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Fighting Telemarketers with Technology
prostoalex writes "According to an MSNBC story, 104 million telemarketing calls are made daily in the U.S. alone and technology is on the way to fight those special offers and incredible credit card rates. Zenith EZ HangUp, The Phone Butler, TriVOX VN100 and ScreenMachine are quoted in the article as new gadgets that allow phone owners to avoid the plagues of telemarketing."
an effective CHEAP way of eliminating telemarketers is saying "PLEASE PUT ME ON YOUR DO NOT CALL LIST." By law, telemarketers are not allowed call ppl on this list. It has worked for me.
I use my phone company's Privacy Manager feature. Since we started using it, we hardly get any spam calls anymore. It's definately worth the 4 bucks a month.
Live web cams
I didnt read the article, but you could insert the first tone of a telecom's disconnected line signal on your answering machine, and automated systems will delist you.
Does it work for my mother-in-law?
Requirements: 1 answering machine
Turn the answering machine on, but set it so that you can hear the messages people are leaving. Then, screen every call. Period. If people start to leave a message, and it's a message you want, pick up the phone.
Let people who you want to talk to, know that you screen your calls for this reason, so that they will leave a message.
You are under no obligation to pick up the phone. Ever. Don't do it unless the call actually matters to you. And even if it does, but you're busy at the moment, let the machine take the call and you can call back later.
The phone is there to serve you, not the other way around. I have let someone leave a message, just because I was in the coding zone at that moment, or enjoying an ice cream cone, or even awake-but-trying-to-nap, and didn't feel like picking up the phone. So I didn't.
ChicagoFan
What's the next step? Fighting trolls with technology?
All it really takes is the light of day, non?
(On the other hand, we've already developed a technological solution to global warming - we call it "air conditioning".)
"The Phone Butler takes over, delivers his legally-correct message in a very polite, British-butler's voice, then terminates the call automatically when he is done!"
I'm not sure if I'd even wish that upon a tele-marketer...
s200.org - visit it (me), love it (me).
All those calls were faked by the phone company for years so that you'd get pissed off enough to pay $4 more per month to make them stop.
(Family at the dinner table) Phone Rings. "Hello, I represent the 'Phone Butler' corporation and for just 19.95......"
I just don't answer the phone. I have a handy device known as an "answering machine." This device answers the phone on my behalf and allows me to hear what the other party has to say. I then can decide if I want to take call. I call this process "screening my calls." I've found it to be most useful. Previously, I received numerous wrong number calls, or worse, telemarketers. I've found that very rarely do telemarketers talk to my wonderous machine. However, when they do, I've found it effective to quickly "answer and hang up."
I've already applied for a patent on the "answering machine", the "screening calls" process, and the "answer and hang up" process. If you infringe on my patents expect numerous calls from lawyers...
I use a Stargate to handle my incoming calls. I can filter on any CallerID string, including Private and Unavailable numbers, and play a custom outgoing message, based on the time of day, day of week, CID, temperature outside, etc.
.WAV files of SIT tones on the 'net, just adding the "disconnected number" tones to the beginning of your answering machine message will accomplish the same thing that many of the $40 gadgets do.
Telemarketers and other nusance callers get a SIT tone, a "DO NOT CALL THIS NUMBER" message, and then a click.
On sundays, the custom filters are disabled (telemarketers legally can't call on Sundays).
You can find
-This sig intentionally left blank
While it still annoys me to check and see calls from "Unavailable", you can't beat caller ID, since none of the telescammers ever call with their real ID/phone number. Without caller ID I would have to go back to my old technique of using the air horn on em when they called (which tended to annoy my neighbors at 9pm). And still to this day I have yet to get one of them to give me their supervisors home number, so I could bug him/her while they are eating dinner to discuss my athletes foot problem.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
My brother & family moved into a nice new house last year... and as soon as the phone was set up, BANG! Telemarketers left right and bloody center.
He ended up installing this system (I'm not there so I couldn't tell you what it is) that will reroute all calls without Caller ID to an automated system so calls can be screened, callers have to give their name or business name and then the system literally calls the house itself to say "person or company x" is calling.
The number of telemarketing calls went through the floor, mainly because most didn't want to go through the screening check. They get the odd call now and then, but mostly by those who do persevere with the screening system or those that have valid Caller ID tags.
Originally he did have the system completely rejecting calls without ID, but since the rest of the family live in England, there isn't any ID transmitted - so we couldn't get through for a while, until we got a call from him wondering why WE hadn't called!! DOH!
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
It is really silly that you need to opt-out to try to get away (and you still get calls even then). If there would be an opt-in it would probably kill off the whole telemarketing business, which I feel would be a good thing.
This problem is just as bad as spam, fax-spamming and all other broad adverticement methods. I wish that one day you would not get more ads than you ask for (i.e. 2-5% of todays load of shit).
For you people living in Sweden I would like to mention the Nix register, it is the Swedish opt-out register.
I just use my cellphone to make private calls with friends and business associates. And I make sure that I do not give this number out on forms that could be sold as customer lists.
I never answer calls on my landline, since I use it solely for Internet access.
The result? I don't remember last when I had to answer a call that turned out to be a telemarketer.
In PA there was recently a list that you could sign up on by the beginning of October to have all spam-calls blocked. We went from approx. 10 calls a day to 0. It's wonderful!
I've often wondered why the modem manufacturers can't make a modem that will answer all the calls, and if the caller knows (and dials) your "extension" the modem would then make the phone connected to it ring. Granted this would entail a more sophisticated modem then the junk that is marketed to the masses, but I don't think the tech hurdles are that large. I've longed to see such a modem sold and would even have no problem pushing it into the systems my company builds. I've suggested this to the modem manufacturers but noone is making the modem yet.
Since I had Qwest enable an anti-marketing feature they sell. Basically if the call would be "Unknown" on my caller ID box, the person calling gets a message that this line does not accept phone solicitations and if they're not a telemarketer, please dial their number now. It even seems to have worked for the Qwest telemarketers. Of course, that's an extra buck or two on the phone bill each month, but I've gone from 5-10 telemarketing calls a week to 0. Once my spam load gets obnoxiously high, I'll be implementing a similar solution for that.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Unplug the damned phone! Tell your friends that you do not accept incoming calls, but only use the phone to dial out.
I've had one of these babies for well over a year now. They're $50 and you can get them at Radio Shack. Works great, weeding out probably 90% of telemarketing calls. Looks like the other guys are starting to catch on.
Ryosen
One man's "Troll, +1" is another man's "Insightful, +1".
Last night, I "entertained" two telemarketing calls. I was properly prepped for each call since I have caller ID.
The first phone call, the telemarketer pretended not to hear me when I asked them to remove from their do not call list. She kept saying "Thank you" everytime I said please remove me from the list then hung up.
The second phone call, the telemarketer kept saying how I belonged to the credit card company and that I would call THEM if I had any questions. Eventually, I got him to add me to the list.
I will modify my behavior, pretending to be interested, so I can get the telemarketer's name and name of the company and ask to be removed from the list.
This is rather time consuming however I have already noticed a decrease in my phone calls injunction with my enrollment in Pennsylvania's "No Calls Please" program.
-- ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space!
Would I be right in assuming that it's a side effect of the free local calls you guys get? Whilst the whole idea sounds rather tempting it just seems like you have a lot of hassles and issues with the whole system - especially when it's possible to buy 6 or 7 different call screening devices!
Ps. the English accent on the Phone Butler really made me laugh :o)
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
What I want is a black box that plugs into the main line coming into my house. It intercepts all calls without ringing any lines, reads the Caller-ID information, and if the call is not Unknown, it will then ring the extensions in the house. This way there's no interruption to anyone calling in having to push any buttons, and I don't have to hear the phone ring at all for the unwanted calls. All unwanted calls get the "Disconnected Number" tone.
Better yet would be if you could program the box with numbers that you don't want to get through.
I pay for no service and I still get no telemarketing calls. I simply installed an answering machine and I do not answer any calls until the answering machine picks it up and they identify themselves. 99 times out of 100 telemarketers just hang up when they hear an answering machine because they know they will not et a callback and if it's your firends or family aall they have to do is leave a long message so that you will have time to pick up the phone. Best of all this systems allows you to not answer the phone when it is somebody you do not want to talk to.
If they show up an unknown, I let it roll to the answering machine. If it is someone I know, I just call them back or send an email. Everyone now and again, I will pick up and ask to go on the "Don't Call" list. We are down to one TeleMarketer a week now.
I hate phones. They are the spawn of Satan. If you have something to say, use email. I guess part of it is coming from a corporate culture. In the corporate world, some people don't like email because it leaves evidence of their incompetence.
But I digress...........
If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem
Althought I hate getting the calls, I love the tech vs. tech battle. I mean can you imagine the products further down the pipeline? The New TeleZAPER: Emits a hugh votage discharge on the other end of the phone. The HighJacker: Doesn't let the other party hang up so they incur huge long distance charges! The deafening-defender: Blasts a fog horn or other loud noise through the line. I personally would buy any one of these products for under $19.95. :)
Sounds great! Now I need one for my email! I have filters, but that hasn't stopped them yet.
Maybe instead of a tone generator to get me removed from an automated phone list, I need an auto-responder that fakes a message undeliverable or something.
Would that work or would those spammy bastards just keep sending things anyways?
Sig: "Examine the road over which the fault has passed"
Taking cues from Comedy Central's "Crank Yankers" I came up with a fun way to handle telemarketers. First, you answer the phone sounding like a fricken retard (I got mail, yeah!). I had one guy try to sell me a new long distance plan. I told him I wasnt allowed to use the phone because I called Japan, and then proceeded to "talk japanese" in an extremely loud voice. This call lasted roughly 5 minutes, in which I screamed "japanese sentences" in his ear no fewer than 3 times. I am sure he knew it was a crank, but at least they didnt call back for a few weeks.
If that doesnt work, you can always tell the people calling that you hate them and you hope they die, and that their company needs to go out of business. (this is after requesting to not be called again, and then getting called three times more by the same company in a ONE HOUR STRETCH!!)
This is my sig. Its pathetic.
Just say no.
Why is that so hard?
I answer every single call I get. As soon as I realize it's telemarketing, I simply say, "No Thank You" politely and then hang up.
Why is that so hard. I don't like missing calls, and boy do I hate calling people that wait to hear my voice on an answering machine then pick up. I hate leaving messages. Just pick up the damn phone.
At most we average 1 per night. Big freaken deal! One thing I will say is that it is okay to not answer the phone if you're in the middle of a sit down dinner with your family.
It's a common courtesy to answer every single phone call you can.
I guess the real problem is this. Too many people dread the idea of picking up a phone and just saying, "No".
I've talked to former telemarketers and they prefer my method. It waists no time. Doing the whole, "Put me on your DNC list is a waste of time.
Get some backbone people!
I just hope they won't try to sell me one by spamming my mailbox to its limit ;-)
Someone pointed out that there is no Federal "Do not Call Registry". However, Some States do have them. Find your state and Sign up.
Do not read this
Opt In is the best technical solution. Really low tech.
> You've gotta sin to get saved.
Tennessee passed a Do Not Call law some years back. The state maintains a Do Not Call list, which is free to join. By state law telemarketers must abide by it, with stiff penalties if they don't. I signed up and have had zero telemarketers call since. That was about 2 years ago. Any other states (or other countries, for those outside the USA) have anything similar?
junkbusters.com has a bunch of info on what to do about telemarketing and other annoyances (spam, junk faxes, junk mail, etc). It's pretty well done and worth a read.
--
regulators
Hi, sorry to disturbing you during dinner. I'm Carl, from Zenith Telecom Appliances. I am sure you are too often being disturbed during dinner by some idiot, 6.50 $ telemarketers with stupid names as Brad or Carl, trying to sell you some stupid low phone rates.
We at Zenith Telecom Appliances have a solution : the Zenith EZ HangUp, wich is a new device that allows you to avoid the plagues of telemarketing.
We have a special offer for you today : you can have it not for 2000$, not for 1000$, but only for 200$.
Plus, the machine also has a feature to send caller-id-blocked numbers right to voice mail (after a special message). The neat thing is listening to the different kinds of response -- some hang up during the "Your number is being sent to voice mail..." which tells me that it's a human calling. Some wait through the message, and then there's a pause, and then a click and a dial tone, which suggests to me that it's a machine that waited a certain amount of time and then gave up.
www.HearMySoulSpeak.com
Make it illegal.
These calls have been getting ridiculous lately.
If I want your service, I will call you.
You don't think you can get money from these scumbags? Think again. Friend of mine has gotten $1500 (if not more). See here: http://osiris.978.org/~brianr/telemarketing/
Most of the time they're in another state and it's far more expensive for them to send somebody to represent them in small claims court then it is to just pay you the $500.
Free Mac Mini
Missouri has a "no call list". If you're on the list and you get called, the telemarketting company gets nailed for $25k. I know it sounds like a load of B.S., but I haven't gotten a single call since I've been on it.
All thanks go to the Missouri Attorney General
Troll them.
Ask them to repeat their script.
Ask irrelevant questions (e.g. what batteries do we need for a credit card)
If you really want to annoy them, be inapproriately cooperative. If someone offers to sell you a conservatory, and you live on the top floor, let them give you an estimate. The same applies if you've just had new windows put in and a company wats to sell you windows. If you do need new windows, arrange a time when you aren't going to be in.
Try to sell them something.
After a while, the calls might stop. This is a shame because you're starting to enjoy it.
"Hold on Please." Then put the phone down. Don't hang up until you hear the buzzing that your phone is off the hook. Not only did you not have to deal with them but you just wasted their time and saved someone else from having to deal with them.
Telephone Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association, P. O. Box 9014, Farmingdale, NY 11735-9014
More tips at Junkbusters. Now we tend only to get long distance phone company calls.
Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?
I work for a group of public libraries that uses a computer to call and say "Someone at this telephone number" -- we won't say who, because if you use a public library we consider it your own damn business -- "has an item waiting to be picked up at the So-and-So Public Library".
