Annoying Phone Calls

sounds like an international scam. You should call the local FBI field office. This is the kind of thing they help with.

CALL THE POLICE IMMEDIATELY!!!!!! This could be a form of identity theft since they know where you live.

BE VERY CAREFUL!!! There are a ton of stories out there like this one where you will get totally robbed. Call the police right away.

Personally I would call the police. I think it's worth it considering they know your address. They may want to put a trace on your line. How much do you want to bet they aren't even from Jamaica? I was told by a local authority that the people who make the annoying calls have a way of changing the information that appears in the caller ID section of our phones so that we don't really know where it's coming from.

call the police or your states attorney general.. that is harassment!!

i was getting them for student loans. i called the phone company to find out that sprint (was my landline carrier) had given out my number the day that it was issued to me, and then when i raised a stink about that, they told me if this person calls again, to tell him that i have contacted the fcc and the ftc about the calls as they had been told to stop calling me. well, the next time he called before i could finish what i was saying he hung up because he heard me say i had contacted the fcc and ftc and never called again. if the persist, make the contact and report them. T.

Hi G.,

It sounds like a huge scam. Next time they call ask whom you are speaking with, what is there agency, where it is located,a direct phone number and how they obtained your info. Once this info is obtained let them know that if they continue to harass you you will be reporting there scam to the proper authorities and the Attorney General whom will look in to their organization.You must be stern and tell them once again if you call my home I will take the proper actions to shut your scam operation down. I am pretty sure if you stand your ground they will get the picture that you are not a sucker and move on to the next. I would also get as much info as possible because you may need it down the line. Hope this helps.

Hi G.
I heard that this was a hoax. Surely it could be.
Anyway call the police, I know a friend had a tape put on her phone to a similar hoax person.
God bless
K.

Scam. Next time they call, in a VERY FIRM voice tell them that you have the police checking on their number/info etc and as soon as they have checked it out, you'll get back to them. You might want to throw in there that you have a family member who works for the FBI, Better Business Bureau, (just fill in the blank with something that applies). Again, tell them you've tracked ALL their info about where they're calling from and you're in the process of checking them out. Tell them that the police have put a trace on your calls so the longer they stay on the line, the easier it is to track them down. That should stop them from calling.

G.,

You are absolutely right to be very concerned, especially since this person has your home address and telephone number! Whatever you do, don't give him any other personal information of any kind. This is obviously a scam to get you send him money, or to get more of your personal information, possibly for identity theft.

If this person, or any other person, should call you again asking for money, or any other personal information, you should tell them that you did not enter any sweepstakes, and firmly tell them that you are not interested in participating ,and not to call you again. Once you have done this, then contact your telephone company, and file a complaint, informing them of the calls that you've been receiving.

There is a way for the telephone company to trace these calls back to the source, usually by your pressing some sort of combination of numbers, either during or after the call, which will alert the phone company that you have received one, so that they can track it. Continually calling you, once you have asked them not to, is categorized as harrassment, and it is against the law. If they can locate the person doing this, they can be arrested for it.

Also, since this person has your home address and telephone number, you should pay a visit to your local Police Station, and file a complaint with them as well. They may be able to put a tap on your phone that will help them to locate the person that is doing this, and this person may also be calling others besides yourself.

I don't want to frighten you, but I would be particularly careful when entering or leaving your home after dark, especially if you live alone. It isn't very likely that this person would try anything,in person, but I would ask your local police to give your home and property "passing attention" during the overnight hours, by driving by your house periodically during the night.

Even though these calls appear to be coming from Jamaica, that may not be the case. It is possible, with all the modern technology today, that someone who is very knowledgeable about computers and the routing of telephone calls could be making the calls appear that way, when, in reality, they aren't in Jamaica at all.

Have you entered any personal information on an unsecure website on your computer recently? Or have you recently lost your wallet, or anything else that may have had your address and telephone number in it? If so, then be sure to tell the Police about it, when you file your complaint with them.

Another way to handle this, would be to have your telephone company add "Caller ID" service to your home phone, and if you recognize the number when they call, then don't answer the phone. If they never get a response when they call, sooner or later the calls will stop, but it would be much better if you report these calls to both the telephone company, and your local police, which may help them to catch this person, so that they don't try scamming anyone else, such as an elderly person, who actually would believe them and send them money.

I hope this information is helpful to you, and that you are able to get this matter resolved as quickly as possible. Good luck!

D.

