Personal Privacy Rules

March 29, 2009

Verizon Telemarketer Lawsuit Settled

Filed under: Telemarketer — Tags: , , , — admin @ 7:46 am

Another small win….from the news today, Verizon Wireless said today it has settled a lawsuit filed last month against Feature Films for Families, a Utah-based telemarketing company, for illegally calling Verizon Wireless customers and employees to advertise the movie, “The Velveteen Rabbit.” In addition to a permanent injunction preventing any future calls, the Utah-based telemarketer has agreed to a $25,000 cash settlement, which Verizon Wireless is donating to the charity, National Domestic Violence Hotline.

Small, incremental wins like this can help stem only some telemarketers.  Many of them don’t play fair and will call your phone number without care for the implications.  Always be careful, and on the watch for who calls you.  When they do, do a reverse lookup to ensure that they are playing fair.

March 27, 2009

New Ways to Annoy You: Telemarketers Still S((*^%

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , — admin @ 7:39 am

I came across a blog the other day by TwinSpeak that gave me a chuckle.  They received a phone call from a telemarketer who tried to influence them to “save money”.  The telemarketer starts off, “Hi I’m Bob, would you like to save money?” Who wouldn’t, right?  So the obvious answer is “yes”.  But inevitably they want you to spend money to save money.  The scam never ends.  They don’t want to let you off the line, or even allow you to say “no” so the postive questions continue until the moment of truth.  “We can lower your interest rate if you Often times these folks will call your phone number back day after day trying to get in touch with you.  Sometimes they leave messages and other times they don’t.

I always advise people to never answer the phone for an unknown number on the caller id, you don’t know who it is, so if its important they’ll leave a message.  When you get these calls, you can always do a lookup on them with a reverse phone directory.  This will allow you to figure out who they are, and even decide to call them back if their voicemail is garbled or inspecific about what they want.

March 23, 2009

How to Stop Telemarketers from Calling You

Filed under: Phone Privacy, Phone Scam, Telemarketer — Tags: , , , — admin @ 11:42 am

Telemarketers are a constant threat to our privacy, quality of life, and (for some) well being.  Telemarketers fall into two different groups….people who are actually trying to sell a product or service AND those people who act like telemarketers but are really criminals who are trying to get your private information.   Remember to never give out personal information to someone who calls you.

You can follow these three  simple steps to decrease or even stop these calls.

1) Put your name on the do not call list. The US Government created a do-no-call list that telemarketers must review monthly.  They are not allowed to contact you if your name is on this list.  EXCEPTION:  If you expressly give a company permission to call you.  Be careful what you sign. File a complaint on the government’s site if someone does call you.

2)  Tell them to stop. If a telemarketer does call you, do the following things:  1) ask the name of the person, 2) get the name of the company they work for, 3) note the time/day 4) ask them to put you on their do not call list.  Write all of this down and keep it as a record.

3) Use Caller ID. If a caller calls with an unknown caller-id, let it go to voicemail.  If the call is important, the caller will leave a voicemail.  You can easily listen to the voicemail then and determine if you want to call them back.  Many telemarketers or call scammers will not have sufficient information on the caller id to determine who they are.  You can always use a reverse phone  directory to determine who they are.

Its key to remember that you should never give out personal information to anyone you don’t know who calls you.  You can always call them back at their main number (the one you know) to verify they are who they say they are.

March 22, 2009

Beware: Is that Telemarketer Really Telling You the Truth?

Filed under: Phone Scam — Tags: , , — admin @ 7:46 pm

I received a call the other day from a nice person who said she was from my credit card company and wanted to offer to lower my rate of my credit card. She provided a few pieces of information to verify that she was from my bank, then went on to ask me some additional personal information. I provided some information to her, then she said thank you and said she’d get back to me. Fortunately, all of the information I gave her was false. I’ve heard of these scams before and was curious how far she’d go.

More and more people today are receiving “telemarketer” type calls offering both opportunities to reduce your credit card debt, improve your auto warranty, consolidate your credit cards, or many other offers. Most of these are scams.

The foremost rule when getting a call from someone you don’t know: Don’t Trust Them.

Here’s what to do when you get a solicitation on the phone:

1) Do you want to listen? Typically I politely tell telemarketers no thank you and to place my name on the do not call list. More often than not, once they know you’re not interested they’ll hang up and go to the next unknowing caller.

2) Does it sound real? Its truly possible that you may get a real call from your bank, stock broker, or other company you do business with. I’ll always get their name and extension or department, then say I’ll call them back. I’ll lookup the real general business phone number (eg my bank) and ask for that person or extension. This way I can ensure they’re real when I call them.

3) Send to voicemail? Caller ID is a wonderful thing. If I don’t recognize the phone number, I’ll let them go to voicemail and if its important enough, they’ll leave a message. For those that don’t or who keep badgering me, I’ll look them up on a reverse phone directory. These directories tell you who called, and often show other callers’ experience.

Its key to note that you truly can’t trust callers today. You never know if they’re real or trying to scam you. Never give out personal information if they call you. I’ve found a good website that allows you to find out who the caller is and use it from time to time, see CallCatalog.com.

March 20, 2009

SAT-Related Telemarketing Scam

Filed under: Phone Scam — Tags: , — admin @ 6:12 pm

Just another reason not to trust people you don’t know on the telephone.   A new phone caller scam targets SAT-takers of a specific high-school in Ohio.  The scam involves the caller calling people who have taken the SAT.  They tell the person that the child checked a box saying that their child wants more information about how to improve SAT scores.  They then go on to ask for a credit card number and more information.  Police are actively investigating the scam.

It sounds real.  They want a credit card number,  the child’s name and address.   Remember,  if you ever get a call from an unwanted caller — including a Telemarketer or other curiously unknown caller — you can look them up on a free reverse phone directory.  Find out who they are, then share your experience with others or file a complaint.

FTC recently asked to investigate Google’s Privacy Breach

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 9:30 am

Google found a bug in their google docs product that allows some users to see documents they shouldn’t.  Given Google’s vast influence, this is a big deal.  Just like if Microsft found a major privacy issue within Windows or office.  Google announced this on March 7th on a blog they posted.   They said its only a very small number of users.

As we advance our use of the internet its only expected that more and more people will place private items on the internet.  The goal of the big companies is to protect it.  If not, our privacy is at risk.

March 19, 2009

Free Reverse Phone Directory — How To

Filed under: Phone Privacy — Tags: , , , — admin @ 10:15 am

Welcome to CallCatalog.com’s new blog.  We’ve created this as a optimal way to discuss current privacy issues.  Unfortunately, we all get too many unwanted phone calls.  It wasn’t very long ago when the telemarketer was more of an after thought — someone who rarely called.  Now these unwanted calls have become more of our way of life.  CallCatalog was created as a way for users to quickly share caller information as well as reverse lookup phone numbers and find out who is calling you.  Many people also share their experiences.  The goal is to work together to reduce these unwanted calls for everyone.

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