It IS fraud.

When I get a message like that I tell them to  hold on while I get my dad. I then keep them on the line by telling them he is on his way.Like to steal as much of their time as they steal of mine.

It costs them nothing if you don't answer, a computer makes the calls.It costs them almost nothing if you answer and tell them to f*** off: 5 seconds of someones time who is used to this kind of abuse.They probably expect that out of 10,000 calls about 500 answer and stay on the line long enough to speak to an operator. Of those 500 they expect 450 to tell them off and hang up right away. The faster those 450 get off the line the better. Out of the remaining 50 there is maybe one that can be ripped off. Half of the 50 can be disqualified within a few minutes each or 1 hour total. The remaining 'candidates' require a bit more time investment. In the end one operator may have to spend an entire day to find a single victim that can be scammed out of 500 bucks. Not a bad salary.In may opinion the only way to get back at them is to make it more expensive to find that one sucker in 10,000. This means you have to invest a little effort:** Play along and pretend that you are interested!** After stringing them along for a few minutes tell them that you are getting the paperwork or that someone is at the door, etc. Put the phone on mute and keep checking how long it takes them to hang up.** If you are bored and have a lot of time on your hands you can make it a game to try to waste as much of THEIR TIME as possible, just be sure to NEVER give them you real credit card number.If everyone of the original 10,000 callees would be doing this it would take them months to find the one sucker and they would be going out of business in no time. Even if 10% were doing it they would be done.Please spread this message!

Dave,Don't waste your money on a cell phone if you think it'll stop these calls.  I get just as many of these stupid calls on my cell as I do on my land line.  I have a feeling that many of these companies just blind-dial all the numbers (i.e. 0000-9999) in any given prefix they know is associated with a given city, regardless of if it's related to a land line or cell.

I've been getting a lot of these (all about interest rate reduction for CC or loans) for the past few weeks. They, of course, have absolutely no authority to negotiate your rates (lender and CC company only do that) .... but I guess these criminals work on the view that you can con none of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, and some of the people some of the time. I just block the number but the pests just switch to another number. I had a 978-570-2313 earlier today (now blocked) and voila, just now a call from (403) 255-8807. I may be filling up my call block list .. but listen up you cretins....I'm a persistent little buggger - I can keep up with all the calls you throw at me. P.S. Dave benefit of cell phone is that you can switch it off easier than running around the house after all the land line extensions. P.P.S. don't waste you time changing your phone number, they use random digit dialing and will soon hunt you down again.

October 01 2011 same message Lisa - offering to lower credit cards rates.  New racket in town - again, and again and again.  Extremely annoying on Saturday afternoon especially when she repeats it 3-4 times.I do not even have a bloody credit card