Is Experian Cheating?
My mother called and told me she had several calls on her caller ID from Experian (the credit bureau); they had called repeatedly and never left a message. She wondered if she should call them back.
Naturally, my first impulse was no, don't call them back. But she was concerned that maybe someone was trying to obtain credit in her name and maybe the credit bureau was calling to verify her identity. A good concern to have, but without leaving a message, the whole thing was just too fishy to respond.
I was curious if this was even really Equifax, or just some phishing scam; I googled the phone number from her caller ID and learned something interesting. One, this was indeed Experian, but it was their business department, not their consumer department. Two, this was a telemarketing call.
Based on comments I saw from other people hit by this wave of telemarketing calls, Experian is calling small businesses (and they're defining that loosely) to sell their services. I saw reports from people who were called on behalf of their web site, as though setting up a web site made you a small business owner. Setting aside the very sticky issue of how Experian got the names and phone numbers of people to call (they seem to have exploited the WHOIS.net database in violation of their TOS), I think what may be happening here is an end-run around the Do Not Call Registry. A small business owner (like my mother), web site owner, or other individual might get a cold call on behalf of the business instead of to them personally. If challenged, they can assert that they're calling the business, say "jeffmichael.com" rather than calling the person, "Jeff Michael." It seems like a dirty trick to me, and it has a lot of people mad at Experian right now.
I just recieved the same phone call 2 minutes ago and Googled the number since under 411.com it was not listed. I am a small buisness owner on the web, and yes they did call my cell phone, however I did not answer and they left no message.
Posted by: Shawn Lippert | November 07, 2007 at 03:37 PM
Tell Me, What good is the "Do Not Call" register?
Posted by: Bruce | June 18, 2008 at 06:51 PM
i,ve found the best way to put it to solicitors is give the phone number of the solicitors to other solicitors and let them play with each other. i,ve sign them up for everything including world sex list,if you have caller id you can fight back THANKS, TRAPP
Posted by: Trapp | January 09, 2009 at 09:11 AM