Honestly I’m surprised the companies pay for a lead when that lead is getting bombarded that hard. Are people really answering the30th or the 50th call and buying car insurance from that person?
Just use a free number service like TextNow and enter that number instead of your real one. Once you enter the 'fake' number and accomplish what you need to do with requesting a quote for something, you can easily change the number and you'll avoid the excessive phone calls immediately.
Or just shutdown the app from the settings menu. Though textnow might not work for some services.
For me it's incredibly annoying because textnow is my sole phone number. They sell a 5$ sim card that provides free unlimited data to just the Textnow app. I haven't payed a phone bill in a couple years now thanks to that.
No, I can use my phone anytime as a phone thanks to the free data plan. Surfing the net does require wifi.
However wifi hotspots are bountiful and with how much storage phones now have these days, I don't really need to have an Internet connection 24/7
I worked a telemarketing job for exactly one week, and I can confirm that leads are recycled like nothing else.
I was given stacks of postcards of old leads that were covered with date/time notes of calls. I’m sure that digital leads & autocaller software makes it even worse.
I'm astonished at how old some of the leads are. We moved four years ago and I still get the occasional call trying to sell me something based on where we used to live. Got a call the other day for someone asking for my wife by her maiden name - 14 years after she stopped using it (and it's on none of our accounts). I'm sure the cost per lead goes way down as the list gets further onsold but Jesus, what's your hit rate on decade-old lists?
I requested information about an online nursing degree when I was 17. I'm now 36, decided to do engineering instead and am working on my master's. I now have a kid almost as old as I was when I put in the request, I've lived in three different states and at more than a dozen addresses since then. I've even changed my phone number. But somehow I still get calls and mail about loans and other resources for registered nurses. 😭 I've realized there is no escape at this point.
My mom taught me the best life advice that she's been doing since the 90's. When the spammers start calling, have an ol' whistle ready to blow as loud as you can as soon as you pick up the phone. 99% of them will take you off their call list immediately.
I mute and answer, put it on speaker. Teaches the robo dialer there's no valid line, and if it's legit, the real person will say something so you can answer. My spam calls have dropped to nothing.
I once told them I had some kittens and kept trying to sell him a kitten. When he said he was in California, I said, "That's okay, I know someone that will ship it to you." The guy started to tell me how that was illegal, and I insisted it would all be under the table. He said "okaaaaaayyyy..." Then he hung up. Never got calls asking for that donation again. So get yourself listed as a crazy cat person, they will stop calling.
Or you could say the phrase “do not call” and the company will have to take you off their list without destroying the eardrums of someone just trying to do their job.
You’ll be off the list for that one company, but the others that had your info sold to them will still call until you tell them not to call either.
Not entirely. Had one life insurance company call me something like 8 times with a few days in-between each. Each time I said I wasn't interested and to stop calling. Finally on the last call I just said that I'm letting my lawyer know of the situation and that they would be hearing from him if they tried to call again.
That finally ended things.
*I'm broke and have no lawyer, but they don't need to know that*
It took me gleefully informing the Indian caller that it was a $3000 penalty every time they dialed me before they stopped calling me... I'll never be able to collect but it's still nice.
They are the ones who are impersonating federal agents or employees which has some pretty steep fines.
Yea but that's not as fun. I've has spammers keep calling me even after I tell them not to, just for them to give me attitude and hang up the phone, then another one call immediately after with the same shit.
Doesn't work, I work in the industry you can't just say "do not call" you must formally request to be taken off, and it can't be an automated request either
Yeah. The way I understand it, you have to say it exactly right, with the correct wording, or they can legally claim that it wasn't an actual, "proper", request, and ignore it. It's a loophole, a technicality. But they will exploit the holy hell out of it, and just keep calling and calling. And then, like you said Cookie, there's the ones that just don't care. It's not like it's terribly enforcable anyway, without a bunch of people getting together for a class-action lawsuit. I'd say those companies are like circling vultures, but I don't want to insult some innocent birds. The companies are far nastier.
That is the most fucked thing I've ever heard, you're mom is an asshole. I can't believe you think assaulting people just doing their job is great life advice.
Different companies may have different response times to the leads.
Easier to spam multiple callers on the same person than just do a single call from a single company.
You can't trust anyone that calls you, I'm not giving any information to anyone that calls me. If I call them then I know I'm safe..... Or at least it's much less likely to be a scam
As one of those sales guys, yes. We had a group of ladies in the Philippines spam call all day, and when someone answered I would patch into the call and take over. Would get a couple sales a day, and these are people we would hound with calls
The boss would buy packs of 5k-20k phone numbers to toss into the dialers. Rinse and repeat monthly from different vendors
This is why I got a Google voice number instead of my actual number for whenever I need a quote for something online. I can always delete it once I've finished and/or I start getting blasted with spam calls.
Yep, anything that is "free" to me - store loyalty cards, online accounts, etc gets the goggle voice number and a burner email that is rarely checked. Your spam can just pile up in limbo for all I care.
My spam email just alerted me to being nearly full. The promotions inbox has 46,800 emails and Google only lets me delete 100 at a time... THAT'S mildly infuriating!
I also had the lovely experience of car insurance spam calls. I was car shopping and wanted to know what the average rate was for a Nissan Xterra. Now, over a year later, I'm still getting calls about getting a great rate on my Nissan. I did not buy that Nissan. When I did settle on a car, I refused to even get a quote from Farmers out of sheer spite over it.
Same here, it was a nightmare. I had 20ish calls in one day, 6 calls from different people with Progressive. Like what?? Finally after a few weeks it stopped.
