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When Telemarketers Harass Telecoms Companies

farnz writes "Andrews & Arnold, a small telecoms company in the UK, have recently been hit with an outbreak of illegal junk calls. Unlike larger firms, they've come up with an innovative response — assign 4 million numbers to play recordings to the telemarketers, put them on the UK's Do-Not-Call list and see what happens. Thus far, the record is over 3 minutes before a telemarketer works out what's going on." The sound quality (and the satisfying humor) of the recording gets better as it goes on.

8 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. genetic algorithms by girlintraining · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hmmm... permutations of random interactions and voice prompting plugged into a genetic algorithm. Best series of responses wins.

    Epic.

    --
    #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
  2. Fun for AI, eh? by Mathinker · · Score: 3, Funny

    I find it interesting that this is another, alternative, way that spam encourages the development of AI --- just think of the fun of having a reply-bot which could string these guys out for as long as the bot passes the Turing test!

  3. Man in the Middle by PiAndWhippedCream · · Score: 5, Funny

    1. Find two telemarketers who call you at (roughly) the same time.

    2. Put them on the phone with each other.

    3. ???

    4. Hilarity ensues.

  4. Re:There is an app for that. by mysidia · · Score: 4, Funny

    We need a port of ELIZA to a robust voice-recognition platform with text-to-speech of the responses :)

  5. Re:There is an app for that. by DarwinSurvivor · · Score: 3, Funny

    A nobel peace prize?

  6. Re:There is an app for that. by Col+Bat+Guano · · Score: 3, Funny

    I was told I was eligible for a loan, and I thanked them profusely for it. I explained that I was a bankrupt, and that his message to me was such welcome news.

    He kept asking how much my wife earned - I explained I didn't know as she kept that from me, but I didn't think her disposable income was high because she had to support my son's drug habit. Managed to spin that one out for quite a while.

    Another time I annoyed the telemarketer so much that after he hung up on me he rang back to abuse me.

    This http://www.xs4all.nl/~egbg/counterscript.html is also fun to follow.

  7. Re:There is an app for that. by daremonai · · Score: 3, Funny
    Hi, I'm a professional flatulator.

    We prefer the term flatulist. But alas, with the passing of Joseph Pujol's gas-passing, the golden age of flatulence is gone. YouTube fart lighters are at best a distant bronze. The more distant the better.

  8. Re:There is an app for that. by witherstaff · · Score: 3, Funny

    This is the funniest prank to a telemarketer I've heard homeowner acts as a detective at a murder investigation. Disclaimer, it's from bob and tom so they do the background laughing annoyance - but still good.