My fiancee has a stalker telemarketer!

Shadowfire

So, over the last couple of weeks, my fiancee has been getting phone calls from a telemarketer. Yea, not uncommon, but there are a few problems.

First, it's the same guy, and he's calling just about every day.

Second, he is calling her on a cell phone, which last I knew was still forbidden (please correct me if I'm wrong).

The third spot is where it gets weird. He is misrepresenting himself in the messages. Every time, it is the same exact voice, but he goes by a different name, and different company. The number is always start with 800-511-XXXX, and I kid you not, the voice is identical. And the message is the same, as well... "My name is *BLAH* at *CompanyOfLies* calling to discuss your substantial credit card debt, and the minimum payments that seem to keep adding up" etc etc.

Starting with 1Jun, her call log reads:
1Jun07, 1248PM 800-511-7934
2Jun07, 1036AM 800-511-7496
4Jun07, 853AM 800-511-7624
6Jun07, 905AM 800-511-9436

She was deleting the voice mails before, until I told her to stop... but we have three of them saved.
Call 1: 30May07, 942AM
Name: James Leaper
Company: Measured Response Data
800-511-7624

Call 2: 2Jun07, 1038AM
Name: Chris St. James
Company: Broadcom
800-511-7496

Call 3: 6Jun07, 905AM
Name: Simon Phelps
Company: Imperial Research
800-511-9436

So, where do I go to with this information? I want them to of course stop calling her, but they are misrepresenting themselves, and while it may sound spiteful, I want to get them into as much shit as possible.

tl;dr Same guy, calling with different names and company names, harassing my fiancee about a credit card debt that does not exist.

#14

I used to work as a telemarketer (which scarred me emotionally so much that I have to cry myself to sleep now every night) and I was never allowed to say the name of the callcenter. Officially, I was representing the company we were working for.

So yeah, he is a stalker, but he's not misrepresenting himself, he has just been assigned to multiple products. At the very least he could use that as an excuse.

Shadowfire

#14 wrote: »

I used to work as a telemarketer (which scarred me emotionally so much that I have to cry myself to sleep now every night) and I was never allowed to say the name of the callcenter. Officially, I was representing the company we were working for.

So yeah, he is a stalker, but he's not misrepresenting himself, he has just been assigned to multiple products. At the very least he could use that as an excuse.

But... he's not only using a different company name... he's calling himself a different name, too.

Raqie

When I was getting telemarketers calling my cell phone a few months ago I looked up some information about the legality of it. They still aren't allowed to call cell phones and they should have a list from cell phone companies that say what numbers not to call but... they could have gotten the number from some company/website/etc. that your finance signed up for at one point (as in, someone sold her information). From what I know, though, you can't really go after them legally until you tell the telemarketer that a. they are calling a cell phone and b. they are not to ever call it again.

Have her answer once and tell the guy those things. Keep the info you have now and the voicemails. If he continues to call after that point you can go to a lawyer and have the guy/company fined. Make sure you make a note of when you told the telemarketer that it was a cell phone and all subsequent calls.

When I answered a telemarketer call once the first words out of my mouth were "Excuse me, this is a cell phone." The woman immediately hung up. I haven't had any calls since.

Shadowfire

Raqie wrote: »

When I was getting telemarketers calling my cell phone a few months ago I looked up some information about the legality of it. They still aren't allowed to call cell phones and they should have a list from cell phone companies that say what numbers not to call but... they could have gotten the number from some company/website/etc. that your finance signed up for at one point (as in, someone sold her information). From what I know, though, you can't really go after them legally until you tell the telemarketer that a. they are calling a cell phone and b. they are not to ever call it again.

Have her answer once and tell the guy those things. Keep the info you have now and the voicemails. If he continues to call after that point you can go to a lawyer and have the guy/company fined. Make sure you make a note of when you told the telemarketer that it was a cell phone and all subsequent calls.

When I answered a telemarketer call once the first words out of my mouth were "Excuse me, this is a cell phone." The woman immediately hung up. I haven't had any calls since.

Makes sense. Like I said, the big thing that bugged me is that he's not giving his name (in fact, giving an obviously false name), which I'd thought he was required to do. I could be incredibly wrong on this. I'm pretty sure how he got the number... we bought a car a couple weeks ago, and the calls started within two days of the purchase being finalized.

My other question... do you know of any way to get these voice mails off of her phone, and into a recorded file, besides holding the phone up to a microphone?

Feral

Shadowfire wrote: »

My other question... do you know of any way to get these voice mails off of her phone, and into a recorded file, besides holding the phone up to a microphone?

Got $20? Buy a wireless phone-to-recorder adapter. You can hook this up to the headset jack in your cell phone and the other end to a tape recorder or the line-in jack on a computer.

remember that using this to record conversations may be illegal in your jurisdiction, but there shouldn't be anything wrong with copying a voice mail to MP3 or tape.

Shadowfire

Feral wrote: »

Shadowfire wrote: »

My other question... do you know of any way to get these voice mails off of her phone, and into a recorded file, besides holding the phone up to a microphone?

Got $20? Buy a wireless phone-to-recorder adapter. You can hook this up to the headset jack in your cell phone and the other end to a tape recorder or the line-in jack on a computer.

remember that using this to record conversations may be illegal in your jurisdiction, but there shouldn't be anything wrong with copying a voice mail to MP3 or tape.

Recording conversations in most areas is completely legal, because most states only require one party knowledge. And, since it's a voice mail, I'd assume I'd be in the clear (you don't send a letter to someone and expect that person will never show anyone else). Thanks for the heads up on that adapter!

Sarcastro

Very hard to actually do anything about. By all means, call the cell phone provider, and they probably have a number you can get in touch with about unwanted calls and harrassment. They log the complaints and generally go after the douche bags themselves because unwanted calls hurt thier reputation and use network resources in an illegal way - which depending on country they may have a corporate obligation to stop, or at least try to.

Will they calls actually stop? Eventually - but it takes quite some time. When these offices cycle numbers, the telcos have to process legal complaints one number at a time, and that can take a few months. Because of numbers porting, a scammer can requests and receive new numbers before the complaints against the old numbers and company are processed, leading in a nearly endless cat and mouse game which a dedicated scammer can most often stay ahead of. For a while anyway; the beurocracy is slow and ponderous, but it will crush you underneath its heel when it catches up.

At the very least, it will point to which cell phone company has rented space to these jackholes, and if it's a reputable company they might just clip service until proof of positive use is established. So worth a shot reporting it to the right people.

Sonos

That doesn't sound like a telemarketer. Its a Collections agency. Completely different bag. First have your wife check her credit report to make sure there is no funny business with her credit.

DO NOT DELAY THIS PLEASE!

I work with credit reports all day long and there are many horror stories.

Then have her confront said agency and find out what the deal is. Sadly the onlyt language a collection agency understands is violent profanity. Its the tactic they use so treat them in kind. A person I know recently gave out my cell number (yeh i know) to an agency and it wasnt until I absolutely lit them up that they stopped calling.

Credit report though. Please have her do it I hate to see even ePeople get it ruined when they can help it.

monkeyfeet63

police maybe?