Scam call from Direct TV

[jojo]

Has anyone received an unsolicited call from Direct TV saying they needed to check the receiver. I was directed to hold the Info button for 10 seconds which popped up a "Run Receiver check." I got that far and became suspicious so I told them I wanted to check with Direct TV. I did report it to the fraud department but am wondering if anyone else has had this experience.

[Stu from NYC]

Think they were up to no good

[laryb]

We got a call a couple of days ago from a number with a Directv ID, but I did not answer, as Malwarebytes and TrueCaller said it was a probable scam. Googled the number, and it had been reported as a scam

[JGVillages]

If they call you, or email you don’t reply. Contact them yourself if necessary.

[DeanFL]

If they call you, or email you don’t reply. Contact them yourself if necessary..
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We have a home phone (Ooma) and our 2 cell phones. We DON'T ANSWER ANY CALL DIRECTLY UNLESS we know the caller (CALLER ID) via Contact List. period.
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[Topspinmo]

Has anyone received an unsolicited call from Direct TV saying they needed to check the receiver. I was directed to hold the Info button for 10 seconds which popped up a "Run Receiver check." I got that far and became suspicious so I told them I wanted to check with Direct TV. I did report it to the fraud department but am wondering if anyone else has had this experience.

Any time you receive phone call from 800 number don’t answer it. Google that number 99.9 precent of the time it’s scam. Funny how they can track our every move with cell phone but can catch scammers. I get at least 4 scam calls day. I don’t even answer the phone unless I know who calling. It they don’t leave message it’s scam anyway. Sad, but that world we live in today online electronic age. You can’t block them either, they have hundreds of 800 numbers, the computer just called using another number.

[retiredguy123]

Possibly the biggest scammer of all is the Federal Government who keeps telling us that they are fixing the problem.

[davephan]

Why are you putting up with junk callers? If you hear your telephone or cellphone ring, and you have to look at the CallerID information, you have already been disturbed and annoyed. The junk callers can be silently filtered out of you life, if you chose to do so.

If you have a landline, you need to buy a $90 device that will silently screen out junk calls. It called a Digitone Pro Series 2 Call Blocker.

You then program a “White List” of telephone numbers that you want to “ring through”. Telephone numbers or names that are not on the “White List” can only silently leave a voicemail. When you discover a new number to be added to your “White List”, that is easy to do. The junk callers will still attempt to call your landline, but they will be totally silenced. Junk callers almost never leave voicemail. Most people only have about 20 to 30 known telephone numbers that call you.

This device can also be programmed for a “Black List”. But “Black Lists” are totally ineffective. Junk callers can present you a fake telephone number or name with each call. There are billions of possible telephone number and name combinations.

After you setup that landline telephone screening device, the junk callers will never ring your landline again. The junk callers will still try, but they will silently fail! After that point in time, whenever your landline rings, it will be a caller you want to answer.

If you’re expecting a call from a doctor after an appointment from an unknown telephone number, you can temporarily open up the junk caller filtering.

Digitone Order Page (https://digitone.com/OrderPage.htm)

If you have an iPhone, you can stop the junk callers very easily. Go to “Settings”, “Phone”, turn on “Silence Unknown Callers”. Unknown callers can still silently leave voicemail. Junk callers virtually never leave voicemail. Additional new telephone numbers can be added to your contact list, so those telephone numbers will ring through.

This feature can be turned off temporarily if you are expecting an unknown number after a doctors appointment. I don’t know if this important feature is available with a “Android” cellphone. If not, replace your cellphone with an iPhone. The iPhones usually are more expensive, but are superior in quality over the “Android” cellphones.

So, it’s your choice to stop being annoyed by the junk callers, if you want to remove the junk callers from your life!

[EdFNJ]

Why are you putting up with junk callers? If you hear your telephone or cellphone ring, and you have to look at the CallerID information, you have already been disturbed and annoyed. The junk callers can be silently filtered out of you life, if you chose to do so.

If you have a landline, you need to buy a $90 device that will silently screen out junk calls. It called a Digitone Pro Series 2 Call Blocker.