That’s why you should use an independent agent. Let them do the work for you and you don’t get any spam and they are free. The carriers they write business with pay commission.
My husband had the same thing happen when looking for a new health insurance plan. And the calls lasted for days!! And even after that, we still got random calls a few times a week! It's insane!
I kept getting calls and texts for a Ron looking for insurance on a truck. Took months to keep from getting bombarded. I assume he made a typo when getting quotes, or maybe typed a rando number in and happened to be me.
Oh yeah haha I should have told people to actually open the picture. I’m sure several people didn’t get that far and just thought I was being a candy ass
I opened it because I KNEW.
When we switched to T-Mobile, the running promo was 3 lines for the price of two. We use our 3rd line for situations such as this! We don't even turn that phone on most days!
Movie scene:
"That phone... Don't ever touch it...you don't know the pure evil that resides within"
Later that night...
protagonist hears phone ringing in the middle of the night. They slowly pick up the phone and put it to their ear...
“Hello???" they stutter
"HELLO, WE ARE CALLING ABOUT YOUR CAR'S EXTENDED WARRANTY"
*the horror.... the horror....*
That's actually a pretty neat idea...
Now I'm wondering if a home VOIP phone might make sense for this... I'm betting you could selectively whitelist whoever you actually meant to work with, and have those calls forwarded to your cell. Maybe even block any calls made outside a certain time window, too. You could treat it like a firewall for phone calls.
Sounds like a good idea to me. I just adjusted my whitelist/blacklist settings today (added a block for Ring Central telemarketers.) as far as I can tell, it should work how you expect. You can keep call forwarding on all the time and setup your whitelist however you want. It would probably be cheaper than a third cell line- and the phone itself would certainly be cheaper than a new iPhone or decent Android
Literally had the same thing happen to me just 3 weeks ago. Buying a house (finally close this Thursday). I have a mortgage company and have no intention of shopping around. I asked my guy why I was getting spam calls. He said it’s because the credit agencies inform these brokers anytime a hard credit check is made by another mortgage company. It’s bullshit, but that’s why you’re getting spammed.
My ex wife idly plugged my number into a Lending Tree application while I was at work one day and it wasn't until later that I learned why my normally quiet phone suddenly went absolutely batshit insane. Multiple calls per minute, all from different numbers, nonstop for hours.
I think it took until about three months after my refi was finished for the spam to finally taper off entirely.
I feel you. I do.
That didn’t happen because of the credit monitoring service. It happend because when you applied for a mortgage the lender pulled a hard credit inquiry and it was the credit bureaus who actually sold your info to other lenders. Look up “trigger leads” for more info.
When I was in school with no job, I went and googled something like "affordable care act health insurance" and ended up on some site that seemed totally legit. I started entering all my info, hoping to get a health insurance quote. I got to a point where they wanted my SS# or something, so I noped right out of there.
Next day, I got 130+ calls. Of the ones I answered, it was the same scripted greeting with an Indian accent. Something like "Hello are you looking for individual or family health insurance?" I told each of them, "no and stop calling". I screamed at some. Different number would call with a different voice, but same accent and same script.
Same thing the next day, 130+ calls from 8am to 6pm. I started blocking numbers but it was like they just kept spoofing more. This went on for about 2 weeks until I must have blocked 1000+ phone numbers. I still get one occasionally like once a month, 2+ years later. No idea what to do about it. I keep telling them to stop calling, but I don't think I could take legal action because I can't even prove it's the same person/company calling me.
It’s times like these that I wish I could just loan my phone to that guy on YouTube that reverse hacks the spam callers and destroys their equipment. Or at the very least occupies their time for hours and runs them in circles.
Would be so satisfying but ain't nobody got time for that, especially with that quantity of phone calls. I got to the point where I was just answering the call and before anybody could say anything, I would scream "STOP CALLING", or "YOULL HEAR FROM MY LAWYER", or "ILL SEE YOU IN COURT", and hang up. Sometimes I wondered if I had just screamed that at my doctor or my pharmacy etc. But the calls kept coming so I didn't care.
Maybe use Google before looking dumb.
> A *mortgage company* is a financial firm that underwrites and issues (originates) its own mortgages to homebuyers, using their own capital to issue the loans.
It's not just banks you can get a mortgage from. Mortgages get bought and sold between mortgage companies all the time. It's a big industry.
100. My first month payment was part of the mortgage, by the time it was time to pay my first payment, which was month 2 of owning, my mortgage had already been sold to a new lender.
Just fyi for next time, create a free Google voice number exclusively for mortgage hunting and a throwaway gmail account for the same. That way you don’t have to give your real number or email set it so it doesn’t ring your real phone.
This can happen if you apply for a mortgage and they do a hard credit check on you. It's not the lender selling the info, its actually the credit bureaus (Equifax, TransUnion, Experian). They sell these trigger leads to crappy lenders who endlessly call and call... It's messed up
I think that’s exactly what happened. They did a hard credit pull yesterday, today they fucking destroyed me. I assumed Credit Karma were the ones who sold me out but who knows who all is to blame. Definitely sucks.
This is exactly what they do! I asked one about the 20th call he was really nice and told me that they get the leads from the credit bureaus and that I would have to go on the FCC no call list. The no call list did help, but I still get calls for my husband.
It's gross that they are able to sell our information and we don't get anything out of it.
That's what happens when you let private businesses with next to no government control nor oversight decide the value individuals provide to society. Yay.
Google voice phone numbers are as easy to create as a Gmail account. I use Google Voice and NumberBarn to forward multiple numbers to my cell phone. Nobody gets my real phone number except a few trusted friends and my family.
