So Much For The National Do Not Call Registry!?

[HARDCORE]

Back on 30 June, 2003, about three days after I learned about it, I registered for the National Do Not Call Registry! Before that time, I like most of you, had received my fair share of solicitation calls!

After filing, I thought that that was the end of such nuisance calls, but lo and behold, the calls merely intensified! ?Is there a message there perhaps??

I had kept the numbers of such callers, but most came in as ?Out Of Area? and not even Star 69 could retrieve them!? Most, not all, of these numbers were lost!

Well today, a strange thing happened, and I don?t know if it was a glitch or what? Five calls came into my line, three were out of area (their numbers were displayed), and two did not display a number!

Along about ?Two P.M.? today (Tuesday), I was out buying a little grub, but my Caller ID registered an 800 number, no message (Nothing new here)!

At about 4:56 P.M., an ?Out of Area? call came in, no number, no message!

Then at 5:30 P.M., I personally answered a call, and a female on the other side asked for my wife by here first name! I told her that my wife was outside, asked for her name, company and phone number, and the babe promptly slammed the phone down in my ear! I immediately called the operator and learned that the call came from out of Canada, where we know no-one!

At about 6:50 PM, another ?Out Of Area Call? came in, rang three times only, and before I could pick up the receiver, this caller too hung up! No info, other than Out Of Area was displayed upon my Caller ID Box!

At 8:24 tonight, that same toll free number that called at 2:00 PM again called, but only rang three times and then hung up.

?Enough is enough!!? I immediately called back at the listed 800 number, and lo and behold, the gent on the other side answered with his full name (Hispanic with no accent that I could detect). As a matter of fact, he sounded quite literate. However, when I demanded to know who he was, and who he represented, the bastard also hung up in my ear!

Well Amigos, I have your numbers, and considering that kinky e-mail from off shore (Brazil or the general area) that I mentioned upon a previous post, now in the proper hands, my humor, if I ever had any left after dealing with the VA for about 15 years, is gone!

Well to make a long story short, this is the second time that I am attempting to post this. The first time, save was hit before going on line, but the damned thing vanished into cyber space, or selected hands in power!

For the record, formal complaints were filed (e-mail) this evening, three in all with the National Do Not Call Registry, and we will follow up by phone tomorrow morning! But if these people who are making these calls, and the authorities now have their numers and at least one (full) name, must not be concerned with a mere $10,000 fine for each violation!? What more can be said, except that had these been legitament calls, they would have left their name and purpose, and not cut off their rings just before my answering machine cut in!

I assume that those e-mails (formal compaints) are sitting upon the desks of powers that be right now, and by tomorrow we will learn if the law really applies to these callers who have ignored the new mandates, or if this is all, yet another exercise in futility!

Like that Russian Colonel said in Rambo II to Stalone, I don?t know who you are yet, BUT I WILL! And there the fun begins, within the law of course!!

?I?ll be seeing you, count on it!!?

"The law either applies to all men equally, or it applies to none!"

And Where There Is No Truth, There is no Honor!"

VERITAS

[jocelyn]

I've heard that those 'do not call' lists are for a specific time. I was concerned that when that time frame was up, my number would be on the list for them to attack.

I know it's not a good option for some people, but having an unlisted unpublished number for 14 years has been a great way to eliminate those types of scum.

Still get a few calls from att&t or places that have my number but I greatly recommend it.

They are esp annoying for people who are elderly or ill, home from the hospital, broken ankle etc.

[HARDCORE]

jocelyn

We are pursuing the matter!!! Thanks for your input!!!

VERITAS

[MORTARDUDE]

I understand that after this goes into effect, that instead of showing "unavailable" on the caller-id mechanism when they call, they will have to list their business name and phone number...A great idea..

Larry

[MORTARDUDE]

We have had a "do not call list" in Tennessee for many years. It has worked very well.

Larry

[MORTARDUDE]

I would get a good lawyer and pursue the $ 10,000 fine angle. They may settle with you out of court to keep from paying it and getting bad publicity......this is just the beginning of much, much more of this nonsense. Just stay cool. I have had an instance this week where someone opened some of my mail and sent it to my house a month late. It was very sensitive information. Also, on Saturday, in a 2 hour period, I had 76 attempts to get in my PC from quickly changing IP addresses ( probably all around the world ), and they were rigged so that the trace in Norton firewall couldn't find them...just stay cool....get a lawyer and harass them for awhile..I would also suggest you get a personal firewall, virus scanner software, Spybot Search and Destroy, some good good power supply strips, a home intrusion alarm system, firearms ( if so inclined ), an emergency preparation cache... and also... a tape recorder for your phone. You can also change the greeting on your home phone to include something like "your call may be monitored and recorded, and I have caller-id..".....to protect yourself. I have all of these in place. I am not paranoid ( well maybe a little.. ;-)), just prepared. Everyone should be. It is too late when something happens. May God Bless !!!!

Larry

[Seascamp]

I registered but it didn?t do a lot of good. I believe there is an exclusion that allows phone solicitation calls within a State. And of course most of the telemarketing outfits are based in Las Vegas. So I just let my tele-blaster do its thing. That gismo serves up a disconnected number signal when a computer generated phone call is detected. Its cyclical though and I can always tell when my name has been sold again because for a few days there seems to be a feeding frenzy (30-40 calls a day is not unusual) and then nothing for a few weeks, then the cycle repeats. I have never purchased anything from a telemarketing outfit so I can?t figure out why I?m such a hot number.

Scamp