I am definitely not a law enforcement officer or a Federal scam investigator, but I think I may know what this scam is. I suspect the scheme may be working as follows:
Some unethical and greedy American businesses (insurance sellers selling junk health insurance and Medicare crappy supplemental insurance) contract foreign and domestic spammers who don’t give an F about TCPA and DNC. These are infamous nasty lead generators, many of which happen to be in the Philippines, India and Pakistan.
These crappy lead generators harass the shit out of the US public. Their end goal is twofold: they want to transfer you to their US handlers AND they often want to obtain your confidential info to sell it on the Dark Web.
They then sell it to the highest bidders on the Dark Web and through other illicit channels. This is how elderly and disabled persons get robbed of their lifetime savings…
The police have no idea, so they barely do shit about it. They target the old people because they are sometimes clueless about what’s happening and sometimes don’t call the police, or FBI.
Yes, exactly. Even when tech savvy people like you and me inform the police, FBI or other authorities, we usually don’t get far. I have spoken with someone who used to work at DA’s Office and handled such investigations. He confirmed to me that they were often so understaffed and underfunded that they only investigated most egregious violations with literally hundreds or thousands of complaints made. They just don’t have the budget and manpower, but India and Pakistan with their nasty perennial scams sure have both!
Especially with India and Pakistan. The two have one of the biggest population in the world, they are very rich, but even with India they can’t stop tech support scams. Same with Pakistan, they have the proper funds but can’t stop their Medicare scammers.
It is not that they “cannot stop the scams”. On the contrary, I am a firm believer that the governments of India and Pakistan tend to turn a blind eye to illegal calls from their citizens, as it has become a huge employer in their nations. Billions of dollars are generated by such illicit industry. Since it does not usually harm or bother their nationals, it is viewed as a “minor nuisance” and is not prioritized by their law enforcement agencies.
And do not underestimate the Philippines, by any means. They too have become a major stronghold and bastion the dark world of scamming.
Last year, American people lost between $50 and $75 billion to robocall scams!
Not to mention, we have seen evidence of rise in the number of suicides among the elderly and disabled US population directly caused by such scams. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of people taking their own lives because of these ruthless and highly skilled criminals!
Regardless what some people here say, I BLAME Indian, Pakistani and Filipino governments for it! I want nothing to do with either of these countries or their citizens. Yes, I am aware that they have plenty of legitimate industries, as well. I still do not care. The interests of American people, their health and well-being are ALWAYS a priority for me and many other like-minded responsible ethical individuals. We should not let these foreign nationals reap the fruits of their criminal “labor” at the expense of OUR people!
I think it solves multiple problems for the governments of these nations. First, it draws money into local economy as you pointed out. Second, those enforcing the laws, the police force, are on the take from these scammers. Imagine being in government with a a whole section of government workers, the police, who aren’t demanding a raise in pay since they are being subsidized by these scam operations. I think it makes the politicians jobs there a lot easier as well.
Very good and valid points. I agree. Then, there is a MAJOR issue of our own politicians being focused on all the wrong priorities. They’d rather spend time on bitching and moaning about each other, instead of focusing on deep and strategic issues like the one described. I am a firm believer that select few powerful VOIP carriers, such as Onvoy/Inteliquent/Sinch, Peerless Network and few others are to blame for this never-ending epidemic of robocalls and scams. Their excuses are childish, facetious and laughable: “We are simply wholesale carriers. We are not aware who the end users are. We can only communicate the issue to our clients, which are telcos. They will be doing investigations of these calls”. It could NOT be possibly further away from the truth. These so-called VOIP wholesalers have complete power and authority to enforce the compliant behaviors on their network.
Some things that come to mind right away are:
Analyzing average call volumes/call velocities to determine who the most egregious violators are.
Having robust KYC Policies and weeding out shady clients.
Disconnecting their client telcos who are found to be in violation of their policies and TOUs.
Amending their legal contracts with their clients to require for them disclosure of their identities to the impacted/harassed party. That would effectively open the door for massive private litigation against robocallers. Currently, it is very challenging and tough due to lack of knowledge of who the perpetrators are. The court won’t issue the subpoena for discovery before you establish the case, and you can’t establish the case prior to identifying the perpetrators. So, it is a Catch 22 usually.
I would even advocate for not allowing foreign-based telcos (especially the ones in India, Pakistan or the Philippines) to have any access to US telecommunications industry. After all, WHAT business do Filipino or Indian people have calling an average American person like you and me? NONE.
From the 470 (both numbers) I got a person that told me to go and jerk off when I said Manila. The men sometimes get triggered but sometimes they don’t.
I’ve been trying to also get some phone numbers from them to text. I have not succeeded at that yet… See if you can get some numbers from them to text, too?
Lol, here in Houston a big tropical storm hit, so I don’t have internet to call on TextNow or Google Voice. I think this is my only chance to actually get on the website.
I just finished listening to the whole recording. EPIC! I like how they kept making up all these fake names of non-existent “companies” that they allegedly work for. And then they won’t transfer you to Bella! Even though they DO have Bella there. She was probably too busy blowing some elderly men from Australia and NZ for $7 hahaha!
My favorite part was them denying being in the Philippines and YET getting offended when you called their POS country a slum. Hahaha, butthurt scammers! We have to call them back tomorrow!
I think they might be my second favorite group of scammers after the desperate “Canadian Pharmacy” Pakistani scammer here: