Baiting illegal telemarketers?

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Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2014 7:28 pm

I wanted to get some advice on illegal telemarketers - those annoying folks from "Card Services" who call at all hours of the night, even though you are on the National Do Not Call list?

1. Is it considered ok/ethical to bait them?

2. If so, what are some suggestions?

I get about 6 of these calls a day (despite all my phone numbers being on the Do Not Call list for years), and most of them call between midnight and 6am! I report them all, every day, to the Do Not Call complaint website, but these numbers are all spoofed and untraceable. I have also read that most of these are scams - they just charge people a fee for "reducing their credit card debt", but don't actually do anything. I just want a little revenge, if at all possible.

Elite Baiter Joined: 10 Mar 2013 Posts: 1482

They have your RL information. Need to say more?

Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2014 7:53 pm

Also, unless it's a scam, it's off-limits for baiting here. Report them to the proper agency if they are violating the telemarketing laws and it really bugs you. Or get caller ID and don't answer unlisted numbers. Cool

Wannabe Baiter Joined: 07 Oct 2010 Posts: 82

They have cell telephone number... which is considered PII but nothing else.

A long time ago I actually acepted one of these calls and gave them the name Detective Angel Bautista.... and now ever time they call they ask for him....

So any calls I get for Detective Angel Bautista I waste as much time as I can. I find playing dumb really makes them mad. Tracing their phone numbers via www.tnid.us or www.phonevalidator.com shows every single one of them to be a VOIP or google voice type number so shutting down the number probably won't get anything.

I also have a Visa gift card I got a long time ago with no money on it, I like to give them that card number as often as I can, saying I owe 30k on that credit card, if they could just help me pay if off.

Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2014 8:55 pm

Aside from the fact that telemarketers are outside of our purview, they aren't really baitable in the usual sense. You can waste their time by annoying them, but ultimately it will never stop them. And as Leka says, they have your RL info. So messing with them is potentially playing with fire.

As you've obviously discovered, most of these guys pay no attention to the DNC list. They usually used spoofed numbers anyway.

Just ignore them. Why waste your own time messing with them?

Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2014 9:23 pm

If it's just ridiculous telemarketers I usually hang up, but lately there have been a lot of actual criminal scam phone calls in my area. Commonly crooks claiming to be from the power company who need you to western union funds or they will cut your power off in three hours etc. it's a major issue all over the US apparently. Anyhow, they rarely hang up if they think you're compliant so I usually play along as the worlds dumbest victim, unable to even understand the concept of western union or how to give them the money. I also like speaking to the. In foreign languages. I had one on the line for 15 minutes speaking a foreign language and interspersing "How I pay?" Every two or three minutes. It's one way to spend time in the bathroom when you have an upset stomach...

Baiting Guru Joined: 10 Oct 2010 Posts: 3876

a friend of mine just insulted them.

apparently they have a database where they write down if the person is friendly and a possible victim or he is unfriendly and just a waste of time.

the result is: he gets less and less calls...

I can only speak about the situation with east german telemarketers. first, cold calls are illegal. second: those are unemployed people with low education, who get a job at those companies (they have to do it). wasting their time would (at least here) result in hurting an ITP, since they have to fullfill a certain rate (amount of contracts) for the company, or else they get fired and sent back to the unemployment agency (which will cut their money for one month because the company tells that they are not willing to work).

EDIT: oh, by the way, since they are wearing headsets. using a whistle is a bad idea. in older systems, the telemarketers get a very loud noise out of their speakers, which could possibly harm them. and the newer systems mute, if the noise is too loud.

Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 1:20 am

Send them back to Telemark!

Baiting Guru Joined: 10 Oct 2010 Posts: 3876

^^

do you think, norway is happy to get them all?

Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 2:59 am

I do have caller-id, but since they usually call my business number (which rings through to my cell when I'm not in the office), I can't ignrore the call. There's no way to tell if it's a telemarketer or a genuine customer for my business. So frustrating.

Thanks for the info, everyone!

Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 3:04 am

My son worked for a year in Orlando, Florida (at a company whose logo is a round-eared rodent), which seems to be ground zero for these calls. He actually talked to a few who worked these call centers. After a vic hears the recorded prompt and presses 1 a live person picks up and says, "did you press 1 to lower your interest rates?" If the voice on the other end says anything but "yes" they hang up immediately. The average live phone call lasts 1.5 seconds.

Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 12:16 pm

I have caller ID, and usually ignore those "unknown" calls.

But sometimes after I've had a few beers, and an "unknown" caller calls, I pick up.

I particularly enjoy messing with the Microsoft "techs."

Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 12:36 pm

I had two calls from different "Microsoft techs" this week.

The first one I spoke to ran me throught the whole "eventvwr" scenario until he said he was going to put the engineer on. Then I hung up.

The second one was more entertaining. He told me that my Microsoft AV protection had been penetrated and that I'd get an upgrade once the problem was solved. I snapped back that if my MS AV had been compromised, why would I want a fresh upload of bad software? He finally lost his temper when I jeered at him for the constant refrain of "You can see with your eyes".

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18312

As Juan said, these aren't really baitable (they have your real info) and aren't what we do here.

In my personal experience, I have toyed with MS tech and Jamaican lottery scammers (to a point, again, they had my real info).

The Jamaican lottery scammer stayed on the phone with me so long, I had to finally end the call! He admitted he was a scammer and answered a bunch of my questions about how they run the scams. (It could have all been lies). He even told me that sometimes, he tricks women victims into traveling to Jamaica so he can have sex with them. Later in the conversation he started trying to compliment and flatter me and invited me to visit him in Jamaica. Rolling Eyes

The last time a MS tech scammer called, I had him explain things in depth, about the error messages that were coming from my computer. I accused him of being a scammer and let him explain at length why he wasn't a scammer. Then I told him I didn't have a computer. He hung up.

Moderator Joined: 10 Jan 2007 Posts: 13497

The "card services" scammers are outside of the topic here at 419eater. However, I understand the frustration of folks getting these calls since they are epidemic in the United States. (with the Jamaican Lottery and PC repair scammers)

There is a growing movement to "bait" them on a few forums that are dedicated to phone fraud, and I run in those circles when I'm not dealing with 419fraud. But the practitioners are not the "scam baiters" we see here and it is a completely different topic and approach.

I would suggest posting the number on a phone complaints forum (such as 800notes.com). The folks with the interest in and expertise in that area would pick it up from there.

Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 8:08 pm

^^That's interesting. I've often wondered if there were baiters who did that sort of thing. Although, like you said, it's a completely different approach.

Baiting Guru Joined: 10 Oct 2010 Posts: 3876

so the question is: how to set up a catcher?

and how to get the own data off that lists.

my idea so far for question 2: if they greet you with your name, tell that these data are wrong, and that you are someone else you just made up. hopefully they can edit data, if they are incorrect.

and to get fake data onto that list: first: where do they get the data. and then: how to insert a fake profile into those data, so they get cann call the number and know the correct baiter-data. the address could be an existing road in an existing town, but an incorrect house number, or (a bit more problematic) existing house but a obviosly non-existing floor)

this way, two of our most important rules aren't violated anymore. no real life data and no ITP data.

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2014 4:41 pm

dwatina wrote:

^^That's interesting. I've often wondered if there were baiters who did that sort of thing. Although, like you said, it's a completely different approach.

Go to YouTube and enter "card services" in the search box and you will find some mildly entertaining phone baits.

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2014 5:34 pm

Interesting would be to set up a google voice number with fake information. I already have one for baiting. That one does not ring through to a phone. If you call it, voice mail for you.

In any event, being in the US, I am getting the MS Security call quite regularly. Usually I just hang up on it.

However, if they happen to call after I have a scotch or two in me all bets are off. Mrs. The Man indicates she has learned a few new and interesting ways to put swear words together from those calls.

One of the "gentlemen" actually called back after I told him what I thought of his "job".... he wanted to know what I did for a living.....

That lead to another round of swearing at him and actually him hanging up on me.

To answer the question though, really the only way I would think of to truly bait them is a straight bait. They call. Act like you are interesting in whatever it is they have to say. Keep on going down the line on their script as long as you can.

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