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Telemarketer Blows Whistle on Tape-Altering Scam
Recently, Florida-based telemarketing firm Epixtar is frequently accused of cramming an extra $30 onto phone charges of small businesses, yet has proof of legality by recording their calls. Until they laid off some people, one of whom has blown the whistle. The companies' cramming tactics become "legal" by altering those taped recordings to include a quick statement about the $30 charge. MSNBC has the article, including a short audio clip of a sample call.
Check out this answering machine for your PC that deals with telemarketers who withhold their caller ID. The software can be configured to hang up on these cases and you will never hear the phone ring. It also implements white lists and black lists. Usual disclaimer applies.
Yes there is a risk of IDing legitimate calls as false positives. However, I've been monitoring my caller ID for over two years and can confirm that this is becoming less of a problem as more bell systems make their caller ID protocols compatible. So the risk is diminishing with time.
Yes this is a drastic move but until the law catches up this is how you have to deal with aggressive deceptive practices.
Caller ID is a godsend people - use it. Yes the telcos should be hung by their balls for extorting extra services out of the customers by selling personal information to scum telemarketers. In my next residence I will register my phone under an alias. If anyone calls asking for the alias, then they are immediately identified as a telemarketer and I will tell them there is no one here by that name. This crap has gone far enough.
Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
People who work for telemarketers are often fairly hard up for work as it is. If they do something to rock the boat before they've secured employment elsewhere, they can find themselves without any job at all. It's not easy to make waves when whether or not you're going to be able to pay rent next month depends on keeping your mouth shut.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Actually, if they do that, it's even better for you. It gives you proof of "constructive dismissal". It would be better if they found some reason that they could substantiate and you couldn't disprove, and fire you for that.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Forget call blocking and caller i.d. Do what I did: disconnect your phone and go with a cell service.
Turns out that with all the long-distance calling I do the cell was actually cheaper than the regular phone line. Furthermore, it's illegal to make an unsolicited sales call to a cell - because the cell owner has to pay if *you* call.
Ever since I disconnected my land line and went to a cell (more than two years now) I've been completely telemarketer free. Not one bloody sales call, not even from those hell-fiends at AT&T.
You can't imagine just how much nicer life is when you know that *every* call you get is from someone you want to hear from, or at least need to hear from.
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
NEVER BUY ANYTHING.
/. are all aware of how that works. (Free Kevin, oh wait, nevermind) But these guys are just plain arrogant about it. Did you hear the womans voice when she was asked to repeat something? She got a real nasty tone. The social response to that is to not ask for anything to be repeated. And voila, he gets nailed with some services and charges he never really even heard, or realized he was buying.
Never confirm more than your name, and ask for theirs first.
A person/company calling you has you at a great advantage. It could be an inmate of a prison just trying to get your credit card, and all he/she started with was probably a phone book or Internet connection... I mean come on, they almost always BLOCK their source phone number. How can you even remotely trust someone who is hiding behind an unidentified phone number, wanting to sell you something???
It is like social engineering, surely we here on
Now what I have always wanted to do, but never have, is when the call starts and they say it may be recorded, I would say "Good, for my records and quality assurances I AM RECORDING THE CALL TOO." How do you think the would respond to that? most likely "Click."
Silly Rabbit: tricks are for kids.
I switched from NSI to a different registrar sometime ago for obvious reasons. NSI, of course, tried to stop that from happening but I'd done my homework and everything went smoothly since everything was in order. Several months later I recieve a bill from NSI. I am prepared to get all angry when I notice it's NOT actually a bill, it just looks like bill. It's really a form to transfer my domain back and charge me for it.
I told the FTC about it and they told me that I was not the only one to complain and they were looking in to it. Dunno what ever came of it, NSI has left me alone since.
well, that's whats really 'nice' about telemarketing companies. they work so on the edge of profitability anyways that anything goes, the typical employees being elderly or naive young people who have failed to get a different job, and are promised 'make big $$$'. while in reality they end up getting below minimum wage(in theory they could be making nice $$$, but thats just theory).
really, of if i had to choose between telemarketing and mcdonalds crap job, big macs here i come(that way i at least get the paycheck i should be getting).
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
- Make them give their pitch as soon as possible.
- Always give a specific answer to a question: "I can hear you", "That information is correct", etc. avoiding general words of assent.
I knew the scummy ones would edit tapes, and mentally prepared myself ahead of time. If you find it's too much work to do this, you have two options: record the call yourself as well (less work but still work), or take another posters' suggestion and go all cellular. (Number portability-- which I assume will be compatible with land line number portability-- begins before the end of this year.)Do you like Japanese imports?
Please add this number to all Do Not Call lists your company and your client maintain.
Many telemarketing companies maintain different DNCs for each customer - ask them to put you on ALL their lists at once.
www.eFax.com are spammers
After the telemarketing got too bad, I dumped my landline for a cel-only lifestyle. Eventually, telemarketers got the cel number. But then I found out that NY State, among others, has a free "Do not call" registry, which really works:
https://www.nynocall.com/index.html
The tech contracting company I work for had a small outsource development section. We host a few websites and we've been getting these ICLS 'bills' for a while.
Even more disturbing are the numerous pieces of mail we receive that look JUST LIKE Network Solutions' renewal notices except that they refer you to some website that's not affiliated with them.
Several of our clients have received these misleading 'bills' or 'warnings' and have contacted us out of concern that they were about to lose their service or whatever.
-V
... "I read part of it all the way through." -- Movie Mogul Sam Goldwyn (and some slashdot readers)