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Do-Not-Call List Could Be Opened For Phone Spam
Wick_7654 submits a link to this story at the Chicago Sun-Times, which begins "The agency overseeing the national Do Not Call Registry is considering opening a loophole to allow companies to deliver 'pre-recorded message telemarketing.' The effort is being organized by Allen Hile of the FTC's division of marketing practice. Be sure to let the FTC know how you feel about it." The proposed change specifies that recorded calls would be allowed only when an "established business relationship" exists, but provisions like that tend to be stretched to absurdity.
Yes, sir, your uncle's second wife's stepsister's kindergarten teacher once bought a widget from us. That establishes a clear prior business relationship between you and us.
"The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance."
"If you wish to create a business relationship with Spammers Inc., hang up now! If you already have a business relationship with us, please stay on the line."
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
Please let them, really, I mean how much business would they get from a "DO NOT CALL" list?
Maybe then they will realise that these people are in fact helping them not call people who won't buy their crap.
+----------------- | What is the question!
I think your business's phone number is in that big yellow book that shows up at my door once a year, that counts as an "established business relationship" right?
"What do you mean no prior business relationship? You said hello. Hello is a greeting and greetings are an integral part of relationships. Now about that home mortgage..."
-- Don Carcharo
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Repeat "Please continue to hold. Your call is important *snicker* to us and we will be pleased to assist you as soon as *snicker* possible" every few minutes
Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, but teach a man to phish...
Back in high school, I had a friend with very anti-military parents. One day, when Eddie was out, the Navy called and Eddie's mom answered. She told the recruiter that Eddie couldn't come to the phone because he was spending the night at his boyfriend's house. Eddie never got another call from any of the military branches :-)
Of course, I got thrown in the 'endless hold for angry customers' (Verified on the newsgroups). After five times trying to get ahold of someone who could fix this ever increasing volume of calls, I lost it and started a barrage of calls using 5 lines and an autodialer. I would get to just before where an operator picked up, and put them on hold, then move to the next line. I got amazingly good at it, and picked up the line on some telemarketing stragglers screaming, "WHO IS THIS!?!".
I kept this up for an hour, which I am pretty sure fucked up their profit margin on that day.
Still more calls a few days later - I guess they thought I wasn't serious. Another polite request to talk to the manager, and a dump into endless hold.
Operation Eternal Freedom went into effect again, and this time I feigned an old lady's voice, "I'm trying to reach my son, -insert name here-", on every seventh call. The others went right to hold, until they found no one on the line and hung up. Of course, I was ready with an autodialed response. 45 minutes (while waiting for a backup to complete) later, I called it a day.
Third time, three 45 minute sessions - I got where I could do it one handed on speakerphone, and get some real work done.
No more calls after that.
Did they get my message? I left about 2,463.
"You know what would be a fantastic gadget to have?"
"I'm going to become rich and famous after i invent a device that allows you to stab people in the face over the phone"
(misquoting bash.org , if such a thing is possible)