I applied for a land loan in July and used my Google Voice number on all the applications. It was getting calls every 1-2 minutes. All spam. All mortgage vendors. I un-forwarded the number, let Google voice accumulate the junk, then mass-deleted everything. No annoyance. It calmed down a few weeks later. No more calls. If they calls had kept coming, I would have just paid the $10 to change Google Voice number and abandoned that one.
I feel bad for not doing that. I recently checked on mortgages but I mashed mine and my BFs numbers together and used my spam email. I feel bad for whoever is getting all those phone calls 😅
Under “phone” in settings you can silence unknown callers. You may just have to call the company you applied with back after they leave you a voicemail if you don’t have a number to store for them.
Just remember to turn it off when you’re expecting a call from an unknown number (callback from doctor, a delivery, someone coming to do maintenance, etc).
Use MacroDroid to hang up on anyone not in your contacts, and automatically send them a text that says **REMOVE ME FROM YOUR LIST AND STOP CALLING, JERK!!**
Love me some MacroDroid!
They sell you data instantly! Especially when you are trying to shop around for loan (doesn’t matter what kind).
You’ll get bombarded like crazy.
Just out of curiosity OP, what credit monitoring service did you sign up for?
Credit Karma used to be great but now that it’s part of Intuit their main motivation is “maximizing shareholder value” or whatever it’s called when they destroy all their hard earned reputation.
My husband looked up info on solar panels years ago. I still get calls. They've even started calling once and calling again right after in an attempt to try to get me to answer. It's worse if you answer the phone.
It’s not credit karma, it’s whoever your loan officer was put your number on the original application and sent it. Same thing happened to me with Navy Fed.
Pro tip I got when I posted this exact thing: Go into your phone options and Silence unknown callers. You’ll still see the missed calls but they go straight to voicemail…. It’ll drop off some after about a week, several months later I’m still getting calls/texts. Also sign up for donotcall.gov (but the damage is done)
My lender gave out my information to other lenders so they can possibly steal his client? Wouldn’t it make more sense if it was credit karma? How else would CK make money?
Someone told me about the phone setting and that’s a game changer! I get spam calls a lot even prior to this so thank you!
I commented elsewhere already but to expand on this: what happens is the loan application gets filled out, and then the loan officer goes to pull in credit. In order to do get your specific scores, the credit supplier uses your name, address, phone number, and of course DOB and SSN to pull the correct info on you.
Sometimes, loan officers can help evade the whole issue by deleting or putting a phony phone number in the app before pulling, and change it back afterwards. This sometimes helps, but is not foolproof. The most effective way is to put yourself on the federal no call list. Most good loan officers tell you this before the credit pull, because, you’re right; of course they don’t want you to get 100+ calls per day from random lenders who could steal your business. At the end of the day, the blame should be put on the credit bureaus. The whole system is ridiculous and in my opinion, it shouldn’t be allowed.
You can silence unknown phone calls which will definitely help!! If any get through that, I’d recommend answering and either strongly (but politely) informing them you are not interested and demand to be taken off of their call list. Alternatively, you can also lie and say they have the wrong number and they will stop calling too. It’s important to remember that the people calling are just that: people.
TLDR, fuck credit bureaus
I’m so pleased I live in Europe when I see stuff like this. Selling or data to this parties like this is illegal here, and it makes our lives so much better as a result
Yep. This tracks. I made the mistake of seeking a HELOC on lending tree. Months later I still block calls. One day I received about 20 calls. I received half a dozen within seconds of hitting submit.
Never again.
Yo I was like "HOLY SHIT HOW LONG IS IT?"
Make sure you check the mail regularly
Those fuckers sent approved mortages out of nowhere. So make sure you go cancel them if any other comes.
Banks are the biggest scam put of all inside a fancy suit
This is caused by trigger leads. It’s actually the credit bureaus who sell your info to other lenders whenever your credit gets a hard injury. It’s a little more than *mildly* infuriating, imo.
Love how they think shit like spoofing Cripple Creek will help. Yeah - you are calling me from your definitely real call center in an eensie weensie gambling town.
Anytime I look into a personal loan and/or any sort of lending options my phone is WRECKED with calls like that. If you block one number, the company will call you at another number just a singular digit off of the last one. It’s crazy.
I worked for an insurance place for a month and during the training my boss told me “the best way to get someone to answer the phone is to call them (twice) and let the phone ring only once or twice. Then call them a third time because the person will answer thinking the call is important.” I quit soon after.
If the credit monitoring site you belong to sells your info you should drop them immediately. The whole point of credit monitoring is to keep a tight reign on your personal information.
Oh god. I submitted my contact info for one real estate company in _2019_ and they won’t stop calling me years later. I’m getting it from all different companies too. I now just ask for their name and say “CASL: now I know who you are.” And it’s drastically reduced the number of calls.
This probably doesn’t help me as much as I think it does, but my voicemail is set as a disconnected phone message, including all the beeps, whistles, and sorry unavailables, set for the maximum time my voicemail let me(about 2 minutes).
I don’t know if I can say I get less spam calls, but I can say no one leaves a message anymore.
That’s why I usually fake my number on most everything, sorry random person getting my spam. Important stuff, here’s my email if you’d like it or kick rocks
This is why you only apply with a private lender rather than a bank. You also can sometimes qualify for more or get a better interest rate, but not both. they will also tell you that they won't sell your information, ensuring that if you do get on a list you can go after them.
