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FTC Targets Massive Car Warranty Robocall Scheme
coondoggie writes "Robocalls are a scourge, and the Federal Trade Commission today took action against one outfit by asking a federal court to shut down companies that have been bombarding consumers with hundreds of millions of allegedly deceptive robocalls in an effort to sell vehicle service contracts. According to the FTC, the robocalls have prompted tens of thousands of complaints from consumers who are either on the Do Not Call Registry or asked not to be called. Five telephone numbers associated with the defendants have generated a total of 30,000 Do Not Call complaints. Consumers received the robocalls at home, work, and on their cell phones, sometimes several times in one day. Businesses, government offices and even 911 dispatchers also have been subjected to the calls, the FTC said."
Reader powerlord points out that another such company, not named in the FTC filing, raised the ire of thousands of internet-goers, who struck back by rickrolling the company's voice mail and digging up personal information on the company's president.
How about making it so all telemarketers have to register a certain caller ID that say would be (C)*insert name of company here*, then it would be trivial to block all corporate calls. Thus making it easy to have a caller ID filter to purchase to block all telemarketer calls. This would be a lot easier than the do not call list, more effective and wouldn't censor anyone.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
These bastards have been calling my place of work for months. I always hit 1 and wasted their time for a few minutes.
I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing. -- Thomas Jefferson
Whenever I'm having a bad day I can just wait for their call and keep yelling obscenities and laughing like a twelve-year-old. In fact yesterday morning I got one and greeted with "PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS lol."
QamuIs Heg qaq law' lorvIs yInqaq puS
If you get one of these types of calls, just go Here: http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm and fill out the form. In a week or two you get the print copy mailed to you of your filing.
Im glad they are acting on these @holes.
Support TBI Research: http://www.raisinhope.org
Thank god for the FTC. "This is the second call..." ... Bullshit. Everyone I know has gotten this at work, on cell phone, etc.
Now for the next aXXhole.. "hi, we were discussing your debts, and I can see that..." or whatever, go DIE...
For a few months, I had the vehicle warranty scammers calling me on my PREPAID mobile phone. That's actually abated somewhat. Funny, because I don't live in the US much and I don't own a car.
Now, I think the same group is calling with health insurance. Repeatedly.
Oh, I've had a few calls from random "IT support" tell me that they're calling me about my recent computer problems.
Someone needs to nail these guys to the wall.
I lived in Seattle for seven years and didn't have a problem with these types of calls, but as soon as I got a phone number here in San Francisco I get these car warranty calls. Now I almost never answer a call unless I recognize the number.
A few months into living in Seattle I got a call from a phone company to my cell phone and I proudly informed them that unsolicited commercial calls to cell phones were subject to a fine in WA. I didn't push for their info, but let them off with a warning. After that I never had junk calls to that phone number. Recently I was looking for the relevant law and it seems I mixed it up with WA's anti-spam law -- where you get $100 for every unsolicited piece of spam you report.
I am *extremely* happy about this. I've been getting, on average, a call a week on my cell phone from these guys.
Now if only Captain Jack would stop calling me... (anyone else get those ALL ABOARD cruise ones?)
A newly-registered corporation with a very similar name comes along and uses the same offices/machines/employees to carry on the work...?
No sig today...
Is that the cruise guy with the foghorn sound? Not lately, but I got a bunch of them this winter. (I suppose that's a good time to try to sell cruises in Canuckistan)
The "cardholder services" guys are my current scourge, at least 3 or 4 calls a week.
I've been getting calls on my cell phone and my work phone (many other people in my office have been getting calls too). Funny thing is I have a company car that is only a year old, I doubt the warranty is running out, especially since my company BUILT the car.
I actually called the number back to figure out what the scam was, the guy on the other side asked me for my auto information. I told him that since he called me up, he should already know what my information is. Then the guy hung up on me.
I hope there is a public lynching.
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
I work at a car dealership and I've gotten 3 of those calls just this week on the company phone. They don't seem to exclude anyone.
