Telemarketer Fun
I hate telemarketers, I really do.
I just received two telemarketer calls within a very short period. One was 6:19PM, and the other was 6:38PM.
The 6:19PM was received at my Skype number.
The 6:38PM was received at my Home distinctive ring number.
The 6:19PM call originated from 206-415-8739.
The 6:38PM call originated from 206-278-9390.
The 6:19PM call left a message telling me that I had been selected as part of their “Jacksonville Area Marketing Study” to attend some scam cruise leaving from Miami.
The 6:38PM call left a message telling me that I had been selected as part of their “Jacksonville Area Marketing Study” to qualify for some scam satellite tv promotion.
Wrong city, wrong state, nice try.
Since I really dislike telemarketers, I think I am going to change my current approach– it could be called the “overwhelm them with legaleeze and shuffle papers while you ‘take down their information’ approach– with a new approach. Maybe we can call it the, “appear like a business who is legitimately interested in their services and string them along as much as humanly possible.”
I can come up with a fake corporate telephone announcement to really get them interested.
It could start something like:
Thank you for calling MikeCo Hotels Executive Office. MikeCo Hotels now provides 28 free cable channels for all guests in the Jacksonville Area. Please hold while we transfer you to the executive secretary. Please note that this call may be monitored or recorded for quality assurance.
Then, after a moment of music and a few blips and bleeps, I can answer, recording the call, and see how much of these people’s time I can waste.
I would be the dream sale! A hotel owner who is proud to be offering a crappy 28 cable channels in their rooms, conveniently located in Jacksonville, where they seem to be targeting!
What do you think?
Edit: For anyone interested in listening to the original call (do you enjoy torturing yourself?), you can listen to an MP3 of the message here: http://mikesblog.americasdebate.com/uploads/telemarketer.mp3
My roommate and I just got the same phone call today from 800.918.4224. We knew it was probably a scam but we called back anyway. The man seemed actually really genial to my roommate but we were still unsure so we googled the number and found this site. I think I’m going to send the self addressed envelope in just to see what I get back. It could be funny to see their whole scheme laid out.
Oh, by the way, thanks for the great site.
That number, 800-918-4224, has been harassing me with repeated unwanted calls and hang ups. I talked to Carman last week and told her to remove our number from their database. She said she’d do so. Today, I get another call from this number and talked to a CSR who was extremely rude with some verbal barrage I didn’t want or desire. He hung up on me too. I called back and asked to speak with a supervisor. I told him any future calls would be documented and considered harassment at this point. He assured me that my number would be removed. I told him he needed to know just how rude one of his CSR was. To my surprise, I received another call from that number later today and they hung up on me again after I answered. If you are being harassed by this company/ #, you need to be aware of a couple of things. First, call 1-888-382-1222 and verify that your # is on the National Do Not Call list. Follow the long menu options until you have either confirmed or denied your # is there. If it is not on this list, register it and you must wait 30 days before things go in effect. If your # is on the list and you want to do something about this, you can file an official complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at the National Do Not Call List site. The URL is http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/menu-tmark.htm I would like to advise everyone who gets harassment from that # to do so. We need to stop this scum and unwanted harassment! The FTC will look into this if enough of us make official complaints. Hope this information is beneficial to some of you.
301 erica 2-12-07
It would have been nice if you had stated 1-800-918-4224’s mailing address on the return envelope.It would be nice to
be able to report them to their states attny general. I got a call from there myself. After googling the # I won’t reply
and I’ll screen my calls better in the future.
i just got a call from 800-918-4224 too. i didn’t answer it, but i googled it and got this site. i’ll just make sure not to answer that number.
I won I won. I won jack crap… They must be randomly picking numbers. i have a private direct line in a 400 employee office… number is only given to family. yet they have been trying to reach me to give me a new explorer… Ford sucks anyway
I live in Albuquerque, NM and they contacted me through my cell phone. What a bunch of……thank you for this site!
Just an update for all of you. I got my call today at 4:45PM. FROM MY WORK!!! So they are still at it. It has to be a recording because it started with “garding” and I’m assuming that it was, “hello, my name is (????) and this phone call is regarding…” It was a females voice and this is what they said.
“…[re]garding our promotion to recieve a brand new ford explorer. I have some really good news for you. I need you to give me a call as soon as possible. My tollfree number is 1-800-918-4224. And your claim number is HH592 . It is important to give us a call as soon as possible. Thank you.”
Stupid me, I called the number, but thank God I was put on hold. Maybe they go home after 5:00PM. This HAS to be a computer recording if part of the message came out partially as it did. I figured I would put there script up so if you get the message you have an idea that you are part of a telemarketing scheme. GREAT BLOG! Blogger’s only dream of these sort blogs that people just keep adding and adding replys. You sould start a series of blogs and just post them and then you can use your blog as a reference for the USAG. Don’t get wrid of this blog. It’s helping people out. hopefully someone will read it and take serious action agents these scumbags.
