Rachel from cardholder services is elusive, but Mitch from the FTC has heard from her, too
Posted on May 29th, 2009 – 4:09 PMBy James Shiffer
I’m still hunting for Rachel from Cardholder Services, the mostly unwelcome robocaller whose calls have driven people like Allan to their wits’ end. Mitch Katz, public affairs specialist with the Federal Trade Commission, has gotten some calls from her ilk.
“We haven’t brought any cases against those specific product pitches,” Katz told me this week. Still, it’s the same M.O. as the car warranty telemarketers that got whacked by the FTC earlier this month - caller ID blocked, misleading pitch, hang-ups on anybody who asks too many questions.
Katz figures that whoever’s behind these calls did some market research on the most appealing names: Rachel, Heather, Michelle or whatever. “If you spread your net wide enough, you’re bound to catch some fish.”
So what are Allan and the rest of us supposed to do to prod the FTC and the other agency that enforces telemarketing laws, the Federal Communications Commission, to stop Rachel? Complain, complain, complain. Here’s complaint central for the FTC, and for the FCC.
Even with the company’s effort to hide its true name, Katz said his agency’s success in learning the identities of those behind the car warranty calls shows it could work with cardholder services as well. If the agency gets enough help from the public, he said, “we’ll track them down as well and get them to stop.”
15 Responses to “Rachel from cardholder services is elusive, but Mitch from the FTC has heard from her, too”
Leave a Reply
Your destination for righting wrongs, uncovering injustices big and small and holding people, companies and government accountable.
Become a whistleblower
The Star Tribune's journalists need your help blowing the whistle in Minnesota. Contact us at whistleblower@startribune.com.
More ways to get in touch
Are you on Facebook? Friend Whistleblower.
Do you use Twitter? Follow Whistleblower.
James Eli Shiffer started the Whistleblower blog and column in 2008. A reporter and editor for 20 years, Shiffer is fascinated with the stories of regular people and believes in the power of journalism to make their lives better.
Subscribe to Whistleblower
Learn more about RSS
Complain here!
Other bloggers and columnists who can help
The Star Tribune investigates
Categories
- Advertising claims (3)
- Aging infrastructure (4)
- Businesses in hot water (80)
- Buyer beware (68)
- Civil liberties (23)
- Complaint sagas (68)
- Corporate welfare (1)
- Corruption (5)
- Dangerous products (36)
- Disposable cities (6)
- Election Day (22)
- Free speech (4)
- Government spends your money (54)
- Home improvement (9)
- How to blow the whistle (29)
- Loopholes (1)
- Neighborhood nuisances (25)
- Polling problems (27)
- Problems on the job (4)
- Property problems (40)
- Public records (57)
- Recount (9)
- Scams (20)
- Seniors (18)
- The rich get richer (1)
- Uncategorized (2)
- Whistleblowers (10)
May 29th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
I can’t stand the telemarketing calls I get at the office 3-5 times per day.and the FTC doesn’t allow business numbers to be added to the do not call list. Most of them are robo calls.
June 1st, 2009 at 6:03 am
Help from the public? Like what? When I filled out an FCC complaint form for this, I got a resposne saying that it didn’t contravene any laws!
June 1st, 2009 at 10:12 am
Bill - I’d love to see that response from the FCC. Can
you email it to whistleblower[at]startribune.com?
June 2nd, 2009 at 9:25 am
Maybe it’s time to take a page from the 419eaters book and if you’ve got the time, string these folks along and waste as much of their time as possible. Any time they’re talking to you, they can’t be suckering somebody else. Doesn’t stop the robocalls, but it ties up their actual human resources.
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:11 am
So here is a little help from the public. I have been receiving Rachel calls about once a week. I hit 9 to get connected, and after a few attempts, I was able to convince the person who answered to reveal that the name of and contact info for the org. He said I could call him back at 877-debtok2, and that the company name was DHC Financial Services out of Florida. The Website address is http://dhcfinancial.com/ . I then did a little research at sunbiz.org and found the following: DHC Financial Services LLC was incorporated in Florida by Michael S. Finn on 4/1/9, along with another company, EVOCON. EVOCON is a marketing company, and Mr. Finn’s career appears to revolve around marketing Florida Real Estate. I wonder if Rachel is MR. Finn’s attempt at gorilla marketing.
Incidentally, the agent told me that DHC Financial charges individuals with too much debt $2,000 to help them get their credit straightened out.
June 24th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Bill, excellent sleuthing. Did you call DHC? — James
June 24th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Good job Bill!
I contacted DHC. I told them I knew of their scam and the use of the bogus phone number to contact people. The lady there didn’t deny a thing. She in fact asked for my phone number so that she could remove it from their list. We shall see if this really happens.
July 9th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Terroristic threat from Cardholder Services
I have been harassed repeatedly by Cardholder Services in violation of Do Not Call. Today, I read the woman at the other end off (but no threats other than reporting them to law enforcement and for violating Do Not Call) in the hope that they might stop. A few minutes later, a man called me back and began to read me off for trash-talking “his girl.” I told him that, as they were making harassing phone calls I would speak to her and to him in any manner I chose. At some point in this heated exchange, he said, “I am going to send somebody to your house to kill you.” I replied, “You have just committed a felony,” at which point he hung up.
July 9th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Are you SURE DHC is involved with these guys? They
have given me call-back numbers that belong to
innocent and uninvolved third parties in the past.
If DHC does know who they are, then it would have to
reveal their identity when presented with a search
warrent regarding the terroristic threat that was made
to me this afternoon.
July 10th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Still getting Rachel calls. The area code for the call back number has changed to 825 now. The 877-debtok2 number is administered by Lightyear Network Solutions. Odds are that DHC Financial or their agent originates the robo-calls from Lightyear’s VOIP network, which is extensive. It sure would be nice if Lightyear had some oversite over how their clients use their network.