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Like most people, I don’t like answering phone calls from numbers which have no caller ID info attached, and the anonymous calls I dislike the most are the ones from toll free numbers.
Personal experience has shown that the majority of calls from anonymous 800 numbers and their ilk are from people that it would probably be wise to avoid (i.e. scammers and shysters).
And trust me, there are a lot of scammers and miscreants out there.
If you keep getting repeat calls from an unidentified toll free number, a great website called 800notes just might be able to tell you who’s actually making those calls!
Just visit the site and type in the 10 digit phone number. If others have received calls from that same number and reported it to 800notes, you’ll be able to read their comments and (hopefully) find out who owns it.
There are a couple of caveats to keep in mind when using the 800notes website:
1 – If you’re being targeted by a scammer who’s using a brand new phone number, you probably won’t find any information about the number in the 800notes database.
2 – Since the 800notes database of toll free numbers is compiled and augmented by regular users just like you and me, there might be a bunch of conflicting comments in which some users report a given number as a scam while others report it as belonging to a legitimate business.
Therefore, as the old adage states, “your mileage may vary”.
For example, if you look up the number 800-266-2278, you’ll see that some comments indicate that it’s a scam number while others say it belongs to Comcast Communications (for the record, it is indeed the real contact number for Comcast).
If you see a lot of conflicting comments about a number, you’ll just have to your best judgement in regards to which “side” to believe. Most numbers aren’t like this however.
It’ll usually be crystal clear based on the comments whether a number belongs to a scammer or not.
Click here to look up a toll free number on the 800notes website.
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