Crackberry.com

BlackberryCool.com

Follow us on Twitter

ShareThis

The US House of Representatives passed a bill today, dubbed the Truth in Caller ID Act, that bans the practice of Caller-ID Spoofing, something that we’ve long advocated for as the root of many problems being reported by EveryCall.us users.

Once signed into law by President Obama, the FCC will have six months to implement the new regulation.

We applaud the efforts of US House Members and Senators and encourage you to send your thanks!  We believe this will significantly reduce the problem telemarketing practices, identity theft and other forms of fraud which stem from false caller-id information.

ShareThis

What is the Difference between “My Black List” and “My White List”?

For starters, Call Control is much different than traditional call blocking applications because of the Community Blacklist feature.  The Community Blacklist is a collection of spam callers reported by other users, both from Call Control and EveryCall.us.

Call Control Pro comes preloaded with the Community Blacklist, meaning that thousands of spam callers are blocked automatically from calling your phone.

The “My Black List” feature is separate, private list of callers that will also be blocked from calling your mobile phone.  Unlike the Community Blacklist, these numbers are not shared with other users and do not get reported to EveryCall.us.

For example, if you would like to temporarily block calls from a specific number you can add to “My Black List” and calls from that number will be blocked while the number remains on the Black List.  Should you want to start receiving calls from that number again, you can delete the entry from “My Black List” and that number will again be allowed to call you.

The “My White List” feature is a “safe” list of telephone numbers that are always allowed to call your phone and will not be blocked by either the Community Blacklist or “My Black List”.  Your Blackberry contacts are always whitelisted, meaning that calls from your contacts are never blocked.

Why would I ever need the White List feature?
The best way to explain this is through an example.  Blockbuster routinely calls their customers from the telephone number 000-000-0000 to remind them that a video rental is overdue.  However, 000-000-0000 has been identified as a spam number and is included in the Community Blacklist, meaning Call Control will block calls from 000-000-0000 (see a Community Blacklist demo video here).

But let’s say you like the reminders and don’t want to end up owning the video rental, so you decide you want to receive calls from 000-000-0000.  The way to do this is to add 000-000-0000 to “My White List” so that future calls will not be blocked.  You can do this by selecting “My White List” from the main menu, then clicking the menu button and select “Add Entry”.  Alternatively, from your call log you can select the number you want to add to the white list, click the menu button, and select “Add to White List”.

Bottom Line
Our goal was to give you complete control over who is able to call your cell phone, and “My Black List” and “My White List” let you manually add numbers to either block or safely allow depending on the circumstance.

Stay Tuned for Part 2!

ShareThis

The Washington Post today put together a cheat sheet when receiving calls from telemarketers representing charitable organizations.  We full encourage charitable giving throughout the year, but as the Post points out it makes a lot of sense to fully qualify the charity prior to sending them money.

“Are you a third-party company raising funds on behalf of the charity?” You need to ask this question because for-profit fundraisers — companies that primarily are used in charitable telemarketing campaigns — can keep 25 cents to 95 cents of every dollar they collect, according to Charity Navigator, which evaluates charities’ fundraising efficiency. Most efficient charities spend less than 25 percent on fundraising and administrative fees.

Read the full story here.

ShareThis

http://consumerist.com/2009/12/sample-phone-scripts-used-by-sleazy-subrime-lenders-in-2005.html

ShareThis

“if you find yourself hounded by regular calls from organizations that don’t leave voice-mails or won’t take no for an answer, Call Control for the Blackberry may be the app for you.”

“Call Control is from the folks behind EveryCall.us, a crowd-sourced Web database of telemarketer numbers and other annoying organizations that call behind hidden lines, don’t leave voice messages to tell you who they are, or cold call you to solicit your business. If you discover a new telemarketing number, you can add it to the community database at EveryCall.us, and Call Control will automatically check against it the next time you get a call. The developers of the app have made it very easy to report a bad number through the app on your Blackberry.”

You can read the whole review here.

ShareThis

–

BASKING RIDGE, N.J., Nov 10, 2009 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Verizon said today that Abyss, developed by Mobigloo, is the Grand Prize-winning application in its inaugural Apply Your Ideas mobile applications contest.

Abyss is a new action-puzzle game relying on an original concept. Exclusively designed for the BlackBerry(R) Storm(TM) smartphone, Abyss uses the touch screen and accelerometer to provide fun and innovative game play. The goal of the game is to rearrange colored pieces by sliding them so that the pearls do not fall in the Abyss of the ocean.

