Unwanted phone calls - what to do?

gerilege

Meister Member
PABrogue
PABnorogue
Joined
Mar 9, 2006
Location
Hungary
Since a few weeks I get phone calls, especially on the weekends from phone numbers I do not know. It started with numbers from Egypt and South Africa, now most calls are from the U.S, mostly from California regions, though I get a few calls from New Jersey, Atlanta, New York. Also from Australia. This is what happens:
- The phone does not ring much, mainly just 3-4 rings.
- If I pick the phone up, no one answers and the call is disconnected within a few seconds.
- If I pick up, sometimes I get another call immediately from a different number.
- If I block a caller, I get another call from a different number, see below.

Unfortunately it is not possible for me to replace my number and this thing drives me crazy. I have this number registered at some casinos, but they call me from numbers I mainly know, mainly UK ones. Here are a few of the "guilty" numbers:
+61 2 8103 4018
+1 323 556 1767
+1 213 820 5061
+1 213 820 4791
+1 973 928 9283
+1 323 842 4636
+1 818 649 4683
+1 323 842 4721
+1 213 377 4831
+1 323 842 4635
+1 347 837 2446
+1 213 263 1632
+1 213 284 8924
+1 973 931 1842
+1 323 518 4159
+1 323 423 4097
+1 323 747 9271

Can someone please help me what is this and how I could get rid of this?
 
If you look in this thread... you'll find all of the information you need about this place.

Eventually I just told the guy to F off, and to remove me from his list, he doesn't own this number. So far 2 weeks later I haven't had a single call. So I got removed from his Rolodex. Unless if you want an account and play at this place then by all means go right ahead.

https://www.casinomeister.com/forums/threads/revenue-giants-relentless-phone-spam.63526/?t=63526

Had same kind of problems few weeks ago. I first tried to change my phone number (to fake one)on all these casinos but they spotted that cause they tried always to phone me. Then i picked up a prepaid-number from nearest shop and updated that on all these sites. Then it took few days and those calls stopped to my original number :lolup::lolup::lolup:

Thx for cheetahwind on tips he gave. Google doesnt give correct info for these phone numbers.
 
They go to all that trouble to call, yet when you answer, they hang up. They don't seem serious about getting through either as they intentionally don't ring long enough for the call to be picked up. If they get blocked, they know it and adapt by switching to a different number.

It's not marketing, it's harassment. Maybe they do this to people who have REALLY pissed them off. Tricking them into believing you have switched number might be the only real defence, as the casinos behind this are beyond the reach of the law.

However, it might be possible to raise a stink with the US authorities and see if they can investigate the US call centres that are being used. They would, of course, be aggressively marketing a "criminal activity" to ordinary folk.

The UK also has a problem with the US hosting phone scammers, and doing very little about the problem so long as they don't try to scam Americans. The UK authorities are pressuring the US, along with other countries, to tackle the problem more robustly.

India's government has taken a tougher stance because it is damaging trust in one of their major service industries because customers of companies that use Indian call centres are voting with their wallets, and pressuring these companies to ditch their Indian operations in favour of using local call centres.

It may even be possible to hit them in the wallet, by changing the number they have for you to a premium rate number that uses a less than obvious code, the same trick some scammers use. They could then end up paying dearly for phoning a dozen times a day at $1.50 per call.

Some UK subscribers have actually done this in order to teach cold callers a lesson, and have felt less hassled about all the cold calls knowing that they are getting their own back because they are getting up to £1 a minute for listening to their drivel for the tenth time that week. Unfortunately, updated regulations intended to protect consumers has made it harder to fight back in this manner. However, it will still work if they use "robot" callers that just spew out an uninterruptable recorded message, they won't hear the now required verbal warning that the call is about to cost them £1.50 per minute :)
 
I know this one is not gambling related but I love this one we keep getting.

Part of the message:

"""Press 1 now as this is your "final notice" as it relates to the financial stimulus"""""

We get the same "final notice" every frickin day!
 
Thanks for all the suggestions.
My problems are:
- I do not think I have any account at the casinos listed in cheetahwind's thread.
- If I pick up the call, the call is disconnected soon.
- google did not give me any meaningful results for the numbers above
- In the last couple of years I play at a limited number of casinos. I do not even remember when I last singed up to a casino.

Two new numbers since my post yesterday:
+1 213 820 4947
+1 213 263 8090
 
There is currently a scam making the rounds where the scammer hangs up when you answer, or doesn't allow it to ring quite long enough for you to pick up. If you call the scammer phone # back (out of curiosity, or worried that someone close to you may be trying to reach you), enormous phone charges result. Some way the scammers make their money on this. Whether this is related to your problem or not, I have no idea.
 
