While legitimate telemarketers are supposed to (and usually do) honor all state and federal do-not-call lists, scammers and other unsavory types don’t participate in that system at all. Treat all unsolicited calls from anyone you don’t recognize as hostile. Do not call back numbers you see on Caller ID from anyone you don’t recognize. It is possible now for scammers to assign normal-looking numbers to numbers (usually offshore) that can still reverse bill you for all toll charges and any fees they feel like charging you, for example. This probably, hopefully didn’t happen to you, but it’s definitely not worth the risk.

The National Do Not Call Registry has a place online where you can complain formally about scam phone calls–or any unsolicited calls you should not be receiving–as long as you’ve been registered with the do-not-call registry for at least a month:

https://donotcall.gov/complaint/complaintcheck.aspx

The Wisconsin No Call List has a complaint form online that you’ll need to download, print, fill out, and send in to report such calls as well:

https://nocall.wisconsin.gov/web/complaintstat.asp

(Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, please consider doing actual online submissions!)

We recommend you file complaints with both agencies if you haven’t already. The more complaints they know about, the more seriously they look into these numbers/companies.

You should also call your phone company and verify the callback you made was indeed normal-toll-billed and nothing strange that might end up costing you a ton of money. You can also ask them about blocking that number from calling you again, but most scammers use either a variety of phone numbers or technological methods to fake Caller ID information so it appears they’re calling from a different number… so you generally don’t get much benefit from a number block, really.

If you have an answering machine, leave calls from numbers you don’t recognize unanswered. Let your answering machine take them. Make sure your answering machine/voicemail greeting does not include any personal information that verifies your name or anything else that might identify you in any way. Legitimate telemarketers and other legitimate businesses will leave messages.

Any time you receive a message, you still need to determine if it’s legitimate. You can try to look up the number online via a web search or using a site like http://whocalled.us. Any call you receive that says represents a company you already do business with, call the number you already have from a printed statement from them; do not call the number given in the message. Most businesses don’t call people anymore anyway; if they’re not scammers trying to steal from you, they’re legit companies calling purely to attempt to upsell you on something you don’t need (extra insurance, etc). Be wary of any call where you don’t instantly recognize the name and the number.

I removed your last name and phone number from your comment, by the way, before publishing it. Thank you for visiting our website. Good luck to you.

If you have questions my number is
xxx-xxxx-xxxx. We have been on the no call list since it started.