Until then…
Mongo
I got the same call too. I called back and after enduring multiple sales pitches, I actually got the Ford Explorer. It is not brand new, but two years old and pretty nice. Probably a drug repo or something, but hey, it was free. And if you believe this, call 1-800-918-4224 to claim your prize too.
Hi, also I got in my voice mail, today at 11:00, a phone call from ” Award Claim Center” that I had won a Ford Explorer and my claim number is BR394. I assume that was some scam or very soon I will see many people driving in a ford explorer ….
Hello everyone!
I received the same caller with toll free number 1-800-918-4224 from Carmen “Award Claim Center” that I had won a Ford Explore with claim number that I didn’t even bother to write it down. I didn’t pick up the phone and just check the voice mail she left.
Then I google her number, and it took me to this website. I found it amusing. Why let them stress you out?
After all, I don’t like Ford Explorer. I drive Honda Ridgeline and love it
I live in Missouri and received a voice message on my business phone on February 14 at 8:09 am from Carmen at the “Award Claim Center”. This is the third time in two years I have received the same call, I guess I should consider myself lucky. I hope that Missouri adds businesses to the state No Call List as the Attorney General has had a very good track record of going after and gathering fines from such yahoos!
help! i got a call from them but I didn’t know it was pretend. What do I do or how do I help stop them? And how do you know it was fake anyway? Please email me if you have any helpful hints. Thanks.
Just got a call on my unpublished work number from, guess who? Carmen, yes, and they have been trying to locate me for weeks. Contact them immediately to claim my Explorer, Prize Number HH592. I called them back and went immediately on hold. I then googled the number and found this site. Funny!
I am sooooo disappointed in not receiving my free vehicle. Because cars and trucks are always being given out to the public for free with no regestration required for the contest or any strings attached. Yeah and the Sun will rise in the west, pigs will fly, and George Bush will grow a brain stem.
I got the same shpeal as the 165 post by robert w about a free SUV. The same 877-351-8026 number was given as a callback. She left a VM and said the wrong name then corrected herself. Same “Awards Claim” company or other.
Blah…
Charlotte, NC here…Same thing here. Call from Carmen, Ford Explorer, call 800-918-4224, and claim number HH592…Call was to my business line that I’ve had for about a month. No way I’m calling them back.
I too just received the call. They left the message, so I found this site, and then called them back to have my number removed. The first guy John acted as if he could not understand what I had asked him. So I slowly repeated my self as loud as possible. Then he hung up on me. So I called back again and told the next cs member what had happened, and that I would not take her crud either. She took my number and said it would be at least 72 hrs. I will probably still get the calls. But it did feel good to tell someone off about it.
Got the call for the explorer in Atlanta from Carmen @ Awards Claim Center. # was 800-918-4224 reward code HH592. TM losers…
I live in Salt Lake City and I just got this message from the “Awards Claim Center” saying that I had won $25000 or a Ford Explorer. The number they asked me to call back was 1-800-918-4224.
I am glad I found this web site before I actually called them. I am not going to call them now.
Thanks
Everyone for posting these things.
It helps a lot of people like myself.
I am in NC and just got a message on my answer service that my “entry” to win an Escalade was just pulled today.
(I did not enter anything of course.) told me to call back asap because they had “good news” for me and something about four other possible prizes that I could have won.
This on a SUNDAY afternoon for cryin out loud! This is the number they gave me… and like the rest of you when I “googled” it,,,, it referred me to this web site. The number they gave out was…. 866-845-8587. Needless to say I am NOT calling!
I won! Glad I Googled this today. I received the message on my home machine from the Awards Claim Center on Friday, March 2nd. The message was left by a live person and I do tend to enter the contests on my local tv stations website. I was skepticle and called back leaving a message. Stacey Dey returned my call on Sunday, March 4th. I got the same line everyone else did. I even told her I was wary about a call such as hers. The one thing I was NOT told about was the presentation. I was told it would take 90 minutes and that we would be escorted to a room with a tumbler. The tumbler would be spun and you were then to pull out a scratch ticket to reveal your prize. The rest of the time would be for taking “promotional photos” of the “winners”. I will tell you she was good, normally I would never have responded. The only slip up I could see is that they had me down for Thursday at 8pm (and that’s just too late)so she said she could schedule me for 6pm. Why are the 2 sessions for prize finalists???? This was in CT. The phone numbers I was given were 800-779-9962 ext. 8072 and 800-476-7183. I get nothing on these numbers when I try to Google or White page them. Stacey mentioned Regency Travel Company and the reason for this was to promote their “new” office.