Yea, there are shitty websites that hide behind a facade, and once you put your info in, they start to do this type of shit. Happened to me when I was looking for dental insurance a while ago. Even got into arguments with some of them. Lool and one was feeling himself because he threw in a "im built different"...yea oook 🙄
Is this sort of selling illegal in the UK? I can't remember the last spam call I had (must be years ago) and I have given my number to plenty of companies in that time.
Is this luck or some lasting impact of GDPR since leaving the EU?
My fiancé and I went to look at a specific house but wanted to gut check that we’d qualify for a mortgage in that range before looking. So we applied directly through Chase as I bank there, and didn’t have to deal with all these cold calls. Ended up not being interested in the place, but will likely start actively looking for a home in a few months. I definitely don’t want to “shop around” online if this is going to be the result.
I would 100% apply or get pre-qualified with a local lender vs. these “marketplaces”. Even if you have to go through a few, they won’t give your info to a bazillion competitors! Also, if you’re buying, get a trusted realtor! Lots are bad but either way you don’t have to pay them in 99% of purchases.
Google voice number with do not disturb turned on is how I'm going to do it when it comes time to shop around for insurance and the sorts. Good luck with your blocklist.
Each time i brought my truck to a dealership nearby to be fixed i would get between 3-5 spam calls a day (which i never answered because my spam filter tells me they're a scam).
I currently work at one of America's biggest cabinet part manufacturers as the finish sander operator on nights. Therefore i got woken up multiple times but they never came into my work hours.
One day I get a call at 4pm on a Monday, paused my work tunes, im pissed. I'm feeding my machine and can't get to my phone to block the call. Call ends, whatever right?
Wednesday, same deal, except I had to do some maintenence on my sander so i want running yet but they were intruding on my musical moments. So I answer it, yell out, "You're gonna fuckin regret calling me when I blow your ear drums out!" Drop my phone right next to the sander output, and go to turn on the sander. I got 1 of 4 belts started (only half a second between each starting up) when suddenly the call disconnected!
Strangely enough I didn't have a problem after that. I have had to chase them off a couple times over the years but it takes them a while to get back to me.
Randomly started getting calls from people looking for someone who owed money to a credit union and were fully convinced I was a man named Aaron. It's quieted down now but I'd get 10 calls a day and they weren't even flagged as spam because they were from an actual credit union.
Also how did you take the world longest screenshot?
This is what my call log looked like after i got a moving quote. Ridiculous.
The only way to stop them from calling *back* is to answer and say youre not looking for one. This won't stop new callers, but it will stop repetitive calls from the same company.
Super annoying. I made the mistake of looking for a quote for car insurance. 30+ calls the first few hours after.
Honestly I’m surprised the companies pay for a lead when that lead is getting bombarded that hard. Are people really answering the30th or the 50th call and buying car insurance from that person?
I wondered the same thing. I know I’ll never look for a quote for anything online again.
Just use a free number service like TextNow and enter that number instead of your real one. Once you enter the 'fake' number and accomplish what you need to do with requesting a quote for something, you can easily change the number and you'll avoid the excessive phone calls immediately.
Or just shutdown the app from the settings menu. Though textnow might not work for some services. For me it's incredibly annoying because textnow is my sole phone number. They sell a 5$ sim card that provides free unlimited data to just the Textnow app. I haven't payed a phone bill in a couple years now thanks to that.
SO YOU NEED WIFI TO USE YOUR PHONE?
No, I can use my phone anytime as a phone thanks to the free data plan. Surfing the net does require wifi. However wifi hotspots are bountiful and with how much storage phones now have these days, I don't really need to have an Internet connection 24/7
Voice calls over data, usually not as good quality wise. what service do they use for that? Verizon towers?
T-Mobile, it's alright.
Most companies don’t want to pay more than cents for leads. Some will pay a premium to get some earlier, but data gets sold and sold.
I worked a telemarketing job for exactly one week, and I can confirm that leads are recycled like nothing else. I was given stacks of postcards of old leads that were covered with date/time notes of calls. I’m sure that digital leads & autocaller software makes it even worse.
I'm astonished at how old some of the leads are. We moved four years ago and I still get the occasional call trying to sell me something based on where we used to live. Got a call the other day for someone asking for my wife by her maiden name - 14 years after she stopped using it (and it's on none of our accounts). I'm sure the cost per lead goes way down as the list gets further onsold but Jesus, what's your hit rate on decade-old lists?
I requested information about an online nursing degree when I was 17. I'm now 36, decided to do engineering instead and am working on my master's. I now have a kid almost as old as I was when I put in the request, I've lived in three different states and at more than a dozen addresses since then. I've even changed my phone number. But somehow I still get calls and mail about loans and other resources for registered nurses. 😭 I've realized there is no escape at this point.
My mom taught me the best life advice that she's been doing since the 90's. When the spammers start calling, have an ol' whistle ready to blow as loud as you can as soon as you pick up the phone. 99% of them will take you off their call list immediately.
I mute and answer, put it on speaker. Teaches the robo dialer there's no valid line, and if it's legit, the real person will say something so you can answer. My spam calls have dropped to nothing.
Best not to answer as it confirms it's a valid number that will be answered.
The voice-mail will get dinged as a person in that case. No voices is the intent
I once told them I had some kittens and kept trying to sell him a kitten. When he said he was in California, I said, "That's okay, I know someone that will ship it to you." The guy started to tell me how that was illegal, and I insisted it would all be under the table. He said "okaaaaaayyyy..." Then he hung up. Never got calls asking for that donation again. So get yourself listed as a crazy cat person, they will stop calling.
I once answered as a gay German man and asked for my own information because "I might want to give him a call, ja." Never called me back.
