Slashdot Mirror
Foiling 'Backdoor' Voicemail Spam?
Cheffo Jeffo asks: "After receiving a number of (repeated and irritating) voicemail spams in the past week, I starting investigating what my options were for blocking these pre-recorded messages that are eating up my mailbox and costing me money when I check my messages using a cellphone. While it appears that I can do nothing at this point in time (I am Canadian and the CRTC hasn't had the wisdom to make this stupidity illegal yet), I was wondering if there is a technical measure that I can use to stop the insanity (other than reverting to a regular answering machine).
In my particular case, the telemousketeer autodialer dials into the telco's voicemail backdoor (xxx-210-0yyy) and punches in the phone number xxx-yyy-zzzz. If they find that there is no mailbox, then they hang up and remove the number from the call list. Otherwise, they leave their obnoxious solicitation.How do they determine whether a mailbox exists (as you can tell, I am no expert)?" Might there be some tone that you can record at the start of the outgoing message that will fool the autodialer into marking the number as "disconnected"?
"If I were to record the 'I'm sorry, <some-phony-number> is not a valid mailbox, please try again' message as my mailbox identifier, would that work?
Any other ideas (other than the providing Slashdot with the URLs for the offending companies to punish their web servers)?"
My girlfriend did just that when the voicemail spam got out of hand. Their message now says "If you are going to leave an advertisement of any kind, hang up now because we will not respond. However if you are trying to reach..." and so on.
They haven't a single ad since.
"Free beer tends to lead to free speech"
I wonder if Steve Wozniak has been keeping up with the phone system like he used to. P)
Do the spam messages occur at regular intervals? You could try turning your voice mail box off for an hour/day/week. The idea being that they call, find no box, and delete your number from the list.
Starting the message with a "disconnected" tone or somesuch might help. This might not work though - if they're using a computer with ISDN technology, the card gets told digitally when the call is disconnected (or rerouted etc).
Have you registered a complaint with your telephone company (mobile provider or whatever)? Even if they refuse to do something, make sure they get a complaint - written is usually best. If enough customers complain about something they will look into it. Find out if their competitors are willing to help, and if they are mention it in your letter. The prospect of losing a customer to a competitor will carry more weight!
-- Steve
1) The telco is providing this dubious backdoor service
2) The service is costing you money
3) complain to the telco, threaten to swap services (if you can)
Note, in australia I would complain to the TIO, as this costs the telco money either way.
4) ???
5) PROFIT
09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
Spammers assume that if you don't like their message, you'll simply delete it. Only a tiny fraction of recipients ever actually respond, and most of those responses are for placing orders. This means they can employ a very small number of customer service reps, making spam very cost-effective. The reason it works is that you, the victim, simply delete the spam and take no action.
To force spammers into finding a better way to conduct business, we must tip the balance of costs. If every victim called them up and wasted 5 minutes of the spammer's time, the ratio of sales to non-sales would become pretty thin, pretty quick. Their costs for paying phone-monkeys would quickly surpass penis pill profits.
It's even better if they have a toll free number you can call, because it's their dime. (Beware of ANI, don't counterharass them from your own phone!) It actually costs them extra if you call them from a payphone, hint hint. I got answering-machine-spammed a while ago, and it turns out that 800 470 0865 is also answered by a machine. There's a voicemail system behind it, and it's possible to tie up the line indefinitely just by pushing 1(wait)*(wait)1(wait)*(wait)....
If they have a website you can visit, well, I'm sure you can figure out what to do. Evil blackhats of the world, unite and make the world a better place! If spammers' hosting costs skyrocket, they might see the light.
Place an order! Then cancel it. Document both. Keep CLOSE TRACK of your CC bills! If they charge you anyway, reverse the charges. (That costs them BIG, and if it happens too often, they'll get their merchant account canceled.)
It only takes a small percentage of spam victims, pissed off and ready to take action, to impact the spammers' bottom lines. You probably spend at least 5 minutes a day sorting through spam email, listening to junk voicemail, and throwing out the dead-tree junk that lands in your mailbox. Spend 5 minutes a day fighting back.
No idea about in Canada, but in the UK under Statutory Instrument 2000 No. 2334, The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 you have the right to cancel an order at any time up to dispatch and up to 7 days from receipt of goods in which to return them and obtain a refund (which must be paid within 30 days). There are exemptions to the law - unsealed computer software, magazines, perishable goods, lottery or gambling services or if the good is personalised to the consumer.
Check out this help wanted ad from Boxpilot (one of the companies in this business) to see how this is done. A live person calls your company and asks the receptionist to be transfered to your voicemail box, and then s/he presses play on the message. There's no automated/technological solution to block that, and I don't know if you want the receptionist to question the intentions of anyone who wants to be transferred to your voicemail.
<sig>Guvf vf abg n frperg zrffntr
How would you plug that into a cell phone?
to Happy Dude. You have the power!
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
Yes, if you set your voice mail message to use the triple tone indicating that the number has been disconnected then it will take you off their list.
I've gone one better and found an entire WAV of the "We're sorry" message online, and have that for my voice mail message. Now, not only do telemarketers not have me on any lists, but only the people I know and want to have call me leave me messages.
If you'd like the WAV or can't find just the three tone WAV (you can have just the three tones then put in your real voice mail message; the telemarketing systems won't notice), post a reply here and I'll work out a way to get it to you.
All you have to do is get your phone number listed under the maiden name of yourself (if you're female and married) or the maiden name of your wife/mother as appropriate. Then whenever anyone calls for that name you know it's a phone spam and you can legitimately tell them there's nobody there by that name and hang up.
- I believe the CRTC would readily consider this to be equivalent to unrequested commercial faxes, in which case you have a *VERY* big club to fight with.
- I believe the telco will readily reduce your bill by $X per month if you can provide a suitable $X for the cost of these spam messages.
- There is a national opt-out service which is highly effective. I don't know the number off-hand. I recall having to hassle the telco to get the number, and it did take a bit of phone tag to find the person who did know it. But in the past eight years, I've had NO telemarketing calls and VERY LITTLE junk snail mail.
- If you can identify the company that left the mail, I suggest you can take them to small claims court for the cost of retrieving their mail, the cost of filing the claim, and the cost of attending court. And I expect you will win (for starters, they won't show up to defend themselves!)
All in all, I think you can readily resolve the problem, quite possibly to your profit!
--
Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
Here's the deal on Tom...
I, too, was spammed by him, and called his campaign office to complain. They informed me that some kid (likely the same one sending me 48 minute rap and hate filled messages) hijacked an actual campaign they DID do ONCE and spammed random phone numbers across the city. The people involved in the original compaign, and Bell Canada were apparently "working together" to figure out who did this and how. I haven't received one in a month.
http://www.hainsworth.com