Unfortunately, if you use one of those gadgets that sends a "this number has been disconnected" message, the library's computer takes that at face value. You miss picking up the book, and then the library staff asks you to verify your phone number the next time you're there.
So, yeah, it works, but sometimes a little too well.
The spam emails keep coming long after an email address ceases to exist...
I re-registered a hotmail account that had been deleted for more than a year, and sure enough, the spam messages were still coming in the hundreds.
Really, on a boring night, it really can be a slightly entertaining trying to sell a telemarketer something YOU own.
Thing is, you have to really push it and not make it sound like a joke. When they scoff and give a laughing no to buying your Miata, use their tactics: Don't take no for an answer, incredulously ask why they would be interested in being a cool person with a cool car, ask where they live, how nice it would be to drive a convertible around, etc.
You'll run THEM off the phone in no time.
---"What did I say that sounded like 'Tell me about your day?'"---
So far, telemarketers haven't started calling it. Everyone who is likely to call me knows that number. I have the ringer turned off on the landline, and just check the answering machine every evening. The only reason I have a landline is for 911 service.
Best Slashdot Co
Unlisted, unpublished phone number is a simple solution. I get maybe one truely unsolicited call every three months. I still get the calls from Sears, AT&T and their "affiliates" etc.. because I had past business with them but a simple "DO NOT CALL" is weeding them out also. The only disadvantage is a monthly fee which I feel I should not have to pay but this method does work.
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
About two years ago I got a cheap mail box and voicemail number. Since that time everytime I have been required to fill out a form (job application etc.) I have used them. I have moved several times around the city, and when I get a new real home phone number, I only give it to my family/friends. There are no telespam calls on my home number, and a large numbers of hangups and bs on the voicemail. This has also cut down on the number of unsolicited snail mail to my address. The P.O. box gets flooded. It seems to be a nice buffer for me...
Pennsylvania recently passed the "No Calls Please" law, where, if you register with the state, you are added to a do not call list and Telemarketers have to download the list and remove you from their database if you're on it. Adding yourself to the list is free!
When a telemarketer actually does call me, I explain to them about the law. A lot of telemarketers actually tell me they don't believe me. I then ask to speak the supervisor on duty because I need to get the companies name and address in order to report them to my attorney general so they can be fined $5000 for disturbing me. They usually hang up real fast and don't bother me any more.
What we really need is an active law NO ONE in PA can receive telemarketing calls unless they ADD themselves to a list.
Simple solution for those who live in the USA: Get a cell phone and ditch your land line.
By law telemarketers can not call you on your cell phone. I've recieved one or two calls in the past, so it isn't 100%, but it's worth it.
III.IIVIVIXIIVIVIIIVVIIIIXVIIIXIIIIIIIIVIIIIVVIII
Umm .. its common courtesy"
.. its common courtesy" or "Everyone should go to my web page and click my banner ad .. its common courtesy" or "Everyone should get all the money they need .. and rich people should pay for it .. its common courtesy" .. maybe that last one was a little too far .. but that just proves how much telemarketers push me over the edge.]
.. and I pay MY money to operate it. What is sad .. is I also have a Cel phone .. and thats the only number I give out to friends .. I never give out our house phone number ,becuase 9 out of 10 calls are telemarketers. Thats becuase the people/businesses I gave it to lack "Common Courtesy" and placed me on call lists .. or sold my information to someone else.
.. I went home yesterday for lunch .. and had ELEVEN messages on my machine. all from telemarketing companies.]
.. when I *KNOW* that i don't even give that number out anymore ?
.. be they on my phone .. my front door .. or my computer - there is no rule of ediquette that says I have to cheerfully exchange the time of day to them.
.. I will SUE you for harassment." [after obtaining their company information of course]
.. or I tell them that the person they are looking for is dead.
That is a very 'Liberal' outlook.
"Everyone should answer their phone
What kind of crack are you on ?
You might as well say "Everyone should turn on their TV to channel 4
[ok
My phone , (last i checked) is in MY house
[for example
So explain to me again why I need to answer everyone of my phone calls
If I don't want to talk to someone
My telemarketing responses are generally along the lines of "Don't fucking call my house. Put me on your DO NOT CALL LIST - If you call my house again
either that
works like a charm.
--Ne auderis delere orbem rigidum meum, non erravi pernicose!
To buy a crappy phone with a built-in monophonic hold music generator (something like Barry Manilow's "Copacabana"). When the telemarketers call, you ask them to "Hold Please" and put them on hold. They usually last thirty seconds or so before they realize you're not coming back, and with luck the horribly annoying song will stick in their head for the rest of the day.
Idiot, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant
I often compare living in teh US to living here in Norway, Europe. It seems that we can learn a lot from each other, this time it is your turn to learn... ;)
So. WHAT?!?! Are paying for hardware and services to stop telemarketeers? Aren't they obliged by law to check if your name is on a do-not-call list? A friend of mine in the US said that he had to pay to be on a do-not-call list, operated by the telemarketeers association. That is nothing short of insane. Paying people to not bother me? Hello; it's not very difficult to operate such lists.
I'm on the Norwegian goverments do-not-call list. There are three levels: 1) Any call accepted. 2) Commercial calls not allowed. 3) Neither commercial nor charitable calls allowed.
I'm already a member of the chartiable orgs i want to, so my do-not-call entry lists me as option 3. This is a free system, no fees. Any company that calls you even though you're on the list will face fines if you turn them in to the Consumer Council.
I think this system is
What do you do if the person doesn't have a phone number? Or if they request to be contacted in another way than the phone? Or if their kid answers the phone and drops it back at once?
I don't think it sounds like an especially good technology, no offense.
Get an unlisted and unpublished phone number. This costs $6 a month in MN. Couple this with not giving out your phone number to people trying to give you something "for free", and you should be in the clear. I haven't had one telemarketing call since I got the number two years ago.
One more thing: never ever fill out the "win this 2002 $vehicle" sweepstakes cards at the mall/wherever. They don't actually give away the vehicle anyway; they just to harvest phone numbers for a variety of telemarketing firms.
"It isn't necessary to completely suppress the news; it is sufficient to delay the news until it no longer matters." - N
I'll put this one in the public domain, so as we can all benefit from it:
If you're in the mood, answer the phone. Answer with your name, e.g., "This is Doug." If there is a pause, or the person on the other end says, "May I speak with Mr. X", they are a telemarketer (in all likelihood). The pause is a dead giveaway, and asking for me by last name means they don't know who I am.
At this point, hang up the phone. No need to be polite and try to reason your way out of the call. Really. It's okay. These are professional telemarketers. This kind of rejection rolls off their back like water on a duck (Simpson's, Daryl Strawberry anyone?).
If the call really was legitimate, they'll be calling back, although I haven't had a false positive using this technique yet.
This technique is licensed under the GPL.
Giddy Up.
...this annoying pause before a person picks up to annoy you. So, you should just do what I do and hang up as soon as you don't hear anyone in the first second or two.
with a machete or an ax
Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains.
I get approximately 4 calls from marketers a day. I work from home, which is how I know. One system calls me 5-6 times a week, is from "Out of Area," I cannot call-trace it (*57 here, DC/Virginia), and the phone company says I have to pay them $5/month to make them stop. I cannot ask them to put me on a DNC (do not call) list because nobody ever answers, it's just an empty line for 5 seconds then it clicks to a dial tone. When callers who ARE human do call, I ask to be put on their DNC list AFTER I get the name, address, phone number and all sorts of other information so I can sue them later.
It really is a problem in the US, espcially here in the Washington DC area.
TossableDigits.com: Temporary Phone Numb
http://www.scn.org/~bk269/points.html
In the UK, you can register on-line with the Telephone Preference Service to avoid telemarketing calls.
http://www.tpsonline.org.uk
Similar services exist for Snail Mail
http://www.mpsonline.org.uk
and Fax.
http://www.fpsonline.org.uk/
The Data Protection register monitors these, and operates enforcement, so you can expect good results.
I would like to see a more high tech version of this running on a PC. I think it would be liberating to press a button and have an Eliza-like program take over the call from my end. Initially, it could ask the telemarketers to repeat everything several times... then play dumb for a while - asking for things to be repeated in more and more depth - then present an automated sales pitch for some ludicrous randomly chosen product - finally thanking the company for an amusing conversation - and hanging up. I think this would be a particularly effective anti-scam as a result of the way in which I suspect many call centres are run - I understand that those making the calls are required to be polite at all times and are frequently are required to follow strict rules about how they must direct conversations and answer questions. I'm having fun ideas about stock phrases like - "Very interesting - but I'm afraid I was distracted by my next door neighbours' cat - please could you repeat all that" on a rule where the caller has spoken for over 3 minutes. "I'm very interested in this idea - please would you wait while I get a pen I'm back again - what was it we were talking about again?" "Can you explain to me what you meant by that first bit again?" (The possibilities are only limited by our imagination :-)
I worked for a market research company. Our company would pick the area code and first 3 didgits of the phone numbers in the area we wanted to research, then our computers would randomly pick the last four digits. If you are unlisted or on a list, it doesn't matter. It is random. When I called someone who was unlisted it always puzzled the hell out of them how I got the number.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Info here.
I used to get 7-10 telemarketer calls a week before this service, now i've got blissful silence. It is very worth the $4.00/mo. verizon charges.
-ted
In six months of being on the New York State Do Not Call List I've found it quite affective, especially against AT&T cellular, which was calling at least every week despite being asked every time to take me off their list. You'd think a phone company would know federal law on this? Naturally I will NEVER buy anything from AT&T - and urge you not to either. Meanwhile, this is one gov. program NYS actually runs well - perhaps the only one.
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
Here's something to think about- maybe someone with a bit more time on their hands could tackle this problem and make a mint.
911 calls can not be blocked by the *67 code- your number will always show up, 800 numbers also always show the caller's number.
So what is it with the caller ID program on my cell phone, or the call ID box that my mother has that listens to the PRIVATE / BLOCKED code, and why can't it be reprogrammed to just show the caller's number always.
III.IIVIVIXIIVIVIIIVVIIIIXVIIIXIIIIIIIIVIIIIVVIII
I used to work as a telemarketer in the past (Don't mod me down because I needed a job...) and I've learned a few tricks to beat telemarketers.
Do Not Call Lists: All telemarketing centers have a Do Not Call list. Two of them in fact. The first is required by law for the center to remove you from their calling list if you say the words "Put me on your do not call list" This information is entered by the telemarketer into the system and your name is then removed from the system for that Company.
In many cases, A center will have multiple Companies that they do calling for. Requesting to be placed on the "Coperate Do Not Call List" will not only remove you from the list the telemarketer is calling for, but also any other company that the center does any telemarketing for at that time and in the future. That will help in making sure that the center does not call again in the future (Next time, try asking the telemarketer who they actually work for, usually it's not the one they're calling on behalf of.)
As Well, in the United States, you as a consumer are protected by the "Telephone Consumer's Protection Act" (TCPA), which requires the telemarketer to give you the company name and telephone number where you can reach them. If they fail to do so at the end of the call (IE, if they think you hang up, and just don't say it even to dead air), then you have the right to sue the company for up to $10,000. Not all states fall under the same rules, so check out here for more info on it
Some states also have what's call a no rebutal law, which should prevent the telemarketer from rebuting you (ie. saying "I understand your hesitation but..."), when you say "No" they have to end the call there. Check out your state laws to find out if you fall in this category as well.
-- Never monkey with another Monkey's monkey
that we have to *buy* a device to get rid of an inconsiderate business practice.
Seems to me if we had legislators with ANY backbone whatsoever this practice would not be allowed. I find it hard to believe that the american public actually WANTS telemarketing.
Just hook up a computer to be your answering machine, hack their machine when they call you, and prominently display the goatse guy. I guarantee that will stop any solicitations calls.
Here's an article about a Florida-based firefighters charity that's not what it seems.
1 - signed onto CT's (check your state for availability) no call list.
2 - caller i.d.
3 - answering machine
4 - "attitude"
Of course, I still get stupid calls. Like the one yesterday from my cable company trying to sell me cable modem service. Of course, I already have it, and have had it since the 1st day I moved into the new apartment. The best part you ask? They no longer do seperate billing for the 2 different services, they are just to lazy to filter out the 2% that already have the service.
*sigh*
Software like this may help combat this in the future. Imagine your own computerized voice mail system... give you friends an access code (31337? *laugh*) and all other calls get diverted to a "Remove me from you list" type message.
The best way to get rid of telemarketers? Tell them a joke.
You "What has a small penis and hangs up side down?"
Them "I don't know"
You "A bat. What has a big penis and hangs up?"
Them "I don't know"
You *click*
Since doing that our telemarketing calls drop dramaticly.
Why are people still even using land lines? Cell phones are cheaper than land lines in most cases now. All I use my home phone for is for dialing out to the Net. I have no telephones connected to it at home, thus, no telemarketers.
My employer recently set up a phone line in my apartment so I could work from home. Naturally, I got several telemarketing calls a week. The first thing I tell them is "This is a business line", and every time (whether they are nonprofit or not) they say, "oh sorry, we'll take your number off our list".
Believe me, I'm not liberal, and that wasn't a liberal response. In fact, this whole thread, besides my response is very liberal. Especially when we talk about laws, and banning this. The govt. has no place in this mess.
You think you've solved your own problem by buying a cell phone.
I'll tell you what though, the way you have solved your problem is that, you my friend, are a jerk, and you probably don't have many friends that like to call you. I guess it's all about ratios then. For you, it's 9 of 10 are telemarketing.
For me, it's probably more like 1 of 6. Why? I get more non-telemarketing calls in total. It may have something to do with my old-fashioned way of not taking any of my friends, or relations for granted. Each and every one of them get the benefit of me answering their calls within 2 rings 90% of the time.