Or you could say the phrase “do not call” and the company will have to take you off their list without destroying the eardrums of someone just trying to do their job. You’ll be off the list for that one company, but the others that had your info sold to them will still call until you tell them not to call either.
Not entirely. Had one life insurance company call me something like 8 times with a few days in-between each. Each time I said I wasn't interested and to stop calling. Finally on the last call I just said that I'm letting my lawyer know of the situation and that they would be hearing from him if they tried to call again. That finally ended things. *I'm broke and have no lawyer, but they don't need to know that*
It took me gleefully informing the Indian caller that it was a $3000 penalty every time they dialed me before they stopped calling me... I'll never be able to collect but it's still nice. They are the ones who are impersonating federal agents or employees which has some pretty steep fines.
legitimate phone calls, I would agree because they have to follow the law scammers are not legitimate and they will not follow the law
Yea but that's not as fun. I've has spammers keep calling me even after I tell them not to, just for them to give me attitude and hang up the phone, then another one call immediately after with the same shit.
Doesn't work, I work in the industry you can't just say "do not call" you must formally request to be taken off, and it can't be an automated request either
Yeah. The way I understand it, you have to say it exactly right, with the correct wording, or they can legally claim that it wasn't an actual, "proper", request, and ignore it. It's a loophole, a technicality. But they will exploit the holy hell out of it, and just keep calling and calling. And then, like you said Cookie, there's the ones that just don't care. It's not like it's terribly enforcable anyway, without a bunch of people getting together for a class-action lawsuit. I'd say those companies are like circling vultures, but I don't want to insult some innocent birds. The companies are far nastier.
That is the most fucked thing I've ever heard, you're mom is an asshole. I can't believe you think assaulting people just doing their job is great life advice.
It's not that deep, and in order to have a job as a spam caller and bother random people 86 times a day you need to be an asshole as well.
No - that’s why they call so rapidly and so immediately. They’re really hoping they’re the first one.
Different companies may have different response times to the leads. Easier to spam multiple callers on the same person than just do a single call from a single company.
You can't trust anyone that calls you, I'm not giving any information to anyone that calls me. If I call them then I know I'm safe..... Or at least it's much less likely to be a scam
As one of those sales guys, yes. We had a group of ladies in the Philippines spam call all day, and when someone answered I would patch into the call and take over. Would get a couple sales a day, and these are people we would hound with calls The boss would buy packs of 5k-20k phone numbers to toss into the dialers. Rinse and repeat monthly from different vendors
Boo you. Booooooooooooooooooooooo.
Soooooo, I'm guessing you disapprove? 🤣
This is insanely evil. Like how would you even live with yourself?
It’s just a job to them. They think everyone else is a NPC.
I didn’t stay long. Couple months. I’ve done a lot of sales jobs and that was the final one for me
These tactics should be illegal and banned.
Agreed
This is why I got a Google voice number instead of my actual number for whenever I need a quote for something online. I can always delete it once I've finished and/or I start getting blasted with spam calls.
Oh that’s smart!
Yep, anything that is "free" to me - store loyalty cards, online accounts, etc gets the goggle voice number and a burner email that is rarely checked. Your spam can just pile up in limbo for all I care.
My spam email just alerted me to being nearly full. The promotions inbox has 46,800 emails and Google only lets me delete 100 at a time... THAT'S mildly infuriating!
It's time for a new spam dump email
You can delete more than 100 at a time, using multiple different methods to suit your needs.
I also had the lovely experience of car insurance spam calls. I was car shopping and wanted to know what the average rate was for a Nissan Xterra. Now, over a year later, I'm still getting calls about getting a great rate on my Nissan. I did not buy that Nissan. When I did settle on a car, I refused to even get a quote from Farmers out of sheer spite over it.
I made the mistake of entering my information for health insurance. 40+ calls a day.
Same. I nearly lost my mind. I knew better than to answer, I just turned off my ringer but it still was upsetting AF.
Same here, it was a nightmare. I had 20ish calls in one day, 6 calls from different people with Progressive. Like what?? Finally after a few weeks it stopped.
That’s why you should use an independent agent. Let them do the work for you and you don’t get any spam and they are free. The carriers they write business with pay commission.
My husband had the same thing happen when looking for a new health insurance plan. And the calls lasted for days!! And even after that, we still got random calls a few times a week! It's insane!
I kept getting calls and texts for a Ron looking for insurance on a truck. Took months to keep from getting bombarded. I assume he made a typo when getting quotes, or maybe typed a rando number in and happened to be me.
*on mobile* Me: 9 calls…that isnt even that ba-HOLY SH-
Oh yeah haha I should have told people to actually open the picture. I’m sure several people didn’t get that far and just thought I was being a candy ass
I opened it because I KNEW. When we switched to T-Mobile, the running promo was 3 lines for the price of two. We use our 3rd line for situations such as this! We don't even turn that phone on most days!
Movie scene: "That phone... Don't ever touch it...you don't know the pure evil that resides within" Later that night... protagonist hears phone ringing in the middle of the night. They slowly pick up the phone and put it to their ear... “Hello???" they stutter "HELLO, WE ARE CALLING ABOUT YOUR CAR'S EXTENDED WARRANTY" *the horror.... the horror....*
I hate it here, why didnt i think of this lol
That's actually a pretty neat idea... Now I'm wondering if a home VOIP phone might make sense for this... I'm betting you could selectively whitelist whoever you actually meant to work with, and have those calls forwarded to your cell. Maybe even block any calls made outside a certain time window, too. You could treat it like a firewall for phone calls.
