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429,000 Do-Not-Call Complaints
The Ghetto Imp writes "Is the do-not-call list working for you? According to CNN Money, there have been over 429,000 complaints filed with the FTC over do-not-call violations. The list is incredibly popular, with apparently some 62 million numbers registered. Apparently the worst offenders are the Credit Foundation of America, and our friends at AT&T. In an era where companies use computers to spam pre-recorded messages through our phone lines, does the FTC have the teeth to make unsolicited calls a thing of the past? At $11,000 per violation, let's hope so!"
I was one of the people that signed up for the Do Not Call list as soon as it went live on the Internet. To date, I rarely get an unsolicited calls. They happen so rarely that I get suprised when I get a call. All-in-all, I'm pretty happy with my results.
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I used to work for a telemarketing company doing calls for AT&T's universal card. That's right, if you got bugged during dinner by someone selling you one of their credit cards, I wrote the Informix-4GL app that guided the agent through the sale. Ah, those were the days.
Anyway, at that time at least, AT&T was very dilligent in requiring that we scrubbed the numbers they gave us against the do not call lists. They were also very focussed on staying within legal calling hours, etc.
Then again, AT&T has many, many divisions who may or may not talk to each other and could have very different standards. Also, depending on who they outsourced their outbound calling to, they may have gone with a low-cost less competent provider. Both of those would surprise me though - this was one area where they at least used to pride themselves in their quality. Or at least in our quality.
You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
Even if they move to India, they still are subject to the law if they are calling into the USA -- though it would be harder to enforce.
Generally, they would be doing the telemarking for a company in the USA which would then have liability.
One thing that I found, is that if you ask for their telephone number they will either hang-up on you or tell you they don't have one.
Fight Spammers!
I work for a company that does Telemarketing and just this morning loaded our latest version of the Federal "Do Not Call" list. I completely agree with the intent of the law and I am on the list myself, but the implementation thereof is atrocious.
In order to even access the list, we must go through several hours of online paperwork that is highly redundant and of no real use in the end.
We would love to automatically download the list on a daily basis and ensure that no one that doesn't want to receive calls is contacted. We can't: The site used to download the list doesn't give a list of URLs for different area codes and said URLs change daily with random strings appended to prevent automated downloads. The server is set to allow only 2 simultaneous HTTP connections from a given IP, so downloading the 48 area codes we subscribe to takes roughly an hour, rather than the two or three minutes it used to when we could do many simultaneous downloads. And beyond that, you have to contact the helpdesk for them to reauthorize your download in the event of a download failure. That's right, if something times out or gets corrupted, we have to email the help desk and wait 24-48 hours for a reply before we can come into compliance.
We work very hard to comply with every state and federal do not call law, but none of the state lists are as difficult to access or as intentionally difficult to automatically deploy as the Fed's. Its a great law - but it would benefit all of us if the Feds made it easier to comply.
A few years ago I got a call from one of their marketers trying to switch my long distance service and I interupted him by saying
..."
Me: "You know, I'm not interested
Him: "Well fuck you then"
Me: "What? fuck me?"
Him: *Loudly* "Yeah, fuck you!"
Me: "You got to be kidding me, you called me from AT&T"
Him: "Fuck you" *Hangs up*
At first I thought it was a prank call, but then I remembered that it had all the right initial sounds that a telemarketer call would have like the initial pause and sounds made while the computer connects me with the marketer.
Do what I do. When they call, speak very faintly until they turn their volume up. Then turn the speakerphone on at the base unit and touch the antennas together for some high pitched feedback. Works for me. And yes I'm happy with my long distance.
I recently received an unsolicited call from a creditcard company despite 1. being on the national DNC list, 2. having Radio Shack's telezapper, 3. paying Verizon for the extra funcationality of blocking certain type of calls. Turns out there's an effective, common loophole these bastards use: They partner with a business that you have a legitimate relationship with. Sequence of events: Phone rings, Caller ID says its AAA (I'm a member), I pick it up and I get the credit card schpiel. When I confronted the agent about being on the DNC list, he said that this call was a special offer to AAA members. I cancelled my AAA membership.
You can file a complaint, and they can be FINED $11,000. Or you can sue them and collect up to $1,500 per incident. It's a lot more work to sue them than it is to simply file a complaint, and they stand to lose more money from fines than individual lawsuits.
It's getting so annoying I'm thinking of leaving tech support altogether.
Even before the "Do Not Call" list, you could tell telemarketers "don't call back" or "take me off your list". It's actually illegal for them to call back after being told this. If they called repeatedly I would ask for a supervisor and file a complaint with the FTC.
they can only not call you on the very same offer. other people in the household are still viable, new offers (were) still okay, etc.
I'll try to keep this short, but it's complex.
...only to get a voice mail box that was full. The woman's voice slurred the name of the firm, so I couldn't quite tell who they were (sounded like Charity Organizations of America).
I have caller ID, and was on the DNC list the very day it was offered to the public.
About 2 months ago, I started seeing my caller ID log fill up with calls from someplace in Georgia.
But the calls were always during normal work hours (when I'm not home) so my answering machine was full of hang-ups.
Well one night, they called at 7 pm, while I was home. I answered the phone, waited for the pause (while a computer transferred me to a live human)....and was promptly hung up on!
That just plain pissed me off, so I immediately called back the number on my caller ID....
A helpful computer option said to press 1 to be connected to the main operator.
I did so, and was promptly told by yet another computer that the main line was no longer in service!
Some investigation on Google (and white pages, and reverse lookup anbd what not) gave zip. The number didn't exist.
A call to my local phone company the next day had no information, but if I wished to place a complaint, it would be looked into, *in 4 to 6 months* (no, not weeks...months).
Well I knew the area code, it belonged to Bell South. So I contacted the Georgia one, and they too, had no info for the number, no listing, nothing.
I have a police friend down there, and they have access to all kinds of cool toys we don't, and even *she* had no info for the number!
Ditto a call to the Non-Profit registry service of my state, nor of Georgia.
More than just a simple case of DNC abuse was going on here.
Long story short (too late!) after much time calling, and looking about on the internet, I called Bell South back and pretended I worked for that number and was having phone problems, and could they be so kind as to help out?
Turned out is was a telemarketing firm, who had registered one legit phone number, and a bunch of trunk lines, all with voice mail boxes attached, pointing to each other with the main line being disconnected. All very illegal. A few more questions and I had the main line to the firm, whom I was able to track down easily on the web and contact them, stating in no uncertain terms if they ever called back, under *any* guise, I'd nail their ass to the wall for fraud, DNC abuse, and whatever else I could think up at the moment.
They never called again, and I've not had any more telemarkter calls since.
Moral of the story? Don't piss off a geek with too much free time on his hands...
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.