Is it really that hard to hit the pause button to get off your fat ass to answer the phone. Basically, people are just lazy. Telemarketers are doing a great public health service to all the couch potaten (sic).
Local phone companies like Verizon Communications offer enhanced caller-ID service, which intercepts any calls that show up as "out of area," "unknown," or other frequent telemarketer aliases.
.uk a bit of a start when they called me after it was first activated.
...press 1 to answer, etc.
Callers are asked to record their name, then placed on hold as the recipient decides whether to take the call.
I got this service 9 months ago. Calls from telemarketers went from 1-4 a night to none. Worth the US$5 a month, but it's still a shame that I *have* to pay not to be pestered.
On a side note, it gave a few people from
Phone: Privacy director. You have a call from.. ("What the in the hell is this poxy thing? Will you just pick up the phone!")
/*drunk.. fix later*/
I prefer to deal with phone soliciters the old fashioned way -- with a string of expletives that would turn a sailor blue.
- EZ Hangup - an annual-fee "opt-out" list, and a single-point device that tells telemarketers to fuck off
- The Phone Butler - a device that lets you, from any phone in the house, tell telemarketers to "piss off" (British accent, donchaknow)
- TriVOX - call screening device that requests callers to enter a code to "ring through" to the hosue
- Screen Machine - not quite sure, looks similar to TriVOX. The linked site (and the manufacturer's site) are pretty skimpy on info.
These are not, of course, the only solutions to the problem. Some other approaches (discussed here and elsewhere):- Do Not Call Lists - State, Federal, Industry, and Company-specific -- a list of numbers wishing to be left alone
- Interrupt tone generators - The idea is to generate the "booo-dee-dweep" sort of sound you get when you call a number that's out of service, and the belief is that telemarketer dialers will hear that and remove your number from their DB. Nobody knows how many call-generating systems actually do this (it's probably a small number).
- Call Screening with an Answering Machine - you still have to run downstairs to listen to the machine, and many telemarketers will just hang up and try again later
- Caller-ID Rejection - Most telemarkters don't pass CID information (thanks, FCC, for dropping that requirement!), some legitimate organizations (some college dorms, for example) don't pass the info, and other telemarketers deliberately pass "appealing" names to entice you to answer.
And what list of potential solutions would be complete without a list of why they all suck?- Opt-Out Systems - They still have to call you once so you can tell them to leave you alone. Not all telemarketers follow the rules, and fighting back is difficult. Not all telemarketers are even bound by the rules (there are a lot of exceptions). Not all subscribe to industry-based lists (like the Direct Marketing Association). Proposed national Federal "opt-out" lists are riddled with exceptions, too, and still rely on callers actually bothering to obey the law. It's difficult to tell a recorded message (illegal, by the way) to place you on a do not call list.
- CID, Interrupt tones, answering machine screening, etc. - discussed above
- EZ Hangup - see #1, plus you gotta run to the phone where the EZ Hangup box lives
- Phone Butler - see #1
- TriVOX - Would be nice to have the ability to manually place numbers on the system so that friends, family, etc., calling from recognizable numbers can ring straight through
- Screen Machine - ??? Probably similar to #5.
Of all these possible solutions, the TriVOX comes closest to what I've been hoping to find for about the last 10 years. The ideal solution, for me, would be:- Hardware solution that sits in my basement, between the outside world and all my inside extensions
- Connects to a computer for inbound CID logging and configuration (including setup of whitelist and blacklist phone numbers)
- Passes whitelist numbers straight through to internal extensions
- Blocks blacklist numbers immediately with "do not call" request
- Interrupts unrecognized numbers, before ringing inside the house, with user-recorded announcement giving callers the option to "hit 1" to ring through.
- Tone-sensor to allow any extension in the house to interrupt a caller who has rung through and is still a telemarketer (ala Phone Butler)
- (optional): capability to do multi-extension ringing ("hit 1 for david") or multi-mailbox voicemail (extra credit: record voicemail to computer and make available for software to include in email or web interface)
I've always thought that this would make a great open source hardware project -- complex enough that it doesn't already exist, simple enough to be within the reach of hobbyist hackers.Like I said, the TriVOX comes VERY close to this, but is missing some key features (like the ability to whitelist friends and family). It is, however, very encouraging that we're finally getting close to being able to truly solve the problem. At least as well as can ever be done.
The telemarketers numbers show that people buy the junk they sell. One of the people I work with has bought tons of stuff from them, including Direct TV, Carpet Cleaner, and weight loss stuff.
So long as there are people like my co-worker, these guys are going to keep at it.
As for me, I'm using the 3 tone way.
What, me Tweet?
Conversation 1:
Telemarketer: "Hello, may I speak with the lady of the house?"
Me: "Sure, hang on a second." Then I put the phone down and go on with whatever I was doing. Come back 10 minutes later and hang it up.
Conversation 2:
TM: "Hello, may I speak to to Mrs. Mole?"
Me (sobbing): "No, she died last week. Is it important?"
I know that getting those calls is really annoying but they do have a purpose. These businesses contain many employees. These employees have families and financial obligations. Once they are fired from there telemarketing jobs because the technology has killed the industry there are thousands of additional people unemployed in our country because some of us are too lazy to say " NO Thanks" when we get a call.
Employement.
Nobody likes telemarketers. But we're talking about a *lot* of jobs. It sucks that people don't have actual skills, literacy, insights, money to invest, etc. But the bottom line is that call center jobs are sometimes the only game in town.
The real problem is that the telemarketing industry is part of our welfare system...
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
You know what I desperatly want? I want a seperate phone # that I give out ONLY on forms that I fill in, only to companies that request information from me. But I want the phone number to always be answered by my phone company's voice mail service. I don't want a line to my house. I don't want to pay all the extra crap. I just want a phone number that always goes to an answering machine. Which I will check from time to time.
Then I'll give out my real phone number to all my friends and family. And my public phone number to anyone I don't know. Oh, also, my public phone number will be the one listed in the phone book. Oh, and I'll put callerid blocker on my real phone number.
I'd be willing to pay about $10 a month for the extra number w/out a line to my house and the voice mail that operates on that number. But I'm not willing to pay $40 a month for a phone line attached to a $30 answering machine that comes to my house. That's too expensive.
Anyone know of any phone company that does this?
Key to financial independence: Spend less than you earn. Save and invest the difference. Do it for a long time.
I once thought it would be cool to create a "900" service. I give you your own 900 # and that's the # you put in all those forms etc where 99% of th calls come from (won't help with auto dialing up a local exchange).
Then when someone calls they get its a $20 fee to make this call. You can go online and look at a list if it happens to be from someone you want you can refund the fee minus the 50cent charge to handle the call processing, otherwise I get a cut and you get a cut from anyone dumb enough to say yes.
One thing we did when we bought our most recent house is just not to list our phone number. We rarely get unsolicited calls.
We were getting them several times a week at our last house. The only difference - listed phone number.
And, if you DO get someone, it's easier just to say "this is an unlisted number, take me off your call list" and hang up.
Cost was around $50. Install it in any phone jack. When the automated caller reaches your phone and you pick up, they get a signal telling their computer that your phone has been disconnected. Gradually the data bases get the word. Junk calls drop by 90% over 3 months. Doesn't interfer with direct TV, modems, etc that I can see. Nor with answering machine on the same line. Voice caller gets a short non-objectionable, almost undectable unless you are listening for it tone.
Just move to Colorado and get yourself on our state's No Call list...
I haven't had a telemarketer call in months.
... is the people who answer the questions.
I get very few telemarketing calls, maybe a dozen or so a year, but I object to them on principle so a couple of months ago I decided not to accept them in future.
About a month ago I got a call and a very polite guy explained briefly who he was, what his company did (market research) and asked if I had a few minutes to answer some questions.
I told him: "Actually I don't like taking part in these things, sorry."
His reaction told me so much. Slight pause, then in a surprised tone: "You don't?"
I imagine lots of people make excuses not to answer the questions, or they just say they don't have time or whatever, but judging from that guy's reaction I bet I was the first person to just say that I didn't want to take part.
Maybe if more people make it clear to cold callers that they aren't welcome, they'll quit doing it. It's not like spam where the sender is pretty much anonymous. The cold caller is right there on the phone! Just tell them that their call isn't wanted.
But remember that the person on the other end of the phone is just someone paid to sit at a desk and dial numbers and ask questions. No need to be rude to them. I'm sure they'd be doing a better job if they could get one.
Here in Indiana, the state has set up a "No call list." It's great, I get a few phone calls but I make the telemarketer feel bad about not following the list if they do call. The biggest plus is that I don't get all the calls and it doesn't cost my a penny!
a cy /
:(
http://www.in.gov/attorneygeneral/telephonepriv
Check it out if you live in Indiana.
The only bad thing about this list is that every company will target these people if the state decides to do away with supporting it.
I used to receive at least 1-2 telemarketing calls a week. After adding myself to Missouri's "no call" list, I haven't received a single telemarketing call in 6 months or so.
This is the most effective measure, in my opinion, without irritating the hell out of family and friends that may live in an area that does not send caller ID information (such that they show up as "OUT OF AREA").
Privacy Manager is a fairly rude piece of technology. It works, but I get quite a lot of legitimate calls sent through the system as well and I know they don't like it.
If you want to stop receiving telemarketing calls in the UK you can register with the Telephone Preference Service. It is backed by Oftel and it will stop telemarketers as they can be hit with big fines if you are on the list and they call you.
There is a similar service for junk faxes, the Fax Preference Service and even regular junk mail.
They have a similar spam blocking service but I doubt how useful that is :-)
Somebody please mod this FLAMEBAIT down.
Forget screening their calls; let them talk. If they don't have the decency at the start to ask you if you care before they start into the pitch, let them talk. Let them finish the whole thing, then tell them you don't care at the first chance you get. And if they still try and pitch it, let them pitch. The longer they waste their time and breath with you, the fewer people they could have called in that time period. It could add up if enough people cared to do that.
These gadgets have a little publicized feature that is not desirable. Since they operate by sending a short tone like the phone number has been disconnected, they trick the telemarketer's computers into thinking that your phone number doesn't work. The problem is that calling cards are also routed through similar computers, making people with these gadgets unreachable.
here
granted, it was a year ago, but maybe a link would be nice?
Well some people do want these calls! This guy seems to have the most fun with them. I get a chuckle everytime I hear the calls he gets.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
This is about an 80% solution, but it has worked fairly well for me. Within the past couple years, I've noticed that most, if not all, solicitation calls to my home are dialed by an automatic system that requires the sales person to pick up their line after they are notified that someone (me) is on the line. This leads to an annoying silence, followed by an even more annoying exchange: Me:"Hello, this is Scratch" Marketeer:...[silence]..."Hello? May I speak to Scratch please?" Anyway, I started using those periods of silence as my cue to hang up immediately. I never have to talk to a salesman, and I sometimes get the satisfaction of hearing them talking just before my phone hits the cradle. The drawback is that I don't end up on a "no call list," but I figure I'm going to keep getting calls anyway, from other companies.
Evil is the money of root.
It doesn't even require batteries AND it operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week AND here's the real kicker, 365 days a year! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!
s200.org - visit it (me), love it (me).
I have not had any telemarketing calls since signing up with it.
well .. and I jog 10 miles a day if I can help it.
.. and everything to do with the fact that I don't want some random stranger .. calling me at 8:00 at night .. trying to get me to change my long distance service.
.. but thats just pouring salt now.]
.. believe me .. i have the ability to dial their number myself.
.. your arguing a non-sequter
.. not talking on the phone.
.. is that telemarkers call my phone more often than legitimite callers do.
.. you might have made the intuitive leap that:
.. that way I can cackle maniacally with a ringing phone in the background as I take them for granted."
.. is you .. calling me a "bad person" with no friends because I don't seem to fit your moral values of "Be Kind to Telemarketeres and Turn the Other Ring."
.. Than I'm the biggest-loudest-motherfuckerest-jerk you'll ever meet.
.. and if a driver ahead of me sits still at a green light for more that 10 seconds .. I honk my horn too ! TAKE THAT !
*This* 'jerk' doesn't own a TV
it has nothing to do with my 'fat' ass and pause buttons
[Just an aside: I found myself wondering why you give the concept of a Fat person negative connotation. I don't see how body size or conditiong has ANYTHING to do with how good of a person someone is. Or answering the phone for that matter
If I want to change my long distance carrier
As to your equation of
Answer Phone = Obtain More Friends
Again
I don't see ANY direct corolation to picking up telemarketing calls obtaining me more/better friends.
Personally, I prefer to spend time with my friends *DOING* something
*MY* whole point here
And if you extracted your head from your posterior
a) in order to know that 1 in 10 calls are telemarketers *I HAVE TO ANSWER ALL TEN CALLS*
b) in order to be asked to be removed from their list *I HAVE TO ANSWER ALL TEN CALLS*
*knock knock* Did I make any statements that said "What I like to do is NOT answer my phone, especially when friends call
What I DO see
If wanting my privacy respectes makes me a jerk
Oh
*grin*
--Ne auderis delere orbem rigidum meum, non erravi pernicose!
Here's what YOU can keep in mind, to avoid the need for any high-tech solution:
Before you flame me, realize I am not apologizing for telemarketing. I wish I could make the entire concept disappear with a wave of my hand, but I can't; telemarketing is too profitable to just go away. "There's a sucker born every minute", after all.
(*)Well, last I checked it was free if you sent them a letter for the cost of a stamp, and $5 if you register on-line (to keep you from registering all your friends and family and the phone book presumably).
So I keep a pad of paper by the phone. When they call, I ask the person their full name, and I have them spell it. I ask them the name of their company. Then I politely say "I want you to take me off of your list, and never call here again". They are used to dealing with aholes, but they aren't so used to dealing with someone who takes down all their info and speaks nicely but firmly with them. They get a little freaked when you ask for their name, but they usually give it to you. Now THEY are tied to the call, so they have a vested interest in not pissing you off. As we all know, people are a lot more bold when they are Anonymous Cowards.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Last I checked .. it encourages open communication when people RESPONDED to posts .. not modded them down because they didn't agree with them.
