Are You Experiencing Telemarketer Abuse?
Phones provide a great way for telemarketers to abuse you, and with the rise of cellphones, they can reach you from anywhere. If you would like to learn more to better protect yourself against fraud and abuse, keep reading.
What is Telemarketing Abuse?
Telemarking abuse comes in many forms.
Telemarketers have a lot of rules to follow, such as not calling at specific times and not calling once you’ve asked them to stop calling you. Breaking these rules can constitute telemarketing abuse. For instance, some aggressive companies may keep calling you to try and sell you the same product again and again, refusing to take no for an answer.
Additionally, telemarketing abuse is often associated with scams. Many scams claim you won a free prize or vacation, but you have to pay fees before you can get the prize. This can be incredibly dangerous if you give the scammer your credit card or bank account information to pay for the fees.
Some scammers may even record you saying “yes,” to a seemingly harmless question like, “Can you hear me?” They then use that to try and prove you verified a purchase or charge. You can often spot scammers easily because they usually want to be paid in ways that are hard to trace such as gift cards or cryptocurrency.
How Do Robocalls Work?
Robocalls are highly associated with scams because they are so easy to send en masse. Scammers buy a list of leads that provides phone numbers. They then usually use computer software to send out the calls to everyone on the list.
The computer software can also change the phone number, so the caller thinks the call is local. If you fall for the initial scam, you will likely be transferred to a real person who will then pressure you to buy their product, accept your prize, etc. The best thing you can do at this point is to hang up the phone.
What If the Caller Is a Debt Collector?
First, if the debt collector is a scammer, you have no duty to bother listening to them and should treat them like any other scammer. If the debt collection is for someone else, you should inform them that you are not the debtor and ask them to stop calling. If they refuse to listen to you, this could be considered telemarketing abuse.
If the debt is your debt, the caller still can’t call constantly and harass you. You also have the right to tell the debt collector to stop calling, and they should do so unless they need to inform you that there will be no more contact and whether they plan to take legal action.
How Can You Stop Telemarketers?
Ideally, you could just push a button, and no more telemarketers can contact you. Luckily, it’s almost that easy thanks to the National Do Not Call Registry. You can add your phone number to this registry, and telemarketers are supposed to check it before they call anyone. If a number is on the Do Not Call Registry, they are not supposed to call.
However, not every telemarketer follows the rules, especially scammers. Therefore, this may not fully prevent telemarketing abuse. You can also inform individual companies not to call you, but there may be no way to stop an aggressive scammer except to keep hanging up.
Telemarketing abuse is real and it’s common. While scams are often targeted at older people, anyone can fall victim to them. If you have been the target of telemarketing abuse or scams, contact us at Heidarpour Law Firm so we can help you fight back.