Profit Through Dishonesty: Dunn & Bradstreet

I finally figured out why I've been getting a bevy of cold-calls from investment firms asking me if I'm looking to invest in X,Y,Z bullshit. Turns out my number was found and included in a list created and sold to third parties by a company called Dunn & Bradstreet. Thank you to the cold-caller who finally told me how he got my number!

A search for this company yields a bevy of articles about scams and deceptive practices. Getting caught in the Dunn & Bradstreet list is like getting phone herpes. Once your number is sold you will get phone calls from any number of companies trying to sell you something. Apparently if your number is listed on the internet, on your website, resume, or as a business, Dunn & Bradstreet will add it to their list. Needless to say, being on the Do-Not-Call registry doesn't seem to deter them.

I called Dunn & Bradstreet to have my number removed from their list and it turns out that my number was caught in their "business" directory which had my home address from about 10 years ago. I now have a removal request put in that will take 6 weeks to complete…

If you've suddenly started getting cold-calls you might want to see if your number has been sold by Dunn & Bradstreet. You can visit them at http://www.dnb.com/ or give them a call.

The only thing I can hope is that ill-gotten gains, lead to the appropriate karma…