VoIP to Fuel Plague of 'Dialing for Dollars'/Spam

Ant writes "Broadband Reports says Internet News is exploring how telemarketers world-wide are realizing they can dodge long-distance costs (and U.S. "Do Not Call" restraints) by voice spamming VoIP users. Different from SPIT (spam over internet telephony) because it's not automated, an analyst in the article predicts homes and businesses could see some 150 calls a day from overseas call centers."

Comments

The ring that keeps on ringing

[erick99]

I am surprised that this hasn't happened sooner but I believe it will happen. I wonder what sort of culture shock we will have when our home telephones are rendered useless because they ring non-stop? I am getting just over 400 email spam a day so 100 to 150 phone calls a day (especially at a cost of only a penny or so each according to the article) seems believable. While spam filtering rids me of all but two or three email spam a day in my inbox, is there a technology that will do the same for my home phone. God, this sure will be interesting (and yes, I understand I have employed a bit of hyperbole).

Re:The ring that keeps on ringing

[dsginter]

Here's what I don't get:

There exist many methods for anti-spam authentication. Why hasn't someone implemented one of them in an "Email 2.0" style service with the single feature being "not compatible with existing email, including spam"? After the first service opened up for business, there would be more. And more. Until Spam was gone for good.

We can see that people are getting to the point of ditching it entirely so why not move to something that fixes the problem at the expense of backward compatibility? This befuddles me to no end. I'd sign up in a heartbeat and so would everyone email user that I know.

Can we just FUCK backward compatibility for once? Why is it so damn important?

Re:The ring that keeps on ringing

[morcheeba]

When I first got my "email 1.0" address, nobody that needed to email me had one. They got them eventually, though -- funny how that worked out :-)

Re:The ring that keeps on ringing

[PyroMosh]

So you basicly read everything anyway? Doesn't sount terribly useful to me.

I run my own domain. Aside from running a web site that's basicly just a dumping ground for files for me, I use it for my email.

If use myname@example.org as my primary email address, then I'll use that for giving out purposes to friends, etc.

Everyone else follow this simple format: If I sign up for a msn account, I'll use msn@example.org If I sign up for a carfax thingy, I'll use carfax@example.org It all forwards to myname@example.org anyway, but this way, if I ever recieve any spam, I instantly know where they got my address, and I can blacklist anything with that address in the header.

So far, I have 5 addresses blacklisted, from the past 3 years, simply because I'm careful about where I use my email address and what checkboxes are checked when I sign up for something.

I do not do this with my business sites, because well, frankly, I need my address published for those. They get a ton of spam. But I have a plan to work around that too.

Better fix this

[BWJones]

"The average enterprise or household could see as much as 150 calls a day from these telemarketers. It has to happen, because it is a market force that takes the market feedback and makes it into a profitable approach."

Ah, so this is how they are going to use all that dark fiber. :-P

Seriously though, it would be in the phone companies best interest to figure out how to block this. After the legislation for the do not call list, calls to our home plummeted. And rightly so. If I have to deal with telemarketers calling my home again, I will simply have the phone company disconnect my land line, especially with the prospect of 100-150 calls/day. Most people that really need to get ahold of me immediately can use the cell phone or email/IM me anyway. As for calling people at work, I cannot figure out how businesses will tolerate this. Businesses will be more likely to pressure phone companies to limit this kind of activity as it impacts productivity.

So, I don't really care how they do it, but from an end users perspective......They can either fix the loopholes and prevent phone spam or they will lose business.

On another note. Serious question to all the Slashdotters: Has anyone here actually bought ANYTHING from a telemarketer who called you? I have never purchased any good or service solicited over the phone, and I am wondering who it is that actually keeps these knuckleheads in business.

Re:Better fix this

[networkBoy]

get a 1-900 number. Simple.

All your friends have an unlisted number that is held private, or have a code to bypass the billing on the 1-900 line. Everyone else pays a buck a min. (15 min. minimum). I'll let them telemarketers pay me ~$180/Hour (figuring an average 5 min. call).
-nB

Not automated. Hmm

[wowbagger]

So, when one of these turkeys calls me, I can keep them on the line until I traceroute where his call is coming from, then go after him and his ISP with any number of legal charges as well as possible DDoSs.

Yes, that sounds like a GREAT way to make money.

Culture shock

[Tackhead]

> I wonder what sort of culture shock we will have when our home telephones are rendered useless because they ring non-stop?

It's already starting.

Ignoring people who have abandoned land-line phones for wireless, most of my friends are in the "phone by appointment only" mode.

If you want to talk to me on a land line, email (or IM) me first and tell me when you'll call. Otherwise, the damn thing stays unplugged, and/or with the ringer off. If I ain't expecting someone's call, it ain't getting answered.

Re:Silly Idea

[blanks]

Yes this would make it more expensive for the spammers to make the calls, and maybe it will keep some of the companies from following through, but with telemarketing if I remember correctly, the costs could be up to .25 per call (connected call) so anything less this this would be doable.

Also keep in mind that a way around this would be to have a dozens (hundreds?) of VOIP services, meaning you would just need a system to switch between "lines". And that technology all ready exists.

re-routing

[COMON$]

until I start re-routing their calls to each other. Think of it, a simple firewall that sits on your network that re-routs overseas calls to each other. Just keep a list of numbers and add new ones as they come in, completely automated...get a couple thousand Voice over IP users to do this and viola, problem solved. Old fashioned ping of death, DOS attacks. Perfectly legitimate because I am just returning their calls right???

Re:waste a telemarketers time

[rubycodez]

better yet, we need to port ELIZA to voice recognition/speach synthesis. Plug 'em into that, and it doesn't even matter if the recognition rate is say 60% or so.

new acronym proposal...

[Lord Prox]

PHLEGM PHoning Longdstance by Eurasian Gangs / Marketers

Sue them!!!

[www.sorehands.com]

Use the laws to file a lawsuit against the spammers that spam or the people who hire the spammers. Spamming is motivated by profit, lawsuits against spamers will remove that motivation.

I got spammed by Avtech Direct. I sent a demand letter, they were nasty in their response. I filed a lawsuit against them, and arranged for 15 other people to file lawsuits. When they appeared in court against me, I served them with the 20 other lawsuits. So far, only 5 of 21 cases were heard, they have over $11,000 in judgments against them. I have not seen any spam from them since.

VoIP Users Only?

[fo0]

The Thread suggests that this will be a problem for VoIP users only; but it seems to me that the overseas callcenters will call whoever they want regardless of what type of carrier the call-recepient uses. I don't think it is less expensive for them to call another VoIP line than it is for them to call a land-line or cell phone, but maybe I'm wrong.

Another thing... Is there a way that VoIP numbers are indexed or listed? Is there such thing as a listed or unlisted VoIP line?