How many of you are experiencing these damn telemarketers? Unfortunately they’ve gotten a hold of my cell phone number, and while it’s not as bad as it can be (I’ve read anecdotes on the Internet claiming several phone calls per day), it’s still pretty annoying to get a couple of calls every week. And if I don’t pick up, they leave a message which uses my cell minutes.
Here’s what happens:
The phone rings. You say hello. An automated recording kicks in and states that this call is your FINAL WARNING before your auto warranty expires (the horror!) and that blah, blah, blah, you can sign up for protection and whatever. You can press 2 to get the number taken off the list, or you can press 1 to speak to a representative.
Pressing 2 has absolutely no effect. I’ve been getting calls for a few months now, and it has absolutely no meaning to them. Being on the do not call list is irrelevant.
You can press 1 to talk to someone, and ask them to remove your number for you, but that has no effect either.
Of course, it’s a total scam. It sounds like it’s a total phishing attempt in an effort to skim credit card numbers. It also seems like it’s a pretty sophisticated scheme, complete with phone number masking and other methods to subvert tracing and detection. Every number they call from is a different one, and when I try to call them back I am told the number has been disconnected.
That being said, I’d totally participate in any attempt to track these fuckers down. I’m convinced that the people running this scam and the idiots working for them are the lowest scum of human life and deserve to die a nasty, horrible death.
Tags: Anecdotes, Auto Warranty, Blah Blah, Cell Phone Number, Credit Card Numbers, Final Warning, Fuckers, Horrible Death, Horror, Internet Calls, Internet Phone, Phone Calls, Phone Rings, Sophisticated Scheme, Telemarketers, Telemarketing Scum, Warranty
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I never had it on my cell, but these jerks were calling us a while back on the home phone. Eventually it stopped, but it had me rather furious too. I just don’t understand why people do this kind of stuff.
Kyras last blog post..TV’d
My mom gets these all of the time…like every day. She’s even talked to them quite a few times. She goes along with them and tells them what her car is (a ‘89 Dodge Diplomat), they literally laugh at her and tell her that they’re not able to cover a car that old. She tells them that she knows this and that she’s told them many times before, so why don’t they take her off of their list. They hang up, and call back again the next day. Actually sometimes they just hang up right after she tells them what she drives. Doesn’t sound very professional to me.
isn’t there a do not call website to register your numbers?
Tim Appletons last blog post..Officially the busy season
Go to https://www.donotcall.gov/ and register all your phone numbers, landline and cells. Should the calls continue after a month, report the calls to that same web site. Be sure to have the originating number, and if possible, the buisiness name.There was an e-mail going around earlier this year wherein the author was having telemarketer problems. One day he answered and claimed to be a police detective investigating a crime at the house, implying that the caller was implicated in it too, and began questioning their relationship, scaring the guy silly. While probably a tall tale, it was a good read. The idea could be used by someone with enough cutzpah.
Kyra - They do it to scam people out of money. They can’t earn an honest living, so they have to take advantage of people that don’t know better.
Stephanie - It isn’t professional at all.
Tim - Yea, but these guys don’t abide by it.
I got one of these warranty calls. I told the “lady” on the other end of the phone that I would like to extend my warranty. She asked how many miles my car has. I said 200,000. She then asked if I had the V.I.N number. I said that I would have to get it from my car. I asked her if there was a number that I could call her back. Of course they only make outbound calls. She said she would wait for me to go get it. I said it may take a while, is there a website I can go to. She gave me the website. http://www.warranties.com. I guess she heard me typing and promptly hung up on me. The site didn’t have any links to click on except google ads. I looked at the Whois registry for this site.
Administrative Contact , Technical Contact :
Ansell, Cheryl
TheAnsells@suddenlink.net
3 Rota Lane
Hot Springs Village, AR 71909
US
Phone: 501-984-2225
Fax: 501-922-5907
Called the number and spoke to Cheryl herself. I told her that I was having difficulties using the site. She then gave me the numbers of a guy that could help me out. I don’t think Cheryl is the bad guy in this situation, but this guy and his company appears to be behind the telemarketing. I was shocked that she gave me this information.