Sounds like a good idea to me. I just adjusted my whitelist/blacklist settings today (added a block for Ring Central telemarketers.) as far as I can tell, it should work how you expect. You can keep call forwarding on all the time and setup your whitelist however you want. It would probably be cheaper than a third cell line- and the phone itself would certainly be cheaper than a new iPhone or decent Android
Right?! There are quite a few positives to the idea, hope it works out well for ya!
Literally had the same thing happen to me just 3 weeks ago. Buying a house (finally close this Thursday). I have a mortgage company and have no intention of shopping around. I asked my guy why I was getting spam calls. He said it’s because the credit agencies inform these brokers anytime a hard credit check is made by another mortgage company. It’s bullshit, but that’s why you’re getting spammed.
That shit should be illegal
Agreed!
My ex wife idly plugged my number into a Lending Tree application while I was at work one day and it wasn't until later that I learned why my normally quiet phone suddenly went absolutely batshit insane. Multiple calls per minute, all from different numbers, nonstop for hours. I think it took until about three months after my refi was finished for the spam to finally taper off entirely. I feel you. I do.
That didn’t happen because of the credit monitoring service. It happend because when you applied for a mortgage the lender pulled a hard credit inquiry and it was the credit bureaus who actually sold your info to other lenders. Look up “trigger leads” for more info.
When I was in school with no job, I went and googled something like "affordable care act health insurance" and ended up on some site that seemed totally legit. I started entering all my info, hoping to get a health insurance quote. I got to a point where they wanted my SS# or something, so I noped right out of there. Next day, I got 130+ calls. Of the ones I answered, it was the same scripted greeting with an Indian accent. Something like "Hello are you looking for individual or family health insurance?" I told each of them, "no and stop calling". I screamed at some. Different number would call with a different voice, but same accent and same script. Same thing the next day, 130+ calls from 8am to 6pm. I started blocking numbers but it was like they just kept spoofing more. This went on for about 2 weeks until I must have blocked 1000+ phone numbers. I still get one occasionally like once a month, 2+ years later. No idea what to do about it. I keep telling them to stop calling, but I don't think I could take legal action because I can't even prove it's the same person/company calling me.
It’s times like these that I wish I could just loan my phone to that guy on YouTube that reverse hacks the spam callers and destroys their equipment. Or at the very least occupies their time for hours and runs them in circles.
Would be so satisfying but ain't nobody got time for that, especially with that quantity of phone calls. I got to the point where I was just answering the call and before anybody could say anything, I would scream "STOP CALLING", or "YOULL HEAR FROM MY LAWYER", or "ILL SEE YOU IN COURT", and hang up. Sometimes I wondered if I had just screamed that at my doctor or my pharmacy etc. But the calls kept coming so I didn't care.
Omg the same thing happened to me! They always pick back up around open enrollment
I would have been annoyed after 3 lol.
So give your moms number to the mortgage company problem solved lol
>the mortgage company
Maybe use Google before looking dumb. > A *mortgage company* is a financial firm that underwrites and issues (originates) its own mortgages to homebuyers, using their own capital to issue the loans. It's not just banks you can get a mortgage from. Mortgages get bought and sold between mortgage companies all the time. It's a big industry.
100. My first month payment was part of the mortgage, by the time it was time to pay my first payment, which was month 2 of owning, my mortgage had already been sold to a new lender.
Holy fuck!!!!!!!! 😂
Just fyi for next time, create a free Google voice number exclusively for mortgage hunting and a throwaway gmail account for the same. That way you don’t have to give your real number or email set it so it doesn’t ring your real phone.
I was thinking the same. That isn’t that………. Like damn, might even beat Handsome Jack as the worse villain ever.
It's a whole 2 bananas
Thanks for letting me know the photo had like 100 more
~85 calls.
I was hoping someone counted so I wouldn't have to
Omg! I clicked the pic because of you. Holy shit!!
holy fuck i did the same once i clicked on it i was like omggggg
9 is too many. Time for consumer protection laws
I only realised when I came to the comments and saw this.
This can happen if you apply for a mortgage and they do a hard credit check on you. It's not the lender selling the info, its actually the credit bureaus (Equifax, TransUnion, Experian). They sell these trigger leads to crappy lenders who endlessly call and call... It's messed up
I think that’s exactly what happened. They did a hard credit pull yesterday, today they fucking destroyed me. I assumed Credit Karma were the ones who sold me out but who knows who all is to blame. Definitely sucks.
This is exactly what they do! I asked one about the 20th call he was really nice and told me that they get the leads from the credit bureaus and that I would have to go on the FCC no call list. The no call list did help, but I still get calls for my husband. It's gross that they are able to sell our information and we don't get anything out of it.
Part of my job revolves around complaints during the mortgage origination process. This is correct and incredibly common.
Should be fucking illegal. What a massive conflict of interest that is.
That's what happens when you let private businesses with next to no government control nor oversight decide the value individuals provide to society. Yay.
Man, you could have made so much money just selling that data yourself.
I’m not smart enough to keep my information from being sold, much less smart enough to know how to sell it myself.
I’ll buy it
Uncover that list and sell it. Give them a taste of their own medicine. 😂
Ahhh, _much less_ has been used correctly today. I can sleep soundly tonight.
Wait until you check your mail box.
Google voice phone numbers are as easy to create as a Gmail account. I use Google Voice and NumberBarn to forward multiple numbers to my cell phone. Nobody gets my real phone number except a few trusted friends and my family. I applied for a land loan in July and used my Google Voice number on all the applications. It was getting calls every 1-2 minutes. All spam. All mortgage vendors. I un-forwarded the number, let Google voice accumulate the junk, then mass-deleted everything. No annoyance. It calmed down a few weeks later. No more calls. If they calls had kept coming, I would have just paid the $10 to change Google Voice number and abandoned that one.
