Slashdot Mirror
Stopping Overseas Fax Spam?
iotashan asks: "Likely for most businesses, unsolicited faxes have become quite a problem. They needlessly use up toner and paper, and are usually just scams anyway. Specifically, we are receiving faxes from a company called Flamingo Travel. Now, they appear to bug business across the US, and some innocent parties are falling victim. I have used their automated system for having my fax number removed, to no avail. Is my only weapon having a bunch of friends call this 800 number to make the company's overseas toll-free phone bill unbearable?"
"The latest fax listed a number to call to take advantage of the offer (800-328-9795), so I called it and asked to be removed. The woman took down my number, but rather smugly told me that they are in England so they do not have to obey the US unsolicited fax laws. She wouldn't provide me with any other company information, and then stopped answering calls from my number after repeated hang-ups. The FCC says that it is a civil matter, and to go through the courts. The Fax Preference Service in the UK says they cannot help people outside the UK. Do I have nowhere to turn except an expensive lawyer, armed with no information about the company?"
Is my only weapon having a bunch of friends call this 800 number to make the company's overseas toll-free phone bill unbearable?
That's really not such a bad idea. Being that they're in an other country and illegally spamming, you can assume they aren't going to attempt to prosecute somebody that they themselves have illegally wronged.
Get a free VoIP service like Free World Dialup or something that lets you make 800 calls over the Internet. With most of them the caller ID shows up as random numbers across the US that they use to dial out. Then fax them tons and tons and tons of junk (read: goatse's) faxes through that.
Or you could just automate your VoIP program to call them every 30 seconds. Rack up the bills and annoy the hell out of them. Didn't Scott Richer get really pissed off when everybody submitted his email address to zillions of email lists?
Vonal Declosion
I think we should have a consistent answer to the guy who answers the 800 number. Something like "Sorry, wrong number. Bork bork." ?
--H
Call them under a pseudonym, tell them you want to place an order for group travel for your company, have them fax a quote to you. Chances are they will use their real fax machine (programmed with their real phone number) instead of the auto-dial bank. If you can scam them under the pretenses of faxing an order, that's even better. Have a local (or use cheap voip service) to spam them back a copy of their advertisement, marked up liberally with a black marker.
While it probably won't get you off the list, it will make you feel better.
tape 2 a4 sheets of black paper together lengthways, feed into fax machine and send. When the fax starts to feed through, tape together into a loop and leave it.
:)
That'll use up their toner
Are you sure the return number is even theirs?
paintball
Seems to me that you could just rig up a computer to accept faxes, using ANI or caller id to refuse to accept anything you didn't get valid info for.
Set the jobs to auto-print and you are set. Use the old fax machine for outbounds only, rig it to not answer.
Woops, sorry, this solution requires more effort than plugging the machine into the wall. How could I have even brought it up.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
If you're reading this, dial 1-800-328-9795.
One call won't hurt. Keep them on the line as long as possible. Ask what they're wearing and when they stopped beating their kids and stuff.
I asked how many people have let them know how despicable fax smapping is now. The woman answering said nonchalantly "Oh, not very many". I let her know they'd be getting a lot more very soon now.
"Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!"
The woman took down my number, but rather smugly told me that they are in England so they do not have to obey the US unsolicited fax laws. She wouldn't provide me with any other company information, and then stopped answering calls from my number after repeated hang-ups. The FCC says that it is a civil matter, and to go through the courts. The Fax Preference Service in the UK says they cannot help people outside the UK.
Now, I don't know about some third world countries, but isn't there a treaty that says something like "If a law is illegal in our country, your 'citizen' can't do it in our country.
Ok, one thing I am missing, how much does it cost them? I mean f they are sending the faxes from UK, it will be too costly, but if they are sending it via some sort of internet relay, go after the relay - they are in the US and must obey laws. What am i missing here?
-Em
RelevantElephants: A Somatic WebComic...
Scratch that, after searching a little more the number is right, dial away!!!!
My user number is prime. Is yours?
Why don't fax machines have whitelisting or blacklisting capabilities? Or do they?
Weren't they replaced by steam-powered typewriters or something?
Lemon curry???
When we call we tell them we are minuto sombato from nigeria. We have a million dollars we need to transfer into an account and we need there help.
We kept getting junk faxes from some company with a 1-800 reply number. Well created a blank 250 page word doc that was nothing but a black background. It took half an hour to send the whole thing and I let it run for a few hours. Never heard back from them again.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Try reading your link again. It is the same one noted in the story regarding "innocent parties". The page you linked at flamingo-travel.com explains the the number (1-800-328-9795) does belong to the offending company.
"Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!"
Not a bad weapon if you consider Slashdot a bunch of friends.
Wonder-slash powers activate!
Form of a massive 800 number DoSing!
Shape of a six digit phone bill!
I was a victim. I finally got so pissed off at them coming in at 2-4am to my home phone that doesn't even have a fax machine hooked up that I changed my number... Unfortunately the new number belonged to some guy that is in huge debt with his creditors and they call constently. Also I forgot that I would no longer be on Missouri's no call list so telemarketers were calling quite a bit too. I think no call has kicked in because the calls seem to have dropped. The were almost all automated calls which is interesting because before the MO No Call list most telemarketing was done by live people.
