How “Silent Calls” Lead To Identity Theft - Comments Page 3

Great information! I have been on the FTC sight and read some of the possible drawbacks to their blocking of calls. I may do it anyhow if I keep getting calls I once used "Opt Out" to stop. I like the Nomorobo concept to look into.
Thanks, PMW

Bob - If the FTC receives 170K complaints each month, what results does that generate? How many prosecutions are there, for example?

EDITOR'S NOTE: I don't have that answer. My guess is that they go after the most flagrant violators first, based on the number of complaints received. Here's one example:

http://consumerist.com/2015/08/11/travel-club-telemarketer-fined-2-96m-for-robocalling-consumers/

Bob provides a service to alert people to be careful but, in fact, this scam is not about dead calls or robocalls. The ONLY way ID theft works here is that otherwise sensible people voluntarily give personal security information to faceless people on the other end of the line. Just imagine a stranger approaching you on a street corner and saying, "could you please give me your ATM pin so we can make sure your security systen is up to date." If you would not, do the same on the phone. And if you would? Well maybe PT Barnum knew what he was talking about.

Thanks for this eye-opener Bob! As a rule, we don't answer unknown numbers and I always run any such numbers by 800notes.com. This is a great place to get feedback from others who have received (or are receiving ) calls from these numbers.

I've been using nomorobo for a couple weeks and have had over a dozen calls blocked. Today, however, the robocall came with the caller id of the phone that was ringing. That's right, I was calling myself from my phone. Those b*st*rds are keeping a jump ahead of us.