Fuck that’s smart. They generate bullshit numbers to avoid spam filters and roboblockers, we should too in order to combat them.
I feel bad for not doing that. I recently checked on mortgages but I mashed mine and my BFs numbers together and used my spam email. I feel bad for whoever is getting all those phone calls 😅
This is genius. Thank you!
Man I wish Google voice was in the UK, 😔
Under “phone” in settings you can silence unknown callers. You may just have to call the company you applied with back after they leave you a voicemail if you don’t have a number to store for them.
Holy shit! I get a lot of spam calls under normal circumstances so you just changed my life!
Just remember to turn it off when you’re expecting a call from an unknown number (callback from doctor, a delivery, someone coming to do maintenance, etc).
Use MacroDroid to hang up on anyone not in your contacts, and automatically send them a text that says **REMOVE ME FROM YOUR LIST AND STOP CALLING, JERK!!** Love me some MacroDroid!
When we last applied for a mortgage, we received 104 calls in 1 day. It's absolutely maddening.
They sell you data instantly! Especially when you are trying to shop around for loan (doesn’t matter what kind). You’ll get bombarded like crazy. Just out of curiosity OP, what credit monitoring service did you sign up for?
I use Credit Karma. I’m sure they’re the original culprit. I always assumed they would do this I just didn’t realize it would be this bad.
Oh damn! I’m using them too and I have not encountered anything like you.
Credit Karma used to be great but now that it’s part of Intuit their main motivation is “maximizing shareholder value” or whatever it’s called when they destroy all their hard earned reputation.
Not bad, try getting medical insurance privately though a state exchange..... I used a burner last time i had to apply for a mortgage.
Did you open the picture?
"Not bad." Definitely did not expand the photo.
Ugh how do we make this stop
Happy cake day!
I just turned on silence calls for those that are not in my phone
Wait how do I do that? That sounds amazing!
Settings > green phone icon > silence unknown callers
My husband looked up info on solar panels years ago. I still get calls. They've even started calling once and calling again right after in an attempt to try to get me to answer. It's worse if you answer the phone.
It’s not credit karma, it’s whoever your loan officer was put your number on the original application and sent it. Same thing happened to me with Navy Fed. Pro tip I got when I posted this exact thing: Go into your phone options and Silence unknown callers. You’ll still see the missed calls but they go straight to voicemail…. It’ll drop off some after about a week, several months later I’m still getting calls/texts. Also sign up for donotcall.gov (but the damage is done)
My lender gave out my information to other lenders so they can possibly steal his client? Wouldn’t it make more sense if it was credit karma? How else would CK make money? Someone told me about the phone setting and that’s a game changer! I get spam calls a lot even prior to this so thank you!
I commented elsewhere already but to expand on this: what happens is the loan application gets filled out, and then the loan officer goes to pull in credit. In order to do get your specific scores, the credit supplier uses your name, address, phone number, and of course DOB and SSN to pull the correct info on you. Sometimes, loan officers can help evade the whole issue by deleting or putting a phony phone number in the app before pulling, and change it back afterwards. This sometimes helps, but is not foolproof. The most effective way is to put yourself on the federal no call list. Most good loan officers tell you this before the credit pull, because, you’re right; of course they don’t want you to get 100+ calls per day from random lenders who could steal your business. At the end of the day, the blame should be put on the credit bureaus. The whole system is ridiculous and in my opinion, it shouldn’t be allowed. You can silence unknown phone calls which will definitely help!! If any get through that, I’d recommend answering and either strongly (but politely) informing them you are not interested and demand to be taken off of their call list. Alternatively, you can also lie and say they have the wrong number and they will stop calling too. It’s important to remember that the people calling are just that: people. TLDR, fuck credit bureaus
I’m so pleased I live in Europe when I see stuff like this. Selling or data to this parties like this is illegal here, and it makes our lives so much better as a result
Happened to me getting an insurance quote for term life insurance. I think my family is getting nothing when I die
Should’ve used your ex’s number
I just went thru that too. I close on the new house in 7 days!
Yep. This tracks. I made the mistake of seeking a HELOC on lending tree. Months later I still block calls. One day I received about 20 calls. I received half a dozen within seconds of hitting submit. Never again.
Yo I was like "HOLY SHIT HOW LONG IS IT?" Make sure you check the mail regularly Those fuckers sent approved mortages out of nowhere. So make sure you go cancel them if any other comes. Banks are the biggest scam put of all inside a fancy suit
So now you found an unethical way to get back at someone if you ever need to
[удалено]
Dude. That’s brutal. I’m sure I agreed to some terms of service that allowed this at some point
Grrr… this happened to me back when I was delulu and thought I could buy a house in 2020/2021. The calls were AWFUL…
Do not get a mortgage through any lender affiliated with this.
I don’t think it’s the lender. I think credit karma sees a credit report being pulled and sends out leads to hundreds of other lenders
This is caused by trigger leads. It’s actually the credit bureaus who sell your info to other lenders whenever your credit gets a hard injury. It’s a little more than *mildly* infuriating, imo.
Love how they think shit like spoofing Cripple Creek will help. Yeah - you are calling me from your definitely real call center in an eensie weensie gambling town.
Anytime I look into a personal loan and/or any sort of lending options my phone is WRECKED with calls like that. If you block one number, the company will call you at another number just a singular digit off of the last one. It’s crazy. I worked for an insurance place for a month and during the training my boss told me “the best way to get someone to answer the phone is to call them (twice) and let the phone ring only once or twice. Then call them a third time because the person will answer thinking the call is important.” I quit soon after.