OMG Scam scam scam! Get caller ID and stop answering them. Report it to the police. If you do answer, tell them you know this is a scam and you have reported them to the police and they are never getting a dime from you so they can stop wasting your time. Good luck

I personally loved the recommendation to have fun with the caller. If you have the time to play on the phone with them and want to create a story to tell to family and friends, then by all means play with them.

If you have caller ID you could just ignore the calls. If you have a traditional answering machine you could screen your calls. Listen to the person leaving you a message and either pick it up or not.

There is always the option of not saying anything beyond the initial "hello" and just hagging up. If they call directly back you have options there too, you can hang up again or just turn the ringer off for the next fifteen minutes or so.

Try not to be so frustrated when they call, get on the do not call list and relax knowing that you have many options and choices in handling this matter.

Go to donotcall.gov to register your number on the do not call registry. It does take a few months to go through. If he is calling your cell phone & you have Verizon Wireless, you can block up to five numbers from calling (and texting) you for free. The last option is to contact the Attorney General, which I have no clue on how to do that. Those are my suggestions & hope that will help a little.

Good luck,
A.

Ask them for an address to send the check to. Tell them you don't have a credit card (or they'll want the number). Then call your local police dept with the info. If they can't do anything call the Attorney General in your State. This is a common scam, try to catch them if you can.

This sounds like a scam or ID theft. Can you notify the police or FCC? I would check your credit report and other bank accounts.
Good luck.

we get tons of "wrong number" calls. forget being civil with these people, i turn on the nasty mode, tell them I'm going to report them, etc. I do believe you can put a trace on these calls but I've not had to resort to that...

http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs3-hrs2.htm

Most posts here suggested hanging up right away and this is the best advice. However if you are bored and have a good sense of humor you can brighten your day. Ask to speak to a supervisor, ask them what sweepstakes? Ask them if they can hand deliver the prize so you can video tape it. Tell them you have called the press. I can think of a hundred things to say to confuse the heck out of them. They do not want to take the time answering your dumb questions, they want to call other pasties.
I used to do this with the vinyl siding people that would not take me off their list. I love the do not call list.

Alert your friends and family that you will be answering the phone differently until your prank phone caller stops. Choose one of the following ways to answer the phone, but you must be consistant.
1. Don't answer - Tell your friends to use a "code ring," when they call so you know when to answer the phone. Your friends/relatives could ring 2X hang up and call back so you know it's them.
2. Answer the phone as an odd business - Ex: "Hello, St. Mathew's Cathedral," "Hello, Adam's Infermary," "Hello, Eaton Police Barricks," "Hello, Wilke's Hospital," etc.

Tell them that you would appreciate your number being removed from their scam list - that usually works. As far as your home address, all they do is a reverse phone # search and they have it. It's crazy all that people can get regarding our own personal information. You can also try asking for the name of the company so you can check with the Better Business Bureau. Some of them are very determined, but just try not to let them know they are intimidating you. I've gotten many of these and have had to just hang up, but now I don't even bother answering some of the calls. Good luck!

I would request that they remove me from their phone and mailing lists, inform them that if they do not do so, that you will contact the authorities and report them. Mention of the police usually stops them. And don't be polite about it - they don't deserve it!

These calls are nothing but scams. Do you have caller ID? If so, simply do not answer the phone. If you don't have caller ID, you can either let the machine/voice mail get it every time the phone rings (so you're screening your calls), and if it's someone you want to talk to, pick it up. If you have to answer your phone every time and it is these scammers, simply hang up. Or annoy the heck out of them by picking up and hanging up, picking up and pressing buttons, or telling them they have the wrong number and if they spit your address out at you, tell them it isn't yours.

G., first, have you put your phone on Do Not Call List? If you have and they got it anyways, I would suggest you call the police because they are harassing you and explain to the police that they know some of your brief information which perhaps they got it in the phone directory or maybe it's just a prank call.
Also, not too long ago, my cousin sent me this particular e-mail that her husband checked on snopes.com about 806 number. Do not answer calls from that area code and it listed one or two other numbers. They are not from this country, they are from another country and they will charge something like $1000 a minute. If they get you call back or get you on the phone, they will charge you and your phone company can't help you because they haven't really done anything illegal. BE CAREFUL answering. If you don't have an ID, you can do what someone suggested, codes-how many times a person rings to know if it's them or not. If any more questions, ask. You can get on snopes.com and check about 806 area code and it'll have a true answer to that. Hope this helped and hope you get it taken care of it and it gets traced.....oh, if you do call police and/or have it traced, shhhhhh, don't tell anyone because if it's a prank call, someone will get the "wind" of it. Also, write what specific times or days they call, that may help too.

