by Susanne Jones

Created on: January 13, 2008   Last Updated: January 14, 2008

Have you ever received those annoying calls from, "Michelle," "Rachel," "Heather," or some other name from "Cardholder Services"? Lately, they have been adding calls from "Health Services" as well. I suppose, it's because it's the season, where most people have to sign up for next year's health insurance coverage. People are more likely to fall into the trap. If you received calls like that, you know what I'm talking about. If not, you have been lucky. But if you ever do receive a call like that, hang up immediately! Don't push any buttons, and most definitely don't give out any information! My experience will let you know, why.

Our phone number is on the national "Do-not-Call" list. Therefore, we should be protected from telemarketers. Per the rules, we should only have to deal with the calls from political or charity organizations. And of course from those companies we do business with and agreed to them calling our number. Any other telemarketer has to pay hefty fines, if they dial our number. Furthermore, since the "Do-not-Call" list has only been around for less than five years, we also could not yet have forgotten to re-register our number, a current requirement of the national "Do-not-Call" list. (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/388138/don otcall_list_requires_reregistration.html)

Therefore, if we are under the protection of the "Do-not-Call" list, we should not have to deal with these annoying "Cardholder Services" calls, right? We should be able to give this company a warning that our number is on the list, and they should immediately stop calling our house. Well, think again, because therein was my big mistake.

When they first called, I thought it was my credit card company. However, since their introduction also included that I qualify for a lower interest rate, I knew something was fishy. Additionally, the message was automated, which made it even more suspicious. I wanted to let them know, they called a "Do-not-Call" number and we do not appreciate telemarketer calls at all. I pushed as instructed by the message the correct button on my phone to talk to a representative. As soon as I asked, what company this is, they hung up. I knew something was definitely not on the up and up.

I should have left it at that. It appeared, the auto-dialer found a valid number, but only dialed our house on a weekly basis. Something we could deal with right? Silly me, I tried two more times to get the name of the company. Each time they immediately hung up on

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