.. however .. at least I'm not a Karma Whore and I dont hide Anonymously.
.. technically .. could almost be -1 OFFTOPIC since the article is about telemarking stopping MACHINES - not about everyones opinions on telemarketers.] And I refute his opitnion opening it for discussion.
/. be if everyone who didnt say 'Ayup- thats right on' got modded down ?
You can mod this post if you wish
Really though, What happened to the idea that this was a DISCUSSION board.
One gentleman states 'contrairy to popular opinion' that everyone should TALK to all the telemarkers [which
How exciting would
--Ne auderis delere orbem rigidum meum, non erravi pernicose!
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
The link in the posting for EZ Hangup links to a site that's running a scam. Zenith's EZ Hangup is a $10 product--I have one. For $49.00, the site hangupnow.com is offering you one Zenith EZ Hangup device and a "free" listing on the "national do not call list" (a $39.00 value). On top of that, there is no national do-not-call list--they're advertising a private service that contacts telemarketers to have your number removed, and it is doubtful they even do that much (particularly since their FAQ highlights that you may still receive calls, and the service has no guarantee).
I use my cell phone as my primary number.
I'm pretty sure that telemarketers aren't allowed to call my cell (because it might actually cost me in air time, and I can sue them for imposing those charges). So my cell never gets telemarketing calls.
I have a land line in my house that I use for DSL. I don't give it out, even more so.. I don't even know the number myself.. have it written down somewhere. So literally *every single* call I'd recieve on that line was telemarketing.
I toyed with trying to get them to put me on the DNC list, etc etc. But ultimately I just turned the ringer off and that was the end of that.
Just turn the ringer off and the volume down on the answering machine when you nap.
Then I say "No," and hang up.
Answer every telemarketing call politely, and quickly say "I am not interested, please put me on your do not call list" and hang up. Do this consistently for several months and the call volume will drop to almost nothing.
Try it - it works.
-josh
I'd buy that for a dollar!
get caller id and use it.
They ask if I have ever considered getting a conservatory. I tell them with a dumb accent, "No, I vote Labour." [1]
."
Or.
They ask the same question and I excitedly respond, "Yes, I'd love one. I've been saving up thousands to get one but I've never found anyone able to supply just the one I want. There have always been a few problems here or there with other companies."
The reply comes back. "Wonderful Sir. I'm sure we could meet all of your needs."
"Ok, I'd like a smoked glass roof, with lots of opening windows, double glazed, all round and lovely polished wooden floors with underfloor heating for the winter and power and network sockets so I can use my laptop in there."
"Oh I'm sure we can do all that easily for you sir."
"One more thing, I almost forgot, but I live in a first floor rented flat." [2]
CLICK!
Or.
Not forgetting the classic.
They call and say, "Hello is that Mr.
"No, I'll just get him for you."
I then place the receiver quietly down beside the phone and walk away.
[1] For non-clued or non-UK readers. Labour and Conservative are the two main political parties here (though some may dispute that).
[2] In the UK we have the first floor above the ground floor, if you get that part wrong you won't get the joke.
I've actually eliminated most telemarketing calls by just asking to be removed from the list every single time. I've eliminated most of my junk mail this way too -- every time I get a piece of junk mail I contact the company by e-mail, phone, or using the business reply envelope. It works.
But for the most offensive telemarketer calls where it's just recorded message and they don't tell their company name or phone number (as required by law) I leave a message and tell them I'm VERY interested. When they call back I tell them I'm busy and get their phone number. Then that night before I go to bed, I turn on my Commodore 64 and use a BASIC program that dials their number all night and leaves carrier tone messages on their voice mail. I can usually get around 500-1000 messages on there in a night. How the hell One time they called me the next day and were VERY pissed. It's really funny to have a telemarketer yelling at you for calling him repeatedly.
-Paul
I just ask them: "Do you swallow when you suck dick?" and they almost always hang up on me, somtimes after quite humerous reactions.
Unsolicited phone calls are illegal in Colorado. I went from 40 calls a week to zero the day the law went into effect. I haven't had a single call since then, except from charities (which are allowed). I don't have to cringe when the phone rings at night any more.
http://www.coloradonocall.com/
Here's the story of their first legal battle with the phone spam industry after the law went into effect:
==
[from info@bighorncenter.org. Dated Thu, 6/27/2002]
Yesterday Federal Judge Robert Blackburn rejected an attempt by telemarketers' lawyers to stop the July 1 no-call list implementation. It is now scheduled to go into effect on Monday.
I had the pleasure of sitting through three hours of whining by the telemarketers. According to their testimony, the future of our nation's economy depends on their ability to annoy you at home during the dinner hour. They also expressed shock and outrage that over 750,000 residential phones (out of a total of 1,963,000) had already been signed up.
I suggested that since they are such champions of our freedom of speech, perhaps they could provide us with their home phone numbers so that all of us could exercise our First Amendment rights. They declined.
Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar's staff, led by Assistant AG Jan Zavislan, put together a terrific defense. They only had six days from last Friday's filing of the request for a temporary restraining order to halt the July 1 startup. Yet they nailed down point-by-point the constitutionality of Colorado's No-Call law. Bighorn helped prepare some affidavits to support their case. Thanks to the AARP, State Senator Ken Chlouber, Rep. Steve Johnson, Rep. Mark Larsen, Rep. Al White, and everyone else who cooperated in this effort.
A big part of this issue hinges on First Amendment protections for commercial versus non-commercial speech. This is basically why politicians and non-profits can't be banned from calling. In Bighorn's research and drafting of this legislation, we looked hard at including them but feared that the law might be overturned. It turns out we were right.
The telemarketers have vowed to continue the fight. Bighorn promises to continue to represent your interests to the best of our ability.
We believe that if you can't make them see the light, you must make them feel the heat. And basically that is our plan. Bighorn will be back in touch soon to let you know how we hope to accomplish this.
It's been a long fight, and it's still not over. But we're close! Thanks for your continued support in helping preserve the right to personal privacy in our homes.
Best regards,
Rutt Bridges, CEO
Bighorn Center for Public Policy
Chicago fan is RIGHT on the money with this one.
I'm not gonna go into a mini-rant about how we interrupt EVERYTHING for the phone and have become slaves to communication technology, cuz I don't believe it.
But if it REALLY bugs you you can screen your calls. Have a very short Outgoing Message.
My parents do this, My wife does this, I sometimes do this (or I'll just wait 3 rings and pick up- usually those multi-calls just drop the trunk when they get someone ELSE to pick up!)I don't need the WAshington Post to call me up on a sunday morning, twice, when I already get 7 day service! Infact I won't even answer a doorbell ring if I'm not expecting anyone.
But mekka b! What if it is your long lost friend and they had an accident just down the road in in their last dying breath they crawled to your door?
Hmmm, possible, but not probable. More probably, it is some schmuck trying to sell me something door to door. Empirical evidence states that you are probably someone who I don't want to waste my time on becuase I can't bill my lost time to your account. Fuck off.
But for some reason many (like the guy before me) will SLAM you for how inconsiderate it is to force him to suffer through your message! Well I got news for you buddy, if you don't want to listen to the machine, don't leave a message and don't call. I'm not crying over it.
Besides, if you want instant communication, send me an e-mail! I'm always on line!
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
Let's consider the following example:
A relative died. My aunt is making arrangements at the funeral home. She has some extra time there, and the funeral director allowed her to make an hour's worth of phone calls from his office, many long distance.
Now, for me, she got an answer on the second ring. She informed me of an Uncle's sad and sudden passing.
She's probably got at least 40 calls to make. She'll only get through about 10 because more than half the time, she gets an answering machine (boy does it suck giving a death notice to an answering machine). She starts leaving a message, then, the lazy person picks up and says, Oh I'm so sorry and they continue from there... Each call, she had to wait anywhere from 4 to 8 rings. Caller Id is from the furneral director's office. So, it's unknown caller.
Here's the point. Granted this doesn't happen everyday. But darnit, it does happen, and when it does, all the hassle of hanging up politely on telemarketers has been worth it, to provide this courtesy to my grieving aunt.
My point is that your friends deserve courtesy, not the telemarketers. The hassle you suffer from the telemarketers doesn't add up to the politeness you would have taken away from your friends.
I just want a phone that I can tell not to ring if the call shows up on caller-id as "out of area" (or unavailable or whatever).
But, in the meantime, I have that anti-telemarketer option from Qwest and I'm on the Colorado No-Call list. Before it went active, I'd receive up to 20 "out of area" rings on my phone in a day. Since the list went active I haven't received a single one. Very nice.
Oh Mr. Tenderhearted,
What is the difference in a friend calling me and letting the answering machine get it as opposed to I am not at home and the machine takes the call? answer: nothing!
I do not take friends for granted, however, when I am watching a movie I hate to be interrupted by a phone call. Lazy has nothing to do with it. I want to watch the movie from start to finish wihout interruptions.
Robert
One system calls me 5-6 times a week, is from "Out of Area," I cannot call-trace it (*57 here, DC/Virginia), and the phone company says I have to pay them $5/month to make them stop. I cannot ask them to put me on a DNC (do not call) list because nobody ever answers, it's just an empty line for 5 seconds then it clicks to a dial tone.
It may not be a marketer, it may be a device "phoning home." There was a woman who would get called with such regularity she could set her clock by it. It turned out the caller was something like an oil tank, trying to call the previous owner of the number because it was time for servicing or something. So if you haven't had the number for long, that might be the reason. (Or it could be the device has the number wrong.)
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
I keep getting calls with automated messages (against the law) trying to sell me something in a foreign language I don't understand (Farsi or Punjab, I think) on my cell phone.
Already lodged a complaint with the FCC after being told I would be put on the DNC.
Bastards.
That is telephonre harrassment, it's illegal, and the telephone companies are required to do something about it. If they refuse, or try to charge you, contact the police.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
As others have pointed, yes Virginia, there is a law. 47 U.S.C. 227. and the implementing regulations at 47 C.F.R. 64.1200.
And you get to play federal enforcement officer. Under the statute, any telemarketer that violates the regs, you get to drag them into your local small claims court and fry them for $500 to 1500 per violation. I've done it fir the last 5 years, and have collected (yup... cashed the checks and got the money) over $100,000.
Now the interesting part. The FCC is holding a rulemaking proceeding and asking for public comments on 1) what problems consumers are currently experiencing with telemarketing and junk faxing, and 2) asking for comments on what changes there should be to the 47 C.F.R. 64.1200 regulations.
File your comments!!! You can file comments via a web form or e-mail at the FCC web site (Docket 102-278).
A consumer has a simplified CGI form with instruction and sample comments here.
I take one of the following tactics, depending on my mood:
ONE The legal approach, which could probably make you some (odd todd voice) Money.
Ask this question:"What company do you work for?"
Write down the answer, or don't... unless you want to try to get them, write down the date as well.
Read this to them:
"In accordance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 I formally request you put me on your do not call list. Any repeated calls to this phone number will result in legal action against your company. Do you understand?"
Then hang up
TWO The fun approach, start asking them random survey questions, and expand on the answers. The goal here is to find out what kind of people are in the world with no worry of their opinon of you. Keeping them on the phone raises their long distance bill too I guess...
What kind of computer do you own?
What operating system do you have on it?
Have you heard of linux?
How much memory does your system have?
What type of internet connection do you have?
What browser do you use?
Do you own or rent?
What type of car do you drive?
Do you smoke cigarettes?
-Or any slashdot poll...
THREE Make them listen, If I am doing something like playing the piano/guitar or listening to music, I usually just put the phone down without hanging up. I've had people listen to me play the piano for about 20 min without hanging up. Pathetic part is they go right into the pitch after that, as opposed to, "That really sucked, why don't you take some lessons"
FOUR, Two year old, Give the phone to my two year old, she doesn't have a credit card yet.
FIVE, Porn Read them something from the Penthouse Forum, or make something up along those lines.
SIX Turrets syndome, don't hang up, listen to response.
M@
Krispy Cream is people
And they probably do have email notifications.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
That is what I did. I have had a my cell for 4 years now and got one telemarketing call on it. I do have a hard line at home which I listed the number in the phone book to see what would happen. I turned the ringger off and at the end of the day I would check the caller id log. Out of 50 calls in one week I would say 95% of them where telemarketers.
I have a simple rule. If you don't know my cell number, I don't want to talk to you.
Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification
See .. now i see where our disconnect was.
.. as my family is getting older .. medical emergencies come up a lot more frequently .. and with my cel, they can get me anywhere anytime. BOY is it scarey when that thing wakes me up at 3:00 am.]
.. it takes a telephone 45 seconds to ring 10 times.
.. but quite a short time when your in the shower with shampoo streaming down your face.
I didn't really make it clear that my family & friends call my cel-phone.
[which is part of the reason I have a cel phone
But to play devil's advocate
45 seconds is a long time when your waiting for someone to pick up
*heh* not like thats a real life example.
--Ne auderis delere orbem rigidum meum, non erravi pernicose!
We snail mail 'em if we can't reach them by phone. It just takes a little while longer.
:)
No offense taken -- I'm not our vendor.
Until we decide to actually give some police organization real authority to prosecute these people
Around here, the Fraternal Order of Police is one of the worst organizations for telemarketing (second only to Citibank). They not only call, but repeatedly call until they get someone to solicit donations from.
I pick up every "unavailable" call and as soon as I hear the other person call me by my last name and then mis-pronounce it, I say hello and let them start their speech, then I set the phone down. By doing this, I can increase the call times as much as possible and still get back to my TV show. Like spam, the only way that telemarketing will ever stop is when it is no longer profitable.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Usually I ask if the US has laws like in Canada. This, however, sounds like a damn good law coming from America. Anyone know if anything like this applies in Canada.I'm tired of getting calls around dinner (they know I'm home then).