There is currently a scam making the rounds where the scammer hangs up when you answer, or doesn't allow it to ring quite long enough for you to pick up. If you call the scammer phone # back (out of curiosity, or worried that someone close to you may be trying to reach you), enormous phone charges result. Some way the scammers make their money on this. Whether this is related to your problem or not, I have no idea.

I read about this recently, but they would have to call from a premium rate number, and then when someone calls back to find out who called, they are stalled by a fake "operator" who tries to connect them to the employee that called. Now, are these premium rate, or just normal numbers. Sometimes it can be hard to tell because some countries do not make the difference obvious, and the US is one such country where some of it's "area codes" are actually international or premium codes, rather than actual area codes. The UK once had the same problem, but moved all premium rate numbers to a single "09" prefix used for nothing else. Unfortunately, it could be clearer still as there are still some pretty expensive codes that look like normal codes, such as the "070" code, which unlike other "07" codes, is NOT for a regular mobile (cell) carrier network.
 
I read about this recently, but they would have to call from a premium rate number, and then when someone calls back to find out who called, they are stalled by a fake "operator" who tries to connect them to the employee that called. Now, are these premium rate, or just normal numbers. Sometimes it can be hard to tell because some countries do not make the difference obvious, and the US is one such country where some of it's "area codes" are actually international or premium codes, rather than actual area codes. The UK once had the same problem, but moved all premium rate numbers to a single "09" prefix used for nothing else. Unfortunately, it could be clearer still as there are still some pretty expensive codes that look like normal codes, such as the "070" code, which unlike other "07" codes, is NOT for a regular mobile (cell) carrier network.


More on how this scam works for us Yanks at the
You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.
...


'One Ring' Wireless Phone Scam

The FCC has recently learned of a new phone scam targeting wireless consumers.

Some wireless consumers are receiving calls from phone numbers with three-digit area codes that appear to be domestic, but are actually associated with international pay-per-call phone numbers. These calls often disconnect after one ring, not giving the consumer time to answer the call and tempting them to return the call. If you receive a call like this and do not recognize the number of the incoming call, do not return the call.

If you return the phone call, you may be connected to an international hotline than can charge a fee just for connecting, along with significant per-minute fees if they can keep you on the phone.........
 
I got a call yesterday on my home phone, which is unlisted and unpublished, telling me that she was a professional fund raiser for a cancer charity and did I want to donate.

I immediately asked her how she got my number and she proceeded to tell me that she has a service that "sells" her phone numbers. I promptly told her to lose my phone number.

I pay to have my phone unlisted and only give it out to banks etc. No casinos have my home number. I always just list my cell number.

Just pisses me off that these dang spammers can get more information on me than I care to give to anyone.
 
This had been happening to me a lot in the past few weeks. While on a trip to Colorado I upgraded my cell phone as it was long over due. When the calls came through it had a thing that you could click on to block them. Oddly after I blocked like three of the numbers I seen in my call list, I've never received another call. I mean they keep trying from the same number (it shows as blocked call on my end so phone doesn't ring). Not sure why they hadn't switched to using another number. Maybe it keeps ringing on their end and they don't know they are blocked? Anyway the problem was solved for me, not sure why blocking isn't working for others.
 
I got a call yesterday on my home phone, which is unlisted and unpublished, telling me that she was a professional fund raiser for a cancer charity and did I want to donate.

I immediately asked her how she got my number and she proceeded to tell me that she has a service that "sells" her phone numbers. I promptly told her to lose my phone number.

I pay to have my phone unlisted and only give it out to banks etc. No casinos have my home number. I always just list my cell number.

Just pisses me off that these dang spammers can get more information on me than I care to give to anyone.

It's the same here. Charities are going to become the enemy of the public, and this will cut off their lifeline, our donations. They are doing this because the recession has seen a fall in donations. They even come around knocking doors with some pleading tale about how their charity needs us all to sign up to monthly direct debit, and they even say "most of your neighbours have agreed to help us", which is probably a lie, but based on a modern society where neighbours can barely know each other. I just say "I do give to charities, but I don't do direct debit". This gets rid of them quickly, they are not interested in one off donations. Apart from the annoyance factor, they expect us to give out our bank details to some random person who knocks on our door or whom we meet in the street. Scammers are already on it, so they will use fake charities, or even fake collectors for legitimate charities to not just get an on the spot donation, but our bank details as well.

It's the same with the endless "surveys" over the phone. I tell them I have signed up to an internet site that pays me to fill in surveys, and that in order to keep the data scientifically valid, I can't risk duplication by answering their survey questions over the phone.

