Millions of Americans, including me, receive a steady string of automated telephone calls from “Rachel at Cardholder Services,” who wants to “lower your credit card rates.”
“Rachel” calls not only our home telephone number, but also my cell phone number. Anytime you press “1″ to get a person (as the robocall instructs you to do), you are connected with someone who wants to ask questions about your credit cards. As soon as you ask this person any question whatsoever — such as “What credit card company do you represent?” — the person immediately disconnects the call without answering the question.
There is every reason to believe that these robocalls come from criminals seeking only to obtain your credit card information in order to attempt to use that credit card in their criminal enterprise.
Finally!!!! The Federal Trade Commission announced an enforcement action on February 24, 2012 that may curtail these bothersome and malicious calls.
See: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2012/02/voiceblaze.shtm
Stephen Harper, Rob Nicholson, John Baird, Jim Flaherty, Diane Finley and Vic Toews, along with the rest of the Conservatives are liars, cheats and thieves! Bill-C10 threatens to throw many in jail longer and needlessly! Bill C-11 would strip Canadians of even more rights to what we already own and censor our flow of information! Bill-30 will strip us of our privacy! Now lets not forget the G20 fiasco, Vic Toews immortal speech about Canadians being pedophiles, the planned pension cuts, they place gag orders on those they appoint to various studies so that if the studies turn up data contradicting their ideals, they can suppress the data, or their election fraud, and now they can’t even get our budget out on time!
The fascist Conservatives would turn our country into an Orwellian nightmare! How can they even call themselves a legitimate government?! How dare they act like they have our best interests in mind! Who do they think they are telling us what we need and how to live our lives?! They’re the middle management and we’re the ones who hired them! We should be telling them what we want and how we want it!
Canada needs to rise up march on Ottawa and occupy the parliament! We need to take back our country, remove the Conservatives from power! Our government, as a whole needs to be dismantled and rebuilt (that goes for those other parties as well. I’m looking at you Liberals and NDP. Fat load of good they’ve ever done for the country)! All our political parties have ever really done to us has been to divide Canadians. This only serves to make us easy prey for predators in the night! I say no more! Canadians need to stand up as one, divided by zero! Those that would appose the will of the people need to be taught a lesson, followed by some good old fashion tarring and feathering, finish with banishing traitors from Canada! Finally Canadians need some laws that allow us to force referendums on the government and punish corrupt politicians who think they can screw with their people, their employers, you and me! Fellow Canadians I implore you raise up and shout out your discontent for the horrible state of our country and the world for that matter. Shout from every mountain top (email, letters, phone calls, blogs, forums, twitter, youtube, ect…), “WE WILL NOT STAND FOR CORRUPTION WITHIN OUR GOVERNMENT! WE WILL NOT GO QUIETLY INTO THE NIGHT AS OUR FREEDOMS ARE SLOWLY ERODED! WE’RE COMING FOR YOU HARPER REGIEM! EXPECT US!” Let the voice of the masses resinate as one, thundering and deafening our oppressors. Keep screaming and screaming, every day, all day, don’t stop screaming until this country is ours again!
‘Things have got to change. But first, you’ve gotta get mad!… You’ve got to say, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” Then we’ll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the windows, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: “I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!”
‘People shouldn’t fear the government, the government should fear the people!’
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If throwing them all in jail will get rid of “Rachel with cardholder services” I am all for it. That company and it’s owners and employees all need to go to jail, and not to pass go! I have them calling morning noon and night. When I get a live person and tell them to take me off their calling list I either get hung up on, get told ok (but they never do it), or actually cussed out. I have had my number changed 5 times already, and they always call This is MY phone, I pay the bills, and if I don’t want them calling and I tell them so, and I am on my state’s and federal do not call list, they should not be calling me any more, period, end of story. They spoof their phone numbers, one time the number was from Builder’s Square that went out of business here like 10 years ago. That is just plain deceptive. They have been skirting the law, and invading the peace and quiet and privacy of Americans for years and years. Now the laws have finally caught up with them and I hope they get a very small cell with Bubba!
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I followed the FCC’s advice and just didn’t answer the call nor press any buttons. That slowed them down a little. Its been a week since I heard from them. Hopefully they have been stopped. (fingers crossed)
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That was wishful thinking on your part, thinking these robocalls will stop, Charlie. I got another robocall from Rachel at Cardholder Services earlier today.
If you need a name behind Cardholder Services, the name is Robert Pitsker, the president of the company. And how do I know that? Because he’s already been cited by the FCC for his company’s illegal actions. Cited 5 years ago (March 5, 2007). That shows how toothless the FCC is. You can find the citation (and an address) on the FCC website.
