The three calls I had yesterday all had people talking in the background. On one, I heard at least three voices, a man, woman, and a child. The woman, probably the mother, was playing with the child and the child was laughing. I think the man may have been talking to another man, but I’m not sure. But I let that call go on for several minutes until it sounded like the woman and child left the room. The third time, it was two men, talking. I can’t remember what the first was, but the loudest voice then was also a man’s.

The thing is, it has all been from three separate numbers. Two of those are cell phones, the third might be. All three are from local area codes, mine, and the one north.

Weird, huh?

I’m sorry, while I think that if you’ve learned another language – that’s great – but if people are going to be calling me on the phone, they need to be able to speak English clearly so I can understand. I could not understand this guy for anything and had to stop him three times in the beginning to have him start over.

He asked for Steve, actually, and when I said that he wasn’t available, it didn’t seem to phase this guy and he kept talking about Steve’s “business” and how he had two contracts or something with who he was calling for. I had to ask him several times who he was calling for and I believe it was Dun & Bradstreet. Doing some “research” online, I see people reporting that the calls are coming from Dun & Bradstreet as well as some Canadian company called Optima Communications International as well as American Express and Amex. That seems fishy to me.

I told him that Steve doesn’t have a business and he said to me “is this This Little Light of Mine?” It took him 3 tries to say the name. Yes, I tell him, but that is my company. Steve’s name is not attached to that anywhere other than helping me out with outdoor fairs so I really have no clue why they should be calling him. I purposely keep his name off of stuff. (If I were ever to get sued or something, they couldn’t take the house from us or things with Steve’s name on it. Of course, that’s verryyyyyy unlikely anyway.)

So the guy continues to babble in words I cannot understand and says something about having two contracts or something with this company. I tell him I do not have anything with them and so I do not understand why he’d be calling me and his voice trails off and he hangs up.

So now I’m left to wonder what exactly he wanted and why they’d be calling Steve in conjunction with my business.

Other people online are reporting that when Dun & Bradstreet calls, they want money (one guy said $500) in order for them to do background checks on businesses and give the business a credit score. What the? Isn’t a credit score pretty much automatic if you’re doing business? I know I should have one anyway being all the stuff I do with TLLM.

So… yeah. Anyone else?

Normally I wouldn’t have looked into this call, but when I said I wasn’t interested, I was rather rudely hung up on, so I did some Googling.

A few minutes ago, I received a call from (303) 233-3912, from someone calling themselves North American Handico. The woman on the line spoke slowly and clearly, where I could understand her, I’ll give her that. She stated that they were not a charity but that they were a place that employs handicapped people and they sell products. That right there means they can’t call me as I’m on every no-call list known to mankind. If they’re selling stuff and I’m not already a customer, as far as I’m aware, they cannot call me. (Can you tell I’m currently in a bad mood? I’m sick today. Blah.) Their website, even if in round-about ways, refers to themselves as telemarketers.

Anyway, I didn’t want to be rude, so I listened to what she had to say. She stated that though you can get these “various items” from your local store, they can send them to you and let you check them out before you pay. Not only have I never heard of these people before, but I really don’t have any money right now, nor do I have need for anything right now, honestly. So I politely tell her that I am just not interested right now. She then hung up on me! Not even a “thank you for your time”!

Their website is apparently handico.net and… The title on the main page? 404. The design? It makes my eyes hurt. Anyway, their website claims they sell light bulbs that will not burn out or break for 10 years, trash bags, zip lock bags, air fresheners, all purpose cleaners, cookies, and greeting cards. Suddenly I see how they make money… $39.95 for five pounds of cookies? $39.95 for 50-75 trash bags? Wow.

Now, I’m sure this is a good company and I’m not trying to put anyone down here. But what is bothering me here, is the whole telemarketing thing. We all know how I hate hate hate unsolicited phone calls. I am on no-call lists, there is no reason I should be getting phone calls about this. Furthermore, people around the internet are reporting many many more calls with hangups, and even early morning calls and the name of the company was blocked from my callerID (just the number was visible).

The website gives their no-call policy as such:

WE ONLY WANT TO SPEAK TO YOU IF YOU ARE INTERESTED WITH OUR COMPANY. IF YOU ANY REASON YOU ARE DISSATISFIED OR SIMPLY ARE TIRED OF THE PHONE CALLS IT IS VERY SIMPLE TO STOP. ALL WE ASK IS THAT YOU EMAIL US AT MNEWBURG1@MSN.COM OR CALL OUR TOLL FREE NUMBER AND WE WILL BE HAPPY TO REMOVE YOU FROM OUR CALLING LISTS. PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR PHONE NUMBER WITH AREA CODE. WE APRECIATE ALL YOUR HELP AND OUR GOAL IS TO HAVE SATISFIED CUSTOMERS THAT WANT TO HEAR FROM US.

I mean, that just really raises a lot of red flags for me. That’s it, too, word-for-word, all caps, “APRECIATE” and all. I would think that a company that’s been in business since 2005 and that has a website would at least have an email address routed through said website. MSN, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, or other free account addresses associated as a business’s main email address always strike me strange. But the second sentence in that quote really stands out at me: if for any reason you are simply tired of our phone calls, let us know! How about… don’t call people who are on no-call lists? There’s a reason these people are on those lists, and most of those people aren’t going to want to voluntarily verify their phone numbers (not to mention their email addresses) with you!

Okay, enough ranting about annoying calls.

But this one was a little different. It was a woman’s voice and it said something like this:

This is Jan and I’m calling to tell you that you qualify for a lower interest rate on your mortgage! To take advantage of this offer, please press ’9′ to speak to a representative. That’s the number 9, press it now to be connected…

So, I pressed 9. I was wondering who this was actually, and I was going to tell them to take me off their list. I got:

Hello, this is Russ. Can I ask who I’m talking to?

“Actually,” I said, “I was wondering that, myself. A computer calls me and I’m wondering who you guys are.”

He was kind of silent for a second and then… he hung up on me.

What’s up with that!?

So there you have it. I’m not answering the phone anymore. You unknown callers SUCK!

On second thought… if they call again I think I’ll give them some fake information and see if I can find out who they are. Heheheheee :)

ADDENDUM:

Well, “Jan” called me again today [Nov 8]. This time the calls were not forwarded and the callerID on the home phone said “blocked” rather than “unknown.” This time, though, she told me that I qualify for a lower interest rate on my credit cards. And to take advantage of this offer, again, press 9. Without removing the phone from my ear, I went to press 9, prepared to give out some fake info, only… I missed… and I hit 8 instead. The computer said something like, okay, “you will be removed from our list immediately.”

So there you have it, folks. If you’re called about interest rates by a computer and asked to press 9, press 8 instead!!

Well, here’s another one you should be aware of.

A few minutes ago I got a phone call from (866) 383-0986. This guy, with a hardly understandable accent, identified him as some Joe, Bob, Sam, or Tom. Something. And said he was calling from something called Domain Registry Support. He started talking about one of the domains I manage, reading the long name very slowly and strangely. He then asked for my fax number.

Because when I answered the phone, I was first greeted with several seconds of silence and knew this wasn’t my good friend calling, I was kind of rough with him from the beginning.

He wanted to verify if I owned the domain. Yes. Okay. I asked him several times who he was, and what the company was but I never could get a satisfying answer. Something about registration services and then verification services. He then went on to say my full name and start to ask me if my address was still PO Box… I cut him off and said twice, all my information is correct. At this point I was thinking that this had something to do with laws (?) that require correct information on the WHOIS of domains.

He started again with the domain name and I cut him off again and asked again, what was the point of this call?

He said it was just to make a verification and he needed a fax number to send me a “little” one page verification paper.

