Who's That Calling Me? Again!

This has to have happened to all of us at one point or another. The phone rings, most likely during dinner. You look at the Caller ID and do not recognize the number. It only says "NAME UNAVAILABLE", "TEXAS", etc. Sometimes the number calls seemingly everyday, such as the 10 calls I have received from 361-992-3070 in the past few weeks.

I came across a neat little service called Who Called Us . Who Called Us is a user-driven site in which phone numbers are registered and tracked in terms of frequency and geographic occurrence ( a Google Maps mashup).

In looking up 361-992-3070 I uncover that I was one of 82 people that reported that number. While my caller ID listed the call as "Texas," Who Called Us also indicates that others report the caller ID as "FutureMarket Te." Based on this information it looks like the number is some sort of a telemarketing firm.

Since contributors can also leave comments, I also uncovered that a contributor answered a call from the number and someone with "a foreign accent claiming to be with the American Diabetes Association" asked them to collect money and mail it to them. Hmmm. So, is the caller legit or not?

A quick Google search later I uncovered information about the ADA from the State of Washington. At the bottom of the page was a section entitled "Commercial Fundraisers or Co-Venturers Utilized." In that section was a listing for FutureMarket Telecenter. Sure enough, they are located in Corpus Chisti, TX.

The site also indicates that this telemarketing service is also used by the American Lung Association, American Lung Association of Washington, the Cooperative for Assistance & Relief Everywhere, Inc., and the National Childrens Cancer Society, Inc.

So, it looks like they are a legit operation, but an annoying and persistent one nonetheless.



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