Stuff like this is my inspiration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc9cFXOoZBM
~Mike (Titan_X)
So the Do Not Call list became "Cheap list of verified numbers for people who can give you money but whose government can't arrest you."
So as the title says, please, when you find them, make an example out of them. Call them terrorists. We'll agree then look the other way!
UTF-8: There and Back Again
Holy crap, the FTC did NOTHING until more than 30,000 complaints were received. You'd think the threshold would be a hell of a lot lower. Your tax money at work- thanks assholes.
What a strange bird is the pelican, his beak can hold more than his belly can.
I always take the call. Listen politely and tell them that yes, I do want to extend my car's warranty. They ask for my VIN and I say I have to go outside to get it.
Then I put the call on hold and get back to work. They actually often call back and I take the call, telling them that I'm still looking for my registration.
Then I put the call on hold and get back to work.
You don't want to be abusive to the person making the call. I have a friend who had no other job options and worked for firms like that. Often these people are either just trying to make ends meet, or just need a mindless job so they can concentrate on college. (My friend later went on to get his PhD.)
By doing this they person making the call can't even get in trouble, you are doing exactly what they are asking you to do, and clearly that can take a 1 minute or two. But this does cost the company money.
When people feel that injustice has been done, then justice must either be provided or else the will make their own.
Saying that vigilantism is always wrong or "against the law" is no use if no other alternative is provided to those with legitimate grievance. Unfortunately our legal systems have evolved, and continue to evolve, into artifices that deny their services to the ordinary person. The courts are a closed club, open only to those with inordinate amounts of money and influence.
Faced with this growing reality, it shouldn't be surprising when people take matters into their own hands. The sad fact is that these web vigilantes didn't another more acceptable legal route because they knew full well how futile it would be. Little people often have to make their own justice nowadays.
And now they have the means to do it.
May the Maths Be with you!
My family (in Canada) gets somedays gets half a dozen robocalls a day. Sometimes we just don't answer the phone.
Do you wish to look as happy as me? Well, you've got the power inside you right now. So, use it, and send one dollar to Happy Dude, 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield.
Don't delay, eternal happiness is just a dollar away.
There's another about "lowering the interest rates on your account." Same scam, no info provided, etc. I really hate this BS. If you say hello twice, and nobody talks immediately, just hang up.
Those calls are so much fun! When they call, I tell them that I want to renew the extended warranty on my 1974 Dodge Dart. And I don't take no for an answer. Everytime they say something about why they can't do that I reply as if they said yes. I keep asking them what the renewal fee is, and then "ok, so let's go ahead and renew the warranty on the '74 Dodge," etc. etc. Sometimes the calls go on for five or six minutes. It's exhilarating to actually get a telespammer to hang up on you!
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
these pricks would call me non stop i dont even own a car ive called the BBB and put myself on the no call list just for them and yet they still would call and harrass me fuck them!
Visit my Forums?
Stoning people to death is barbaric. Stoning them only half to death on the other hand...
That's the one!
for a 1963 Opel Kadett.
I told them I was planning a trip across Botswana, and I wanted to make sure the vehicle was covered.
Those bastards hung up on me.
This is why I just cancelled my land line.
Verizon has made money for years played the middle man in the arms race against invasive calls. They sell my name/number, then try to sell me *69, then sell them blocking, then try to sell me....
Nuts to them.
I got called on my *office* phone number over this.
My conversation with them went something like this:
Me: Who are you? (In the very gruff Steve voice)
Them: Auto Warranty company.
Me: Why are you calling me? (In a gruffer tone)
Them: Because your car warranty is about to expire.
Me: That's nice, but I don't own a car.
Them: Um, er, does anyone else in your household own a car?
Me: No and we don't live in the United States.
Them: Um, er, we'll put you on our "Don't Call" list. (hangup)
Of course the source number was caller-id blocked.
A coworker of mine got a half-dozen of those calls.
So the Do Not Call list became "Cheap list of verified numbers for people who can give you money but whose government can't arrest you."
