got a call saying I won hundreds of dollars for traveling

I received a call today March 4 2010. I didn't answer and they left no message.

got a call today, automatic message that I don't understand

(514) 204-9988 Telemarketers

Why in the world would you think the telcos (Telus, Bell, Rogers, etc.) want to stop these companies from engaging in telemRketing practises (legal or otherwise)? This is revenue, plain and simple. They don't care a toss about you or your righteous indignation. The telcos have been selling their phone lists ("listed" or "unlisted") to any telemarketing company prepared to pay since long before the advent of cellular or computer technology. These are for-profit corporations. How did the telemarketers ge you "private" and "unlisted" number? How do you think? Your phone provider sold it to them on a list. In addition, you signed away your rights (in fine print) when you contracted service from you telephone, cell, cable, credit card, debit card, and a multitude of other services to which you have been legally contracted. The DNC list was compromised less than a week after activation so the fastest way to get on an aggressive telemarketing list would be to sign up for the DNC list. Sure, call, email or send smoke signals to the RCMP. Don't you think if they could do anything, they would have by now? The CRTC?  They won't do anything. They have never done anything. Do you really think the CRTC Commissioners are unaware of this issue? Every MP in Canada is aware of this practise, too, and they won't and can't do anything. The only way to stop calls of this sort is to have no phone of any kind. Simple as that.  So you know, the reason you get multiple calls from the same "number" and "they" never say anything is because the are creating computer mapping of your behaviour. The computer is programmer to continue calling your number, maybe for months, in order to develop your map. The computer disconnects no matter if you answer, don't answer, if he call is answered by a machine or service, no matter, at this stage they aren't interested in speaking with you. They're mapping you habits, schedule, behaviour. If you answer multiple times between, say, 5:15-7:20pm M-F, they map that knowing that is the recommended time for a human telemarketer to call you. Once their mapping is complete, the next phase engages with a real person who now has data on your habits. The phone company is happy to sell you another service that "protects" you from these nasty marketers. Anything to make money (as they sell you off to the highest bidder.) Kind of like hiring the wolf to head up security at the hen house.

Now you know.

Very few will read this and fewer yet will believe it so five years from now people will still be posting complaints on sites like this with exactly the same complaints, calling for their phone company, the CRTC, RCMP, their MP, the DNC List, the Prime Minister, God or whomever, to PLEASE DO SOMETHING. They are doing something - making money - as much as they possibly can, as quickly as they possibly can. None of them care a wit about you or your "concerns". Harsh, I know, but that's the truth.

I don't answer any more long distance calls on my cell phone if I don't recognize the calling number because these scams costs me money if I answer. IMHO this business practice should be illegal. I encourage readers of this post to inform their MP & ask for federal protection from these scammers. The federal no-call list is not sufficient without significant penalties to the offending companies.