Scam Call? Caller ID said "US GOVT"

[ExFlyBoy5]

I received a call today from a friend who works at the VA Medical Center and it said US GOV.

I have gotten a couple of calls from the Atlanta VA regional office. The phone number comes up as 000-000-0000 and no name identification.

When I was still w*rking for the AF, some of the phones would identify themselves as "US GOVT".

Also, as for spoofing, I can actually change my caller ID on Ting (could do it with Sprint too when I was paying WAY TOO MUCH for cell service) and my name is set to "I'M IMPORTANT".

 

[easysurfer]

I'm curious, from your experiences, do the telemarketers obey the FTC sales calls rules of between 8 am and 9 pm?

For me, most of the time they do. Though I did get a telemarketing call last week at about 7:45 am (happy my call blocker picked up after one ring).

My train of thought is, since many are in the scamming business, and from all over the world, I'm actually surprised they aren't trying 24/7.

 

[Sunset]

Not having caller-ID, I would need to pay Verizon more $$ every month AND buy this Sentry device to avoid all the garbage calls, not just pay a one-time amount for only the device. This sounds a lot like a shakedown which I find more distasteful than the calls themselves. No wonder Verizon doesn't really want to stop these calls - they make money from both sides in this little war.

I think the same way, so I just use the answering machine to screen calls since we cannot rely on the caller ID anymore.

It took some relatives a few times of getting our answering machine and hanging up to understand they HAVE to leave a message, which is when we will answer the phone.

But now it works and its free. Most scammers will hang up before leaving a message, I think maybe their robo-caller device knows its the automated message (not personal message) and so kills the call.

 

[TromboneAl]

Concerning Caller ID: We have this phone, and it speaks the caller ID info, and displays it on the screen. Ninety-nine percent of the calls are for Lena, so I rarely have to pick up the phone. With the ringer off, I just see its screen light up with the name of the caller, and I know it's not for me.

Concerning Politicians: They won't come out against robocalls because they want use them for their campaigns.