Track down those telemarketers

Websites help fight back

by Dave Young, News2

February 26, 2008

DENVER (KWGN) — If you're like most people you get dozens of those irritating telemarketing calls, even though you're on the Do Not Call List. Well, there is a way to find out who's doing all the calling.

"And we'll take just a few minutes to quote you coverage and give you the piece of mind," said the female recorded voice on one of the 35 or so I recently saved in a 10 day period.

They're so irritating, coming sometimes repeatedly at all hours. "To cut your debt by up 60 percent," shouted a man on another message.

And there seems to be no way to fight them, those automated and persistent sales pitches. "They may be eligible for interest rates, possibly as low as 6.9 percent," promised a vaguely familiar woman's voice.

"For years we've assumed that it's someone anonymous, there's nothing we can do," said Susan Leihe of the Better Business Bureau. "We'll never know who that is, of course, they would never answer their phone if you called them back. Now you've got a tool."

The BBB recommends using some newer websites, like Reverse Phone Detective or 800 Notes, for example, which let you share information about your call experiences and track down where the calls are coming from.

"Only a limited amount of households have been selected for this program," promised yet another man's voice. I looked up some of my frequent offenders. So I put in the number 763-392-3790 that has called my phone several times over the last month and I found out one person said it's an automated home mortgage request. Another one said they left a message about their vehicle warranty expiring. I've had that message several times.

"Please don't make the mistake of driving without a warranty," pleaded a woman's voice in the message.

"Beep beep," that's what you get when you call some of the numbers back, just "beep beep."

Some automated calls have various names under the same numbers, like one number, which showed up on my phone as "Unknown Name," "Service First," on one of the websites.

I called the number. "This number has been registered on my phone like five times in the last two weeks," I told a woman who answered with a thick foreign accent. "But there's never a message and it just keeps calling my home and I'm on the Do Not Call List," I told her.

She assured me they were just trying to follow up on a warranty I never had, which indicated they have a previous business relationship with me so it's okay to call me and not in violation of the Do Not Call Registry.
Only problem is they didn't.

Viewers tell me they've sometimes gotten rude, hostile operators when they try to complain about the calls. "As a bonus gift you'll also receive a gift certificate worth $2000," said an excited woman's voice in one of my pseudo-friendly saved messages.

Some of the websites even offer a link to the FCC to report automated voice messages left on your phone. "Time is running out so press one now," warned a doomsday voice in yet another warranty pitch.

"What other tools have we got?" asked Liehe. She said combined with reverse domain name lookups, the reverse phone services offer you at least a means to fight back.

"One of the things about fraud," she pointed out, "is that you feel helpless, you feel like there's nothing you can do and you're embarrassed."

Most of the ones I called had, you guessed it, automated messages. But I did reach a few, like the lady on the warranty I never had.

"Okay well, I'd like to be removed from the call list okay," I told her, "I'm already on the Do Not Call List, thank you" At least by doing this you can find out quite a bit about these numbers and who else they've called.

Be aware that to really track down some of these companies you may asked to pay a fee of $40 or more. But you can still learn a whole lot about who's calling by using the free services.