually, those are autodials made through a computer. The computer listens to see if someone answers. If there is an answer, the computer then retrieves the information about the phone number that was dialed, locates a person in the call center who is not currently on the phone, then connects that person to the call and displays the information it has retrieved about the phone number.

The pause after you answer is just the computer processing information and making the connection to an available person.

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I agree totally about hanging up immediately if you get silence after you pick up. Also, screening using Caller ID and an answering machine is very effective.

For the persistent ones - get yourself a whistle and give them a blast every time they call you and then hang up immediately. They will quickly get the message.

We do something similar to fnewman...although we are on the Do Not Call List, we still get quite a few calls from charitable organiations. We have our answering machine set up to pick up on the second ring. By the time we get to the phone (or mute the TV if the phone is sitting next to me), the caller has either hung up or begins to leave a message. If we don't want to talk to them, we don't.

All family & friends know to start talking and if we're home, we'll pick up! We used to get around 15 junk calls (I kid you not) in the evening before the Do Not Call Registry came into existence and this has worked great for us.

Some phone companies have call blocking or anonymous call rejection- if a "blocked" call comes through it will not ring at your home. It will ring for the caller and instruct him to leave a message (most will not do this) . If he does, then your phone will ring and you have the option of accepting the call after you hear the message. Call your phone company and ask what they can offer you.

We have caller ID and call blocking. If someone has blocked their number, they can't get through to us at all. So we can see every call on the caller ID. If we don't want to talk to them, we simply don't answer. Easy.

Charities and political calls are exempt from the DNC list (I always tell the political calls that I don't need some idiot telling me how to vote ).

And, by the way, caller ID does not always show every number neither (and I'm not talking about blocked numbers here). Even *69 won't show all numbers, and you have to pay for that, too.

Another thing I do on the occasions when I do pick up a call that turns out to be a solicitation - I just quietly place the phone on the desk and let them talk as long as they want. They will finally pause, figure out no one is listening and hang up, but I want to waste as much of their time as I can - after all they didn't mind wasting mine !!

Keitht said:

For the persistent ones - get yourself a whistle and give them a blast every time they call you and then hang up immediately. They will quickly get the message.

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Having worked as a telemarketer many many years ago, I can say that is a GREAT way to get assault and battery charges filed against you. Many of those calls are recorded and that little manuver can buy you a lot of trouble if the telemarketer who gets that short blast is so inclined. If they claim that you've caused permanent hearing loss, you could be in for even more trouble than you planned on.

We have a little piece of equipement called a Telezapper. It emits either the first tone, or all three tones, that the phone company puts out when a line has been disconnected. If it's a computer that is calling you, when you pick up the phone the tone is emitted and the computer thinks it's a disconnected number, hangs up and dumps the number from it's listing system.

Telezapped doesn't end all calls (manual dial telemarketers) and you do have to pick the phone up for it to work. However it did greatly reduce the number of telemarketing calls we recieved. When we got our number on the national do-not-call list, it reduced it even further.

dougp26364 said:

Having worked as a telemarketer many many years ago, I can say that is a GREAT way to get assault and battery charges filed against you. Many of those calls are recorded and that little manuver can buy you a lot of trouble if the telemarketer who gets that short blast is so inclined. If they claim that you've caused permanent hearing loss, you could be in for even more trouble than you planned on.

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Really, that may have been in the telemarketer's handbook but I wonder. Any cases I could look up.?

I too wonder

Would I be liable if I put the phone next to a screaming 1 yr old baby? I think baby trumps whistle - great idea though!!!

In the meantime, until you find your preferred method for stopping the calls, have some fun with them.

"Why yes, I'd love to sell that timeshare, but I don't have a copy of the deed. The cops confiscated everything in my safe after my inditement for real estate fraud. If you can contact the county and come up with a copy of the deed, the timeshare is yours for $10. I'd do it myself, but I'm presently under house arrest."

Most Excellent!!!

bruwery said:

In the meantime, until you find your preferred method for stopping the calls, have some fun with them.

"Why yes, I'd love to sell that timeshare, but I don't have a copy of the deed. The cops confiscated everything in my safe after my inditement for real estate fraud. If you can contact the county and come up with a copy of the deed, the timeshare is yours for $10. I'd do it myself, but I'm presently under house arrest."

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man, I love that one!!

basham said:

Really, that may have been in the telemarketer's handbook but I wonder. Any cases I could look up.?

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Not sure about cases you could look up but my office had one girl who suffered hearing loss secondary to an air horn being blown into the phone. There were charges filed and a civil case as well. How that all worked out I really don't know. I do know it was a big deal when it happened.

No matter how bad telemarketers might be, I can't see doing something that could cause permanent damage to someone who is just trying to earn money. You're not exactly getting even with the company that's actually putting your number into the system or the computer that is making the phone call. The easiest thing to do is just say put me on your do-not-call list and hang up.

bruwery said:

In the meantime, until you find your preferred method for stopping the calls, have some fun with them.

"Why yes, I'd love to sell that timeshare, but I don't have a copy of the deed. The cops confiscated everything in my safe after my inditement for real estate fraud. If you can contact the county and come up with a copy of the deed, the timeshare is yours for $10. I'd do it myself, but I'm presently under house arrest."

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There's a guy out there who has actually recorded some of the things he's said and done with telemarketers. The only one I can think of was when a carpet cleaning company called him. He kept them going and little by little let it out that it was a large blood stain from someone he'd "accidentally" killed that he needed cleaned.

He also found out that there was a telemarketers convention in Las Vegas and learned that they many of them were staying at the Bellagio. He managed to get a room, rind out what rooms they were staying in and then began calling them just like they do to other people.

The Bellagio tracked him down and told him to either quit or be removed from the hotel as I heard the story. At any rate, it was one of the more creative ways to get even with the telemarketers.