Time Warner recently sold us down the river. We switched to digital phone service over a year ago and we've consistently received "Spam" phone calls -- you know, annoying phone calls from places like Publisher's Clearing House, etc. -- even after putting our home number on the "Do Not Call" list that was supposed to be the fix for these types of problems.
So, we decided recently to have our home phone number changed to a new private, unlisted number to rid ourselves of these annoying calls. We have had the same phone number for close to 15 years, so it was a tough decision making the change.
The change took place last week. Two days after the change, we started receiving new Spam phone calls. And, then the frequency of the Spam phone calls actually INCREASED!
Talking with one of the Spammers tonight, we asked where they got our new number. The Spammer said that the phone company sold it to them! What???!!!!
So, after an unhappy call to Time Warner, they said they screwed up. The person we talked with last didn't apply the "unlisted" check mark to the account and our number was made public. Still -- why would they give our phone number away? A quick reverse lookup on Addresses.com shows that the new number is even already posted on the Internet.
Boy, are these Spammers persistent! It took them less than 2 days to get our new number and start the onslaught of phone calls. And, yes, I registered our new number with the "Do Not Call" list -- still didn't work.
Time Warner is trying to fix the issue now. We'll see if they can do it, otherwise, we'll have to change our number again and make real sure that they do what they're supposed to do this time.