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-07-977A1.pdf
If the Republicans are serious about closing down useless federal agencies, I would suggest the FCC for that list. I’ve sent a half dozen complaints to them, reminding them in each case that this company has already been cited by them and continues to violate the law. Not only have I been on the Federal Do-Not-Call registry since it’s creation, I have NEVER owned a credit card. So there is no reason why this company should be calling me.
I will continue to send complaints to the Do-Not-Call Registry AND the FCC, hoping to embarrass them into action, every time Cardholder Services calls me. And I will start keeping copies of my complaints to send to my Congressmen in hopes of them forcing the FCC to do it’s job. And since you’ve just indicated action by the FTC, I’ll search and see if there is a complaint form on their site that I can fill out as well. Though I won’t hold my breath, expecting any more help from the FTC than I’ve gotten from the FCC.
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I too am quite annoyed with this situation as well. I get these calls several times during the day both on my home phone as well as my cell. These calls come from different numbers and at all different times of the day. Also, I used to receive text messages as well. Not having unlimited texting on my plan, I would have to pay for each one that I received. I finally had to have texting taken off my phone to avoid paying for them.I’ve also tried to speak to someone and ask to be taken off their list, only to be hung up on. I really hope something can finally be done to stop these annoying calls. If there is something that I can do or someone I can call to put an end to this, please contact me at the above e-mail address. Thank you for letting me vent and I’m happy to know that I am not the only one being bothered.
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The FTC’s action was totally ineffective. I got called several times over the last month and yesterday too (4/18/2012), about 2 months after the supposed FTC action. Just suing them for money will not do any good, they need to be in jail. Jail time is a MUST. There should be a complete revamp of phone technology so that companies cannot just conjure up random numbers to use.
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CARD SERVICES is still calling as of 8/9/2012. The FTC is as worthless as our congress!
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Credit Card Services calls several times a day. The do not call list and so far the FCC is useless.
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Its 10/1/2012 I have put myself on the do not clall list four times this year>
I still get 4 or more calls from Stacy or Rachel!!
I filled another complaint today.
The last time I talked to a human at the site, the animal on the end of the line threatened to “rape” my mother,
I filed a report and the FTC has never done anything.
Think FTC+Obama a do nothing shit-turd!!!
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This telemarketer will not give out its name, HOWEVER the phone lines for them are provided by:
PEERLESS NETWORK OF ILLINOIS -LLC
Chief Executive Officer
John Barnicle
222 S. Riverside Plz., Ste. 2730
Chicago, IL 60606
Phone: (312) 506-0930
E-Mail: jbarnicle@peerlessnetwork.com
In-State Designated Agent
Daniel Meldazis
222 S. Riverside Plz., Ste. 2730
Chicago, IL 60606
Phone: (312) 506-0933
E-Mail: dmeldazis@peerlessnetwork.com
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I look forward to a call from Rachel at Card-Holders Services now because I came up with a plan: play their little game, tell them you want to get out of debt. Make up a large amount you owe, and when they ask for the card number, tell them you have to go get it. Set the phone by a TV, or radio speaker and let it play into phone until they hang up! If we all do this, perhaps Rachel will throw in the towel at CARDHOLDERS SERVICE!
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Just got another call from card services, and it seems they know when you have made an card transaction. But if you have a PC (running) with a modem, then one way to stop the call after one ring is with a neat freeware called PhoneTray Free (http://www.snapfiles.com/get/phonetray.html).
It works for me under XP, and shows the name (if not unlisted) and number of calls, providing you have Called ID and a normal modem. And there is an option to “zap” a call if it an 800 or 866 number or (r. clk. on the log) or add it to the privacy manager so that it disconnects after one ring.
It is also handy as it logs all your calls if you choose. I have used it for years with no problem and thank God for such!
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October 17. Still getting calls from Rachel at Card Services. Just got one. Honestly, you know that the FCC/FBI/Feds could do something if they wanted to. Those agencies are just FUBAR like the rest of our government.
The Senate under Reid hasn’t passed a budget for the last 3 years, how do we expect a federal agency like the FCC to know it’s *$* from a hole in the ground long enough to fix this?
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Still calling. The press release cited above must not have been for these guys, or else, they’re just continuing to run it from jail. I don’t understand why the phone company (VERIZON, for example), cannot put a stop to these. Seems to me that they’re the ones that can find these huge calling volumes and work backwards to find the source.
FCC / FTC says they’re illegal calls, but don’t you think they already know that at the source?
I think technology has way outstripped the ability to regulate stuff like this.
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Verizon isn’t about to stop these creeps from calling your cell or landline, they are making money everytime your cell or house phone rings. I think the easiest way is to hold verizon and the other phone providers responsible once the bandit is identified.
Maybe $.50 deducted from your bill for every call you receive. Verizon will claim you can block the number but we all know the will switch the robo calls to a different line. Lets face it the providers know who’s doing it and they should be held accountable
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