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To "Brian", At "Card Services", (402) 982-0745, Who Just Called Me A M******F*****

Sep 12, 2009
By .
Irksome

Dear "Brian", at "Card Services", area code 402, telephone number 982-0745.  Although you don't know this, we've gotten many calls from your number previously.  I am writing this post, as much as anything else, so that I won't have to wrack my brain remembering the telephone number, from which your company just called me to let me know that I could lower my credit card interest rates.  You referred to me using a vulgarity regarding incest when I hit "1" to tell you that I'm on the "do-not-call" list, and not to call me again.

I am so happy, "Brian", that the 402 area code is in the United States, specifically Omaha, Nebraska.  What your company is doing is already illegal.  Of course I'm reporting the call to my state Attorney General's office, consumer protection division, and the Federal Communications Trade Commission, on Monday.  I'm also going to look, diligently, at the law regarding violations of federal statutes concerning the "do-not-call" list, to determine whether a class action is feasible.  If, as I suspect, it isn't, I'm going to examine whether a statewide class action would be barred by preemption, including one for unfair and deceptive trade practices, and any other cause of action I can dream up.  Of course there are already many complaints about calls from your telephone number, all over the web.  At the very least, your employer's telephone carrier may expect to receive a subpoena, possibly from a government agency, but almost certainly from me, in due course.  I'm angry enough that I'm inclined to sue even if I know I'll lose.

Thanks again, Brian.  I have something to look forward to come Monday.

Last 5 posts by Patrick

16 Comments
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16 Comments

  1. Chris Berez  •  Sep 12, 2009 @2:49 pm

    Go get them. I get get calls from these assholes constantly. I always just hang up or delete the message from my voice mail. I should probably do what you tried to do and tell them I'm on the Do Not Call list and to kindly piss off.

  2. Chris Mallory  •  Sep 12, 2009 @2:51 pm

    They usually just hang up on me when I ask who they are with and for a call back number. They usually call me from a Florida area code.

  3. Drunkenatheist  •  Sep 12, 2009 @3:28 pm

    They hang up right away because it gets them out of having to remove you from their computer's calling list. If you can't get out a "PLEASEREMOVEMEFROMYRLISTKTHXBI" before they hang up, they can always claim that you never asked them to remove you.

    Of course, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who doesn't want to be bothered. I did telemarketing for a hellish month and a half when I was 19. I would leave work ready to bawl my eyes out every day and was the second to worst telemarketer in company history. It's because I actually felt bad about bothering people while they were just trying to go about their day and I also thought opening a conversation with "How much is your interest rate on your mortgage?" was a little…you know…presumptuous. A friend was a supervisor there and after I quit, I told him that I used to "B2" (the code for "DO NOT CALL") anyone who got too pissed at me and I thought he was going to have my head.

    Good times, good times.

  4. Drunkenatheist  •  Sep 12, 2009 @3:30 pm

    Oh, and good luck. Hopefully you will be able to get some sort of recourse, even if it's only making Brian weep tears of unfathomable sadness.

    :)

  5. Mike D  •  Sep 12, 2009 @4:01 pm

    I hate these f'ers. I've given up telling them to put me on their do not call list – they're scammers and I don't believe for a second that they give a crap. Who the hell actually does business with these scumbags? Somebody must or they wouldn't be able to pay their phone bills.

    Go get 'em Patrick. I hope your ability to use and abuse the legal system puts a hurt on these SOBs.

  6. Shay  •  Sep 12, 2009 @4:33 pm

    We've been on the do not call list for years; but whenever I get annoyed enough to press 1 and tell them so, I am either cursed at or informed that THEIR do not call list trumps the Federal do not call list.

    Sic 'em, Tige.

  7. Old Geezer  •  Sep 12, 2009 @5:00 pm

    Crush 'em And then wipe your feet before you come back into the house.

  8. lpont  •  Sep 12, 2009 @5:27 pm

    This one is for you dude.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5z4Vs26-TI

  9. Ray Hoffman  •  Sep 12, 2009 @9:02 pm

    These guys are notorious for faking caller ID info. I wouldn't put too much trust in the idea that you got an accurate number, unless of course you are already aware of their fake caller ID technology and have accounted for it.

