I think I must be sleepwalking, because according to telemarketers, I’ve been entering multiple contests to win a Lincoln Navigator. Since I despise SUVs, this is ludicrous, so I have to surmise an alter ego is taking over my body while I sleep, getting in my car, and finding all-night places to put in entries.

Seriously, late last year, I started getting calls that I had won a Lincoln Navigator. I ignored the first two calls, which resulted in lengthy recorded messages filling up my voicemail. The third one was the final straw, and I called to find out what these bozos were doing calling me, as I am on the Do-Not-Call list and I have no established business relationship with Mitchell Communications. They could not tell me what contest I had entered, and I told them not to call me again per the DNC regs. But I went online and entered the number they called from, and lo and behold, a forum full of people getting the same bogus call with the same faulty premise of having entered a contest for a Navigator.

I decided to file a complaint with the FCC. I filled out their online form, pointed out how these calls violated my rights, gave detailed info. Within two weeks, I got a letter from the FCC saying their investigation found no violation. So I called the number given for an explanation; the person on the other end said there was no additional info in the file and no analyst’s name attached, which he said was unusual. So I sent a follow-up letter, reiterating how Mitchell Communications violated my rights, along with print outs of the many other people who wrote about their experience with what apparently is a scam to get people to attend a two-hour pitch to sell time shares.

I have never heard back from the FCC. So I can only guess that they called the company in question and just accepted their word that I had entered a contest and so their calls were legit. What a joke. And shameful the FCC can’t even pretend to stand behind their “investigation” and tell me why they reached their conclusion.

Interestingly enough, a couple of weeks after I got the form letter from the FCC, I got new calls about my entry to win a Navigator, from different phone numbers. One even went so far as to say, they are very aware I am on the Do-Not-Call registry but this is not a telemarketing call. (As one commenter noted, if Mitchell Communications is not a telemarketer, why do they advertise in Chicago for telemarketing positions?)

If you want to read more about this Navigator scam, check out this thread. And Tony of Mitchell actually commented that we are all “slandering” the company, but when I responded by asking him to show documented proof of our entry forms, he disappeared.

UPDATE April 17, 2009:
Last night, I got home to a recorded message from a Jack Stone of Prize something-or-other, imperative I call about a contest entry of a YEAR ago for an SUV. So I called him back and said, I am on the Do Not Call Registry and I don’t appreciate getting called with a bogus story about my entering a contest for an SUV, since I despise them, and that this is just a scam to circumvent the FCC regulations.

Old Jack retorted that he didn’t appreciate being called a scam, told me to have a “nice life” and HUNG UP ON ME! In-fing-credible.

Again, this is the same old scam, just from under a different rock. It is infuriating that the FCC just doesn’t seem to give a rat’s ass about enforcing the DNC. Explain to me how allowing anyone to call you so long as they offer a button to press to opt out of calls conforms to the intent of the DNC Registry? So Do Not Call means well, call anyway, but allow the consumer to opt out. Well, guess what? How does that work when the message is left on your machine and you are not there to press the opt-out number? If your number is on the Do Not Call registry, it means DO NOT CALL THAT NUMBER. EVER. FOR ANY REASON.

FCC: You are an embarrassment in protecting consumers and citizens.