Some of these may be legit, but when the caller has a foreign accent or it's automated I'm suspicious. It seems like the legit companies need to start using tactics other than phone calls.
I agree.
I've stayed on the phone with some of the insurance marketers, to the point where I have been transferred to persons whom I believe are legit insurance folks. One, regarding the possibility of reductions in motor vehicle insurance rates, actually transferred to a USAA agent. Another call, I was transferred to a State Farm agent in the Norfolk, VA area. I looked up that agency's number and called them back and got the same agent.
It appears that a number of insurance operations are paying these off-shore call centers for referrals. I talked with one agent who was in south Florida and he told me he paid about 12 dollars per referral and did indicate he could get a refund for bad referrals.
I've broken character with some of the agents and asked them about these referral calls. Many of them claim they have no idea how they get the calls, it is all handled at the corporate level and they know a fair percentage of them are bummer calls, perhaps other people like me - playing with them. One question I've asked, in regards to the referrals, is that why are they using call centers which, for probably 50% of the incoming calls to me, the Caller ID information is for numbers which are not in service. Most of the insurance agents either claim they don't know about it and in some cases, their position has been essentially, who gives a crap, are you going to buy the product or not? It seems that many don't really care where the referrals are coming from, but I guess they sell enough policies that they make up in a few commissions to cover the bogus calls from people like me.
Of course, I am a bit to blame, since I use a series of bogus names and addresses, even giving them 202-762-1401 as a good call back number. One of my bogus addresses is 1432 Franklin Pike Circle and after one call center "rep" trying to figure where that exact house number was in Brentwood, TN., he came back to me and said "Funny, Bobby Russell", I told him he was good, that he figured out the address.
I've also used 1432 Victory Liner Drive, especially if the scammers sound Filipino, and when they say they can't find the address, I tell them it is a new street in whichever town I am using, and the house is at the intersection of Victory Liner Drive and Rabbit Road. Victory Liner and Philippine Rabbit are the names of the two more popular intercity bus lines on Luzon. Some catch on and some don't. My spouse speaks Tagalog and she has had some not-so-nice words with the Filipino call centers
In some cases, the numbers displayed on the Caller ID information are real numbers, but not associated with the scammers. Two, that I remember, were Pentagon extensions. One was a lady who was working from home and her office number was forwarded to her cell phone. Another, an enlisted troop, was at his office in the Pentagon, and I actually called him back with my Caller ID information unblocked and as a veteran, we chatted a bit and I explained how I reached his extension.
With that said, some of the scammers/spammers are doing web searches on the numbers, for I've had them ask for me by name, my real name and they know my Zip® code. I will assume they are getting this information from web searching on phone numbers. Unfortunately, there is a lot of information out there. I just did a search on a name of someone whom I worked with in broadcasting and one of the hits on that name is a series of posts from Radio Discussions!
By the way, there are a number of legit call centers in the Philippines. Last year when we were having troubles with getting my wife home from her visit in the Philippines, I knew the United rep was a Tagalog speaker and we chatted a little in my really bad Tagalog and he figured my wife was Filipino and he worked on getting her return flight booked to our best advantage.
If I'm looking for those kinds of services I'd be more likely to believe an ad on TV or radio than a telemarketer, but even some of those may be questionable.
Again, I agree.
