[Nfbmo] Telemarketers flooding phones and cell phones

[DanFlasar at aol.com]

HI all,
     I've been noticing an enormous increase in  telemarketers calling both 
my land line and my cell phone in the last  month.  I'm now getting at 
least 3 spam calls on my cell phone and 1 or 2  on my land line daily.  
Has anyone else noticed this?  How have you been dealing with  it?  Below 
are my comments on the source of these calls and what  you  can do about it.  
And if you have suggestions, I'm all ears.
    I consider this to be on-topic because we all depend on  our phones and 
as blind and visually impaired consumers, it's a bit more  difficult for us 
to distinguish these calls from legitimate ones.
      
These new calls call at all hours from 8 am to 10 PM.   They  rarely leave 
a message and sometimes the calls end after 3 rings.  If  you have caller 
ID, you'll get just the number - no description.  I check  on-line every time 
I get a new spam call to find out more.  The experience  I've gathered from 
users reports is that if you actually answer the call, you  might get a 
notice to press 1 if you do not want to receive commercial messages  - DON'T 
PRESS ANYTHING!  Doing so tells the telemarketers that they have a  live 
number.and won't stop the calls.   Don't call the numbers to have  yourself taken 
off their calling list - they will just hang up on   you.
    It doesn't matter if  you're on Missouri's Do Not  Call List or the 
national one either, for both cell phones and land lines -  these are 
auto-dialing robocalls that go numerically through all possible  combination of 
numbers in an area code and exchange.   Almost all the  area codes for these 
calls have come from Eastern Washington State around  Seattle and Tacoma, but 
also from Oregon - a few have been from Clearwater,  FLA.
    Though most are telemarketers, some have been coming  from legitimate 
nonprofits.  One company in Auburn, WA contracts with  non-profits to call 
their current and former membership lists to get you to  renew your 
membership/subscriptions, etc.  It is legal for these  organizations to call - they 
are not covered by the Do Not Call laws.  But  they have to take your number 
off their call list if you request it.
     The biggest problem with this new group of callers  is that they call 
3 times,hang up without leaving a message.  You have to  call them and they 
will ask you to send money to your alumni association, public  radio 
station, trade journal or the like.   They called at all  hours.  I suspect that 
the organizations that contracted with these  telemarketers got so much bad 
feedback that the robocalls may be discontinued  soon.
    It is also legal for a company you do business with to  call you 
soliciting new services.  You can tell them you don't want to  receive such calls 
and they have to note that in your record - if you so  desire.
 
   There are a few things  you can do:
1.  If you have caller-id (hopefully talking caller-id) and   you don't 
recognize a number from an unfamiliar area code, don't  answer it.  If the 
caller is legitimate, they'll leave a message.
 
2.   If the caller doesn't leave a message, don't call the number  back - 
that puts  you higher on their calling list!   Most of  these calls are to 
get you to buy a security system, get a credit card, repair  your debt, 
refinance your home and the like.  These are not legitimate  offers - they are 
only seeking to get personal information from you - they are  phone phishing.  
Don't ever give personal information to an unsolicited  call unless you know 
the company and have requested the service.  Better  yet - you initiate the 
call!
 
3.    Block the number:  Contact your land line  provider to find out how 
to block a phone #.  Charter offers a service that  will block up to 12 
numbers - not nearly enough but it's a help.  If  you're a Charter phone user, 
pick up your handset, get a dial tone and  press *60.  You will get a voice 
menu instructing you how to proceed.
      Sprint offers a page detailing how you can  eliminate different types 
of phone contacts such as voice, pictures, texting,  etc.   
    Contact your cell phone service provider to get info on  how to block 
phone #s.
 
If  you're a Sprint customer, here's the link,  Logging in will  take you 
to the page describing their calling services including blocking  calls.  
Here's the link for Sprint.
_https://mysprint.sprint.com/mysprint/pages/sl/global/login.jsp?targetPage=h
ttps%3A%2F%2Fmysprint.sprint.com%2Fmysprint%2Fpages%2Fsecure%2Fmypreferences
%2FmyPreferencesLanding.jsp_ 
(https://mysprint.sprint.com/mysprint/pages/sl/global/login.jsp?targetPage=https://mysprint.sprint.com/mysprint/pages/secur
e/mypreferences/myPreferencesLanding.jsp) 
 
I think you can get up to at least 100 phone #s blocked.  Once you add  and 
save the phone #s, you have to turn off  your cell phone for a minute  or 
so.  The blocks will take effect within 15 minutes after your phone is  
turned back on.  
    You can also call your provider and they will be happy  to tell you how 
to do this and, if you tell them you're blind or visually  impaired, they 
will do it for you if you wish.  I don't know what Verizon  or AT&T offer.
 
4.   There are apps for the Android platform - I don't know about  the 
iPhone - that you can use to block known spammers.  One is called  MrNumber that 
analyzes calling patterns among their customers as well as web  reports.  
If they notice that the same numbers are calling multiple  subscribers 
multiple times, they will flag it as a suspicious #.  They have  a web page where 
users can report their experiences.  I don't know much  about how good the 
service is, how much it costs and how legitimate it is but  it's been 
reviewed on some on-line business sites.  Anyone know  anything about it?  Again - 
this is only available for SmartPhones  using the Android operating system.  
Does anyone know of a similar app for  the iPhone?
 
 
     This is just going to get worse until consumers  demand action from 
State Attorneys General and comments to the national  DoNotCall lists.  These 
practices are blatantly illegal. 
 
Finally, cell phone customers can get free directory  assistance.   Sprint 
asks you to fill out a form - not fillable  on-line - that you can print out 
and fax or mail to them.  It does ask for  verification of visual 
impairment via a health care professional.  If  anyone's interested, I can send an 
attachment to the list.
 
   Dan