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Parents are getting harassing phone calls. How to stop?
SeñorAmor
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My parents constantly get harassing phone calls from con artists trying to scam money from my parents (think Nigerian email scam, but over the phone). Fortunately, my parents aren't naive enough to fall for it, but they cannot get the calls to stop. Apparently the majority of the calls are coming from a Jamaican area code and come many times a day. When my parents have asked these callers to please stop calling, the callers get verbally abusive. My parents are no longer answering the phone if they don't recognize the caller ID, but I'd like to get the calls to stop completely.
My parents have talked to the local police and to Time Warner looking for help and have gotten zero assistance. The cops say they can't do anything because the calls are originating from outside the country and won't offer up any additional options they can try. Time Warner allows my parents to block individual numbers, but the callers keep changing (possibly spoofing) their caller ID, so blocking individual numbers is an ultimately futile effort. My parents have dozens of numbers blocked and the calls continue. When my parents called Time Warner, they were told TW was unable to do anything to block the calls. My parents asked them to block all incoming calls from the particular Jamaican area code and, failing that, all incoming international calls altogether, but were met with a brick wall and told TW could not do that. When asked to be escalated to a supervisor, the answer is always the same: "I just spoke to my supervisor and he said we can't block incoming calls." All attempts to have my parents actually speak to a supervisor have failed.
Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do to stop these calls?
Thanks in advance.
My parents have talked to the local police and to Time Warner looking for help and have gotten zero assistance. The cops say they can't do anything because the calls are originating from outside the country and won't offer up any additional options they can try. Time Warner allows my parents to block individual numbers, but the callers keep changing (possibly spoofing) their caller ID, so blocking individual numbers is an ultimately futile effort. My parents have dozens of numbers blocked and the calls continue. When my parents called Time Warner, they were told TW was unable to do anything to block the calls. My parents asked them to block all incoming calls from the particular Jamaican area code and, failing that, all incoming international calls altogether, but were met with a brick wall and told TW could not do that. When asked to be escalated to a supervisor, the answer is always the same: "I just spoke to my supervisor and he said we can't block incoming calls." All attempts to have my parents actually speak to a supervisor have failed.
Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do to stop these calls?
Thanks in advance.
SeñorAmor on
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I kept a fog horn (like you'd find on a boat) next to my phone. When I recognised the number (which was easy since they had literally been calling upwards of six times a day) I immediately picked up the phone and foghorned. Apparently more legitimate call centres have volume correction systems to prevent this but its a fair bet that Nigerian scam artists do not.
Again, I'm not saying they should, nor do I take responsibility for any legal or ethical consequences. I'm just saying it worked in my case.
The company should be able to block international calls.
That being said, some things you can try:
1) File a report with the FBI and your local Secret Service field office. Sounds weird, but as a division of the Department of the Treasury, protection details for the President and others is only a part of the Secret Service's mandate; they also deal with financial crimes. I don't know if either group will be able to help you.
2) Contact the FTC and FCC. File complaints about Time Warner with both.
3) Social media. Talk about your shitty treatment by Time Warner on social media, especially Twitter. Use #TimeWarnerSucks.
4) You can try getting ahold of Time Warner's executive customer service. A quick Google points to this number: 212-364-8300 But Lord knows if that's any good. If you can get ahold of the number for their executive switchboard (i.e. the CEO's number), they can probably direct you to the executive customer service. These guys are usually more capable and have more power than the mooks at the lower levels of the customer service ladder.
Landlines don't have contracts like ell phones, so just do this. And if they STILL refuse, just....actually cancel the service and switch providers. Screw them.
steam | Dokkan: 868846562
Scammer: Hello, I'm calling from Microsoft to inform you that your Windows computer has a programming error. To fix this you only need to give me (some number that will allow me to fuck with everything remotely).
Inept Foreigner (played by my father): Yes, yes, window at my computer totally busted. Big hole, big problems.
S: No, sir, there is a bug in your computer that I need to fix.
IF: Yes, bugs everywhere. Bugs on my computer, bugs on my chair, bugs in my food. Terrible problem. I need you right away to come and fix my windows.
Like I said, my dad had some time to kill. This act continued for about 10 minutes while my family tried to stifle their laughter, hearing only his end of the conversation. Finally I think my dad got bored with the increasingly frustrated caller and ended with "Look, you obviously don't know what you're talking about. You can't fix my computer or my windows so I am going to say goodbye to you now" and hung up. I only regret that the conversation wasn't recorded for posterity.
That was the last call from "Microsoft". I'm sure the strategy could be modified for a Nigerian prince.
A - B = X. If X > C, have them switch to cellular phones.
This doesn't really work as much as it did now. I think it's just because the tier 1 call centers have such high turnover that no one really cares if you stay a customer.
Is this an option? Seems like the telco should be able to handle that.
It strikes me as really strange though that your phone company can't block incoming international calls. That sounds off and I would just keep escalating until you can find someone in the company who can at least explain to you why that is.
Asterisk has blocking features that would allow for your home phone to drop/dump calls from specified country codes automatically.
I was lucky enough to be sitting at my Linux machine last time one of them called, I managed to keep up the pretence of being IT illiterate for almost twenty minutes before I finally came clean that I wasn't even running windows. They'd never even heard of the word 'Linux' before, & didn't understand what VOIP was, so I pretended to have traced their number.
They and someone else suddenly whispered "Clever bitch", and then the line went dead.
Unfortunately, the only way to make it stop was to change the damn phone number.
You might have to do that.
Yeah there's no reason you shouldn't be able to "Hi I'd like to only receive phone calls from the US, so block all international callers."