And just in case it hasn't said it
1. Place name on list
2. Bust spam callers
3. ??? (indeterminate court process?)
4. Profit!
Pre-recorded messages and audio-clips can also be a great amusement in this case - phorm
It reduced the calls by 99%. Aside from occasional mortgage refinance idiots and clueless SNET morons, the teletrash is pretty much gone. What little gets past the DNC list will be ignored since I only answer when Caller ID shows me a name or number that I recognize.
Before the state offered the DNC list, I played around with a modem that just happened to include caller ID recognition. I wrote a quickie app to detect the "number unavailable" situation and have the modem go off-hook for 5 seconds and hang up. Any call that rang more than once was worth answering, because otherwise my program would have intercepted it. The sheer fun of hearing a single ring followed by silence made it all worthwhile. In a way, the state DNC list has deprived me of the enjoyment I used to get from my homemade teletrash defense system.
Why put yourself to the expense and hassle of installing anything to block these people?
1) Answer the phone
2) Say, yes, I do want double glazing (or whatever)
3) Arrange an appointment with the salesman
4) Go to work
5) (Optional) Write the salesman a note requesting that you be taken off their list, leave it taped to your front door.
This method costs nothing, and makes you feel a lot better. You're also hitting them where it hurts. If lots of people did this, then the calls would stop. They have for me.
Arkansas also has such a law. If you live in Arkansas, check out this site for details. I paid $5 to put my name on the list, and haven't had any telemarketing calls since.
I pulled that kind of crap with a couple telemarketers. The last one had the unfortunate timing and got me hours after I had been laid-off.
After trying to sell me on the benefits of his company's credit card, for which any question was easily solved by a flowchart, which was quite obviously sitting in front of him. Then I asked him what color the card was. I guarantee that this information is not on the flowchart. After a short silence, I explained that in my vast array of credit cards, I had covered most of the primary and secondary colors, along with several metallic cards. When he suggested that he believed it was a translucent card, I feigned enthusiasm and asked him to estimate the opacity. He, quite literally, spent 10 minutes trying to hunt down someone who could confirm this. Needless to say, he was disappointed to find out that I remebered a a building passkey was significantly translucent and I was no longer interested.
These people generally do not have the ability to end the call (or initiate it, for that matter) and will stay on the line as long as the person doesn't hang up. Have some fun with it and then inform them that you want to be removed from their list.
Question, "Is a Telemarketer going Postal a victimless crime?"
This works for me.
To the Telemarketer I ask, "Can the Telemarketer can see their supervisor?"
They say, "Yes".
I then say, "Please repeat after me."
"There is the source of ALL my problems."
I then hang up.
It's amazing, but I don't get any repeat phone calls. uhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
I only have voicemail. I have a cell phone, but when I call companies, I block my phone number. Very simple. T.M. never leave messages and I only give my cell phone number to friends -- never *EVER* to companies. Corporate America has abused the consumer phone system so I've simply denied them from calling me unless they want to leave a message. ;)
It never even rings.
-- Ken Kinder ken@_nospam_kenkinder.com http://kenkinder.com/
My number of telemarketers has dropped dramatically since I did the following to my answering machine.
:)
1. The first thing in my message is the first tone of the Disconnected Number tones.
-- This forces some auto dialers to put your number in the disconnected list.
-- This also catches smart autodialers/messagers that do not want to leave a message.
2. My message states : "Please put this number on your do not call list if you are a solicitor, otherwise leave your name and number and we will get right back to you."
-- Human callers typically will put your number on the Do not call list.
I use this with caller ID. If I am home, and the ID says "unknown" or a business name, the machine gets it. Otherwise I pick it up.
We have dropped from 10-14 telemarketers a day to 2-4 a day. Some days I do get 0.
This solution is not perfect, if it was I would sell it. But not through telemarketers.
There's a much easier way to twart the vast majority of telemarketers. Many of them use a computerized dialing system -- the system dials each number for the hapless telemarketer, and assuming it doesn't hear an error code sound (i.e. the multi-tone that means a number is out of service or disconnected), it then connects the person's headset to the number. If it doesn't connect, then it hangs up, takes that number off its internal list, and tries the next one. Thus the reason a lot of the time you'll say "hello" ten times before someone responds.
The simple, cheap solution to getting rid of these annoying buggers is to put one of those multi-tone error sounds (I'm sure there's a technical name for it, but I have no idea what it is) at the beginning of your answering machine message. If you think it's annoying or confusing, eh, make a joke out of it. My answering machine message goes like this: "*error tones* You have reached xxx-wxyz. I'm sorry, but we're not interested in any new products or services. So if you're not a telemarketer, please leave a brief message after the tone."
Simple as pie. The tone takes you off the automated lists, and you now have a clever little answering machine message. Voila!
--=Maj
One useless man is called a disgrace; two are called a law firm; and three or more become a Congress. -John Adams, 1776
From the article: Telemarketers now place 104 million calls each day and take in $278 billion annually, according to government and industry figures. That's: 104x356=37024 million calls per year 278000 / 37024 = 7.50 USD per call. And imagine that most calls only last a ... (click)
I heard about this sort of technology years ago in Japan. What took them so long to bring it to the 'States?
"There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." - Bertrand Russell.
Go buy a telezapper, it's less cumbersome than any of the options posted here (no need to give out codes or passwords to any of your friends); when a call rings in, the zapper sends out a 'disconnected number' tone that is imperceptible to people, but picked up on by the auto-dialers used by most telemarketers. I picked one of these up for $50 at WalMart, and haven't had *any* spam calls in the last 3 mo's.
Instead of spending money on hardware, take a look at what you have to offer from your local telephone company. Bellsouth offers a package called 'Privacy Director'. They only charge an additional $1.75/month for this. What is does is block all numbers that don't carry ANI and gives them an auto-attendant. Sometimes it blocks international numbers but you get the call anyway. I went from 100 spam calls a week to 0. Here is the link to more information.
Let's get this straight: they want me to buy a device that, when I press a button, will deliver a 10-second spiel and hang up. And for this miraculous device, they want me to pay between $10 and $60?
For my money, I'd rather take 10 seconds to bitch out the telemarketer myself. It's therapeutic, and on occasion can even be amusing.
I suppose the call screening devices linked to in the article are slightly more noteworthy, and might even be valuable to some people. Just the same, I've had a device for several years now that will play a prerecorded spiel and hang up on people unless they enter a code. It's called an answering machine.
Of course, I would never use my answering machine in that way, since it would be extremely discourteous to ask all my friends and acquaintances to remember an extra three or four digits on top of my phone number, if they wanted to talk to me. With the proliferation of area codes, it's bad enough getting people to remember a 10-digit number; with an effective 14-digit phone number, I imagine I wouldn't be very popular at all!
From the Direct Marketing Association's website:
here
In the area I am in in Texas Verizon charges $1.65 per month for '# not listed in dir. assis/dir'
I just set the phone down for a couple of minutes, come back later and then hang up. i dont waste my time talking to them, and I put them in the precarious position of not knowing if I am still there or what. They can tell I did not hang up, but I am not responding. It seems to work because I rarely get telemarketer calls anymore.
I get a ton of these in South Carolina as well--1 to 2 telemarketer calls a night. If the phone rings and I'm not where I can see the caller ID, I grab it, and 2/3 of the time, it's dead silence followed by a hangup. Somebody told me once that some telemarketing companies dial three numbers at once and talk to the first one that answers--the other two get empty air. But I can't confirm that.
Pisses me off, it does.
"Settle down, Beavis. We've got an experiment to do."
So let me clear a few myths on the proposed solutions and tell you what works best.
1. Do not call lists: these are a joke and a half. Let me explain why. Most telemarketing companies are simply service companies that call a list of people (say 90 million) for a given product by a client. We don't even supply the leads, the client does. Credit cards, phone service, insurance, whatever -- we just provide a way to call all those people in an efficient programmatic way. So when you say add me to the DNC list, you get added to that CLIENT's DNC list. If Sprint calls you (it isn't Sprint, first of all, it is the company Sprint has paid to market their product, in this case, my company does a number of sprint products, both inbound and outbound.) and you request to be on the DNC, my company will not call you anymore for Sprint only. That doesn't mean we won't call you when another client (say MBNA credit cards) wants to offer you one. So getting on the DNC is useless.
2. The answering machine tactic: most telemarketing companies (such as mine) use a dialing platform that screens out around 80% of the answering machines once it recognizes them. When a call comes back as an answering machine, it just gets called back within a few hours or the next day. Bad idea. They will still call.
The best tactic is this: say you are DEAD. Dead will not only get you off that particular client's list, most companies maintain a master list of numbers not to call, and all leads supplied by a client are scrubbed against this list. If you say you are dead, your number goes into that database and you will never be called by that company again. Trust me, it works. It is better than saying you are not there right now, (as the system will just recycle your name within a few hours or the next day, until they finally find you), or anything else. Playing games or being super rude to the phone rep may be fun, but it will not do you any good in getting away from these people. Believe me, I helped design parts of our dialing system.
Incidently, don't say anything stupid to the phone reps. (I.E, threaten their life, etc.) Each call is recorded (either as an MP3 or VOX) and stored for up to 5 years. Just a word to the wise.
Pennsylvania recently passed an anti-telemarketing law that created a "Do Not Call" list. When they started accepting info (via phone and web) from people who wished to be added to that list, they got such a crushing, overwhelming response that their call center and their servers couldn't handle it, which made the local news and really drove the point home about exactly how many people HATE telemarketers.
I am one of those people. I signed up successfully, early on the first day, but I still continue to do what I've been doing for years-- applying technology myself to keep the bastards from bugging me:
For the last two years, I've had a Caller ID modem connected to the Mac that runs all my home automation stuff. I set it up with a whitelist of my friends and relatives. When someone on the whitelist calls, the computer verbally alerts me through wireless speakers placed thoughout the house, and I know to pick up the phone. The computer will also mute the sound on the entertainment center if I'm watching TV or have my stereo on, so I don't have to fumble for a remote. The end result is, the only people who can interrupt what I'm doing are people that I want to talk to. Everyone else gets the answering machine. This works for me because I am not so such a social butterfly that the whitelist needs constant updating. I suppose that if I were, though, I'd just create a web interface for it so I could edit it from anywhere.
The bottom line, though, is that Caller ID is your friend. Don't pick up if you don't know who's on the other end, just let your machine get it. If the call is important enough, the caller will leave a message.
~Philly
Require an extension to be dialed before you can get a voicemail box. Telemarketers won't be able to leave messages.
how about a device that allows you to block incomming phone calls from certain numbers.
Whatever you do, NEVER tell a Telemarketer to put you on the DNC list!!! Always say "Do Not Call" list!
Otherwise, in no time at all, the Democratic National Committee will be calling you, hitting you up for donations every night during supper!
A couple years back I heard a guy on the radio. He taped telemarketer calls for comic purposes. He always had them call back later so he could prepare. Anyways, one day he had a call from a pre-bought funeral/gravesite service. He said to call back tomorrow then recored it. It was totally hilarious, here is the transcript as best as I can remember. Telemarketer: Would you be interested in a pre-paid funeral service and gravesite to spare your family the burden . . . Guy: (Sniffing as if he just got done crying) You know, it is amazing that you called just now. You see, I got fired yesterday. My wife said she coulnd't take living with such a loser any more, so she took my kids and left me. I was just praying to god to give me a sign if I should kill myself or not, and then you called! TM: Ummmm, sir, can I get you some help or something. Guy: No, you have made my decision very clear for me. How can I pay for the funeral, do you take visa? TM: Uh, no, I can't do that right now. But I can have a salesman come visit you next week. Can I call somebody to help you or something. Guy: Nope, I'm fine. Hang on a second. (pause, then sound of gunshot then dude falling to ground) TM: SIIIRRRR!!! then scrambles to call the cops, ambulance, whatever.
My motto is: Never give up - unless it's harder than you want it to be.
Basically this is a very smart version of 'block anonymous calls'. Instead of just blocking all anonymous calls, it routes them to an intercept message where they can unblock their caller ID (if it is deliberately blocked) or identify themselves verbally. Only if they follow the procedure does the call go through, and you still get the opportunity to screen it when your phone rings.
Here's the best part, which they don't really advertise. Since most telemarketers use automated phone dialing systems, most of the calls never make it past the intercept message! The automated dialer thinks it hit your answering machine and hangs up. So your phone never rings.
I found that once I turned on Privacy Director on my home phone, the number of telemarketing calls I get has gone down like 90%. And I never had to hassle with anyone, register on a list, or anything. Plus it makes Caller ID all the more useful because you never see "Out of Area" or "Unavailable" anymore.
>One system calls me 5-6 times a week
Try whistling/blowing into the phone. It's probably a modem or fax (as someone suggested) and you might be able to coax it into responding (and next time hook it into a real modem and see what fun you can have! If you're lucky you might find out what company it is...).
Otherwise try pushing digits on the phone. It might respond to that instead.
Have fun!
Thanks for this informative post, but I beg to differ on how some telemarketing operations work.
I actually did telemarketing for about a year for an area carpet cleaning company. (Talk about a job I'll never do again.)
Anyway - they in fact *did* want to pay the employees to manually mark the calls as busy, answering machines, etc. We all had dumb terminals at our desks, and it worked like this:
Dialer would call out from the phone number database, and as soon as it was finished dialing a number, would attempt to pass it to the first available telemarketer. (If everyone was on the line, it would apparently just abort the stray call; judging from the number of times people seemed irate as soon as we talked to them, acting like we'd been calling and hanging up on them previously.)
When a call was passed to you, you'd immediately say "Hello", and glance at your dumb terminal screen, which was supposed to already be showing you the customer's name and address, etc. Assuming it displayed their last name, you'd immediately follow the "Hello" with a "Mr." or "Mrs." and the name shown, so it all appeared natural. (Sometimes the system got slow, so you had to change your opening pitch to something like "Hello! I'm calling with xxx carpet cleaners, to offer you specials, Mr. Doe.") If you heard a busy signal, a disconnected line, or an answering machine, you'd key in a letter code (such as "B" for busy) and it would close your line, clear your screen - and you'd wait for the next call.