North Carolina-based Mobigloo, which develops games and lifestyle applications for mobile devices, will receive $50,000; 200 percent of the application’s revenue for a year (to a maximum of actual revenue plus $100,000); plus other prizes for the winning application. The Grand Prize winner was chosen from the five category winners by an elite panel of expert judges based on originality and innovation; quality of product; visual and user experience; product or service appeal; technical execution and value proposition.

“We’re delighted to be recognized by Verizon,” said Sylvain Dufour, chief executive officer of Mobigloo. “With Verizon’s support of BlackBerry(R) devices and the upcoming launch of the V CAST Apps store, so many doors are open to developers to create innovative applications. We hope our new game, Abyss, will entertain many users.”

VDC Members Chose Category and People’s Choice Winners

Developers were encouraged to submit apps for the contest in five different categories - Connect, Entertain, Guide, Save Time, and Enhance Living - which highlighted a wide range of activities, information, entertainment and other cool things developers can bring to mobile phones. A full set of criteria and contest rules can be found at: www.applyyourideas.com/official_rules.aspx.

Members of the Verizon Developer Community (VDC) chose the winning applications in each of the five contest categories based upon innovation, quality and consumer appeal. Category winners, who will each receive $10,000, were:

ENTERTAIN

    --  Abyss - See the description of the Grand-Prize winner above.

CONNECT

    --  Vaayoo SocialBoxA(C) - Vaayoo SocialBox combines social networking, media
        (pictures, video and voice), sync, multimedia messaging and private
        communities in an easy-to-use mobile application.  Vaayoo, based in
        Silicon Valley, was founded by a team of professionals with wide telecom
        experience, with a goal of innovating and simplifying mobile technology
        for everyday use.

“We are honored to win in a very competitive ‘Connect’ category and are thankful to the community of users and developers that have validated our work. Thanks to Verizon for giving us this opportunity and a platform for innovating for consumers. Our team worked very hard to develop innovative features delivering a great mobile user experience,” said Ranjit R. Sawant, founder and chief executive officer of Vaayoo.

GUIDE

    --  Berryminder - Berryminder is also the winner of the People's Choice
        Award, having garnered the highest total of votes during the contest.
        The developer of the People's Choice winner will receive $25,000 among
        other prizes.  Berryminder is an application that allows users to set
        alerts based on their GPS-determined locations.   Users can set a
        detailed alert and attach a location to it so that whenever he or she
        enters the specified region, the alert appears.  Berryminder also
        contains standard alarm features and date-based alerts that aren't
        location-dependent.  It was created by Berrymad, a small but innovative
        company founded in 2009 by two recent grads from the University of
        California at San Diego.

“We saw this contest as a great opportunity to showcase what Berrymad has to offer. All of the positive feedback and public interest has inspired Berrymad to start developing more great apps for the upcoming V CAST Apps store. It is a great honor to have been chosen for the People’s Choice Award and we look forward to working more with Verizon in the near future,” said Tom Maneri, president of Berrymad.

SAVE TIME

    --  Call Control Lite - Call Control, created by the Kedlin Company of
        Seattle, Wash., blocks telemarketers that appear on a user-generated
        Community Blacklist at EveryCall.us, effectively reducing or eliminating
        unwanted spam telephone calls to your BlackBerry.  It works better than
        traditional call-blocking applications because Call Control has
        identified more than 2.5 million spam callers and is continuously
        updated based on user and Government Do-Not-Call complaints.

“Verizon’s contest had a ton of great apps submitted, and we’re thrilled that Call Control was voted the winner in the ‘Save Time’ category. We’ve spent months in development of Call Control, and it’s a lot of fun to launch our product in conjunction with a win in Verizon’s prestigious contest,” said Ben Sharpe, chief executive officer of Kedlin Company.

ENHANCE LIVING

    --  craigslist mobile by Movela - craigslist mobile is a full-featured
        client application for BlackBerry devices that allows users to browse
        and search craigslist postings, bookmark and reply to posts, save
        searches and more.  The application supports all categories and all
www.craigslist.org        by Movela and uses technology from Pyxis Mobile, whose solutions are
        used by mobile professionals to extend critical business data from
        internal systems to the mobile space.

“We are excited that craigslist mobile has been given recognition as a leading life enhancement application,” said Jeff Yeakley, manager at Pyxis Mobile and Movela’s lead designer. “We believe that we, along with our friends at craigslist.org, have created a differentiated application that is rich with features. Our thanks to Verizon and its team of judges.”