If they are just selling, it's "got that last year......... got those too..... bye"
 
This had been happening to me a lot in the past few weeks. While on a trip to Colorado I upgraded my cell phone as it was long over due. When the calls came through it had a thing that you could click on to block them. Oddly after I blocked like three of the numbers I seen in my call list, I've never received another call. I mean they keep trying from the same number (it shows as blocked call on my end so phone doesn't ring). Not sure why they hadn't switched to using another number. Maybe it keeps ringing on their end and they don't know they are blocked? Anyway the problem was solved for me, not sure why blocking isn't working for others.

Blocking services here tend to have very low limits, such as "you can block up to 10 numbers". It doesn't take long for the scammers to fill all 10 slots and then everything else gets through. We also have "block all private numbers", but this no longer works because they have stopped trying to hide by withholding their numbers, they either call from many numbers, or even populate the CLI field with a set of random numbers. No service that blocks individual numbers can cope with this. We need something new from the telecoms industry, but they can't be arsed to develop anything.

There are a few third party devices that work on the principle of a whitelist, rather than a blocklist, and the more expensive even allow callers not on the whitelist to get through by "passing security", such as typing in a code once the machine has answered the call.

These devices are not at all popular with "big business" because if everyone had one, marketing by phone would be a dead industry. The fact that the telecoms companies themselves can't seem to come up with this solution looks rather suspicious, more like they are receiving back handers from the marketing industry to stall such developments for as long as possible.

There is also a trick that can "unhide" private numbers, but very few people have heard about it, but it's possible that scammers use it when they are called by victims who think they have made sure to withhold their number when calling.
 
I have some news. A new number came in last Friday, that is +44 20 3608 9388. I did not answer the calls, and a few changes happened with some implications.
1. "Disguises" were added to the calls for both the +44 number and the +61 number I mentioned before. That means that an extra prefix was added like "+1 1", so the number looked like +1 1 44 or "+36011", so the number looked like +36011 44. The strange thing is that +36 is my country code, so it looked like they wanted to mask this as a domestic call, so maybe I would answer, which I did not.
2. The +44 number helped me a lot, since it produced a very valid google hit, that confirms what was suggested here below (hxxp://whatnumberis.com/44-20-3608-9388/view_topic.html). +44 20 3608 9388 is connected to +61281034018 for multiple reasons:
- One is the thread above.
- The +61 number was the first one I received calls from, then came a trillion of USA numbers, sometimes the +61 number in between.
- Since last week I only got calls from the +44 and +61 numbers and they use the same disguise sometimes.
- I also remember now that I had a +27 country code call, as also mentioned in the thread.

I will try to contact that group to get me removed from their call list. I will keep you posted.
 
That is exactly why i am always so reluctant to give out my number.I try to only give out a pre paid phone number so i want be harassed by unwanted calls daily :mad:. Has worked for me.
 
They go to all that trouble to call, yet when you answer, they hang up. They don't seem serious about getting through

It *may' be that premium rate call back scam, but I think this explanation more likely.

One of the biggest issues facing 'outbound' operations is the amount of time spent calling people who dont answer, are not home etc etc. What some companies have done to combat this wasted time is plug in a machine to dial a set of pre programmed numbers. If they get a connection, they cut off and a clean list of 'they answer' numbers gets immediately sent to a human being who then calls back (hence the different number second time). The 3-4 rings is to prevent answering machines giving false 'they answer' messages. All speculation, but seems likely to me.
 
It *may' be that premium rate call back scam, but I think this explanation more likely.

One of the biggest issues facing 'outbound' operations is the amount of time spent calling people who dont answer, are not home etc etc. What some companies have done to combat this wasted time is plug in a machine to dial a set of pre programmed numbers. If they get a connection, they cut off and a clean list of 'they answer' numbers gets immediately sent to a human being who then calls back (hence the different number second time). The 3-4 rings is to prevent answering machines giving false 'they answer' messages. All speculation, but seems likely to me.

Thanks a lot, this fits the situation quite well, but I consider this as a very bad practice, that might also be questionable from a financial perspective.
(With this method they spare money on the time spent on unanswered calls, but they will have much lower conversion rate for the second call, especially if the number is a mobile number.)
 
Thanks a lot, this fits the situation quite well, but I consider this as a very bad practice, that might also be questionable from a financial perspective.
(With this method they spare money on the time spent on unanswered calls, but they will have much lower conversion rate for the second call, especially if the number is a mobile number.)

That's true. If the first number pisses me off for disconnecting the second I answer having put the TV on pause, I will NOT go back the second time unless I can see from the caller display who called me, which would be family or friends.