We also had a letter code we could key in if a customer told us not to ever call them again. It was supposed to mark the number for deletion from the dialing database. (I believe the numbers were actually deleted only overnight, when the manager started running a database clean-up and update type operation.)
I don't remember the exact details on the other letter codes, but I believe they basically instructed the dialer to try the call again after preset numbers of minutes. (EG. Typing in a D for a disconnected line might tell it to call back again in 20 minutes, while a B for busy might tell it to try again in 10 minutes.)
If the calling company allows its employees to call you, they could face sexual harassment litigation. Brilliant :)
Jack Valenti and the MPAA are to technology as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone
...is the fuckwits who buy the junk that these jackals sell. Morons.
Yes, sir, I would love a debt consolidation loan that reduces my payments by 10% but doubles the length of my payments. Where should I sign up?
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
Ok, i'm from california, and it states here that there's a $500 fine for the first infraction, $1000 thereafter, I'm wondering, does anyone know where this fine goes? If they're calling _me_ isn't it only right that that fine goes to me? That'd suck if it goes to the state.. someone annoys you, and the state gets paid for it, heh.. anyhow, any insight on this would be great.
-matt
What I'm saying is there's lots of cases where a number would come up "unavailable", the caller ID system is not perfect by any means.
The system you describe is something I'd like, too. Now, a quick Google search led me to look at Zeus Phonstuff over here. The price of this particular model is USD 249, but the device provides you a simple interface from caller ID box to PC (via serial cable). From there, doing the matching of the number against a database (perhaps even a shared database, much like spam blacklists) shouldn't be difficult. I just glanced through the online manual for this 2 line unit and it says that that unit doesn't do blocking (but this suggests that the 4 line unit does, since the switch is present, just not selectable).
Oh, go on, check out my job.
Privacy Manager from Pacific Bell/SBC. I pay $4 a month, and no longer get ANY telemarketer calls. It's been about a year now of completely telemarketer-free calls. The service is not intended to actually stop telemarketers, but through a serendipitous technical issue, it does. (I will not explain further, since it is largely due to security through obscurity.) If you are an SBC customer, or the customer of a company that offers a similar service, get it NOW!
I used to get about 8 telemarket calls a day, and had completely stopped answering the phone. At the end of the day, I would check the answering machine for real calls and call everyone back. Now I actually have a phone again, not an attention-demanding marketing tool.
All the devices, black boxes, and "do not call" lists in the article sound rather troublesome, because each telemarketer can still call you one time. It's easy enough to keep them from calling again, either by asking to be placed on their "do not call" list, or by having a device do the same thing, but there are still thousands of other comapnies out there.
A much better solution is to either cancel your home phone service, or, if you're stuck with dialup Internet access, unplug all the telephones from your home phone line and use it ONLY for Internet access. Use your cellular phone(s) for all voice communication.
It is completely illegal in the US for telemarketers to call a cellular phone. Not only can they be heavily fined if they do, but they're required by law to take proactive steps to make sure that they never actually do call a cellular phone. They have lists of cellular prefixes that they must check phone numbers against before calling them.
Since switching to cellular-only nearly a year ago, I've received zero telemarking calls and only three wrong numbers, compared to several of each per week on my home phone line. Sure, my home phone line is probably still GETTING those calls, but since there are no telephones plugged into it and my computer is connected to the Internet 24 hours a day (my ISP is seriously regretting the whole "unlimited Internet" thing), the telemarketers will never get anything but a busy signal from me.
As soon as cable Internet service becomes available in the area, I'll be cancelling my home phone line completely. Just a basic residential phone line costs more than a basic cellular plan these days once you add up all the taxes and fees the phone companies charge that the cellular companies don't, PLUS with cellular there are usually no long distance charges, and if you're a typical Slashdotter, you don't actually talk on the phone enough to risk using up all your airtime minutes and having to pay a per-minute rate.
(This information applies to the United States, YMMV.)
Gee, telemarketers that are cheap bastards and prefer employees to do grunt work rather than spending a little for an upgrade, so it ain't so! :^)
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
How do I know which outsorced telemarketing company is making each call?
track7.org has all kinds of interesting stuff!
We have do-not-call lists in the US, but they're hardly obeyed. Small companies just plead ignorance if they're caught, and large companies avoid the issue by using telemarketing "contractors." These operations spring up overnight, and disappear before they're caught. Some of them even operate from overseas, making them impossible to catch. Besides that, law enforcement has more important crimes to deal with than annoying phone calls.
Damn! That sounds rough. Get some snakes if you can and let them go up in your attic. If you put a heat lamp on a timer in there, they'll probably stay and will definitely reduce your packrat population.
Since you're a homeowner, it might make sense in your case to keep the inline plus... In the case of apartment renters, though, it's wildly unnecessary.
Good luck with the packrat situation!
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
I have never bought anything over the phone, and never will. However, I still get calls galore, if for no other reason than your credit card company(ies), your bank, all your magazine subscriptions, etc SELL YOU OUT. And it's so cheap that they don't get screwed by having a list full of people who don't want calls.
I have to say, if they didn't call purposefully AT DINNER then I wouldn't get pissed. But dammit, that's the one time I really don't want to be called.
You know what WILL get you off of a call list? You know how when you pick up, there's a pause (since it's transferring you, a live body, to an operator)? If that happens, it's always a telemarketer. When they come one the line, I fake a strange Asian accent. They keep saying "Hello? Sir?" ANd I keep saying "Ni-Hao, Ni pu nan jiba!" (That's a bit vulgar in Chinese), or something similar. They get the hint quickly, and it's fun!
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
and if you really want to piss me, the telemarketer, off, all you had to do was spend 20 minutes on the phone with me saying how interested you were in my company's product.
Then at the last second, say "Sorry, I changed my mind". LOL. Fuck, if you were in front of me, I'd give you a noogie with my phone headset right then and there.
You see, most telemarketers like me need to sell as many items as we can, or boss will complain "you're not selling x products in y time" or "money you get==# of products sold".
As an aside, if someone pissed me off and then asked me to remove them from our call list, I didn't. Instead, to piss them off, I'd flag the caller "Customer not Answering" which would then add the number to our 'to-call' list again. And bingo, within a couple of days, they'll be hearing about our wonderful products.
I love sweet revenge. And If I ever got fired, I didn't give shit because telemarketing sux and it's a summer job.
I have RingMaster (two phone numbers) on my telephone line. I also have a version of call forwarding that only forwards the primary number. I call forward my main number to a disconnected number in another state.
I give out my secondary number to people I want to contact me. The phone company only seems to sell the primary number (which is forwarded to a disconnected number). I never did get many telemarketing calls on my secondary number. Now I get 1 or 2 telemarketing calls per MONTH.
I really shouldn't have used someone else's email address for this account.
Since I changed my phone # last year, I started no giving out my phone # to anyone but my friends. Those little "registration cards" you get when you buy a VCR (or any other gadget), I put down a 555 #. When was the last time RCA called you and asked if your dishwasher you registered was working out for you? Since then, I haven't recieved any telemarketing calls. I did work for a telemarketer for awhile (right out of high school, I didn't know any better) that just called randon #s with the right pre-fix for the town. Half the calls you made were not real #s. Once you had them, you asked for the "head of the household". This sort of thing worked for e-mail too. I changed my e-mail, used a hotmail account for giving out to companies. I have recieved 0 SPAM e-mails since I did so a year ago. There's 200 e-mails a week in my hotmail account, but I only log in once a week to delete the whole works without giving it a second thought.
"We shall party like the Greeks of old! You know the ones I mean." - HedonismBot
"Hi this is 'Probably yo daddy'. Please leave a message."
What happens is that telemarketers use a machine that dials. The machine dials a whole bunch of numbers. When someone picks up on the other end, the machine connects a telemarketer to your call. If you leave a short message, the message is over before the telemarketer is connected. The telemarketer doesn't hear anything and assumes the number is not in service and removes your number from their list.
On top of this all, not answering your phone is great for increasing efficiency. Answer calls when your ready, not when they arrive. This gives you time to prepare info that is required to answer the call. Plus you can do it when you are compiling code or downloading pr0n^H^H^H^H large files.
I use this technique for email too.
I just posted a response above, it seems fitting to the parent post
I RUN to the computer, smiling like a banshee, and quietly hang a second phone's handset in front of a speaker. Then, while patronizing the telemarketer, cunningly play various special effect .wav files like cows mooing, cars crashing and Pee Wee Herman laughing.
Sometimes I deny it all and ask if they're hearing voices.
It's great fun!
But my all time favorite was pretending to bathe Grandpa, get in a fight, drown him and asking the telemarketer for advice. I was lucky they didn't call the cops. You can listen to a pro doing it here.
I get fewer calls from my friends these days...
Like this.
There are telemarketing jobs that are "real," like selling long distance service to corportations, being a stockbroker, insurance agent, etc. But these "real" jobs, like any other, require some skills, training, smarts, and maybe even a college degree. Good companies with good products need good people on their front lines.
The telemarketing jobs available to people without these skills are usually not "real" jobs at all. They're miserable, boiler-room slavery for fly-by-night sleazeball telemarketing contractors. Employees are lured into servitude with promises of big commissions, flexible hours, etc. The reality is being forced to work long hours to meet unrealistic quotas, for commissions that never materialize. After a couple of weeks of this (according to Dept. of Labor statistics), most people get disgusted and leave. But the contractor got plenty of work out of them almost for free, and there's always another sucker to replace the one who left. Most people leave these jobs in worse shape than when they started, even more broke, deeper in debt, completely demoralized, and without any new skills. In the time spent working for the telemarketing contractor, they would have been far better off washing dishes, cleaning toilets, or pounding nails.
The government would be doing *everyone* a favor by putting these bottom-feeders out of business.
It's a legal obligation for anyone making unsolicited sales calls in the UK to avoid those on the Telephone Preference Service list. It takes 2 minutes to register online and actually works.
That's the first Mother-in-law joke I've seen since 1958. Henny Youngman, is that you?
Translation:
[press "no" button to get to next page on the script tree], then in a surprised tone: "You don't?"
They have the entire conversation scripted. Any objection they think you might have has been considered beforehand and planned for. The only way to REALLY screw them up is by getting out of their script tree.
Case in point:
My dad: Hello? ... Uh, ... sorry. [click]
TM: Sir, my name is Foo, and I have a great prize for you today if you can answer one simple question.
Dad: Uh, okay.
TM: Who was the US president during the Civil War?
Dad: I think it was Truman.
TM: Well, this is a tough question, so I'll give you one more hint. It was either Ronald Reagan or Abraham Lincoln. (emphasis in original) Which do you think?
Dad: I still think it was Truman.
TM:
Any sufficiently simple magic can be passed off as mere advanced technology.
Perhaps your library should start asking for email addresses for those patrons that wish to use them. Then send your notices via email and via telephone. One is bound to make it.
I work for a group of public libraries that uses a computer to call and say "Someone at this telephone number" -- we won't say who, because if you use a public library we consider it your own damn business -- "has an item waiting to be picked up at the So-and-So Public Library".
What does the little "someone at this number" dance actually accomplish? If it's a one person household then the person recieving the message already knows who they are. If there are two people in the house then it's obviously either for you or for the other person. If there's a whole family, then you probably have to know who's waiting for a book anyway in order to relay the message to the right person.
And, most annoying of all, if more than one person in the household uses the library (gasp!) then you're just confusing everyone by being all coy and not saying who the darn message is for.
For an inexpensive solution, setup your PC with a voice modem and Callstation. This will handle different outgoing messages for blocked/private calls, along with a slew of other features.
This little trick out smarts the voice activated systems.
When picking up a phone, don't speak if you can't hear the other person on the line. Its probably a voice activated machine. If you don't speak, it will think no ones there, and it will hang up. It works almost every time!
This is just another reason for more telemarketing.. I can see it now..
;)
*RING RING*
"Hello Mr. Consumer how are you this evening? Im calling to offer you a once in a lifetime deal for the latest, the greateset, anti-telemarketing device ever! Stop annoying calls such as this one for the low-low price of $19.99.. blah blah"
I usually just yell random obscenities to a non-existent house member like "Get back in your cage Bucky!".. Can make for some entertainment for waisting my time with those calls..
My wife and I have come up with a good one. When the telemarketers start their pitch she and I go into mock battle inthe middle of the kitch. I start screaming what a c*nt she is and how dare her pick up the F*!king phone when i'm tlaking. We will slam cabinets and have even been known to break dishes. it's lots of fun and we have a jolly ol time. We have left many an unsuspecting telemarketer in tears and screaming appologies because they think I just beat the crap out fo my wife for answering the phone. of course I never touch her but they don't need to know that. They never call back though. Give it a try. The fmaily that plays together stays together right?
Just invite them for a swim with their new gift from you: the Sodium Swimming Suit.
Table-ized A.I.
If they want to call and waste my time, I have no inhibitions about wasting their time. If everyone did this, it would seriously slow telemarketers down. It's FUN to test how long they'll wait.
People have already suggested screening your calls with an answering machine and just politely saying "no thank you" and hanging up when a telemarketer calls, but here's my method.
When you are called by an autodialer it listens to what happens when the line is picked up, pauses a second deciding whether it's a human voice or not, if it isn't it drops it and if it is then it routes you to an operator. If there are no operators available then it gives you a dead line (explaining those mysterious phone calls you get where there's nobody on the line. This pause while it's deciding if the sound is a human voice also accounts for why whenever a telemarketer calls you say "hello?" and then "hello?" before an operator picks up (because you haven't heard anybody say anything yet). So next time you get a phone call just say "hello" once, if nobody says anything back just wait a second, if it's a telemarketer then you'll hear kind of a clicking sound and then the line will go dead. You have successfully avoided talking to a telemarketer.
