Digital Bits Technology Column QnA

It’s my belief that Bank of America tried to scam me.

I get a call from 1-888-665-9900. The caller ID says “Insurance Svc”.

The person who greets me takes the time to verify who I am. Then she goes into a pre-written script that gives me no chance to respond for literally minutes. She’s wondering if I have thought about my insurance needs for life and medical insurance. She finishes, not allowing me to respond, except to answer the question, “Do you have a spouse?”

I ignore the question, and say, “I’m not interested in this program.”

She continues with another (thankfully shorter) script. This one doesn’t address my response, but instead is a continuation of what she already said. This one is sneakier, though, as it contains language that says if I give them my address, I’ve signed up for the program.

She asks me “to confirm” my address. Since I thankfully have an IQ higher than the average snail, I refuse, and again tell her I’m not interested. She ends the call.

When I call the number back, I hear “Thank you for calling the insurance service center”, which, if you don’t enter an employee extension, transfers you to another system that greets you with, “Welcome to Bank of America”.

Usually I just hang up on – or never pick up – telemarketing calls. I stayed for this one because:

1) Multiple people are sick in my family (including me), and when you’re stuck at home sick, you get bored.

2) I haven’t heard such an old-school classic phone scam in years – the kind where they literally trick you into signing up, and so found myself listening incredulously.

3) I wanted to get the full details so I could report it.

And I did report it – my number is already on the Do Not Call registry, and I reported this call to them.

I think they targeted me because my home mortgage was transferred to Bank of America (something I didn’t have control over). I don’t know if this was a legal call or not. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be surprised. If it was, I also wouldn’t be surprised: legal or not, I think this was nothing more than a verbal scam, trying to trick me into signing up for a product without my consent.

Bank of America, you made me angry because you wasted my time with what I think was a scam. If you made me angry, you’re probably doing the same to many others. Is this really what you want for your public image? I have no problem with people trying to sell me things. That’s capitalism. That’s life. But scammy tactics hurt business and alienate clients in the long term.

Your business deals exclusively with adults, yet it seems as if you’re being managed by children.

Bank of America, grow up.

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UPDATE:

I’m not the only one. This site and this site detail many others who have had this same problem with Bank of America (or one of their “authorized third parties”). Luckily, there also seems to be a fix:

To stop all third-party marketing calls from Bank of America, call this number:

1-800-448-2755

At the time of this writing, you have to press Option 2 to remove your number from BoA’s call list. Then you have to confirm your phone number. BoA then tells you they’ll stop all evil harassment within 30 days (my words, not theirs).

At the time of this writing, the number seems to work – my home number was successfully entered. Let’s see if it will accomplish anything.

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• Scam from Mrs. Anika Sander
• How to prevent getting scammed by DVD sellers