Verizon’s Apply Your Ideas contest - designed to spur development of the freshest and most appealing applications for smartphone customers - was announced at the first-ever VDC Conference last July, where the company introduced its developer portal (http://developer.verizon.com). Verizon created the community to help developers bring mobile applications to market and address developer demands for speed and transparency.

For more information about the VDC, visit http://developer.verizon.com.

About Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s most reliable and largest wireless voice and 3G data network, serving 89 million customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 85,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications /quotes/comstock/13*!vz/quotes/nls/vz (VZ 30.35, +0.18, +0.60%) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD). For more information, visit www.verizonwireless.com. To preview and request broadcast-quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.

SOURCE Verizon Wireless

http://www.verizonwireless.com

ShareThis

We’re excited to announce the release of Call Control, the ultimate blacklist app for Blackberry!  Call Control is a revolutionary new application that automatically blocks telemarketing and spam callers from calling you!  With Call Control, your phone won’t ring when a call flagged as a telemarketer comes through.

Call Control is available in two flavors, Lite and Pro, the Pro version is $7.99 and supports automatic updates and the full Community Blacklist while the Lite version features a one time update which will block 100 spammers.

Call Control is available for download directly from EveryCall.us or from the Blackberry App World.  Download it today and try it free!

Stop Telemarketers from Calling You!
Block telemarketing and other spam telephone calls before they ring with Call Control, the first application for BlackBerry® that knows who the telemarketers are and stops them from calling your phone.

Crowd Sourcing, meet Blackberry.
How does it work? Call Control features the largest Community Blacklist of spam callers, containing over 2.5 million entries and growing which is auto-updated to your BlackBerry. The Community Blacklist is generated from user reports and Government Do Not Call complaints, keeping your BlackBerry constantly protected against new Telemarketers.

Stay ahead of Telemarketers with Automatic Updates.
Call Control delivers this call blocking super power to your BlackBerry and is automatically updated with active spam callers, keeping them from calling your BlackBerry saving you time, money and the frustration of pesky telemarketers.

Call Control is intuitive and easy to use. Simply download and run Call Control to stop spam calls.

ShareThis

Please visit ApplyYourIdeas.com and vote for Call Control today!

Call Control is an application for the Blackberry smartphone platform that checks incoming calls against the EveryCall.us database and blocks suspicious telephone calls including telemarketers, robo-callers, political calls, surveyors, scammers, and more.

Check out the promo video below for a sneak peak of the application.

ShareThis

If you’ve read through some of the do not call reports at EveryCall.us, you won’t be surprised that in the past couple of months there have been an outbreak of phony debt collectors threatening arrest or court action if a payday loan isn’t repaid immediately.

According to the Better Business Bureau, the scammers say they are with the “Financial Accountability Association” or the “Federal Legislation of Unsecured Loans” and are equipped with a disconcerting amount of personal information about their potential victims.

The Better Business Bureau has issued a Nationwide alert and believes that there may have been a massive breach in customer information which has armed these scammers with personal information.

Here are some simple tips from EveryCall.us:

• Ask the caller for the name of their business, address, and a return telephone number so that you may call them back after you’ve verified the legitimacy of their business.
• DO NOT provide any bank account information, additional personal information or credit card information over the phone.
• Demand that they send you proof of the purported debt.
• DO NOT wire any money or send any form of payment until you know that the entity is legitimate.
• File a report both at EveryCall.us and the FCC and include any information that you have obtained.

ShareThis

According JSOnline.com, a bill introduced earlier this month could raise the fine for violating the State’s Do Not Call laws from $100 to $1,000.  Read more here.

ShareThis

The Federal Trade Commission is asking a federal court to shut down a telemarketing campaign that has been bombarding U.S. consumers with hundreds of millions of allegedly deceptive “robocalls” in an effort to sell them vehicle service contracts under the guise that they are extensions of original vehicle warranties.

If you receive a telephone call from either “Warranty Services” or “Transcontinental Warranty” please report the call to the FTC using their online report form and don’t forget to add your complaint to EveryCall.us.

The following telephone numbers have been reported associated with this company:

ShareThis

The New York Better Business Bureau is warning consumers about Robocalls which promise to lower credit card debt and reduce or eliminate payments.  The nature of the telephone calls, often reported to EveryCall.us, offer to reduce credit card debt and require a high up-front payment in exchange for services.