Now, if you are evil and cruel, like me for instance, getting a telemarketer is not something you dread; it's something to look forward to!
"Hold on, I have to turn off the stove," 3 minutes. Nice as can be, "Ok, I'm back, now what were you telling me?" 20 seconds. "Oops, now one of the kids is trying to hurt himself," there goes another five minutes, "Wait, the doorbell", 4 minutes. "No, I really do want to hear your pitch, it sounds great! I'm almost sold" "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't hear that last couple of minutes that you were talking becuase I ran off to the bathroom, could you repeat it" 7 minutes....
My record is 34 minutes.
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
I can tell you, as a former telemarketer (many years ago and I needed money :-)), that they NEVER give their real names. Each person has a script with a fake name written on top that they are supposed to use whenever someone asks them their name. This is just an older version of fake headers.
The phrase "please put this number on your do not call list" works for anyone and everyone that telemarkets to people in the US. This also applies to telemarketing organizations outside the US that telemarket in the US, according to the FCC.
Also, the beauty is that not only the "company" that is calling you can no longer do so, but the telemarketing firm itself can't either. Since there are only so many telemarketing firms in the area, region, state, US (and maybe Canada), eventually, you get a large majority of them.
This lasts for 10 years. Why pay the phone company more $$ when they sold your name to those same bothersome companies for $$. And when you're taking that Saturday afternoon nap, do you really want to get up to look at caller ID to see that you didn't want to answer it anyway? No!
I started about 2 years ago and we rarely if ever get solicitous calls now. When we do, they are charities or political orgs who are not obligated by law (but will if you ask) to remove you from their list. If I get a recorded message, I wait for the time to record info or talk to a live person and give them the message then.
It's easy, it's free, and it lasts forever. Having setup the hardware and software in the past, I know that if the computer gets an answering machine, it usually hangs up and will try back several times before rescheduling it for another time. What an annoyance. Stop them from calling in the first place. It's really easy. "Do Not Call List, please".
And, you can also get lots of info from them like their company, their identification (name or ID number), the company they are calling for, the address and phone numbers for each. If they call back, you can sue. I don't bother doing this, but I know that people have successfully done so.
Good luck, and fight back! I did and it works. Really.
I work for a telemarketing company, and every day I call about 600 people per day. There is approximatly 100 people working in the same call center as me. Just going off of the volume of calls per day that I make, there are at least 60000 calls going out over the course of 16 hours. 10% of these calls end in sales, while 10% of the sales will end in an upsale als0. But this is beside the point.
Here are some ways that people try and avoid telemarketing calls, and the results of what happens:
1-one who is called states that they are not available (some are quite stupid also, "Im not here" is a common resopnce)
Result-we disposition as not available. Re-calls house in 2-3 hours.
2-one who is called says they are busy.
Result-dispositioned as not available. Recall house in 2-3 hours
3-one who is called cannot speak english, or not well.
Result-dispositioned as a lnguage problem. House recalled (maybe in 5 months) waiting for them to learn english
4-one who is called says they are not interested.
Result-give second effort, if refused, disposition as refusal. one who is called rmoved from that program's list. Continues to remain on other lists.
5-one who is called hangs up without stated reason.
Result-dispositioned as hung up, recalls house in 20 miniutes.
6-one who is called brings up threats of lawsuit / or is an irate customer.
Result- dispositioned as refusal. See results above.
7-one who is called requests to be placed on do not call list.
Result-Give DNC responce. Dispositioned as DNC. Federal law mandates that the called number be placed on company DNC list within 90 days.
8-disconnected tone.
Result- dispositioned as disconnect. Number is dropped from list.
9-number is fax machine.
Result- dispositioned as disconnect. Number dropped
10-awnserwing machine.
Result-dispositioned as awnsering machine, called back in 2-3 hours
11-one who is called is deaf/has difficult hearing on the fone.
Result- dispositiond as deaf, number dropped
12- Anonomys call blockage/privacy manager/phone butler.
Result- put a random sequence of numbers into the telephone box at the cublcle, to "fool" the caller ID system, and continue call.
General guidelines that work:
1. Request to be placed on DNC list (and say you have requested so before. Since it is a previous requset, we will red flag it, and it will have more importance being removed even faster.
2. Speak a forign language, and dont speak any english. You dont even have to know any of the language that you are speaking, but caller will not know that. Will be language barrier. (Maybe recalled in 5 months).
3. Give your credit card creditors a invalid number, a fax machine, or a modems number. You wont be getting the call, and number will be removed.
4. Refuse the offer. Will give second effort, maybe third also, but if you hold your ground, will be dispositioned as refusal. Removed from that call list, remain on others.
I hope this pointer list helps you stop those endless calls
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I use that method here, too. But generally, I find it's not extremely effective - because the auto-dialers you hang up on like that just try back again and again, at least 3 or 4 more times, until they detect you've actually picked up and talked to them.
Do what I do; set your answering machine to pick up on the second ring and screen all calls. I get several calls a day where people don't leave a message. Trust me; if it's an important call, people will leave a message, and tell your friends to just shout out "Hey! It's , pick up the phone!" and do that.
What's nifty is the newer digital answering machines can detect when someone hangs up even if it's during the outgoing message. The machine will then hang up before it sends the whole message and no incoming message will be recorded.
NY, NJ, PA, CT, and MA have 60 day turnaround on DNC (do not call lists) There is of course a huge problem with these do not call lists. People move, people buy new phone lines, etc etc. If you move, you are not on it anymore. If you get a new phone line, you are not on it anymore. If you are unlisted, I still have your phonenumber, and credit rating, etc etc etc. Its not so fun. Still, lets put this all in perspective. The RBOCs keep rather substantial DNC lists, which will eventually be rolled into the state and national DNC infrastructure. These lists cover less than 1 in 10 residential households. OH - and I forgot, if you look at the Telemarketers revenue, 247 billion or what ever that is, thats a good number. 1/50th of the US GDP. Thats a pretty important line of business.
A friend of mine was recieving fax spam. Every morning they would fax him a doc that was several pages long.
Finally, he faxed them a 2 page message saying "Stop faxing me immediatly," The ends of the two page doc were taped together making a loop that would continuously go through his fax machine and be sent to the faxmarketer. After sending about 180 pages of this message, they ran out of paper.
They never faxed him again.
Many states are enacting laws such as that which goes into effect in California as of January 2003.
The law mandates that the state maintain a website where people may, for a minor fee of $3 to maintain the database, assign their name and number to a state "Do Not Call" list. Anyone doing telemarketing toward anyone in CA must then refer to this list or risk a $500 fine for each breach of the law.
The effect is that once I pony up $3 my number is protected for 3 years, and I can get $500 from each telemarketing company that breaks the law by calling me though I'm on the state no-call list by suing them in enforcement of the law.
The only tool you've got against psychosis is experience.
Who keeps buying the shit they are selling? If no one bought the crap, then there would be no telemarketing
"Simon Says, Fuck You" - George Carlin
So I'll add to my list of questions: Is that your real name or the one you are supposed to give me if I ask? :-)
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
I worked for a while in the legal department of a major collections firm. These machines are a pain because they block out legitmate calls too. While they do serve a purpose to stop annoying telemarketer calls, many lowlifes employ them to hide (successfuly) from creditors and make themselves unreachable. By law also (and this works for collections agencies too) if you request not to be called again, they must take you off their call lists. If they dont or call more than once per day, its considered harassment.
Neither is saying, "Please put me on your do not call list." While they're both effective, the only way to drive annoying commercial marketing into the ground is to make it more expensive than it is profitable.
;) The worst case scenario would be that spammers would have to buy three times the bandwidth to send the amount of spam they do now, as well as maintain a working and valid From: address.
1. Phone marketing: Feign interest, then ask the telemarketer to please hold for a minute (someone's at the door, etc...). By yourself, you can cut into their profit margin a little and have the satisfaction of getting back at the people that are bothering you so much. If enough people did this, it would be DEVASTATING to the telemarketing industry. Why? When a telemarketer is on the phone with you, their machine stops dialing new numbers. This seems like a smart idea - there's no reason to call someone if the telemarketer is busy talking to someone else. Usually, those machines dial 10 numbers at the same time and the telemarketer clicks over to the one that gets a live person. That's where those hangup calls come from: out of the 10 numbers the machine dialed at once, yours was one of the two that yielded a live person, and the telemarketer decided to go with the other one. What does this tell us about the telemarketing industry? They just hate it when their telemarketers are sitting around waiting to make a sale (i.e. while the machine is dialing). If they're waiting for you to get the door, guess what? They're sitting around waiting to make a sale.
2. Junk mail: This is really easy. I have no idea why nobody has started advocating this so far. Whenever you get junk mail, open it up, find the "postage paid - business reply mail" envelope, stuff everything else into it, seal it, and put it back in the mailbox. You're charging them postage to throw away their garbage. If you want to remain completely anonymous, just tear out the parts that have your name and address and mail the rest back.
3. Spam: Ok coders, this one is for you. Implement selective whitelisting as described here in your favorite open-source SMTP server. Yeah, server-side. Just make it a flag that can be turned on for individual email accounts so that the server will automatically start building a whitelist from confirmation emails. As long as this remains a *nix-only client-side spam-blocker it will never see widespread use. Why? Well, a server-side implementation has many benefits:
* It only has to be installed once. Every time a piece of software is installed on a computer, it's an opportunity for something to go wrong. A client-side program could install itself incorrectly, the user could become frustrated with an interface shortcoming, or it could trash some part of the user's system (possibly turning them off to spam blocking tech forever). If it's installed (carefully and by the ISP's lead tech) on a single mail server, suddenly thousands of people have the ability to block spam with no more effort than a call to the ISP to turn on the feature.
* ISPs would provide it as a competitive service to their customers. Most ISPs (in my limited experience) use open-source *nix mail servers, so implementation in existing systems would be easy. Perfect spam-filtering (that guarantees no false positives - meaning no lost important mail) would definitely influence a consumer's ISP choice now that most are competing based on cost. Considering how easy it would be to implement, it's a no-brainer for another ISP to offer the same service once the ISP across the street does.
* The principles are easy enough to explain to most people. Granted, most ISPs don't explain the details of their spam-blocking tech to new customers, but when they make a claim like, "No false positives, guaranteed!" it will be easy to explain if a customer gets curious.
Eventually, when no spam gets through, or just not enough to pay the bandwidth bills, spam will stop. What if selective whitelisting doesn't work? Well, it does, go read the web site.
4. Banners: Go download privoxy right now. Combined with mozilla's popup blocking feature, I've seen maybe 3 ads in the past 3 months, and I spend hours surfing the web every day. It's absolutely amazing. Same deal with selective whitelisting as above, too. If ISPs ran privoxy, they'd be able to offer a service to their customers that, well, once addicted they couldn't live without. It's also the perfect way to implement caching and cut down on ISP backbone bandwidth costs.
Think these are good ideas? Help me spread them around. Think they suck? Tell me why so I can improve my explanation.
Autodialers produce, store and dial telephone numbers using a random or sequential number generator. Autodialers are usually used to place artificial (computerized) or prerecorded voice calls. Except for emergency calls or calls made with the prior express consent of the person being called, autodialers and any artificial or prerecorded voice messages may not be used to contact numbers assigned to:
is to break their spirit as slowly and cruelly as possible. Here's how:
1. The simple way:
As soon as you discover the call is from a telemarketer, simply say, "Yes, please tell me all about it." Then set the phone down, but do not hang up for about 5 minutes. This will often allow telelmarketers to launch into their sales pitch with gusto only to realize minutes later and with much dismay that they're the ones who've been suckered.
2. The heroic way:
Force the telemarketer to give up. This must be done by refusing to be sold, but by also refusing to be the one to say goodbye or end the conversation. There are two paths you can follow: be combative and argue with every point, or be doubtful and ask repeatedly to be convinced.
Training drills into telemarketers that they must never, ever give up on a sale. The heroic way is therefor a long and laborious process, but ultimately extremely satisfying. Strong-spirited telelmarketers may last for several hours, but I have never met one who cannot be broken with enough time and patience.
- Mr. Satisfaction
For years we constantly get calls from charities looking for used clothing, money, and whatnot. This is fine by me, however when you are young (*cough*) you don't really have much to give. I've put in requests to be taken off the charity lists (because they phone EVERY month). They don't do jack, regardless of how polite or bitchy you are they will continue to call. Even if I had stuff to donate, I wouldn't donate to anyone on the phone.
R4NT.com - A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
I do one of two things when they call.
:)
One is to tell them to hang on, while I get the person they asked for. I just put the phone down and walk away. I usually check every two minutes or so to see if they are still waiting. If they are, I just say, "oh, sorry hang on I'll go get them". heh.
The other thing is to let my 2 year old daughter answer the phone. She loves to talk at people on the other end
Regardless of gender, ask them what they are wearing.
Another way to deal with this without paying for a phone company's privacy manager is to buy one of the new phone systems that have a base station and support 1-8 cordless phones. Most of them have built in voice mail and voice attendant systems and you can get a basic package (base station and one handset) for as low as about $150-$200 (standalone Sony cordless phones with no answering machine used to go for the same price!).
With the voice attendant, the caller simply has to hit #1 or #2 (the pound key and the number of your phone) to ring you. I used to get literally 2-4 telemarketers calling me a day, but once I set up this simple system, it dropped to ZERO! I haven't had a single telemarketer call me for over 6 months! They simply don't want to waste their time listening to the message that tells them how to ring you (or whoever). And it doesn't annoy your friends after the first time they learn to hit #1 for your phone, because every time they call they just have to hit that number instead of waiting.
For me it was a perfect solution -- it also helps that I have a teenage daughter who I wanted to get her own calls routed to her own phone so I wouldn't be disturbed every 10 minutes. With this solution, I only pay for one phone line, she gets her calls, I don't get stupid telemarketer calls, and I still have control over the line in case the kids over-use the phone.
