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Telco Spams and Gets Huge Fine
jack_call writes "According to The Register the large German based mobilephone operator 'Debitel' was fined $359000 for (deliberately!) sending a total 48000 spam messages( mail: 36000, sms: 12000) to Danish costumers of rival company 'Telmore'. According to different Danish media outlets, they appealed immediately, mostly because the fine comes out at about a sixth of what 'Debitel' made last fiscal year after taxes."
Why would a telco consider a costumer to be competition?!
And I say put the money towards going after more spammers. Build up the momentum these cases provide.
A Multiplayer Strategy Game for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux
I'm sure it was all an accident ;)
Your honor, I accidentally gathered a massive mailing list, sat around many meetings working out what to say, and finally clicked send - all totally accidentally. I thought I was sending my mother some flowers over the internet, honestly I did.
liqbase
If I want to know about some offer, I will ask. Thank you.
Was thinking of writing to a newspaper, but that idea got lost somewhere in a mire of laziness
... and I shall strike upon thee with great vegeance, furious anger and a slightly positive karma.
That they keep sending to their own customers?
perpetually dwelling in the -1 pits
That'll teach 'em to spam the judge ;)
when you say costumers you mean people wearing a costume ? in this case they should be fined for discrimination as well!! bastards!!
set your threshold at -1 if you want to see me
Now if the concept could be extended to telesales, my sanity levels would definately be returned to normal.
Not a single day goes by when I'm not phoned up by some mechanical phonedialer/call centre and asked if I'd like to buy double glazing/dial a premium line/order jam. Arrrgh!!
And don't tell me to go ex-directory. I want my friends to find me in the phonebook if they need to thanks.
"So there he is, risen from the dead. Like that fella, E. T." - Father Ted Crilly
It's worth noting that previous spam fines in Denmark have been much higher. Around 15USD per e-mail/SMS/whatever.
But still, it's a good part of Debitel's yearly income.
zWhat would an EWOULDBLOCK block, if an EWOULDBLOCK could block would? -- me
I think they got what they deserve. Although, before this turns into a disscussion about telemarketing, and how everyone hates them, remember: Telemarketers are human too. Yes, mod me down for the horrible, evil statment I just made. But, they are. The person you actually talk to has nothing to do with the product, they're just someone hired to call people on a list given to them. They probably don't even like their job, but need employment and are doing it for the money, so think about that before you verbally attack one. How do I know? Well, my mother was one for a short while, many years ago.
With all that said, there is one way to get rid of telemarketers that is funny and polite.
Telemarketer: Hello, may I speak to whomever is in charge of chosing telephone service?
You: Yes, this is him.
T: Great, would you be interested in lowering your monthly telephone bill? If you switch to A&G telco service, I can offer you a great, low rate.
Y: We don't have telephone service in my house, or telephones.
T: Surely you must, sir. How are we having this converstaion?
Y: That's a good question. But I can assure you we don't have telephone service.
T: Are you sure.
Y: Positively.
T: Alright then... Uh, sorry to bother you.
You could say this for anything they're selling. "Sorry, we don't have ______." They'll almost always be confused and just apologize and hang up.
I live in fear of this happening on a large scale in the United States. In a country where we pay (at this point) for incoming calls, I'm just waiting for the deluge of spam messages and telemarketer phone calls to appear on my cellular phone.
I own a small business, and our fax machine has virtually been made useless by the junk faxes we get every month. I promise you, we spend more on incoming faxes (ink, paper) than we do on outgoing faxes, none of which we ever "intentionally" signed up for. And the junk-fax companies have the balls to say "we're only making a living" ??? Please.
Destroy these people before they destroy another technology.
StupidChildren...the reason jesus is crying
On my way to London the other day, I was sitting in the 'Quiet Zone' car of the train. There are notices on every window asking people not to use Mobile Phones.
This moron gets on at a station, and quite obviously reads, and decides to ignore the notices, and makes about a dozen calls to people which I didn't want to listen to. However, it became quite obvious that this person was engaged in a mobile/SMS/MMS marketing campaign, and various other things he said suggested 'spammer'.
Of course, rule #3 states that spammers are stupid, and this one was no exception. He rattled off at great length a list of sites, usernames, and passwords for various SMS distribution services.
I pulled out my newspaper and pretended to do the crossword, writing down every group of site, username, and passwords. I have not done anything with them yet, but I'm sorely tempted. However, as my handsets are all registered with the TPS (the UK equivalent of the FTC do-not-call lists), I'll wait for a marketing SMS to be crapped into my phone before being tempted further.
If you are 'evileye' (what a stupid username), you might be more careful about where you use your mobile next time..
The fines for SMS spam should be higher than the fines for email spam.
Why? SMS spam causes more hassle. Think about it. Many people will want to see the message immediately, drag the phone out, poke at those tiny little buttons, squint at the menus etc. At least email spam can be seen and deleted almost immediately (if it even gets thru the spam filters)
In this case, AFAIK, the same charge was levied regardless.
Telesales people are annoying dozens of people for every one that is pleased with the call. They know it. They are accepting money for pissing people off. I don't care if the person on the other end needs the money. A hitman would give exactly the same reason!
Fuck 'em. I don't care if they need the money, they are being paid to waste my time, and I will abuse them, waste their time, annoy them, in whatever way I can. And that includes your mother.
Justin.
You're only jealous cos the little penguins are talking to me.
As the article says, the emails and SMS messages were sent as the competitor TelMore was take over by TDC (the evil former state monopoly in Denmark). In court the Debitel people tried to explain to the judges that it was all "a joke".
Apparently the judge had no sense of humor...
Actually they got a volume discount! (no, I'm not joking you).
The standard rate in Denmark is approx. $18 (100 DKK) per message. But the poewrs that be (our government and it's institution) has opened up for discount in cases like this.
Debitel was offered a $180.000 (1.000.000 DKK) settlement over a year ago, but they decided, that they'd rather take it to court. That might have been a poor judgement from their management....
I sold my soul awhile back and worked as a "Marketing Rep" selling to businesses (I NEEED THE MONEY...and I only lasted two and a half weeks anyway); if we didn't get a "No" answer from a qualified contact, we had to put the number on the callback list. Hangups, secretaries, anything that wasn't a person qualified to take the offer explicitly saying "No" would get a CB...so make sure you say "Whatever it is, I'm not interested, do not call back." before you hangup, or else it won't ever stop.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. - Aldous Huxley