The phone is ringing, and I don't recognize the number,
All Caller ID says is, "NAME UNAVAILABLE".
Please help me figure out who is calling and what they want
4 comments
This number is NOT a Sprint number, but it is a telesales company employed by Sprint/Nextel, so it is just as bad. This method of sales was used by Nextel, and brought into the merger by them. It seems they call your phone, let it ring long enough for caller ID to work, then hang up. Obviously they figure if they annoy you enough, you will call back, hear a recording about a GREAT deal from Sprint, and happily decide you want it. (YSR)However, if you choose option 6 to be taken off the list, it normally works and the calls stop within a week.
The thing to keep in mind, for an automated system, it only works during office hours, m-f, and the call has to come from the phone number receiving the calls. So you will have to use up 1-2 anytime minutes to call back, and select option 6 to be removed. I do recommend listening to make sure it is still option 6. What was true yesterday may not be true today. Hopefully, after a few days, if not right away, the calls will stop.
One more way to mess with the mortgage companies. If you have time, pre stage your identity before you get the generic call. Lead the actual mortgage company down a long and prosperous road (remember tho, keep it believable) Get an urgent call, and ask for their information so you can call them back. Once you have it, post it to any of these internet sites so they are publicly outed for using the annoying Mortgage Pro's. The actual Mortgage Companies prob. do not want to be seen in a bad light. If their name is posted too often to the WEB, you know they will prob back away from Mortgage Pro's.
How to get them back. As stated this is a Mortgage Referal Service working for many mortgage companies across the US. Everytime they connect a call, the reality has to pay the referal service from $25 to $100 depending on the deal. So select option 1 to get a live human. Make up a fake (but believable) name if you want to. You can give them a false number, but some of the people seem to know the number that was called, and since they already have it, it does not matter. When they ask, always say you have a single family home and want to refinance for an amount greater than 75K. Make the interest rate about 5% or 6%. If you say a low interest rate they can not match, when you go on hold, they disconnect the call. After they have the info, they will put you on hold to call the actual mortgage company. They will come back, connect you together and hang up. Now the mortgage company owes them a finders fee. Once they have connected you, feel free to hang up, your job is done.
Now what may happen is the actual mortgage company will call you back. Feel free to tell them they have a wrong number, or that the have the correct number, but you will be reporting them to the DNC list for violations. It will not bother them much, but they are still out a little cash. In time if enough people do it, the $$ will add up and less people will be using Mortgage Pros. I have quit complaining and now I just have fun.
One more thing. If you call any of the regular Sprint numbers, they are honest when they say they do not know about this number and they do not think it is Sprint. Telesales is not Sprint, and for some reason Sprint's customer service group are not being made aware of this number. I can not tell you how many levels deep I had to go to finally get all the info. listed in the previous posting. And get this, I am fairly highly placed in one of Sprint Customer Service Groups, and I never knew about this number til my mom complained to me.