If you guys want to organize a day where we call all the 800 numbers of spammers and junk faxers count me in. I've got a couple of numbers I've been collecting that I can throw into the pool.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
If it didn't, people wouldn't do it.
I know somebody who runs a fax list. He's very religeous about getting you off his lists right away if you want off, but he's more liberal than I would prefer about what constitutes "opt in"...
It works.
He's getting business - lots of it. In his own words, he's "on a roll". It's cheaper and more effective to send junk faxes than to post legitimate ads in the trade magazines!
He's not selling penis pills or anything like that - just an independent broker promoting his services, which services he otherwise competently provides.
He'll continue this until the money runs out, like anybody else in his position.
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
I called, heard the phone pick up, "Reservations". So I said "I need reservations", and she hung up on me. Then I called back again and they picked up with no response. I said "Hello?", and they hung up.
So then I called and said "You're gonna die bitch". And then heard a bunch of women laughing.
Vonal Declosion
I checked on the guy who posted this.. there's really no history of him posting anything on slashdot prior to this--
iotashan
Seems like a banner click thru scam, but this time it's with a 1-800 number. Brilliant.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
The black paper trick is nice and all, but probably will just end up making your phone line busy.
Paul Lenhart writes words!
Who the hell uses a fax machine anymore anyways???
Normal businesses and people, that's who.
When an editor wants to send back a marked-up piece of copy, they do it by fax. Any real editor in the world will tell you that you don't edit online. You do it with proofreaders' marks, circles, arrows, writing in between lines, etc.
If you are, or are dealing with, a lawyer, a real-estate agent, or anyone who works with contracts, you exchange the contracts via fax. (Typing your name in e-mail doesn't count as a signature.)
The business world still relies on faxes because they work better than e-mail for many purposes.
Most people don't have sheetfeed scanners, so they can't put a 15 page document in their scanner and just walk away. They have to feed it page by page, so don't even bother with the use-a-scanner-and-e-mail-it line.
However, spammers always lie - if they're using an 800 number, there's a high probability that it really _is_ in the US, and they're just claiming to be in England to make you go away. Or the 800 number could be going to a VOIP box in the US which connects them to a call center in the UK. So trace the call - at least with callerid, if nothing else (though that's often inaccurate) and see if you can find out where it's from. If the call is coming in on a direct analog phone line, you can also use one of the phone company features like *69 or your local telco's call tracing versions to check further.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
One of the most persistent offenders is a two-bit little box-pushing laser printer and supplies company in the north of Sydney called 'IT Imaging' (sales@itimaging.com.au). Their business practises are pretty suspect at the best of times, for eg I called them for a quote on a printer once (that I didn't go through with - too expensive) and they started calling my contemporaries in other departments saying "We're doing business with him, maybe you want to buy from us too?". They're big on junk faxes too.
When I get cold calls or junk faxes, I just add them to my "don't buy from these arseholes" list, and they stay there for a year. A polite email/fax to the effect of "As a direct and specific consequence of your decision to send me junk [mail|spam|call], I have added your company to my department's do-not-buy list, and your company will not be considered for any [insert product here] requirements for one year from this date]".
The Apple Centre in Taylor Square are another junk faxer of note here in Sydney, and they're pretty much a permanent resident on the "do not buy" list too!
Got a call from a girlie trying to be all official sounding, "calling on behalf of sales executive Mister Sales Droid from Fuji Xerox, wondering if you want to buy printers, blah blah". "We like Fuji Xerox as a company, here, because FX sustainable business practices are something we like, BUT, as a direct and specific result of your call...". They get off the phone real quick when you tell them that. I guess they want their year to start as soon as possible, so it will be over ASAP! :-)
Admittedly, this doesn't help with the anon and hard to contact fax spammers, but it seems to work pretty well on the ones who actually want to do quasi-legitimate business with you.
I find your ideas intriguing and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
And they're almost certainly receiving the fax on a fax modem, so sending lots of black bits just uses up jpeg space, not human attention. You really want to send them lots of faxes that _look_ like they're real requests, so humans need to waste time reading them.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Be careful, calling an 800 number may cost you $$l lfre e.htm
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/tmarkg/to
When you work for a company someday, you'll find that no one wants to pay someone to hack a damned fax machine solution. Believe it or not, most people have jobs that don't allow them such free time. Wanting to "just plug it in" is a quite reasonable expectation. Just because everyone around here has the time, skill, and disposition to fuck around with their hardware doesn't everybody does
Not to mention that a standard fax machine is simpler and more stable than a computer-based solution for those companies that aren't large enough to really devote time to doing it right.
Also, there are a lot of reasons why someone's info might not show up on Caller ID - such as being behind a PBX in some instances - and that would basically be giving up on business.
All in all, that was a very good suggestion for those who don't actually have to run a real business.
According to the website provided by Slashdot:
They are coming from a company in Florida calling themselves Flamingo Travel... they sell time shares.