You then program a “White List” of telephone numbers that you want to “ring through”. Telephone numbers or names that are not on the “White List” can only silently leave a voicemail. When you discover a new number to be added to your “White List”, that is easy to do. The junk callers will still attempt to call your landline, but they will be totally silenced. Junk callers almost never leave voicemail. Most people only have about 20 to 30 known telephone numbers that call you.

This device can also be programmed for a “Black List”. But “Black Lists” are totally ineffective. Junk callers can present you a fake telephone number or name with each call. There are billions of possible telephone number and name combinations.

After you setup that landline telephone screening device, the junk callers will never ring your landline again. The junk callers will still try, but they will silently fail! After that point in time, whenever your landline rings, it will be a caller you want to answer.

If you’re expecting a call from a doctor after an appointment from an unknown telephone number, you can temporarily open up the junk caller filtering.

Digitone Order Page (https://digitone.com/OrderPage.htm)

If you have an iPhone, you can stop the junk callers very easily. Go to “Settings”, “Phone”, turn on “Silence Unknown Callers”. Unknown callers can still silently leave voicemail. Junk callers virtually never leave voicemail. Additional new telephone numbers can be added to your contact list, so those telephone numbers will ring through.

This feature can be turned off temporarily if you are expecting an unknown number after a doctors appointment. I don’t know if this important feature is available with a “Android” cellphone. If not, replace your cellphone with an iPhone. The iPhones usually are more expensive, but are superior in quality over the “Android” cellphones.

So, it’s your choice to stop being annoyed by the junk callers, if you want to remove the junk callers from your life!




The majority of people today don't have a landline. However when we moved down here 3yrs ago I had a VOIP landline and I had one of those devices but the general problem with them is when there may be an emergency call from an "unknown number" will be sent to voicemail. If you have family and there is an emergency and a call comes from a hospital or police station or whatever that has not been while listed you may not get it before it's too late.


Also if you have an iPhone there is a feature on it now to do that exact same thing. It's "allow known callers only." Any call NOT in your contacts (white list) is sent to voicemail. That creates the same problem though. If there is an emergency you may not know.

[Get real]

Even the real Direct TV is a scam. They say they will give you 1000 channels, but 990 of them are just infomercials. Unless you want to pay exorbitant fees for actual TV.

[davephan]

The majority of people today don't have a landline. However when we moved down here 3yrs ago I had a VOIP landline and I had one of those devices but the general problem with them is when there may be an emergency call from an "unknown number" will be sent to voicemail. If you have family and there is an emergency and a call comes from a hospital or police station or whatever that has not been while listed you may not get it before it's too late.


Also if you have an iPhone there is a feature on it now to do that exact same thing. It's "allow known callers only." Any call NOT in your contacts (white list) is sent to voicemail. That creates the same problem though. If there is an emergency you may not know.

Where is “ Allow Known Callers” on the iPhone? I only found, “Settings”, “Phone”, “Silence Unknown Callers” and “Settings”, “Messages”, “Filter Unknown Senders”. The iPhone isn’t clear what it does to those unknown texts. It says it puts them in a separate group. I don’t know what that means. The goal should be to filter out junk texts.

I know that a lot of people dropped their landlines. Sometimes old people really like their landlines and keep them!

If you want free a free VOIP service, try Google Voice. You can tie Google Voice to your telephone hardware using an Obihai 200 or 202. A set top box, which is a one time cost. The Google Voice line has lots of features, which are also free. Google Voice can also be used as a second telephone number for your cellphone, in case you don’t want to give out your real cellphone number.

That’s true about the unknown numbers. It’s possible that it could be an emergency call from an unknown number. That’s the trade off to stopping the junk callers.

I look at junk callers about the same as TV commercials. I’ve been skipping TV commercials for over a decade and blocking junk callers almost as long.

The old way to silence the junk callers with the iPhone was to set your default ringtone to silent, and then set a custom audible ringtone for each number on your contact list. That’s the old way to silence junk text messages too. I downloaded the ringtone “Silence, Void of Sound” to setup that old method. Texting allows a silent ringtone, but there isn’t a silence default for the phone ringtone on the iPhone. You had to get around that problem by downloading a silent ringtone. I could have created a silent ringtone, but that would have been more hassle than it’s worth for about a $1 downloadable silent ringtone.

