When the phone rang, at 7:45 PM EDT today, I got a recorded message telling me about President Obama's mortgage assistance plan, and telling me if I wanted and was eligible for Federal Assistance, press "1"

The woman who answered the phone had a faint Indian (or similar) accent.  She immediately started into her copy on "would you like to save money on your mortgage?"  When I asked why the US Federal Government would be using a phone number in Ontario CA, she said "I get that a lot.  Why do you say that?  I am in Sunny Southern California!"  I told her that Caller ID had given her away.

I then asked which agency she represented.  She said it was "National Mortgage" but was not affiliated with the US Government.  I asked "so this is a private firm?"  "Yes, sir, it is."  I then informed her I am on the National Do Not Call list and did not want to be... well, called again, but at that point, she said "Have a nice day sir" and hung up on me.

They call again, I will try to get an address.  Then my lawyer will be talking to them.  He's good.  And a violation of the DNC is a fine of up to $1000 per call, I do believe...

This is Anne again - I just filed a complaint with the FTC.

I get calls from this number 3 different times a day, every day. I finally decided to answer and it was a 60 second recorded messages stating that interest rates on my credit cards are set to increase tomorrow and if I want to lock in a low interest rate, I need to speak to customer service. So I did, I pressed 6 to find out who it was that was calling and to get more general info as to what type of scam they are trying to run. After pressing 6, it connected me to a live "Card Services" agent who asked which cards I would like to lock in low interest rates and the card numbers. My first and only question was "which bank are you calling from?" The guy paused for about 7-10 seconds (I could still hear his breathing and other background noise), and then hung up on me.Short of having the FBI trace calls connecting to my number, I doubt reporting a complaint with the FTC will do anything since most likely, the (613) 216-2172 number is faked using some sort of Spoofing (see spoofcard.com). The best thing I can think of to do is have everyone ANSWER the call and have everyone connect to the Card Services Agent and then hang up. If no one answers and connects to the service rep, he/she wont be bothered. BUT if EVERYONE connected the call WE would then be the ones WASTING these a-holes time, effort and money. The goal is to increase their operating overhead while wasting their time, frustrating them out of business. What would you do if the thousands of potential customers you were seeking suddenly all returned your call, flooding your system with junk leads and phone hang-ups? Think about it -- it makes total sense.

I am also on the DNC list, but every time I try to get some info to get them stopped, they hang up.

This time, I played along.  The automated message said they were from "Credit Card Services".  When I spoke to a representative, he asked if I wanted to lower my credit card rate.  I told him I did.  He asked if I had over $4000 in credit card debt, I told him I did. (even though I have no credit card debt.)  I was trying to get to the point where he would ask me personal information so I could question him back.  

But then the curious question happened:  "Are you over 70 years old?"
I replied no, thinking a credit card company would be interested in younger people.  With that, he hung up.  

It concerns me that they are targeting older people exclusively.  My grandparents would probably fall for this-

Caller ID says Unknown Name, I called back and it says message box full.  No idea who it is.

Got the call.  Where am I right now?  In Canada.  Look it up and find it is the same group of people that were calling while in the US.  There are two of thse groups, one out of St Louis and one out of Atlanta.  Atlanta does most of the CC modification calls.  It is a bunch of people who hire the boiler room call centres to make the calls and when they hook you they will give you another 800 number.  The Do not call list will not work, they ignore it, in fact one claim is they down load the list of do not call numbers and now have a complete dialling list and do not need to pay anyone for the numbers.  Cut the cost and we are all feeding their lists.  Further, a Canadian company call pull in the US DNC list and dial away and vice versa for calls into Canada.  The only way you can make this stop is if you call your State Attorney General and file a complaint.  Go to the State website and write an email.  Take the time you would waste answering these endless calls and send an email.  If you did that every time they called, the AGs would get about 3-4000 emails a day.  You think they would do something?  Just to make the emails stop!

Take back your phone, use the systems that has got us all trapped on this hamster wheel.