ROBERT GREENSTEIN
(800)939-3906
(800)800-8640
Cell: (760)522-1269
I googled the 800 phone number and found the company. Diversified Enterprises. http://www.diversifiedenterprises.com/index.php/management
Quote from the CEO - John Valenty What is John Valenty’s formula? He says; “No excuses, just business at full-throttle. We have fun, drive hard, make a lot of mistakes, learn from them, and hit a few out of the park; all part of the plan.”
John Valenty CEO — Email: john@diversifiedenterprises.com phone: (800) 800-8650
David Pohl CHAIRMAN — Email: david@diversifiedenterprises.com
Rob Greenstein PRESIDENT — Email: rob@diversifiedenterprises.com phone: (800) 800-8640
This may be him http://www.linkedin.com/in/robg2000
Valenty has a profile on there too, but no picture.
This John Valenty has numerous law suits filed against him from wrongful termination, sexual harrassment, the FCC for direct mail scams and I even found a domestic violence restraining order! This is all in the San Diego County court records. Sounds like real good guy…
He seems to be this multi level marketing guru that made his millions selling snake oil back in the ’90’s and is now making his money doing this and who knows what else. It seems this Rob Greenstein guy is a multi level marketer (downline from Valenty) too.
In additon to the other phone numbers, this was given to me as well.
John Valenty: 760-522-1221
Unfortunately googling the phone number might not always work as telemarketers can easily use fake caller ID information.
I kept getting calls telling me I was approved for a loan which I never applied for. The guy said I just needed to send a deposit of $500 and I would get $5000 wired to my account, and there was nothing on google about that phone number. The only thing I found was this site http://www.tracethisnumber.com which gave me some city information, a map, etc. The number was a cell phone. The city was on the west coast and we are on the east coast. I got a premium lookup and the number turned out to belong to some guy named Jose Arguelles with an address in Ontario, CA. I called the number back and the same guy who was calling me picked up. I got all the info I could and passed it on to the BBB, FBI and local PD.
In response to “Anonymous…” do you live in Canada?
I’m interested in making contact through the various email addresses/phone #’s you posted, but I want to try and make sure that it is the same organization.
My 87 yr old mother has been receiving these calls endlessly, for months, up to 3 a day..early morning, late at night. She doesn’t need this harrassment.
Bonnie says,
All of the companies and web sites are owned by John Valenty (or LLC’s to avoid law suits). Rob Greenstien is his VP, David Pohl is his Father-In-Law, 760-500-5022 is his cell and you have Rob Greenstien’s cell too. Anonymous has done his homework. If you have doubts, look up warranties.com on GoDaddy.com. It’s owned by Earnware, who owns Earnware?? John Valenty, what is Diversified Enterprises?? The company that is “powered by Earnware” that is also owned by… John Valenty. These companies are all easily connectable, but are separated by LLC’s to protect them from law suits. Look them all up and see for yourself, being in Canada doesn’t make any difference. If you want to make “contact” call 760-500-5022- John should answer. He is contracting out to people AKA Telemarketers to generate “Leads”. When they get your info it goes to John Valenty’s website and he SELLS YOUR INFORMATION!! That’s where he makes money.
There are a number of ways to spoof phone numbers, all of which are illegal. The illegality of it doesn’t stop these people from doing it. Similar to the Nigerian telephone scams, there is just too much money involved.
What I’ve done is submit a complaint against some of these unknown phone numbers in an attempt to get them to stop. The FTC isn’t doing enough in my opinion as my number is on the DoNotCall list as well. I’ve gotten this exact same auto warranty call and it just pisses me off.
I forgot to mention John Valenty and Rob Greenstein are also being investigated
by the IRS for upgrading flights and hotel rooms for their themselves and writing
it all off. Can’t the FTC do something? They must make bank on this scam.
“Ive been continually victomized”.. “they are hiding behind smoke and mirrors”
“Help me find these freakin criminals”
A true salesman… AARGH
I got the call today for the upteemth time. I again hit 1 to talk to an operator. When I talked to an operator I asked for the name and address of the company. Usually this results in a hang up.
Today I got the call on my cell phone. I decided to have some fun. I told them I have a 1999 corolla with about 50,000 miles on it. He said that was low mileage and I said we don’t drive it in Alaska in the winter.