    Apparently their operation is somewhere around Orland FL. Their business is known among their employees as "Card Services". That might help you in accurately tracking them down.

  10. Bob  •  Sep 12, 2009 @9:18 pm

    Go get the SOBs. Looking forward to seeing what comes out of this.

  11. Patrick  •  Sep 13, 2009 @4:27 am

    Thanks for the insight Ray. How do you gather the Orlando connection? Google? I'm aware of all sorts of sleazy credit card and telemarketing operations in Florida (because hey, it's FLORIDA), but "Card Services" sounds like a generic "d/b/a" name if ever I heard one.

    I do strongly suspect that "Brian" was calling from the United States rather than Canada or an overseas call-center, because of his accent and speech pattern. He definitely sounded as though he could have been from Florida, but more than that I won't say.

  12. Ray Hoffman  •  Sep 13, 2009 @10:00 am

    @Patrick- They have called me many times over a year (despite my number being on the DNC list), and I started pressing 1 or 2 or whatever to speak to the representative. I played along and pretended I was interested in their offer. Then I made some small talk about the weather and asked if it was also cold where they were. The made some small talk back, telling me that they were in Orlando (they had called me with an obviously faked New Brunswick caller ID). I didn't get much more than that though.

    I've tried to get more information but usually the reps are smarter than this one was and will hang up as soon as you start asking questions. In fact, the reps seem to be schooled by their management in how to maintain the secrecy of the whole operation.

    I think the best way to go after them, if you really wanted to, would be to look through employment ads in any alternative weekly for the Orlando area. Send an applicant in to find things out "undercover".

    You might also want to seek info from the NYS Attorney General. I know that many complaints have been made in New York State, and his office would be most likely of any State AG to have some legal action in the works.

  13. Mike  •  Sep 13, 2009 @2:24 pm

    This sounds fun, Patrick. Email me if you need a co-conspirator.

  14. Patrick  •  Sep 14, 2009 @6:56 am

    It appears someone else has found them, and Orlando is pretty close:

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,527764,00.html

    What baffles me is that of all of the threats the federal government claims to protect me against, robocallers and a-holes who abuse me with profanity when I pick up to advise I DON'T WANT ANOTHER CALL are among the few I actually WANT to be protected against. Even if these aren't the same people, why hasn't the fascist-communist Obama administration rounded up all of these people and put them in internment camps with a trillion dollar bail? HEY MISTER KENYAN MUSLIM! SHOOT THEM ALREADY!

    In any event, complaints have already been sent to the FTC and my state AG's office, and I'm doing my own best at researching who they are. Scott Greenfield posted an interesting idea here: Why shouldn't the government hire, or award some limited amnesty, or at least a badge and a medal, to the hacker or phone phreak who can uncover these people and (Scott doesn't suggest it but I do), post their home addresses and phone numbers?

    The Phone Phreaks of the 70s would have done it for pure fun.

  15. Robert  •  Sep 14, 2009 @8:17 am

    I haven't answered my phone myself in years.

  16. Steve  •  Jun 2, 2010 @7:43 pm

    Yup, they've been calling me for years. Trying to get me to give them my credit card info. They couldnt tell me WHICH credit cards of my they represented…they just said "All". I even got a "new guy" once, he actually gave me the name of their company and address. …now, I just try to screw with them. Always dial "1" …to try and play with them a little bit. Unfortunately, they're like rabbits and at the first sign of sarcasm…or that you're trying to Mess with them or get info out of them, they hang up. …they're just no fun at all. I don't imagine anyone will catch up with them because the numbers are likely spoofed …and the calls always seem to come from one number for a while…then they stop, and come from another number … I have had them use profanity with me too… just warn people about them… so they don't get caught up giving them their credit card numbers/SSN/DOB and all that stuff… I heard a woman call a consumer advocate show on the Radio once…she was asking what to do because she had already given them her sensitive information (it's something the desperate or elderly might fall for).