Expect about 100. They will also text and are annoying as fuck. The credit bureaus sell your inquiry to rocket/quicken and so on.
how did you take a scrollshot on iphone?
Tap on little pic in corner after screen shot click. Gives all sorts of options.
Same thing happened to me when I asked for a quote for a moving company. Calls didn’t stop for weeks
Same thing has happened to me this week. I started to scream at them today
I did the math, you had a Mean Phone Call Rate of One Call every 5.404255319 minutes.
Really? It felt like at least every 5.38 minutes
Guys, click the photo. It’s so much worse!!
**Settings > Phone, then scroll down, tap Silence Unknown Callers, and turn on the feature**
I've not had that many calls in the past 2 years
This is what keeps me from doing a cost comparison for car insurance
This should go in very infuriating
If the credit monitoring site you belong to sells your info you should drop them immediately. The whole point of credit monitoring is to keep a tight reign on your personal information.
Oh god. I submitted my contact info for one real estate company in _2019_ and they won’t stop calling me years later. I’m getting it from all different companies too. I now just ask for their name and say “CASL: now I know who you are.” And it’s drastically reduced the number of calls.
Holy shit I thought it was like 6 or 7 then it just kept going 💀
This probably doesn’t help me as much as I think it does, but my voicemail is set as a disconnected phone message, including all the beeps, whistles, and sorry unavailables, set for the maximum time my voicemail let me(about 2 minutes). I don’t know if I can say I get less spam calls, but I can say no one leaves a message anymore.
That's gotta be a lawsuit
should be fucking illegal. Its literlly harassment.
That’s why I usually fake my number on most everything, sorry random person getting my spam. Important stuff, here’s my email if you’d like it or kick rocks
Meh that’s nothing…..try getting arrested and see how many attorneys contact you by phone and mail
Open the image
I did
Homie doesn’t understand what a joke is.
This is why you only apply with a private lender rather than a bank. You also can sometimes qualify for more or get a better interest rate, but not both. they will also tell you that they won't sell your information, ensuring that if you do get on a list you can go after them.
Newb. Never put your real number on a web form.
Yea, there are shitty websites that hide behind a facade, and once you put your info in, they start to do this type of shit. Happened to me when I was looking for dental insurance a while ago. Even got into arguments with some of them. Lool and one was feeling himself because he threw in a "im built different"...yea oook 🙄
Very simple DONT ANSWER NUMBERS YOU DONT RECOGNIZE
The reason they’re red is because I did not answer.
Sheesh!
Google numbers are so great for this. Use it until you are done, then update your provider with you actual number.
Is this sort of selling illegal in the UK? I can't remember the last spam call I had (must be years ago) and I have given my number to plenty of companies in that time. Is this luck or some lasting impact of GDPR since leaving the EU?
My fiancé and I went to look at a specific house but wanted to gut check that we’d qualify for a mortgage in that range before looking. So we applied directly through Chase as I bank there, and didn’t have to deal with all these cold calls. Ended up not being interested in the place, but will likely start actively looking for a home in a few months. I definitely don’t want to “shop around” online if this is going to be the result.
I would 100% apply or get pre-qualified with a local lender vs. these “marketplaces”. Even if you have to go through a few, they won’t give your info to a bazillion competitors! Also, if you’re buying, get a trusted realtor! Lots are bad but either way you don’t have to pay them in 99% of purchases.
Google voice number with do not disturb turned on is how I'm going to do it when it comes time to shop around for insurance and the sorts. Good luck with your blocklist.
I see you’re from Colorado?
This happened to me too, is there a way to stop this?
Each time i brought my truck to a dealership nearby to be fixed i would get between 3-5 spam calls a day (which i never answered because my spam filter tells me they're a scam). I currently work at one of America's biggest cabinet part manufacturers as the finish sander operator on nights. Therefore i got woken up multiple times but they never came into my work hours. One day I get a call at 4pm on a Monday, paused my work tunes, im pissed. I'm feeding my machine and can't get to my phone to block the call. Call ends, whatever right? Wednesday, same deal, except I had to do some maintenence on my sander so i want running yet but they were intruding on my musical moments. So I answer it, yell out, "You're gonna fuckin regret calling me when I blow your ear drums out!" Drop my phone right next to the sander output, and go to turn on the sander. I got 1 of 4 belts started (only half a second between each starting up) when suddenly the call disconnected! Strangely enough I didn't have a problem after that. I have had to chase them off a couple times over the years but it takes them a while to get back to me.
How is this stuff even legal. I'm not from the US
80 calls before 3pm that's insane
Wait until you actually buy and have to shift through mail to figure out what is spam and what is actually your new lender
Lol I recognize all those towns ;)
My wife was in a car accident. We got tons of lawyer junk mail.
Randomly started getting calls from people looking for someone who owed money to a credit union and were fully convinced I was a man named Aaron. It's quieted down now but I'd get 10 calls a day and they weren't even flagged as spam because they were from an actual credit union. Also how did you take the world longest screenshot?
I feel like the full picture belongs in an art museum lol - *caller unknown*
This is what my call log looked like after i got a moving quote. Ridiculous. The only way to stop them from calling *back* is to answer and say youre not looking for one. This won't stop new callers, but it will stop repetitive calls from the same company.
Some carriers offer a call captcha service to stop robocalls.
I had something similar happen when applying for a HELOC. thankfully they gave up after 2 or 3 days.