Of course, my red flags are up because, for one… um, well, not everyone who owns a domain has a fax number, but if your phone number is out there, so is some sort of email address. I don’t have a fax, I informed him. I wasn’t lying. He was silent for a second and asked again for a fax. “I. Don’t. Have. A. Fax.” I said. Well, then, do you have a number at someone else’s machine you can give me? Um. No….. He was silent again for what seemed like an eternity and I repeated myself. “No. I. Don’t. Have. A. Fax.”

So then it’s all, okay, thank you, good-bye. Yeah, see ya… Schmuck.

A quick Google search on the number yields lots of results, one of the most descriptive being at michaelrighi.com and weblogs.asp.net/jgaylord, and like both of those men, I have all of my numbers on the Missouri and national no-call lists.

Will these spammers and scammers never die?

Die die die die die die die!

Oh, and, go ahead, try to call that number. It rings. It clicks. It’s silent. It disconnects you.

Smells stinky to me.

Of course, one might tell me that protecting my WHOIS information with my registrar might be a solution to this. I do have a few protected, but only where I’ve gotten free protection on special. I just do not have the funds to protect every domain I manage and there are several domains I manage for others. I put my information on their WHOIS to protect them from these idiots. So I guess I’m destined to deal with this crap forever… I just really don’t think it’s fair. I mean, I’m required to have my information correct so these guys can call and try to scam me? Someone tell me what is wrong with that picture.

I was sitting here at the desk when the call came through. I answered and there was just dead air. I said hello a couple of times and was a second from hanging up when someone answered. She asked me if this was “Hollyfield web design.” Now, first of all, if you’re going to call me, at least say my name right, please. Second of all, the second she asked for that, I knew where they’d gotten my number: the whois information on any domain registered by me for me or by me for someone else.

So I am trying to find out who they are and I just can’t understand anything she says. Finally I ask her where they got the number and I can’t understand what she says. I say we’re on the no-call lists and she just ignores me and starts in on her speal. So I say not to ever call me again and hang up.

Then today, they call me again. I can’t tell if it’s the same lady, I can’t hardly understand her, either. Again she asks for “Hollyfield Web Design.”

I cut her off immediately and ask her where she got the phone number. She says, “we have a variety of sources.”

“Like Whois information on domains, right?” I say.

She won’t admit it and I’ve got to repeat myself and she starts in on how she’d like to verify business information for “Hollyfield Web Design.” She asks me a question about the phone number and I don’t understand her, she repeats herself, and I tell her, look, the only place that I am listed by web design is on Whois information for domain names and that by calling me and soliciting she’s violating the terms of service for Whois lookups. Of course, I don’t know that it’s true, but I say it anyway. She says they’re not selling anything, but — and I cut her off and tell her that, look we’re on the no call lists as well. She ignores me and starts her speal. I cut her off again and say, “just take me off your list, okay?” Then I hang up.

An internet search on the phone number turns up several interesting sites, http://www.lissakay.com/index.php/weblog/comments/hello-experian/ being the most interesting one, imo.

This is unfair. :P

I have been getting all sorts of mail for years regarding domain name renewals and such (from stupid people that try to tell me my domain expired in 2004 when it was really 2005 at that time, etc.) and now that mail is starting to expand to credit card offers, etc. So, obviously, the people getting my information off my Whois are not only bothering me, but selling my name so that other people can bother me! And now I’m getting phone calls. I can’t remember if I posted about the guy who called me about little-light.net? He was trying to sell me search engine optimization or something.

So, I’m required to keep my Whois information on my domain accurate, but yet those people are allowed to pull my information and bug me, even when I’m on the no-call lists (Missouri and national). It just doesn’t make sense.

And, yes, you can get services to privatize your info – but at GoDaddy’s that’s another $10 per domain. And when you’re renewing/registering many domains, that’s just out of the question. And plus, isn’t GoDaddy under fire right now for turning over some guy’s “private” info to a lawyer, “just like that”?

Oh, don’t get me started.