I always figured it like this-- the Do Not Call list has certain exceptions-- political calls (of course), charities, and companies with whom you've done business (e.g., even though you cancel AT&T, they continue with the "please switch back" calls), non-profits, etc. There may be even more exceptions (like local businesses within 50 miles of your home, etc.) for your state's local DNC list.
In other words, the way I see it, the Do Not Call list is a Call List for the exceptions. I don't want ANY of them- politicians or nonprofits included- calling me. I'd just prefer to stay unlisted and not have my # show up anywhere. This works pretty well except for the random-number generated robocalls who coudn't give a shit what your # is.
Also, if it gets REALLY annoying, one might consider using a call router to intelligently route unknown callers through a phone tree or directly to voice mail.
W
-------------------
This is my SIG. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
i misread this as a "robocop" scheme, anticipating warranties to come with the ultimatum "you have 20 seconds to comply."
Good people go to bed earlier.
I'm in favor of the death penalty for making even ONE telemarketing call. Kill a few of them and maybe the others will get the message.
Yes, this is a serious proposal. Anybody else with me?
As some of you may know, Canadians have our own Do Not Call List. However, these guys are using that very list to MAKE the calls. I've gotten repeated calls AFTER signing up on this list. What's a better source of verified phone number than a recently updated list of people who posted the number for the exact opposite reasons?
I've received dozens of calls from the scumbag, both on my phone at work and on my cell. I really wish a phone company would offer the option to automatically reject unknown and blocked ID calls. personally i think the phone companies are in on it, i believe if they wanted to they could easily disable number spoofing.
What I want is a *88 or something that I can dial after I hang up on these bozos. Then the telco will note that I have blocked this number. Then if enough people block a number the telco would block the number for all people who have opted into the bozo block service. I suspect that this would defeat most scammers who ignore do not call lists. It would also get around all the exceptions such as charities and politicians who think that nobody wants to block their calls as well.
Now it's "your final call"
b*tches!
When the machine calls saying you're warranty is about to expire, it usually says something like "press 3 to talk to a representative". Fine. Press 3. Then when the agent gets on the line the first thing they'll ask is what's the make and year of your car.. Just say 1983 Plymouth... They'll hang up on you and never bother you again.
These guys have been leaving voicemail on my SkypeIn number. I guess my laptop's car warranty has expired.
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
Did anyone notice that this didn't become an issue for the FCC until a senator bitched?
Apparently he (?) got quite a few of these calls at home too, and alerted someone at the FCC about it. It wasn't until then that FCC took action.
-David
For all those who think these calls are just made by some shmuck trying to get by, you should consider that most of these calls are fraudulent. They're just trying to get your credit card information so they can steal your identity. So I have zero sympathy for them. For that reason, I usually answer by giving them shit. Last time one of them called me, I answered by pretending to be in the mafia:
"So, you want to give me insurance on my car?"
"What kind of car do you drive, sir?"
"A big one - for the bodies."
"What kind, sir?"
"Why don't we try and make a little business negotiation here, if you know what I mean?"
"What do you have in mind, sir?"
"Well, I had this... associate... and we had this little transaction going on, if you know what I mean. I need some place safe to stash this stack of money I got here on my desk for the time being."
"Well, I've got some pockets."
Seriously. That's how he responded. To which I said:
"Well, if you could give me a address I'll see that one of my associates bring this money to you."
And he gave me his address and phone number. After wards, I hung up and went to Google earth. He had given me the address of some mall/business park in Pennsylvania.
The phone company should care, but does not. They get paid per usage and they simply do not care what the usage is.
All the circuits are theirs - they know who every single line belongs to. They sure don't miss a beat when it's time to send out the bills, do they? This number made these calls, and here's your bill. They have this information in their database - it's necessary for billing. They're great at that part, aren't they?
But they'll turn a blind eye when someone dials out from 111-222-3333 claiming to be 333-222-1111. No problems there sir, just so long as you pay your bill. Fucking jerks.