I've used a simple, free solution that has me telemarketer free. Just set the answering machine to record where you can hear it so you can screen out those 'out of area' or 'caller id-blocked' calls. Open hyperterminal, type ATA when you get a telemarketer or recording, and blam...you're listed as a fax # & they'll quit calling. If you're not listed as a fax, they'll at least get an earfull of SCREEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! ;)
I mean, yup, you are correct, sir!
My life's goal is to get a score of +3!
i wonder if i could get a 900 (976, whatever) number and charge a butload of money every time some a-hole wants to sell me a magazine.
THERE IS NO DATA. THERE IS O
Hanging up after a pause worked well for me until I started getting phone calls from my young nieces and nephews. The little kids would often get confused by the phone, so I started gently asking if anyone was there. This meant that telemarketers got throught more often, so I started following the instructions on Junkbusters.org. It took a few months, but the frequency of telemarketing calls is way down now.
Sounds like they had a pretty rough dialer then. On some of our larger (50k numbers) campaigns, agent-marked busies and answering machines was in the area of 1 - 5% of dialer-marked busies and machines. And this was with no more than 5s agent idle time and less than 10% drops.
The world moves for love. It kneels before it in awe.
Note the fine print.
Politicians can still call you to solicit votes, funds, or do polling.
Newspapers are exempted too, as are many media outlets that give Politicians free publicity.
Eventually more telemarketing businesses will figure out a legal bribery system and water down this type of law further. It's still the best law money can buy.
It's a technical problem, use a technical solution. Legal remedies will be temporary and incomplete.
I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.
There has been a FEDERAL law in effect for more than a decade. Try doing a google search for at least 30 seconds before making statements like this.
It outlaws several things, including all unsolicited commercial faxs, prerecorded commercial calls to residences, and an calls to devices where someone must pay for the call (e.g. cell phone, pager).
That same law, and subsequent memorandums by the FCC, state that companies MUST maintain a DNC and it must be honored for 10 years. Companies that solicited by phone must also provide their name, address, and phone number. It does not have to be asked for as they are required to give this (most ignore it though).
The law is screwy in that a telemarketer must call you at least twice in a 12 month period, after being placed on the list, before a violation occurs. Upon request, a company must also provide to you a written copy of their company's policy regarding the maintenance of their DNC list. Failure to do this is a violation of the law. This is a Federal Law that also provides a private right of action and allows you to sue the company is small claims court (or the appropiate court of your state) for damages.
In the past month, I have obtained $800 from two separate company (both mortgage companies) for prerecorded solicitations to my home. This was without going to court and simply sending them a demand letter stating my claim and backing it up with statute proof. One was local and the other was in Virginia.
On Tuesday, I won (though through default since defendant failed to show) a $1500 judgement against a company the prerecord called me in May. Today I filed a $1500 suit against a local company that sent an unsolicited fax. I sent them a certified demand letter that was returned to me yesterday as refused. So by noon today I filed suit. I've probably spent 20+ hours of research, but I have solid proof to support everything I claim as well as the case history to back it up. I will be filing against another prerecord once the time allowed by my demand letter to send me my money has expired.
You have $500 in statutory damages owed to you for every violation. If you can show that the defendant 'knowingly of willing' violated the law, then you may be awarded triple damages (for a total of $1500 for each violation for you math majors). If a company uses a prerecord, fails to provide the name of the entity, and ever refuses to provide their company's DNC policy (or more likely does not have one) then just in statutory damages you are owed $1500 for the 3 violations. Imaging the look on their face if the judge awards you treble damages!
Do research. It will be worth your time if you push this and win. After the first case and subsequent research involved, future cases will just be copy and paste demand letters and lawsuits.
Here is some stuff to help you with your research.
Use google to find information.
Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991
47 USC 227 (actual law)
47 CFR 227 (code of federal regulations: FCC's implementation of the TCPA)
International Science v Inacom Communications 106 F3d 1146 (holds that state courts have exclusive jurisdiction of private right of action claims)
Kaplan v Democrat and Chronicle 698 N.Y.S.2d 799 ((shows actual damages do not have to be shown [i.e. prevent defendant from saying they would own you no more than 5o cents for a junk fax])
Nicholson v Hooters of Augusta 136 F.3d 1287 (holds state courts have jurisdiction for private right of action)
Foxhall v Telecommunications Premium Services 156 F.3d 432 (same as above case)
There are several others that support same thing. Search for these cites; 156 F.3d 513, 131 F.3d 507
Kaplan v First City Mortgage 701 N.Y.S.2d 859 (shows that 'express' consent is NOT given by merely having your number in a directory. Faxers and prerecorded callers MUST have prior EXPRESS permission or an existing business relationship in order to contact you in those ways)
47 USC 312 (f) (defines what 'willfull' means - basically that it is the conscious and deliberate commission of an act, irrespective of intent to violate any provision of the regulations. If they meant to fax you (e.g not a transposition of two numbers error), then they are guilty of the violation whether or not they knew it was against the law.
Moser v FCC 46 F.3d 970 (holds that prerecords are not constitutionally protected speech).
Destination Ventures v FCC 844 F. Supp 632 (holds that the TCPA is constitutionally valid)
States may have thie own law, however they are not preemptive unless they are MORE restrictive than the federal law. If the TCPA requires telemarketers to maintain a list for 10 years and the state law requires something more restrictive, like 15 years, then the state would preempt.
I've put a lot of research into this. I'm not in this for the money as I would rather have this practice ended. I've taken steps like writing the DMA (the RIAA of the marketing world) to be placed on their list as well as my own state's DNC list, so this certainly isn't an attempt to rake in the money.
Cave, wreck, and deep diver.
When you demand to be placed on the DNC, make sure to tell them that this includes the telemarketing company placing the call (get their company name) as well as the company for whom thay are making the call. If they ever say it will take X number of days to be removed, do not belive them. If they call again an hour later, it is a violation. The law does not provide a grace period. I have a hournel that I keep near the phone as well a recorder already connected to the phone to record the prerecords if necessary.
Cave, wreck, and deep diver.
The only way to eliminate the tele-dirtbags is to hang on the phone with them, act interested, ask lots of questions. A marketer expects most of their calls to be duds. these "no sale" calls take about 10 seconds a piece. The callers can make 6 calls a minute. Thats 360 calls an hour. If you take 10 minutes to learn about the product they are selling, Then Hang up, they make 10 calls an hour. Each caller is now 3% of his previous self. tele-marketing becomes a failed business model.
Confused? By a telephone? Jesus, they must be little dumbasses, then. My 6 month old can grab the phone and 'talk' (giberish) into the correct end.
I have an AVT Auto Attendant answer my phones. Humans can press one if they want to ring me, telemarketing bots drop through to VM where they can be deleted without bothering me.
Turn Telemarketers into a business:
1. Record all calls from telemarketers.
2. Inform them that they are being recorded.
3. Ask for the name of the company the telemarketer works for.
4. Ask for the mailing address.
3. Ask to speak to a manager (ask the manager for the mailing address too).
4. Inform the manager that your time is valuable and that if he wishes his telemarketer to continue his sales pitch that this will cost the managers company $100 every second. Inform him that considering how valuble your time is, this is a very reasonable rate. Only under this circumstance is the telemarketer allowed to continue. Remind him that agreeing to this condition means that a verbal contract has been entered between two parties and will be held up in any court in the land.
There are 10 kinds of people, those who understand binary and those who don't.
There are quite a few websites on fun ways to respond to telemarketers. I've lost my links, but on Google: Telemarketer Responses Telemarketer Revenge
-Hello. *chew, chew*
-Hello Sir! Am I interrupting something?
-Yeah, we're eating.
-Perfect! Would you say this is annoyting, me calling you in your home like this?
-Definitely.
-And how would you like to be free of this annoyance once and forever?
-Get lost.
-Precisely! I am in a position to offer you a grrrreat deal on a new invention that can filter out these pesky calls - this could be the last time you ever spoke to an obnoxious telemarketer!
-I dunno...
-Did you know we have special training facilities where we learn to sound cheerful, cipper and positive, no matter what? We train day in and day out to persuade you, the hard-working American Joe to part with your hard-earned money, and we're damned good at it, if I may say so myself. We never give up! We call in rain, sleet or snow! If Ma Bell (ultra-cheap long-distance rates!) is napping and a tropical storm has taken the phones down, why we're not above visiting in person with our encyclopedias, aluminum sidings, low-low APR and zero-down offers!
-OK. *sigh* Where do I sign?
Money for nothing, pix for free
go to google and search for sit.wav and telemarketer.
Download the sit tone.
Play it into your answering machine, wait 1 second then play it a second time then say something like,
"I'm sorry, I'm not in right now, please leave a message and I'll get back with you"
The sit tone is that very annoying tone you hear when you dial up a number that has been disconnected.
Telemarketing computers dial numbers from a database, when there is a pickup they flag it as watched. It then listens for a human voice, namely someone saying "Hello" or any other semi-human utterance.
If the computer recognizes a human voice then it switches the line to a welfare moron that will read lines to you from a laminated flow chart.
If the computer hears the SIT tone, it ASSUMES that the phone number has been disconnected and it immediatly hangs up, removes your number from the database and moves on to dial the next sucker.
If you do this, I promise you that in under a month the telemarketer calls will drop to almost ZERO.
When I see "OUT OF AREA" on my caller ID I just let the answering machine take it. I tell the people that I know and WANT to talk to about the answering machine so they know what's up.
They just listen to the SIT tones then my message then they leave a message like a normal answering machine.
Not very high tech but it's free and it does work..
God I hate telemarketers.. (and collectors)
In response to the Do Not Call list answering message:
:
After working as a telemarketer (hey, it was a good living) I've got to let you know that the automated computer dialing systems used by some companies don't kick employees on the line in time to hear your machine. Ever get messages of people going "Hello? Hello?" Wondered why they did that, I bet. They didn't know a real person hadn't answered the phone.
By the way
With the exception of some really rude people who probably are the same one's who cut you off on the road, talk in movies, or otherwise disrupt your life, telemarketers are decent people. they just want to earn a few bucks. Same as you.
If you treat them with respect ("Look, I know you're just making a living, but I'd appreciate if....") they will respond with respect. It's when you treat them badly that they exercise their ability to make your life hell with repeated calls.
Dan
I don't think you can plead ignorance in the western law system. Ignorance to the law is irrelevant, at least it is here. You are allowed to make mistakes, but if you plan to call 500 000 persons to sell stocks, you better have your ass on the safe side of the law... Those that operate from overseas are annoying too. But I don't think there are too many of them. Dialing in from overseas is rather expensive. That is an advantage with the European Union, the same rules apply to telemarketeers all across the union and affiliated states so if you want to dial in from overseas, it'll be expensive as from Africa or Korea.
We have units in the police that handles these kinds of economical crimes. They have the time...
Then there are the spammers, if only we could arrange it that for every spam we get, the sender and all who helped him, automatically get a good hard kick, in the balls, can't you just here the crunch the screams, aaahhhh.
But since we can't do that, we just get some new laws passed, if the *AA can legally (???) hack computers, then slashdoters should be given legal powers to, apply a baseball bat (or similar instrument of instruction), to any spammer, so they spam us we report it here, so at the end of the week we see ah yes Fred Bloggs spammed 2,345 slashdoters with a total of over 3million emails this week, so the slashdotters in Fred's local get together and apply over 3million strokes of gentle correction (as hard and painful as possible), to Fred's body, and should Fred by some horrible accident survive, I'll bet he wont do it again, (esp if we did a good job on his hands [making typing a more deeply felt experience])
(alright mummy I'm coming I'll take my medicine like a good boy) :-)
in my life God comes first.... but Linux is pretty high after that
Francis Smit
Actually the reason there is the delay is that they don't want to take their employees valuable time on data-lines or no-answers. The software is set up so that if a human voice is detected on the line, it will transfer to an person.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I simply explain to them that I want some damned good phone sex, on the spot.
... now my viagra is wasting away while I am talking to them, and its all their fault I'm losing that money, so don't they think they owe me some quickie phone sex.
... talking with strangers in their own homes who might demand phone sex.
... and he is the one who will take your number off his phone list.
In the most perverted banker-undertaker buddy fucker voice I can muster, I quietly, but assertively, explain that I was just in the middle of downloading some great porn, and that, but for their rude interuption, I would probably be in the middle of one of the best masturbation orgasms I have had in months. Now, it's all their fault I'm having a bad day.
Depending on their response, I might embellish the humiliation and guilt trip for them
If they are half civil and get the joke, I explain that their boss, who is probably listening, is a stupid risktaker, in that he or she hires our young girls and boys, under his or her responsibility and supervision, to call strangers who are as likely to demand phone sex of young telemarketers as not, in exchange for the time to listen to their track-speil.
Employment law is such that their boss is now legally liable, under the sexual harrassament laws adopted under GHW Bush, for requiring a worker to earn a living in a predictably demeaning and sexually insulting and hostile environment
The helpless person "working" for $5 an hour, puking out a "living" while burping up predigested "lines" will not have the time to put your number on the DNC list; but the boss, on realizing his or her own liability, of sexual harassment lawsuit from his employees, for his "maintenance of a sexually hostile environment, and for exposing young boys and girls to perverts" will. He is the one who is liable
I went on to test the program in every way I could devise. I strained
it to expose its weaknesses. I ran it for high-mass stars and low-mass
stars, for stars born exceedingly hot and those born relatively cold.
I ran it assuming the superfluid currents beneath the crust to be
absent -- not because I wanted to know the answer, but because I had
developed an intuitive feel for the answer in this particular case.
Finally I got a run in which the computer showed the pulsar's
temperature to be less than absolute zero. I had found an error. I
chased down the error and fixed it. Now I had improved the program to
the point where it would not run at all.
-- George Greenstein, "Frozen Star: Of Pulsars, Black
Holes and the Fate of Stars"
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