[aallbrand]

I have direct tv and love it . I think the word scam is a bit strong

[Stu from NYC]

The majority of people today don't have a landline. However when we moved down here 3yrs ago I had a VOIP landline and I had one of those devices but the general problem with them is when there may be an emergency call from an "unknown number" will be sent to voicemail. If you have family and there is an emergency and a call comes from a hospital or police station or whatever that has not been while listed you may not get it before it's too late.


Also if you have an iPhone there is a feature on it now to do that exact same thing. It's "allow known callers only." Any call NOT in your contacts (white list) is sent to voicemail. That creates the same problem though. If there is an emergency you may not know.

It is the emergency call or a useful call from someone not in our directory which causes us to answer the phone.

I do have the option of getting the crook on the phone and engaging in a silly conversation asking questions while walking around my house getting exercise.

[Topspinmo]

Even the real Direct TV is a scam. They say they will give you 1000 channels, but 990 of them are just infomercials. Unless you want to pay exorbitant fees for actual TV.

Comcast no better claim 400 channels, just 65 repeated 5 timeS claiming HD BS.

[EdFNJ]

Where is “ Allow Known Callers” on the iPhone? I only found, “Settings”, “Phone”, “Silence Unknown Callers” and “Settings”, “Messages”, “Filter Unknown Senders”.
That's it "SILENCE UNKNOWN CALLERS." Sorry, didn't have my phone with me when I posted that. I have had G.V. since it's beta days but you still need a device to use with it as you do with OOMA (or you can take calls on your phone).

Detect and block spam phone calls - Apple Support (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207099)

[EdFNJ]

It is the emergency call or a useful call from someone not in our directory which causes us to answer the phone.

I do have the option of getting the crook on the phone and engaging in a silly conversation asking questions while walking around my house getting exercise. Those devices generally send not whitelisted calls DIRECTLY to voicemail which is why I don't find them safe. Also how do you know that odd number is not an "emergency or useful" call unless you answer it? I too love playing with the spam callers. I have spend upwards of half-hour with the credit card people telling them I have $40,000 in balances. Their drool comes right through the handset.

[davephan]

That's it "SILENCE UNKNOWN CALLERS." Sorry, didn't have my phone with me when I posted that. I have had G.V. since it's beta days but you still need a device to use with it as you do with OOMA (or you can take calls on your phone).

Detect and block spam phone calls - Apple Support (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207099)

I checked the OOMA web site. The monthly cost is free for the phone line, but you have to pay taxes and fees. I checked for my area, and the taxes and fees are $6.12 per month, which is $73.44 per year. There is zero monthly and zero yearly cost for Google Voice after paying a one time cost for the Obihai OBi200 or OBi202. I bought the two line OBi202 years ago for about $70. I can setup two Google Voice accounts with that one box. The single line OBi200 was about $35.

[EdFNJ]

Even the real Direct TV is a scam. They say they will give you 1000 channels, but 990 of them are just infomercials. Unless you want to pay exorbitant fees for actual TV. Ummmm, they do provide channel lists for every package so you can easily see what you are paying for BEFORE signing up for the service just as Comcrap and all the rest do. It's not a scam if all the info is easily available. Just have to do a little due diligence before signing on the dotted line and take some responsibility for not looking before crossing the street. :D

BTW, those DirecTV calls are not SCAM calls, they are SPAM calls and are annoying outsourced contracted sales calls and have been going on for many years. If people wanted to scam using DirecTV is a pretty lousy choice to make scam money. Having been a DirecTV call center Tech Support trainer in a past life we had always been hearing complaints about them.

EDIT: Rereading the OP that is a different call than I was referring to however running a receiver check provides little useful information. What they may be trying to do is get the Rx ID to setup a streaming app to sell using your RxID but not even sure that would work without account info.