The only reason someone would spoof their caller id is if they are up to no good. These fucking robodialers do exactly that because they know they're annoying people. They know it, or they'd be more up front about what they're doing. Listening to that smarmy asshole at Auto One trying to justify his business practices is disgusting. If you're so on the up-and-up, Mr. Tabb, then quit spoofing your outbound number, you jackass.
And the phone company is their direct accomplice.
Not difficult at all to have their system screen out spoofed calls:
if(outbound_number!=customer_number)
{
disconnect_line();
play(busy_tone);
}
There you go, I won't even charge a consulting fee.
Now go do it, phone companies.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
His history spells it out clearly enough. The article in which he gives an interview offers up ALL kinds of denial that he was aware of this that or the other and ended up paying a small fine for the practices of his contractors. As far as I can tell, he's still doing it and still paying the contractors. He is aware of what they are doing and has not stopped using their services. And his previous criminal business history suggests that he is an habitual offender who doesn't give a rat's ass about pissing people off to get money. He falls neatly into the same category as spammers and botnet operators. If you have followed my comments here on slashdot, you'd know what my prescribed sentence on all people of this type would be -- Death. The are incapable of reform and are far more harmful to society than most murderers and rapists.
David Tabb? If you happen to be reading this? I am not alone in believing the world would be better off without you in it.
MOD PARENT UP!
First sensible comment. The state and federal governments have been doing NOTHING, for YEARS, about this scam. When I tried to report the scam, someone in the Oregon state government just laughed, happily telling me that the attorney general's office had gotten many, many complaints.
During the years of the Bush administration, the government became extremely disfunctional, in my opinion.
You want to go here: https://www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca/plt-cmp-eng
If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
You can simply google "the warranty has expired on your car" and get message board complaints going back a few years now. Apparently tens of thousands of people complained. But when they finally rang Ted Schumer, during a Senate session, god forbid, action against these scammers actually happened. http://gothamist.com/2009/05/11/schumer_calls_for_investigation_int.php Why the *bleep* did it take this long for action? I am on the no call list, and I have gotten these calls constantly for 2 years now on my cell. They tend to come in clusters, many calls in a week or two then "quiet." These guys should be locked up in a cell for 10 years with ringing phone that cannot be picked up with the number posted daily on 4chan. Rot in hell.
I have often thought that someone needs to make a gizmo that you could install on your phone line that would automatically answer all incoming calls and say "Press *random number* to complete this call." If the random number is not pressed within ten seconds, or the wrong number is pressed, then the recipient's phones would never be allowed to ring.
That should defeat robocalls.
If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
I was getting these calls every other day between December and January.. at home, on my cell phone, even at work.. never had luck getting those fuckers to stop calling me. Couple annoying and funny experiences with it..
1. Numerous times that they called me I pressed #1 or whatever to talk to a rep , asked to be taken off the list and before I could finish what I was saying they immediately hung up on me.
2. When they kept calling I just said fuck it and would give them random shit.. act like I'm an old or asian dude and keep repeating meaningless shit. I actually kept those fuckers on the phone for 10 minutes when they kept asking me to repeat everything 5 times.
3. Another time I was telling them my name was "Hugh Jardon".. I spelled my last name out and asked the lady to read it back. Dumb bitch didn't even get it at first, then she hung up after realizing I made her look like a douche bag.
4. My girlfriend got a call on her cell once and when she asked a rep "why do you keep calling me" the guy responded "why are you such a fucking bitch?" and hung up on her!
I complained to FTC numerous times and I'm glad they are hopefully doing something about it.
Ive actually rickrolled those guys calling about the warrenty thing (as well as making several complaints to the FCC about them). I would hit 1 to speak to someone when they called, and placed the phone next to a speaker with "never going to give you up" playing. (and those of you who say i should just tell them to remove me, i did, many times and they would just hang up on me and not remove me) Anyway i hope the government throws the book at them, or places them in stocks and let the public throw books at them.