Many EveryCall.us users have also reported that these calls are also accompanied by a variety of phishing schemes which try to bilk personal information from the consumer being called.

The top three offenders identified by the BBB are:

CSTR Solutions, Inc.
Genesis Capital Management
Mutual Consolidated Savings

We recommend proceeding with extreme caution if you receive telephone calls from any company offering to reduce your credit card debt or monthly payment.  Often times you can negotiate with your lender, without the need for a 3rd party.  And because of the possibility that the caller could be attempting to scam and defraud you, it is always a prudent practice to work only with reputable companies that are in good standing with organizations like the BBB (you can look up companies or charities here).

ShareThis

The court ruled that unsolicited text messages are considered to be covered by the provision governing “automatic telephone dialing systems” and thus subjected to the rule of law.

This is welcome news to many, but begs the question: How will this new interpretation be enforced?

ShareThis

I got a call saying I had could have a cruise for two to Nassau and if I could just answer some questions for a survey. Nothing personal just more my preferences etc. The part that concerned me was everything was automated and the lady that came on spoke so fast that I could not get any questions in and then at the very end I got an advertisement for home security co. That’s when I was like did I just give out too much information. Scary! What if someone’s looking for a home to invade or something. Could I be too paranoid or cynical? Well I will let you know if this was a fishing type of call or see if I get that call back on the cruise package I won. I should knwo better.

Find out who called you at EveryCall.us

Seattle, WA

ShareThis

They keep calling offering additional vehicle guarantee we do not need and when called back, the number seems to be invalid. Could you help stop this harassment please?

Find out who called from 800-954-6493 at EveryCall.us

Map It

ShareThis

The FCC complaint information is indexed by telephone number and contains information such as the caller name, telephone numbers, and the nature of the call (telemarketing, junk fax, prerecorded message, etc.) if available.  This information combined with user contributions will provide the most complete listing of known telemarketers, telephone scams, and junk callers available.

To view an example of the FCC complaints within EveryCall.us, click here.

We’ve created a list of all caller’s identified in the FCC’s database and plan to add details and analytics about each caller in the near future.  If you have ideas about how to best use this information, please leave a comment.

ShareThis

Elizabeth Lordan, a spokesperson at the Federal Trade Commission, said such telemarketing also appears to violate the agency’s Telemarketing Sales Rules governing the National Do Not Call Registry. Lordan said she is not aware of any completed FTC investigations involving autodial-based extended auto warranty telemarketing. Lordan also said she was unable to say whether the FTC has any probes in progress.

Rosemary Kimball, an FCC spokesperson, said the agency could not immediately provide data on consumer complaints about such telemarketing. Kimball said she was not aware of any FCC enforcement actions on extended warranty telemarketing.

Read more here and we’ll follow this story and post any news on developments with the lawsuit and hopefully we’ll be able to post details about who is behind these telephone calls shortly.

ShareThis

#1 - (800) 168-4861

#2 - (507) 345-5596

#3 - (800) 219-7425

#4 - (401) 785-1659

#5 - ((540) 350-4194

#6 - (863) 467-8918

#7 - (619) 801-8154

#8 - (302) 336-7401

#9 - 44 (870) 244-8833

#10 - (800) 566-2888

ShareThis

The FTC has accused both Dish Network and it’s affiliates of making repeated telephone solicitations to consumers.

“Since the National Do Not Call Registry was launched, it has been enormously effective at protecting millions of Americans from unwanted telemarketing calls at home,” said Eileen Harrington, Acting Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “But because a few bad actors still don’t get it, we want to make it crystal clear. If you call consumers whose numbers are on the Do Not Call Registry, you’re breaking the law. If your authorized dealers call consumers whose numbers are on the Registry, you’re breaking the law. Either way, we will protect the privacy of American consumers and we will hold you accountable.”

The government seeks a permanent injunction against Dish Network that prohibits the satellite TV provider from violating the TSR (including its Do Not Call provisions and abandoned call restrictions), either directly or through its authorized dealers; requires Dish Network to monitor and enforce its authorized dealers’ compliance with the TSR; and prohibits Dish Network from assisting and facilitating violations. The government also seeks civil penalties for Dish’s violations.