[EdFNJ]

I checked the OOMA web site. The monthly cost is free for the phone line, but you have to pay taxes and fees. I checked for my area, and the taxes and fees are $6.12 per month, which is $73.44 per year. There is zero monthly and zero yearly cost for Google Voice after paying a one time cost for the Obihai OBi200 or OBi202. I bought the two line OBi202 years ago for about $70. I can setup two Google Voice accounts with that one box. The single line OBi200 was about $35. Which was why I dumped OOMA for magicjack. Cost me like $60 one time fee for 3 years. Now I think it is up to $99. It was cheaper than the "free": OOMA. :) Bought a used MJ "stick" for $8 off eBay. Just have it to "save" my 58 yr old NJ LL phone number. Was cheaper than number parking. :D My NJ cell number is good enough now.

[Indydealmaker]

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We have a home phone (Ooma) and our 2 cell phones. We DON'T ANSWER ANY CALL DIRECTLY UNLESS we know the caller (CALLER ID) via Contact List. period.
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Are you happy with the Ooma?

[Madelaine Amee]

We keep a landline and give out that number to people who might need to contact us. The phone announces who the caller is. If we know them we answer, if not we don't. If someone really wants us they leave a message. My cell phone is private and only very close family and friends have the number, and then they text us.

[davephan]

Which was why I dumped OOMA for magicjack. Cost me like $60 one time fee for 3 years. Now I think it is up to $99. It was cheaper than the "free": OOMA. :) Bought a used MJ "stick" for $8 off eBay. Just have it to "save" my 58 yr old NJ LL phone number. Was cheaper than number parking. :D My NJ cell number is good enough now.

The call quality and reliability of Magic Jack is horrible! My brother in law used to have that crappy service.

If you want a cheap landline, get a Google Voice number, which is free, and and Obihai device to tie the Google Voice line to your telephone sets. The call quality is excellent and the reliability is excellent. Free nationwide calling and many extra features for free! If you want the 911 location service to work, it will cost about $20 a year.

There’s a huge difference in quality between Google Voice and Magic Jack!

You can port a number to Google Voice, but not directly, so you can keep your old telephone number. The trick is to get or borrow a cheap burner cellphone. It can even be an old flip cellphone. Subscribe to one month of prepaid cellular service. Port your home landline number to the cheap burner cellphone. Then port the number from the cheap burner cellphone to Google Voice. You can only port numbers to Google Voice using this indirect method.

The Obihai box costs about $50, one time cost. The Google Voice line is totally free. The only ongoing cost is about $20 a year for the 911 location service. If you don’t need the 911 location service, then the ongoing cost is free, for every month going forward.

[davem4616]

The bad guys are out there...and coming at us from every direction

we have to be alert. Microsoft is not going to call us to ask if there's a problem or tell us that they've noticed a problem.
Think about it. Neither is your bank or any vendor.

1st thing you do when you get an email that your login has been suspended is to go to the actual website and see if that is the case. Often it is not...it's a scam, hoping you'll click on their link and give them all the info that they need to create damage

stay safe and stay alert...the bad guys are getting more creative every day

[EdFNJ]

The call quality and reliability of Magic Jack is horrible! My brother in law used to have that crappy service.

If you want a cheap landline, get a Google Voice number, which is free, and and Obihai device to tie the Google Voice line to your telephone sets. The call quality is excellent and the reliability is excellent. Free nationwide calling and many extra features for free! If you want the 911 location service to work, it will cost about $20 a year.

There’s a huge difference in quality between Google Voice and Magic Jack!

You can port a number to Google Voice, but not directly, so you can keep your old telephone number. The trick is to get or borrow a cheap burner cellphone. It can even be an old flip cellphone. Subscribe to one month of prepaid cellular service. Port your home landline number to the cheap burner cellphone. Then port the number from the cheap burner cellphone to Google Voice. You can only port numbers to Google Voice using this indirect method.

The Obihai box costs about $50, one time cost. The Google Voice line is totally free. The only ongoing cost is about $20 a year for the 911 location service. If you don’t need the 911 location service, then the ongoing cost is free, for every month going forward.


My Magic Jack (for as little as I use it) has worked 100% flawlessly. As with any VoIP service there are many many variables that can affect QOS. WRT to MJ, when I first configured it I plugged it into the USB port of my PC as per their instructions and QOS was horrid probably because of power issues from the port. When I switched it over to a spare Apple USB charger brick it worked A+. The MJ device also needed a firmware update. As for porting to GV you can use a number parking service without having to deal with other phones. Been there, done that.