Annoying phone calls

dragon1952

Although my number is unlisted and on the national no-call list, I have been getting a phone call every day for the past several weeks, sometimes twice a day, from a recording who wants me to call a 1-877 number for an important issue. I finally got so pissed I was going to call it and chew someone's **** but then I figured it might be one of those long distance hoaxes or something. I just found out that the '877' area code is a toll-free code so I'm wondering if it's safe to call. Anyone know for sure?
Thanks.

szhleppy

Call them back from your neighbor's phone.

Demiurge

Call from a pay phone, if you can find one. 877 is supposed to be toll free.

dragon1952

szhleppy wrote:

Call them back from your neighbor's phone.

How about I call from YOUR phone

dragon1952

Demiurge wrote:

Call from a pay phone, if you can find one. 877 is supposed to be toll free.

Pay phone!?

bobman1235

800 / 888 / 866 / 877 numbers can all be called from a pay phone for free. Chances are you'll call the number and it'll just be an advertisement for a 1-900 number or something. You could always just find out howt o report a phone abuse and report the number to the FCC or whoever.

ohskigod

collection call centers do that too. call from an autodialer (hence the annoying recorded message)

might want to give them a buzz, if they are calling regarding a bill or somethin, they are exempt from the do not call registry. you might have sent a check somewhere and it did not arrive. when companies use an autodialer, that usually means the early stages of collection.

not saying its definitly collection mind you, but there is a possible scenario that a bill you sent got lost, and said company is trying to contact you about a bill unpaid.

Demiurge

dragon1952 wrote:

Pay phone!?

Yeah, what Bobman said.

faster100

just pay the damm bill dragon they will never go away.. J/K

On a side note, my mom gets a ring like every couple days and when answered it's just dead air. and it wont go through to the answering machine either.. drives her nuts.

dragon1952

I certainly don't owe any bills :rolleyes: However, my daughters wallet got lifted about 6 mos ago and some guy started writing checks all over the place with her ID. We filed a police report and sent all the info we were supposed to send to the creditors and they were supposed to get off her back. In fact we haven't heard from them in quite awhile. Regardless of who it is though, I don't get the idea of this recorded message. Who in their right mind is going to call back a number when the message doesn't even say what it's about!? They really expect people to call back!? If it's a bill collector or something really important you'd think they'd want to talk to you personally. How are they going to collect **** if you never call them back! Sheesh, what a freakin' joke. It's probably a stinking re-fi offer or something. :rolleyes:
The phone company can do a trace to find out where it's coming from but not for something like this they wouldn't.

BlueMDPicker

It's AARP you old ****.

PhantomOG

BlueMDPicker wrote:

It's AARP you old ****.

I got a letter from AARP yesterday asking me to join.... I'm 26!!!!

dragon1952

BlueMDPicker wrote:

It's AARP you old ****.

Ahh, look who's talking grandpa

dragon1952

PhantomOG wrote:

I got a letter from AARP yesterday asking me to join.... I'm 26!!!!

Yeah, they're like drug dealers. They try and hook you early

DarqueKnight

faster100 wrote:

On a side note, my mom gets a ring like every couple days and when answered it's just dead air. and it wont go through to the answering machine either.. drives her nuts.

Some telephone companies that use older switching equipment program their central office switches to place a "test" call of a couple of rings to every phone connected to the switch. These test calls are usually done twice a week. This usually happens in the early afternoon if it is a residential line and in the early morning hours (between 12 am and 6 am) for business line.

faster100

Bingo, I bet that's what it is.. fits to a T Thanks for that info


and Dragon, I was kidding... I figured you didn't have a bill collector after ya..

dragon1952

faster100 wrote:

and Dragon, I was kidding... I figured you didn't have a bill collector after ya..

Why I oughta.....:mad:

heiney9

I get these calls all the time.

CC offers
Direct TV/Satellite offers
Loan consolidation offers
Time share opportunities (Awards Verification) they are very very persistent, calling and sending post cards.

I have caller ID so I call them back from work to see who the hell is calling my phone all day while I'm at work. I think it's time to sign up for the No Call list. You are right if it's a collection agency they leave some sort of message to call back, etc. I believe you have to sign up on the No Call list about every 12 months, perhaps your time has expired from the last time you signed up. The No Call list is NOT for an unlimited amount of time. You can bet some of the telemarketers have found ways around it too.

H9

ohskigod

dragon1952 wrote:

Who in their right mind is going to call back a number when the message doesn't even say what it's about!? They really expect people to call back!? If it's a bill collector or something really important you'd think they'd want to talk to you personally. How are they going to collect **** if you never call them back! Sheesh, what a freakin' joke.

stolen wallet? your REALLY gonna want to call that number now. I have a feeling your daughter might be a victim of identity theft. (i.e. using her personal info to get lines of credit in her name). I know the automessages dont make sence to you, but that personal contact you were curious about will start rolling around if/when a credit line becomes more seriously delinquent.

I suggest you tell your daughter to run her credit bureau again. Contacting the credit bureaus is one thing, but if its full blown identity theft, she's gonna have to eyeball her credit bureau periodically to check for new problems (i.e. trade lines she did not open but show on the bureau.)

Also, when you say she notified the credit bureaus, I hope that also means you/she placed a fraud warning. this will make new creditors have to try to contact you before issuing new credit. believe me, its helpful.

Demiurge

Ugh, that would suck. My friend Almir from Bosnia got his identity stolen a few years ago, and he doesn't exactly have a common name. That is just one big nightmare.

bobman1235

I think if someone stole my identity I would use it to my advantage. Oh, someone stole my identity and racked up all this credit card debt? Before i report it, take a 50,000 dollar cash advance on some random credit card, and blame the identity stealer!

Yeah, that's a victimless crime, right?