The complaint announced against Dish Network today is being brought jointly with the
Attorneys General of California, Illinois, Ohio, and North Carolina as co-plaintiffs. In addition to the TSR violations alleged by the United States, the complaint includes allegations brought solely by the state Attorneys General. They include allegations that Dish Network violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and state law – either directly or indirectly as a result of third parties acting on its behalf – by calling numbers on the Do Not Call Registry and by placing telemarketing calls that deliver prerecorded messages to live consumers.

Below are telephone numbers that have been reported to EveryCall.us as being associated with Dish Network:

18666688047
12032012000
15033566913
17327270395
15073455596
13012230027
17022153022
16032143601

Read more from the FTC’s official press release.

ShareThis

My name is Mike, I live in Brampton, Ontario, and I too have been receiving phone calls from this company, which as far as I can tell is called MCS (Mutual Consolidated Savings). They are located in Tacoma Washington, but appear to be affiliated with other similarly annoying companies. Their web site is:

www.mcsprograms.com/products.html

Phone numbers that are definitely associated with this company are: 323-429-7525, 1 877-891-1348, and 1 800-943-3250.

Like many of you, I received unsolicited calls from this company wanting to lower my credit card interest rates, by way of a recording. When you press the button and someone answers, and you tell that person not to call, they hang up. Here’s how you get them to stop calling:

They operate an office which is open 9am to 5 pm (Pacific Time), Monday to Thursday, and 9 am to 11 am on Fridays. During these times, they do answer the 1 800-943-3250 number which is where you can have some fun. It looks like they only have one phone operator on this line, and she will likely put you on hold at first. I just hang up and repeatedly call them. I was put through to their compliance officer who identified himself as Chris. Chris is obviously the owner of the company, and you can hear his voice on the recording when you call 1 877-891-1348. I told Chris that if I received one more call, I would call his office during business hours 100 times for the first call, and double that number for every subsequent call received. They did call, and so I annoyed them for about two hours a few days ago, each time telling Chris or whoever answered the call what my phone number was, and that I was phoning to remind them that the calls received from them were unwelcome. Chris lost it. It was quite entertaining really. The last time I called, he told me that he had phoned Bell Canada to complain (and provided me with a bogus tracking number), and that he had reported the matter to # 18 Division, Toronto Police. The fact that the Toronto Police Service doesn’t have a # 18 Division, and that I live in Brampton and not Toronto I think was lost on poor Chris. Also, since the intent is to have him stop calling me, there is no criminal offence associated with this (not that he could do anything about it anyway, because it is a summary offence in Canada, and nobody is going to do anything about it.). The legislation is contained in section 372 of the Criminal Code if you are worried about it, which is pasted at the end of this post. In summary, phone this company repeatedly at 1 800-943-3250 during business hours, remind them that the calls are unwelcome, tie up their phone lines for a couple hours, and two things will happen: the calls will stop, and you will exact a little revenge. It is immensely satisfying.. Oh, by the way: tell Chris that I referred you. I am sure he will remember the name.

(3) Every one who, without lawful excuse and with intent to harass any person, makes or causes to be made repeated telephone calls to that person is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.

ShareThis

The amended rule specifically states telemarketers can either:

• transmit its own number and, where available, its own name, to consumers’ Caller ID services, or
• substitute the name of the seller (or charitable organization) on whose behalf it is calling, and the seller’s (or charitable organization’s) customer (or donor) service telephone number, which is answered during regular business hours.

The problem is that telescammers, telemarketers, and even legitimate businesses routinely alter their caller ID information to mask the true origin of their call making it next to impossible to stop them.

Here’s how it works.

Dubious telemarketers and scam artists mask their caller ID using services like SpoofCard.com or other Voice of IP (VOIP) services, allowing them to pick the name and telephone number that is transmitted as the caller ID.  Let’s say for example that they choose to represent John Smith in Seattle, WA with the telephone number (206) 626-4233 (a simple Google search will yield millions of possible combinations).  The consumer receives the telephone call, realizes it is an unsolicited call, and submits a complaint to the FTC’s Do Not Call registry and FCC’s Telemarketing and Junk Fax Complaint system.  The problem is that now poor John Smith just had a complaint filed against him for doing nothing wrong and the dubious caller is getting away with it.

Don’t believe that is happening?  Here is a more mainstream example for you.  Blockbuster calls consumers from (000) 000-0000 to remind them that a movie is overdue.  Per the FTC’s rules, Blockbuster should be sending their own name and telephone number so that consumers can identify the call.  Blockbuster is violating the rules by misrepresenting their telephone calls with a bogus number that can’t receive a returned call.