This tactic also makes things worse for the more honest businesses, because people get fed up with all these dud calls and just ignore the phone for the rest of the day (I have done this).

Businesses have had to resort to this because their earlier harassments have resulted in large numbers of people signing up to do-not-call lists, blocking all "private" number callers, or even using "whitelist" services.

It is the main reason why players are reluctant to give casinos their "real" phone number, even risking their withdrawals getting confiscated. It seems that once you start giving out your number, you get on these scam lists, even though the casinos claim they treat the data securely.

The honest side of the industry needs to plug their leaks, and the telecoms industry needs to bring in better call screening for subscribers.

I did read that there are now serious efforts being made to address the increasingly widespread problem of "spoofing" the caller display by using the numbers of legitimate businesses, who then get the blame for making the calls.
 
If they get a connection, they cut off and a clean list of 'they answer' numbers gets immediately sent to a human being who then calls back (hence the different number second time). The 3-4 rings is to prevent answering machines giving false 'they answer' messages. All speculation, but seems likely to me.


This is one that gets me, their machine calls my machine, but their machine is not programmed (or smart enough) to realize they have reached an answering machine.

Their machine then proceeds to leave the message before my machine is finished with the out-going message (not waiting for the beep) so, I get a message end, like the last part of a phone number to call back.....

Idiots....
 
We are still getting them. I am sure they will only get worse with the elections coming up.

Our answering machine picks up after ring 4 because of the fax machine is set to pick up then. (or something like that)

I think we need to program both to pick up on ring one...........

Almost all of the callers hang up after the 3rd ring or when the machine picks up.

Only a few leave a message which are basically sales pitches.

But the sometimes constant ringing, call after call, can drive you crazy!
 
We are still getting them. I am sure they will only get worse with the elections coming up.

Our answering machine picks up after ring 4 because of the fax machine is set to pick up then. (or something like that)

I think we need to program both to pick up on ring one...........

Almost all of the callers hang up after the 3rd ring or when the machine picks up.

Only a few leave a message which are basically sales pitches.

But the sometimes constant ringing, call after call, can drive you crazy!

That's the big problem, the phone still rings. Something is needed to detect unwanted calls BEFORE the instruction to ring is received by the handset. Such a device seems to have been made available for around £100, but probably only works in the UK. Strangely, it has been "pulled", and is largely out of stock on a permanent basis, mostly due to it being "discontinued". Seems odd given how EFFECTIVE it appears to be as it sits between the socket and the phone, and DOES filter all calls BEFORE the phone rings, passing only those deemed OK to the phone itself, the rest being dealt with silently by the device, including the taking of a message from suspect callers who want to protest their innocence.

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.


PS - It may be back on the market, the company producing it now seems to have their own ordering facility, rather that relying on third party retailers to stock it.


TrueCall is rated by Peter Jones as the best idea he'd ever seen on TV hit show 'Dragon's Den'. This ground-breaking British invention blocks all unwanted phone calls. It allows you to decide who you want to talk to, stops threatening or abusive callers from reaching you, and rejects nuisance callers with a message that's polite but firm. It's really easy to set up and use – simply connect it between your phone and the telephone socket – and works with all home phones. How does it work? TrueCall learns as it goes along, building up a Star List of family and friends, and a Zap List of telemarketers and other nuisance callers. Then, when any call comes through, TrueCall will check the caller's number. If it's recognised from your Star list, the call comes through as normal. If the number is on your Zap list, TrueCall will answer the call itself, politely stating that you're not interested – and the phone never actually rings! And if the caller's number isn't recognised, or is withheld, TrueCall asks them who they are, puts them on hold and then rings you - so you can choose whether to take the call, 'Zap' it or ask for a message to be left.

Press the Star button on your phone to instantly add current caller to your Star listPersonalise your announcements (optional)Works cooperatively with 1571 voicemail systemStores up to 500 Star and 500 Zap numbersComes with mains adaptor14.5 x 9 x 3cmIntegral recorder allows you to record your phone calls for insurance or legal purposesComes with 70 hour memory card
 
Your Phone Company

Hi,

Hmmmm - have you tried going to your phone company directly? I used to have this when I was with EE, but I visited their shop one day, yelling at them and it pretty much stopped from there lol
 
Now to necro an old thread but since it's already been done.

It would seem as if Treasure Island Jackpots and Atlantis Gold are now becoming some rather large offenders. They've called me no less than 4 times a week inviting me back to playing at there casinos. With a huge match bonus.

I'm like no thanks if your going to call me that often, and even tell me about an e-mail I've never gotten. You can just quite calling now ya hear.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Meister Ratings

Back
Top