Texas here. Just got the 1.800.918.4224 call on my cell phone. Must be a recording as my message missed the “Carmen” part. Alas, they’ve been trying to reach me forever and this is my final chance. Oh darn. I am a little prissed that my cell phone is now getting these freaking calls though.
Really, who are the idiots who buy from/give info to these telemarketers? If no one bought or answered, they’d go away. God bless the Do Not Call registery for land lines.
Me too! Utah here…looks like Carmen got tired and Carrie is taking over. Called me at my work number at 8:ish at night leaving a message that they’ve been trying to reach me for quite some time and gave me a claim number for my “prize”. This is the last and final offer, so I’d better hurry!
Salt Lake City, had a voice mail from 8pm on Tue Mar 6 on my work phone. Carrie was the messenger, same number 1-800-918-4224, I googled it while on hold and hung up. I knew it was a fake, but this is too funny! These guys are pretty lame. Great Blog, thanks a lot.
They got me on my University number…same story, “Carrie…last chance…call now…ford explorer…claim FNUT3112″. I called back and sat on hold for about two minutes and decided it was time to google. Great blog. I don’t understand what they are even trying to do.
Another hit in SLC, Utah. Just got the 1.800.918.4224 call on my work phone (that nobody knows–wish I knew how they got it). Carrie is so very…scripted! Funny they have been trying so hard to reach me, yet this was the first time they have called. Hmmmm. BTW, my claim # is S(or F)NUT3112. My Explorer is all yours for the taking, unless of course you’d prefer the $25K. I’ve got a bridge I’d like to sell them if you talk to them… Thanks for the tip everyone!
This is unbelievable! (Well sadly, it actually is rather believable but ridiculous nonetheless.) I just got a voice mail on my work # that said the same thing essentially – “Carrie” says I’ve won a Ford Explorer and to call back at 1-800-918-4224. I’m in Salt Lake City, UT.
“Every dog has their day” – it may take a while, but fraudsters and scam artists will get what’s coming to them.
Bridget called me from 1-800-918-4224 from the Awards Claim Center, I knew it was bologne but decided to google it anyways. Glad everyone is posting this info!! BTW I live in San Antonio, TX.
just got a call from some lady, +1 (800) 918-4224 asking me to call them and this is my final notice, i’m not even from the states, i’m in Toronto, Canada, this is crazy, thank god i have access to the internet, i was just about to call those people, i hate criminals ! will somebody please do something about these con artists ?
I got THE call from 1-800-918-4224 and my conf # is SNUT3112… They left a message on my CELL PHONE, to which I don’t give anyone. They didn’t say who they were or if I had won anything at all. She started out the message by repeating the phone number, telling me that this was the last call and that it was very urgent. I am ASSUMING this thing is REALLY based in Salt Lake City, UT, not Florida. Just a feeling. . . I’m really greatful for this blog!! THANK YOU!! Don’t fall for this!!
I googled it too. Somehow they got my fax number…What is this world coming to?
I too just received a call from Carmen at the Awards Claim Center claiming I’d won a 20 ft bayliner. I googled it and came up with this. They called my work number. Disturbing.
Same call, I won a ford explorer or $25,000 cash. They called my Vonage line from 18009184224. I’m in Salt Lake City. Thanks for the thread and the warning!
Yeah, Annabelle just called me on my non-published VoIP line, but I won a new Ford Explorer or $25,000 cash. I’m worried because they’ve been trying to get in touch with me for a while and it is my last AND FINAL (thought that meant the same thing) notice. Oh boy!!! Haha, Tampa, Fl number is anyone is keeping track of where they’re calling.
Just had the same call on my cell, Austin, Texas. Good thing I didn’t pick up, because I do pay for minutes !
Just with all the email’s i get about 800 number scams when i got this message at 7:08pm
on 3/13 on my business phone i new it was junk. Just for giggles i had to find out more and sure enough i found this page. It looks like everyone in here has the same claim number that i have. #FNUT3112. So Thanks a ton y’all I won’t be calling the Awards Claim Center at 800 918 4224 and asking for carrie. However i do rather enjoy making the life of a telemarketer Hell….
…and on the 8th day God created caller ID, and it was good.
I got a call in Denver from 1-866-845-8587 with a message stating that I’m a finalist in the alleged contest that I entered. All I have to do is attend the 90 minute presentation from their sponsor and I would receive a scratch off ticket to win a Cadillac Escalade or $25K. Of course, if I failed to win the grand prize I could also be eligible for a Hawaiian Vacation, an unspecified amount of cash, or a flat screen tv!