In fact this practice is so prevalent that the FTC, in a Phishing Round Table Report from July, 2008 labeled this practice as “Vishing”, or Phishing using a spoofed Caller ID through VoIP.

The solution is to pass legislation A.) make it illegal to provide services which misrepresent the identity of an incoming call in the United States, and B.) provides tough monetary penalties for those who provide or use such technology for the purposes of misrepresenting themselves to consumers.

Eliminating spoofed caller ID would be instrumental in putting a stop to illegal telemarketing and fraud because it reduces the anonymity of the telephone call.  Legitimate caller ID information would enable consumers to provide accurate information when filing their complaints, which in turn would aid the FCC and FTC in their investigation of illegal telephone solicitations.

Please join EveryCall.us in urging our Federal officials to consider introducing new rules to help eliminate misrepresentation of caller ID information.  You can call or write the commissioners of the FCC and FTC using the contact information provided below:

FCC Commissioners:

Commissioner Michael J. Copps: Michael.Copps@fcc.gov
Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein: Jonathan.Adelstein@fcc.gov
Commissioner Robert McDowell: Robert.McDowell@fcc.gov

FTC Commissioners:

Commissioner William E. Kovacic (202) 326-2150
Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour (202) 326-2907
Commissioner Jon Leibowitz (202) 326-3400
Commissioner J. Thomas Rosch (202) 326-3651

ShareThis

10.  Do Not Call List. Obvious, yes.  However 24% of Americans haven’t signed up according to a 2006 Harris Poll.  Register yourself online at DoNotCall.gov.  And don’t believe the email circulating about Cell Phones being released to telemarketers, that is false according to Snopes.


9.  Whack the Valu-Pack. We all get them, the blue envelope full of coupons.  If you don’t want them, click here to remove yourself from Valu-Pack mailings.


8.  Return It - First Class. Any unwanted mail received via First Class mail can be easily returned to sender, giving them the headache of managing the mail and disposing of it.  SImply cross out the address and barcode, circle the first class postage stamp, and write “Return to Sender”.  Drop in any mail box and it will be delivered.

7.  Less Junk Mail. The Direct Marketing Association maintains an opt out list for all of it’s member organizations.  Send a postcard with your name, address, and zipcode and request to “active the preference service” to Mail Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association, PO Box 643, Carmel, NY 15012-0643. You’ll be excluded from future mailings for five years.


6.  Sexually Oriented Mail. The Post Office will help you or your children receive “offers for sale matter that I believe to be erotically arousing or sexually provocative and therefore is a pandering advertisement.”  Complete the USPS Form 1500 and return to your Post Office.


5.  Gmail Your Email. Gmail is excellent for blocking SPAM, and you can configure GMAIL to receive mail from any email account.  Click here to learn more, it’s free, and easy.

4.  Somebody Else’s Mail. If you’re getting someone else’s mail, the former resident in your apartment or an old roommate, fill out a change of address form  with each name that you want to stop mail for.  On the form be sure to indicate that the form was completed by an “Agent for the above person by the current resident” and sign your name on the form.


3.  Find Out Who’s Calling and Report Them. If you’ve received a telemarketing or other unwanted call and don’t know who it was, visit EveryCall.us and perform a search of the number on your caller id.  Then report the number to EveryCall.us and the FCC via their online complaint form.


2.  Stop Entering Contests. Win a New Car!  Yeah right.  99.99% of all contests are giant phishing schemes to get your personal information and resell to any interested party.  Do yourself a favor and stop entering these contests.


1.  Credit Offers.  The credit agencies sell your credit information to anyone who wants it.  With one call you can stop Experian, Equifax, TransUnion, and Innovis from selling your info. Dial 1-888-5 OPT OUT

ShareThis

Comment Notifications by Email

We received a lot of feedback asking for comment notifications.  The problem was that when you left a comment about a call you received, you never knew if someone had responded or left more information unless you checked back often.  Problem Solved!

If you have an EveryCall.us account (if you don’t, sign up now!) you will notice a new link in the user control panel called “Manage Comments“.  Clicking on this link takes will display all of your comments and will give you the ability to opt-in or opt-out of receiving email notifications.  You can also turn all comment notifications on or off from this screen.

When someone leaves a comment about a telephone number you reported, you will receive an email with a link to the new comment, making it easier than ever to find out who’s calling you.  You can also opt-out of receiving future email notifications about that number directly from this email.

Now you can be kept in the loop about any telephone number you’ve reported.