All misspellings and grammatical errors in the above post are intentional and part of my artistic expression.
I've been bombarded by these warranty calls also, including on cell. Cook those bastards! What is needed is perhaps a kind of "company ID" that every sales call and printed ad must include by law. This makes it easier to track problem companies. The gov't tracks and ID's our asses up the wazoo, why not companies also?
Table-ized A.I.
the second warning that the warranty is about to expire. Even after dozens of calls to the same cell #. Can someone not increment a counter properly. These guys do math like excel.
Nullius in verba
Give me an "F!"
Give me a "T!"
Give me a "C!"
What's that spell?
FSCK TELEMARKETING CALLS.
... but yeah, it will mean less entertainment. I read somewhere that if we all just blow 30 seconds of the TFM's time, it would be economically unfeasible for them to make the calls in the first place.
Calls usually go like. /I get call. If I have time, I punch through to a telefuckingmarketer.
tfm: So what is the make and model of your vehicle" /me hits mute on cell phone, counts to 20 /me presses mute on cellphone /me counts to 20 and listens
me: 99 audi a4
rfm: okay then....
me: oh, wait, hold on a sec
me: sorry about that, I got another call
TFM: Okay, so how many miles...
me: oh wait, hold on a sec....
sometimes, I hear the TFM say stuff like 'this guy keeps putting me on hold, Imonna drop him.
when I think the TFM is going to give up, I come back on and ask him to take me off his list, and I just wasted as much of his time as possible.
we'll continue to have healthcare run by insurance companies
The FTC, a government agency, moves glacially slow in responding to this horrible practice that just about everyone on earth has been adversely affected by, and you think the solution - rather than the problem - is more government running our lives in areas like healthcare.
Yeah, the FTC example is a model for good healthcare through government.
I have a friend who had no other job options and worked for firms like that.
Uh, bullshit. Go work at El Pollo Loco. No excuse. Your friend is a dick and should die in a fire for bothering people.
Why play something so pleasant ?
I usually play the begining of "American Hair Band" by Tuff.
My solution requires an angry Reddit army:
http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/8i1u7/want_the_phone_number_to_the_your_cars_warranty/
Why go for the kill when you can just cause them the same anguish they've been causing you and your peers?
Auto one IS a legitimate business,and even though they seem to be a victim here. My recent truck loan was handled by them they do deserve to be rickrolled they engage in high interest (21%)loans that are almost impossible to keep up with and they will call you mercilessly 24/7 if you are even one day late.
think of the baby axes?!?
Have you been touched by his noodly appendage?
Holy crap check out this thread (and load ALL the comments, it gets really good near the bottom):
http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/8i1u7/want_the_phone_number_to_the_your_cars_warranty/
Some readers over there got a hold of their phone numbers and were dissecting their automated phone system (figuring out all the extensions, unprotected inboxes, etc).
Best Ideas from that thread:
1. Put up billboard ads with their number with the following text:
"If you give up when we hang up, you're not what we want. $120 per hour cash. (800) 499-5711"
2. Put up personal ads in Craigslist with their number
3. Call them to sell them home insurance
4. Set a fax machine on autodial on them.
5. Call and ask about the auto warranties, then put them on hold and play this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3yiSb6s3AY
6. Call them with one of the popular sound boards (try to get them to sell a warranty to Detective John Kimball).
etc
Georgia Tech, the leader in Chia(tm) technology.
I was getting way to many calls on my cell number. Rather than be frustrated, I downloaded the out of service tone and have it cued to quick playlist. When I get unrecognized calls now, I play the standard disconnect message. This has been way more effective than asking to be on the do not call list.
Looks like the FTC has finally got the ball rolling when it filed a suit on the 13th of May; http://www.ftc.gov/os/caselist/0823263/090514voicetouchcmpt.pdf .. Interestingly tho this scam looks to have been going on for over a year now. Pretty slack for such a large and blatant operation.
Those who can, do. Those who cannot, sue.