If you have caller ID, do not answer the phone. Sometimes the call is reverse charged. Also, if you do answer, simply hang out. Don't speak to them. They will stop calling if you do not give them the time of day! That's what I did and it worked instantly.

Good luck

CALL THE POLICE ASAP. This is a VERY serious crime. These people are looking for your personnal info and/or trying to get into your house. God forbid that happens - you never know what could happen then. My husband's a police officer and has handled a call like this before (the dept has handled several). These jerks target women and old people. I understand you can't change your phone number, but PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE make a police report. Good luck and stops answering the phone until the police are involved. Get caller ID if you don't already.

Hi there! If you have the number that shows up I would take it to the police & see if there is anything that they can do with it. If not then I would check with the phone company to see if there is a way to block that number. The only other option is to hang up on them when they start their spiel. It may seem rude but maybe that will stop the calls from coming. Because it seems that it is just a scam. How they got your number & address & all I don't really know. Unless they bought it from like registering a product or an item that you purchased & sent in for the warranty information. I hope the calls stop & you get to keep your sanity. Have a great night!

G., this is a scam. When you win something genuine, you don't need to pay money to get a prize. You can't win a sweepstakes you did not enter. Do not speak to this person. Don't tell him he made a mistake or anything. The more you engage them, the more they will call. Don't speak to them, simply hang up. Report the calls to your carrier. Good luck

try telling them you're on do not call list and that you will report them if they call again
as for the sweepstakes, watch out, huge scam

Put ur number on the do not call list if u haven't already. Its a toll free call. U may have to google the number. I get those emails constantly and they basically say if u send this amount, they will send u that amount. Crazy. Some people actually get caught up in that scam. And Jamaican money is valued totally different than American so $1000 Jamaican dollars is like $20-30 US dollars!! Hope this helps.

Hi G.,

I would call the phone company and see if you can block those numbers. I don't know how many phone numbers there are, but it's worth a shot.

Good luck!

contact your phone company and your local police

Hi G.,

That's a scam, so don't accept to do anything!

If they are indeed calling from Jamaica (i.e. foreign number), there is nothing you can do, except maybe report this to the police, since it is fraud. Then just don't pick up when they call again - they don't care about US laws.

If they use a US number to call you, then you can:
- specifically tell them not to call again
- threaten to report them to the FCC if they're using a company name - and actually do it.
- and since this is a scam, i.e. illegal, report them to the police - without telling the scammers you are reporting them... The police might need you to answer one or two more calls to get enough information to make an arrest.

Good luck!
K.

I would call your local police and alert them. It's obviously a scam, and they would probably like to know about it to alert the community. They can also tell you if there's someone else to contact about it.

They've done lots of news stories on this exact scam. Call the police and call your phone company. You should be able to do call blocking against that number that is calling and up to 4-6 other numbers can be blocked. Your phone company can walk you thru it. But also call the police to report it, maybe other people in your area are also getting these calls. Good luck!

I received a similar call (but it sounded like they were calling from India). They implied that they were marjeting partners w/ Target and some other well known stores. All I had to do was 'confirm' my credit card number (by reading it back to them, yeah, right!!) so that they could charge the insurance or shipping/handling fees of $4.95.

I refused to discuss my card number (despite much pressure), of course, and I wrote down the name of the co he said he was with (which even had a primitive website!!), wrote down whatevre appeared on caller ID and told him I would be contacting the CT atty general-which I did. NO MORE CALLS. BTW, the AG website already had a warning posted about similar scams going around.

Good luck!

Hi G. - IT IS A SCAM!!! Two things, blow a toy whistle into the phone - I understand it hurts the other person's ear OR just hang up and do not engage them in any conversation whatsoever. When they get no response they should stop. Oh, also, report this to the telephone company and even the police. Just DON'T send any money!!!!

Good Luck, I.

Tell them did you get that information name and number as if you had someone else listening on another extension. I guarantee they will click off immediately. You can say officer did you get that... try that and see what happens

This is a scam. Call the phone company and the police. But whatever you do DO NOT give them anything! And DO NOT give them any more information about yourself. They already have your name, address and phone number. This they could have gotten from any phone book. But they will probably want credit card info and/or bank info. DO NOT give it to them! And even if they say they have this info, sometimes they will give you the last 4 numbers of your credit card or SS# and ask you to give them the rest of the numbers to confirm it. DO NOT do it! If they were a real company with a real prize they would not need them or already have the information! They are calling you back because they think you are an easy mark. Don't prove them right!