Caller Information Box

The caller information box will appear in the results of all telephone number searches and contains the Caller Name, Caller Location, and Call Type (if available) for each telephone number.  We’ve also added the ability to purchase a detailed call report from our partners at ReverseMobile.com to get detailed information such as the caller’s name, address and contact information.

Redesigned Call Comment Form

We’ve updated the call comment form to make it more intuitive to leave call comments and get feedback from other EveryCall.us users about who is calling you.

Remember to provide as much information as possible when posting a comment, including the Caller’s Name and what they were calling about.

Tell-a-Friend

If you think EveryCall.us is a valuable service, we’ve made it easy to tell your friends and family so that they can inform themselves about who’s calling them.  We’ve created a Tell-a-Friend form that you can fill out with your friends email addresses and a message from you.  They will be sent a brief email informing them about EveryCall.us.

We encourage you to keep your comments, ideas, and suggestions coming as we work to improve our service in the future!

ShareThis

According to the FTC, pre-recorded telephone messages are allowed only when the consumer has an existing business relationship with the calling company.  For example, Blockbuster calling you from 000-000-0000 to remind you to return your DVD to the store is a legal recorded telephone call.  However, under the new rule Blockbuster should allow you to opt-out of future telephone calls.

This should be a welcome relief to consumers who can now easily decrease the number of future telephone calls.  However, as many EveryCall.us users have reported, many recorded calls are made illegally from callers with no business relationship.  These calls should be reported to both EveryCall.us and the FTC by visiting the FTC Complaint Assistant.

This is the first of two steps being taken by the FTC to limit the number of pre-recorded telephone calls received by consumers.

The automated opt-out requirement is the first of two measures provided by the recent TSR amendment to protect consumers’ privacy at home. The second measure prohibits telemarketing calls that deliver prerecorded messages to anyone who has not agreed in advance to receive such calls. But until September 1, 2009, sellers may continue to use prerecorded messages in calling consumers with whom they have an established business relationship. After that date, sellers may use prerecorded messages only in calls to consumers who have expressly agreed in advance to receive them.

Read the press release here or a LA Times Article here.

ShareThis

This article posted by the Muskegan Chronicle shows just how bad this can get:

It started with a phone call from someone they thought was their teenage grandson.

As the story went, he was in Canada with friends. He’d been caught fishing without a license. He needed $3,000 to pay the fine. And, by the way, he said: Please don’t let his parents know he was in trouble.

What followed was a series of phone calls — up to five or six a day over a six-day period — from “police,” describing their “grandson’s” escalating troubles.

Before it was over, the elderly couple had wired $33,000 of their life savings to Canada, money they don’t expect to ever see again.

We’ve compiled a brief list of tips for senior citizens to avoid these devestating scams:

1. Avoid sending any money via money wire, Western Union, or other similar services.  Nine times out of ten, whoever needs the money can wait for you to make sure you know who will be receiving the money.
2. Many scam artists pretend to be a family member or friend.  Confirm who is calling you by asking them questions that only your friend of relative would know.
3. Confirm who is calling you by calling them back at a number that you know, not a number they give you.
4. Never wire money to a foreign country.  If you must, make sure that you have someone you trust review the transaction prior to sending the money.

ShareThis

Should the telemarketer continue to call you, this information can be used when submitting complaints to the FCC to help their investigation and ultimately crack down on telemarketers who are willfully violating the DoNotCall Registry and other Federal Laws.

We’ve tested their service using several numbers that have been reported as provided by Digitcom to EveryCall.us (310-599-5736, 818-870-5097, 619-801-8154) and found that sure enough, Digitcom provided contact information about all of them.

As it turns out, all of these telephone numbers are owned by the same company: Telephone Management Caller ID, LLC (oddly enough the website is the family blog of a company employee).  Telephone Management company information is included at the end of this article for your reference.

Here’s How it Works:

If you receive an abusive or illegal telephone call from a number that has been reported as provided by Digitcom Services, visit their lookup page* and enter the telephone number in question.  If the telephone number is provided by Digitcom, the telemarketer’s company name and contact information will be made available to you.

DigitCom Services offers the following advice:

Be sure to complain about pressing 1 and not being taken off the DNC list and pressing 2 and having operators that are unhelpful and rude. Demand that your number be placed on the wholesalers DNC list and the wholesalers customer DNC list. We are eager to help people like you have their issues resolved by wholesalers and have set up our own email address NOC@digitcom.net so that people making complains to them can also copy us and we can try and make sure they are following up on your problem. Again, sorry for your problems.