They get paid per call. And frankly that is good. Do you REALLY want a phone company that selects it customers? That outlaws certain kind of calls?
Think for a second before you answer.
Because if you say yes, then you say yes to block bittorrent and other undesirable protocols on the net, yes to ISP censorship, yes to ISP's cutting of filesharers without trial.
So, yes, thank god the phone companies are in on this. I wouldn't have it any other way.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
My wife totaled her car about 18 months ago. We still get weekly robo-calls saying it's our "last chance" to extend the warranty. Jail is too good for these goons.
Celebrate failure, and then learn from it - Nolan Bushnell
We have also received very "official" looking junk mail, pushing the same extended warranties.. we're guessing those are from the same scammers, as we got them soon after our phone lines (including cells and a text) were bombarded with calls from them.
captcha: marketed
Play with them.
If it is a fully automated call, don't hang up - just put down the phone and let the machine keep talking as long as it wants to. It costs them to call me not the other way around.
If it is a real person, or it is one of those automated calls where you can get to a real person by pressing a button, play interested for a few seconds ("what a coincidence, I've my contract is up for renewal soon and I think I'm paying too much!") then ask if they mind you putting the phone down for a few seconds while you go take a pan off the boil in the kitchen. Then put the phone down and go off to do something else. Come back later and check your phone log to see how long the caller sat waiting for you at their cost. My record for this is 11-and-a-bit minutes.
Or for more interactive fun and games, try play them at their own game: http://www.xs4all.nl/~egbg/counterscript.html
I've actually been getting less nuisance calls since starting to play with them these ways, though that is probably just coincidence rather than causation.
I don't pick up the phone (land line) unless I recognize the caller ID. Everybody else gets to talk to the machine.
Actually, at this point I don't even get up to check the caller ID. All my friends and family know my mobile number.
Bigtime Consulting - "We're the best because we cost the most"
Would be if there was actually a way to find out who owns a toll-free number. These robocalling bastards usually call from toll-free numbers, or they leave toll-free numbers as callbacks, never identifying themselves by name (or ever being required to). Of course they tend to change their numbers often as well to make it even more difficult to figure out who they are.
If there was something similar to WHOIS for toll-free numbers, this would help enormously. Instead, we currently have intentional obfuscation behind toll-free numbers. Numbers are sold by "Responsible Organizations" ("RespOrgs"), who know the identity of the company or person behind the number but have no obligation whatsoever to share that information with anyone.
It is generally pretty simple to find out who owns a regular phone number; in the case of a land line the phone company will sometimes tell you that themselves (or you can at least find out who the carrier is). Why on earth do we make it nearly impossible to find the identity of the owner of a toll-free? It is almost like giving them a license to make unsolicited calls. If we could get timely and accurate information on the owners of toll-free numbers we could at least serve them with cease and desist letters and establish a paper trail to demonstrate their activities.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
These guys were calling me on my cell phone every single day for a while. Then mysteriously the calls just stopped. Thanks Internet hacktivists!
At my former company we got fed ANI *automatic number identification* which is a whole heap load different than what caller id is.
We could not be spoofed, it just doesn't happen.
No all caller id services are created equal. The fact that your local provider is more likely playing with it versus "evil long distance company". I guarantee that AT&T or whomever had it nationally past it on to the local. The local filtered it. What your getting as a spoof is probably some trick which passes through just to hit cid devices.
Put it this way, the service we needed was to ID the exact place an employee called in from; this was to log them in at work on site for rent-a-cop stuff. We had all sorts of attempts to defraud the system. Caller id blocking didn't stop us - in fact that is a local only function and a joke. Think of it as a way to separate a fool from his money, kind of like what caller id you pay for is. We had people use business lines, cell, conference out of state, you name it they tried it
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
You're comparing apples to Buicks, that's why.
Caller ID spoof doesn't have a single chance of throwing the authorities off your trail. It doesn't enhance your freedom one single bit - the phone co still knows everything about the call. It'll show up on your bill. The only thing it does is show up on the target's caller ID, making it impossible for the screwed-over end user to call them back. That's it.