Thanks for the thread and the info guys.
I got the call at work from Carmen…she’s back!! She left the number (800) 918-4224 and my claim # is HH592. Thanks for the info! Glad I googled it.
I got just received a message on my cellphone stating that this is my last and final call, it is very important that I return this call to 800-918-4224 and my claim number is SNUT3112. What a scam, I am glad I always google numbers before I call them and this blog is what I found! I had no idea there would be this many people who received the same call. I wonder how many people actually fall for this scam. I am in San Antonio, TX it looks like they are getting around. Just remember if it sounds to good to be true…then it ALWAYS is!
My call came in this afternoon from a “Ms. Greene” from 1-877-237-9458 informing me my name was drawn and that I was guaranteed to win 1 of the 4 prizes- Cadillac Escalade, $2500, 32 inch flat screen tv, or 2 tickets to (can’t remember where) hotel and airfare included. I’m to show up at the Embassy Suites on either Friday or Saturday at any of the times, she gave me a choice of 6 of them. I asked her “Is this for real?, or is this a scam where you try to sell me something like timeshare?” she said that my name was chosen from an online contest that I entered within the past 18 months. I told her, I didn’t remember entering anything, she says..most people who win don’t remember(with a slight chuckle). I flat out asked her if this was a scam, she says to me, “I’m gonna be honest with you, they are gonna give you a presentation that should last about an hour, but you DO NOT have to buy anything. And it’s not high pressured selling, it’s just a presentation. Just show up with your conf.# CDS234 with 2 forms of ID, and that if I won the Escalade that it would be delivered to my house within 2 days” and clearly reminded me that I would have to pay the tax on it. BTW- I’m in the Washington, DC area
Got a message on my machine from Melissa Montgomery from the Award Claim Center telling me that I “won” a Cadillac Escalade in the “Grand Sweepstakes Giveaway”, and to call back as soon as possible to 800-779-9962 ext. 8068. Well, I called back, and Melissa was conveniently not there. Told to call back tomorrow betweek 9-3 Central. Since I have won contest grand prizes worth thousands of dollars in the past, I was interested, until I found this site and all of the other postings. Let me tell you something, when you really do win a legitimate contest prize worth a lot of money, you get an overnight Fed Ex letter telling you, with a claim form that you must sign and send back in a pre-paid envelope. Since you must attend a presentation, and I would not have entered such a contest, I’m going to take a pass on this one.
Carmen strikes again!!!
800-918-4224, claim # DB394, Ford Explorer, work phone VM, Friday 8:53 pm…
yada, yada, yada…
Thanks, Mike(and google)!!!
Atlanta, here……”Chanel” called to say I won a Ford Explorer or $25K…This is my final notice, claim number FNRS3112. They called my work number! 800-918-4334. Thanks for the info!
Wait a minute #337 — Carmen called me (at work, at 8pm) and told *me* my “claim number” was HH592. Just call (800) 918-4224 and that Ford Explorer was mine, she said! Is she two-timing me or you?
Three-Timing I’m afraid, another call from Carmen in Atlanta at 8:57pm, with HH592 as the claim number, it’s my Explorer damn it
It looks like Carmen is still busy. Talk about playing fast and loose. Same number 800-918-4224 and claim HH592. Work VM only phone never rang. Was in office during time said came in. Remembered hearing message on computer room VM and just deleted. Decided to google. She sure is getting a reputation. Where was she when I was in school? ha ha ha.
I got a VM on my work phone from Carmen saying I had won a Ford Explorer also. I’m in NC. Of course the phone never rung. Figured it was a scam but don’t know how she got my work number.
I received a call yesterday from Lauren Gibson from 1-877-237-9458x 245, informing me my name was drawn and that I was the winner of a 2007 SUV. I didn’t pickup the message until late last night and when I just called her, I got a different story. She said that my name was chosen from an online survey that I entered within the past 18 months, of which I don’t remember entering. She then proceeded to tell me that I was guaranteed to win 1 of the 4 prizes; a Cadillac Escalade, 2 tickets to various locations, a 32 inch flat screen tv, and one other item. I was told to show up to Washington Street in Gurnee, Il either this weekend or next week sometime. I told her I won’t be available and she then said she was just verifying some information to see if I qualify: age 25-70; income >45K; then wanted to know marital status. Apparently the spouse needs to come also if married. She said that they are setting up the schedule and will call me back with the availble times/dates. I will keep you updated.
I’m in Columbia, SC and got the call from Carmen today on my office voice mail. Didn’t bother calling back, just googled. I’ll have to check around and see if she got any of my co-workers.
oh, and my claim number was HH592 also.
I also had VM at my work and the claim number was the same. Why these people don’t give up?