Harassing Phone Calls, up at a new level.

[k1xv]

One would think, with advancing Artificial Intelligence and other technological gains, the phone companies could put an end to robocalls. But they couldn't care less. Nor do the State and Federal telecommunications regulators.

 

[CKN]

That's one reason I worry about blocking spam numbers. They might be legitimate numbers that are being spoofed, or unassigned numbers that might be assigned to a real person in the future.

Yes-what you are saying could be accurate.

 

[Owen Lucas]

It was scary how convincing it was and I am concerned that very old and/or naive people could fall for this.

What was convincing about it? Did the scammer have an accent? That is usually the giveaway.

 

[George7941]

You'd be surprised, it could be one of the services you're subscribed to, just having lousy automations.
I get calls from Optimum every other day, they didn't identify as Optimum till I researched the number and figured out it belongs to them.
They keep calling because they want to switch my coaxial to fiber, and I don't care about it. When I pick up and don't say anything, the bot waits for a couple of seconds then crashes miserably.

Good advice, took the advice and googled 888-698-7967, turns out it was a collection agency, Transworld. Called them, spoke to an agent right away without waiting on hold.

Me: Hello, I just received a call from you
Agent: What is your name?
Me: George XXXX
Agent: Are you calling from 416XXXXX?
Me: Yes
Agent: That is odd. Your name is not in our system. I will take your number off and you won't get any more calls. It might take up to 24 hours for this to happen
Me: Thank you

That was painless, almost too painless. I will believe it when the calls stop.

I have lots of experience with collection calls, but not because I had debts. About twenty five years ago I let my good friend Clayton stay in my house. He was a very decent person but made poor choices and ended up homeless and living in a Toronto shelter. My land line became his number and of course, he never paid his bills. The collection calls started coming in. Clayton stayed with me for fifteen years and eventually passed away from throat cancer caused by heavy smoking. The calls did not stop till a full year after his passing.

 

[Owen Lucas]

Good advice, took the advice and googled 888-698-7967, turns out it was a collection agency, Transworld. Called them, spoke to an agent right away without waiting on hold.

Me: Hello, I just received a call from you
Agent: What is your name?
Me: George XXXX
Agent: Are you calling from 416XXXXX?
Me: Yes
Agent: That is odd. Your name is not in our system. I will take your number off and you won't get any more calls. It might take up to 24 hours for this to happen
Me: Thank you

That was painless, almost too painless. I will believe it when the calls stop.

I have lots of experience with collection calls, but not because I had debts. About twenty five years ago I let my good friend Clayton stay in my house. He was a very decent person but made poor choices and ended up homeless and living in a Toronto shelter. My land line became his number and of course, he never paid his bills. The collection calls started coming in. Clayton stayed with me for fifteen years and eventually passed away from throat cancer caused by heavy smoking. The calls did not stop till a full year after his passing.

You got lucky with the wrong phone #. I've read that you should never call a collections agency back and especially identify yourself. making this first contact somehow opens up the door to acknowledging the debt and making the situation harder to get out of. These people are to be ignored as they bought the debt for pennies on the dollar and want to profit off of you, hence why they are willing to negotiate for lower settlements.

 

[goblin]

... they bought the debt for pennies on the dollar and want to profit off of you, hence why they are willing to negotiate for lower settlements.

And often bought it consolidated, knowing little about the actual case. Quite often they won't actually know what it's about and who the initial creditor was - just that you owed someone money.