Now if I'm wrong, and there is some far-reaching freedom destroying result from fixing caller ID, I'd like to hear it.
Any takers?
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
I think Auto One deserved the backlash. Plus, it was funny as hell that their voicemail system got r00ted and pwned. Plus, the owner of Auto One ain't no saint. He has had some run ins with the law. He fought the law but didn't win.
...if you were only the recipient of these robocalls. For several days a few months ago I was the recipient of massive blowback from these calls. My number was one that a robocaller was programmed to spoof and I received dozens upon dozens of calls, some of them extremely angry. I finally ended up recording an explanatory message on my voice mail.
last i checked, the president has nothing to do with oregon state government function or disfunction.
"-1 Offtoppic"
Sour pusses: that was funny even though it did include 'first post'.
Also I feel it should be said that these calls cause a huge disruption in small businesses that have to deal with customer service. Since pretty much all businesses have land lines they get bombarded with robocalls all the time. And a lot of them cannot afford to have someone sit and watch a phone all day. So the people who are waiting on customers have to deal with the phone calls. If I am on the phone I am not helping a customer.
It's not what you know. It's not who you know. It's what you know about who you know.
I had been getting these calls half a dozen times a day. Which is really amusing since I don't have any sort of vehicle. (Unless they want to sell me a service contract for my mountain bike.)
Of course, it dropped sharply four weeks after I added my number to the do not call list. But I'm glad to see that those fuckers are in for it now.
Friend: "The NIC is misconfigured..." Me: "No prob, I'll just telnet in and fix it." *Silence*
About 4 times out of 5, when I get a call from a number I don't recognize, it's this. Being an otherwise docile and good-natured guy, I use it as an outlet to vent my frustrations and amuse those around me. One day during the beginning of a class, I asked permission to answer my phone 'cause I was getting a call from a number I didn't know. My professor knew me, so he allowed it. Sure enough, it was a robo-call, so in front of the entire class I screamed "Fuck off and DIE!" into the phone and then hung up. The looks I got were priceless.
This sig is false.
Auto One's Mr. Tabb says some unscrupulous marketing companies will buy underground lists of phone numbers and then call consumers even though they are on do-not-call lists. "If people have problems with these robo-calls or buying data, the focus of attack needs to be on these marketing companies, not on me," he says.
No, the focus of the attack needs to be against those who are providing a profit motive for these scumbag marketing companies.
And, Mr. Tabb, that is you.
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"I can't complain, but sometimes still do..." Joe Walsh
For those of you who is want some thrills seeing someone else getting over on a telemarketer, you might enjoy this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2SXAcBOGBk You can do this yourself by Googling "judge judy soundboard"
..places them in stocks and let the public throw books at them.
Well, unless they plan on touring the country so we all get our chance, I propose the next best thing: installing several speaker phones in their cells that automatically pick up when people call, and then giving these numbers out to everyone who they have annoyed so we can call and let these bastards know how we feel.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
You missed the point.
Can we say small air horn.
Note - Liberal use of <sarcasm> tags may or may not need to be applied.
They apparently haven't fined a single violater since the .ca DNC started, I'm not holding my breath for them to pwn a company based in the States.
i can't count the number of these i've received. Sometimes i talk to the people just to yell at them.
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The president sets the tone of the government. His or her attitude gets projected all the way down the food chain. In the person at the top of the government thinks government sucks, why should anybody below care about their job either?
I receive on average 3 of these a day at WORK! Same old pitch, I don't know what makes them think I'd believe the 300th time instead of the first time. Well I hope one of my complaints helped get the FTC to do something. Hang the CEO, hang 'em high!
My friends and I have a running game where we see how long we can keep them on the phone line. Play along, come up with funny objections, etc. The goal is to see how long you can keep them on the phone. I've only been able to get 20 minutes down - my wife's record is 26. Think of it as a honeypot - let them waste their time on opportunities that don't really exist.