We appreciate and applaud the efforts of Digitcom Services, Inc. to help curb abusive and illegal telemarketing practices.

* Note:  Only telephone numbers and phone lines provided by Digitcom Services, Inc. will have information displayed via this search form.

Telephone Management Caller ID, LLC Company Information

TELEPHONE MANAGEMENT CALLER ID, LLC
1211 SW FIFTH AVE STE 1900
PORTLAND, OR 97204
Telephone: (503) 223-1719
Fax: (503) 296-2500
Email Address: dnc@tmcallerid.com

TELEPHONE MANAGEMENT CORPORATION
2331 SW 5TH AVE
PORTLAND, OR 97201
Telephone:  (503) 233-7747
More Contact Information

ShareThis

NJ.com is reporting

While employed at the phone company, Vaccarelli allegedly made about 5,000 chat line calls, using 45,000 minutes of call time for 942 Verizon customers in 30 Bergen County municipalities.

Wonder if he made any phone calls to numbers reported on EveryCall.us?

Read the full story here.

ShareThis

Not covered by the ban are political calls and purely informational telephone calls like Blockbuster’s video return reminder.

“Just like the provisions of the Do Not Call Registry, these changes will protect consumers’ privacy,” said FTC Chairman William E. Kovacic. “The amendments now directly enable consumers to choose whether they want to receive prerecorded telemarketing calls.”

If you receive a RoboCall, we encourage you to report the phone call to the EveryCall.us call report center.  Even with the new rules we anticipate this practice continuing and encourage you to report these calls and help take action against violators.

Here are some specifics about the new rules as summarized by ConsumerAffairs.com:

• Expressly prohibit telemarketing sales calls that deliver prerecorded messages, whether answered in person by a consumer or by an answering machine or voicemail service, unless the seller has previously obtained the recipient’s signed, written agreement to receive such calls;

• Permit sellers to obtain the required permission for prerecorded message sales calls from a consumer in any manner permitted by the Electronic Signatures In Global and National Commerce Act (E-SIGN Act);

• Exempt healthcare-related prerecorded message calls that are subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) from the prohibition on telemarketing calls that deliver prerecorded messages;

• Exempt from the written agreement requirement all charitable solicitation calls placed by for-profit telemarketers (telefunders) that deliver prerecorded messages on behalf of non-profits to members of, or previous donors to, the nonprofit, but require that such calls include a prompt keypress or voice-activated opt-out mechanism;

• Require that, within 90 days of the rule’s publication, sellers and telemarketers provide, at the outset of all prerecorded messages, an automated keypress or voice-activated interactive opt-out mechanism so that consumers can opt out as easily as they can from a live telemarketing call;

• End the FTC’s current policy of forbearing from bringing enforcement actions against sellers and telemarketers who place prerecorded calls that meet certain specified conditions that would be inconsistent with the new requirements; but

• Permit sellers, as under the forbearance policy, to continue for one year after the rule’s publication to place calls delivering prerecorded messages to consumers with whom they have an established business relationship, after which no prerecorded message calls can be made to consumers without their express permission.

The prerecorded call amendment requires that any prerecorded telemarketing call must:

• Allow the telephone to ring for at least 15 seconds or four rings before an unanswered call is disconnected;

• Begin the prerecorded message within two seconds of a completed greeting by the consumer who answers;

• Disclose at the outset of the call that the recipient may ask to be placed on the company’s do-not-call list at any time during the message;

• In cases where the call is answered by a person, make an automated interactive voice and/or keypress-activated opt-out mechanism available during the message that adds the phone number to the company’s do-not-call list and then immediately ends the call; and

• In cases where the call is answered by an answering machine or voicemail, provide a toll-free number that allows the person called to be connected to an automated interactive voice and/or keypress-activated opt-out mechanism anytime after the message is received. The telemarketer, while complying with each of these provisions, also must be in compliance with all other requirements of the TSR and other federal and state laws, the agency ruled.

ShareThis

Registration is free and should help reduce the number of telemarketing calls Canadians receive.

Like it’s US couterpart, the list has some exceptions:

Consumers may still receive calls from registered charities, political parties, and newspapers seeking subscriptions. Companies with whom a consumer has an existing business relationship will still be able to call, as well as those conducting surveys.”

More information is available at http://www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca (try remembering that one).

ShareThis