-B
Yeah, works great for me. It re-writes caller-id based on the names in my Mac's address book, recognizes certain callers and uses distinctive ring to tell what's happening, blacklists other numbers. I'm using it to send long-distance calls out via VoIP while still sending local calls via the POTS line that I can't get rid of. Great fun. Details on my blog.
For academic purposes only. Know the laws of your state.
First, you'll need a credit card number.
Visa numbers are constructed like this like this:
Start with the digit 4
16 digits altogether
The checksum they must pass is:
Take the even digits, double them, and add the resulting digits together to get a new digit. (or just map 0-9 to 0246813579 for the even digits).
Then add all the digits together. If it's a multiple of 10, the card number is valid. A quick way to generate would be to start with 4 plus 14 random digits, calculate the checksum of those 15 digits, and subtract from 10 to get the remaining digit.
Their machines will initially accept them, and be forced to contact visa to verify their correctness, at which time they'd fail, but result in small charges to their merchanct account. Enough bad card numbers can get an account suspended.
Click on the website of the site and you will get the following message (It's probably a good idea to calm down now): We have been recieving phone calls from people angry that we are sending them fax specials like $99 to Disney and Kids Free. Please know that they are NOT coming from Flamingo Travel Group in Pennsylvania. They are coming from a company in Florida calling themselves Flamingo Travel. Their phone number is 1-800-328-9795 and they sell time shares. FILE YOUR COMPLAINT: http://ftp.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/unwantedfaxes .html
***We do not send faxed specials...ever...period.***
***We do not send email blasts...we only send email to people that ask for it***
***We remove people right away if they change thier mind at any time.***
***We value our privacy and we would never violate yours by sharing privledged contact information. ***
***We have nothing to do with time shares. Personally, I think they are a bad idea***
A reputable Travel Company will provide you with:
1. A Physical Address of thier place of business.
2. Their phone, fax and email information.
3. Their IATA number.
4. They will never ask for your income information...it's none of thier business.
5. Any reputable company should allow you time to check them out, offer information to help you check them out and this information should be verifiable.
It costs the recipient $0.25+ for each call from a payphone. Hit'em where it hurts.
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
You're right, slashdot is definitely the arena to put something like this if you want mass calls. If you don't have access to this though you may be able to fight it a different way. Here's an example...
I got those same FaxSpam messages and tried getting unsubscribed many many times. I left messages, I left my contact information and in turn got fed up and applied a technical response to the problem.
The number listed on my FaxSpam was a 3+ minute recording of some guy yacking about the fool proof money making method of the month. I'm sure it cost him $.25 per call considering the legth of the message.
I had a bank of innactive modems for a newly de-installed dial-in system for my company. I fired it back up and attached it to a management computer. I then proceeded to plug all 48 modems back into our PBX lines (no numbers listed to be blocked) and wrote a cute script to war-dial on all 48 modems the 800 number listed. I ran the script for about an hour to test its stability and then shut it off.
I figured I'd give the spammer one more shot to remove my company's information and called the number in person. I left a polite message saying who I was and that I was once again requesting to be removed from his fax list. I left my number and a temporary e-mail address saying, that I was aware of how much each call was costing him and that I would repeatedly call to take up his time and money. I waited 24 hours and gave him every chance to remove me. That next night we received the same barage of fax spams to all of the fax machines at my company. I turned my script back on and let the program run away. It ran for about 36 hours before I received a call back from the guy that ran the FaxSpam list. He had left the message whie I was out of my office but it boiled down to him begging me to stop calling. By the time I got the message(2 hours later), the 800 number had been disconnected. We noticed a significant drop-off in FaxSpam before I left the company.
800 number scams
Seems you need to agree beforehand to a billing arrangement or provide a CC # before you begin recieving 'services'.
We apologise for the fault in this post. Those responsible have been sacked. -- Signed RICHARD M. NIXON
We used to get a fax for free hair stuff until we took a 6 foot length of paper wrote "Stop Faxing us" on it, fed one end into our fax machine, created a big loop and faxed it back to the company once they had cloed up for the night... If you can get their fax number by hook or by crook... give it a try. If anything it will either tie up their computer fax or kill thier stack of paper and toner in one night.
Feed my eyes...
To save your server from that fate, I'll pseudo-transcribe the fax:
###
Disney Vacation (KIDS ARE FREE!)
4 Days
3 Nights
in Orlando
$99 per person
double occupancy
This Special Rate is Limited to the first 50 Purchasers Today!
{[Ask about our all inclusive 3 day 2 Night Cruise to the Bahamas!]}
INCLUDES: 2 Disney Tickets FREE!
Buy (Disney Vacation Package) get (Cruise Vacation Package) FREE!
BONUS: Daytona Beach 3 Days 2 Nights
Purchase Today and Receive Complimentary Air Voucher to Jamaica, Mexico or Las Vegas PLUS 2 Nights Accommodations!
1-800-328-9795
CALL NOW
LIMITED AVAILABILITY
Processing and accomodation fee not included. To have your fax number removed please call 1-888-211-8303 . Time share tour optional.
###
That was harder than it looks. The layout of that page is horrible.