Riga Calling!

After several weeks of quiet, the calls began anew this week, but with an interesting twist. They said they want to call "to confirm the shipping address before they send out the medication". That's funny, I didn't remember ordering anything!

And, in another interesting twist, they said they were calling from "LV Riga" pharmacy. Immediately the name rang a bell - I had screwed them out of about $150 around two years ago.

It was the only time I tried this trick, but when they were relentlessly calling me in early 2005 I decided to take a risk. I needed some ambien at the time, as I was having trouble sleeping, so I placed an order with LV Riga. They were one of the most relentless callers at the time, and I figured I was already on every list anyway, so my calls couldn't possibly increase.

I received my medication about three weeks later (after they promised me a two day delivery) so I decided to dispute the charge with my credit card. Instead of saying that I received it later than promised, I just told them I never received it at all. They investigated, and issued me a full credit.

Now, this is certainly a tactic that involves financial risk. That was the only time I ever did it; I thought that by going through the process I would find out some details about who, or what company, was calling me so relentlessly. (Of course, there were the additional side benefits of getting some free medication, and swindling them out of some cash.)

I was surprised to find out that the credit card company had very little information on this vendor. Either that, or they were unwilling to share. If anyone has any information on how credit card companies process these transactions, I would be fascinated to learn.

Do they know exactly who is charging me when I place an order like this? All I know is that Riga is the capital of Latvia. It doesn't exactly seem like a hotbed of pharmacy telemarketing.

Congress moves to outlaw Caller ID spoofing

I came across this interesting article in regards to caller ID spoofing:

Congress Moves to Outlaw Caller ID Spoofing

While it may have some effect on my efforts, I find that most pharmacies that block my number from a common VoIP client do so only temporarily. Overall I have to say it sounds like a reasonable idea, though.

Finally, as part of my internet browsing about the industry, I came across a guy who has taken the legislative route to try to stop calls. Not only does he go out and sue telemarketers (good luck serving papers in Bangalore) but he also organizes petitions to Congress.

Frankly, I think all of that is a waste of time. It comes back to the cell phone carriers, it always comes back to them - they could implement a system whereby you block calls from particular numbers. Most of the time I find it is one particular pharmacy that starts dialing and persists for months.

If only I could call Verizon Wireless and say, "block this number", or "block 800, 888, and 866 numbers and send them all to voicemail"...