He got his manager to approve the car for warranty and I gave them my name - Todd Palin and the zip code for Wasilla Alaska.
So he was going through the speel and I asked if the warranty was transferable because our daughter just had a baby and may give the car to her. He said it was. He then said it was good nationwide to which I replied that was good because we may be moving to Washington DC in 2012. Still he did not put 2 and 2 together.
At this time I screamed “shut up Sarah I am on the phone damn it” and then said to the telemarketer “my wife is such a bitch”. Still nothing from him.
He said 24 hour roadside protection. I said we have the State Police up in Alaska take care of that for us. So to close the sale he offered me a 20% discount. I informed him that my wife was in the state government and that could be an ethics violation unless everybody gets the discount. He assured me everybody does.
Then I asked the name of his company. He got very defensive. I asked for a phone number. Again he got very defensive asking me why I wanted to know. I explained that he called me and he is obligated to tell me.
I told him who I was (you may have heard of my wife) and he got super defensive and put his supervisor on the line.
The super was immediately accusing me of wasting his time if I wasn’t going to buy the warranty. I told him since he called me - I was upset that the caller ID was spoofed (illegal), would not provide me with the name of the company (also illegal), I am on the do not call list (illegal).
His response was that since I “pressed 1″, the do not call list does not matter and if I asked to be put on the do not call list they would do so. He also said hew was from Federal Auto Warranty and would not giv me a phone number because “people file complaints against them all the time”. He also said the called ID was not spoofed and I just should not answer the call if I don’t want a warranty.
While he did stay on the phone with me, he kept asking me for a better way to do it. My response was don’t spoof caller ID, honor the do not call list, and tell me who his company was. He kept insisting he is not obligated to do so.
We talked in circles for a half hour and I was getting nowhere. So I hung up. He called me back (with a blocked caller ID) and said he would get his supervisor on a three way phone call if I knew of a better way to market their services. Again I said don’t spoof caller ID and honor the do not call list and tell me the name and telephone of the company he is working for. Again he said there was nothing illegal about any of that and that I should “get a life” and just say not interested if I don’t want the warranty.
He did drop the nugget that 119 companies do the telemarketing and they police themselves.
Internet Wire Technology News - [Cached Version]
Published on: 10/25/2000 Last Visited: 10/25/2000
EARNWARE (TM) Corporation was founded in 1997 by John Valenty (CEO), a highly-successful and seasoned entrepreneur.Mr. Valenty is renowned for pioneering automation in prospecting and lead generation activities.
Earnware probably sells the leads to those 119 companies…
Earnware sells leads and John Valenty and Rob Greenstein owns Earnware and Warranties.com. I checked online and they are connected- I wonder what can be done to stop them.
The man who started this crap is a horrible horrible man!!! He dated my aunt and hurt her bad! He is malicious and devious and deserves everything that’s coming to him!!! God will deem his punishment justly and harshly. Do not trust this man and please let him know whats on your mind!!! I am personally fed up with his bullshit and scams!!
That John Valenty of Earnware sounds like an A-hole. I hate those calls. Why can’t people earn a living that isn’t a nuisance to everyone else. Wonder what he says at parties when he meets people and is asked, “What do you do for a living, John?” Does he really say, “I’m in charge of those annoying, relentless phone calls you get trying to sell you ridiculous things.”? Doubt it. From what I’ve heard, he’s a scam artist, heartless. Be careful of those calls and guys like him who run companies like these.
I get these calls non-stop on my Verizon cell phone and it’s using up my minutes. I’ve pressed “1″ several times, and very politely ask to be removed from the call list. Each time I have been hung up on. I’m still trying to figure out how they got my number since I’ve only given it to family and friends.
Here’s an article with information about the company behind this:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,501404,00.html
Here’s a link with John Valenty’s contact info- it has his direct number- 760-522-1221
John Valenty - 30 Jan 2009
This is John Valenty here… my contact information and my companies are easily connectable and all out in the open. This company is generating leads please reach me at john@earnware.com or 800-800-8650. My direct mobile number is 760-522-1221.
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-954-974-3836