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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.
Headline should be: "Telemarketer failed the Turing test."
But I guess this is not as much breaking news as it is a confirmation, .
This comment may contain speech figures. Reader discretion is advised.
We need an opt in list.
Then it should be published on the internet because it is those bastards who are the ones who have kept the spammers in work all these years, while the rest of us have been trying to get rid of them!
They deserve vilification just as much as the spammers themselves.
Also, if they're the phone company
You seem to be under the impression that this is 1900. They're not the phone company, they're a phone company, and they operate largely over BT's lines. The callers are not coming from the same network that they are using, so all they can do is identify the source network (or, more accurately, the network that routed the calls to them).
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
he has a right to make a living - working on the dust carts. He has no right to harass random people. This is not free speech. This is expensive (for the recipient) speech. I think these people are entitled to a term of community service - preferably a long term.
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
The problem is that the marketeer does not care.
Current TPS regulations punish the marketeer and do nothing about the company that ordered it and for the carrier supporting it.
Marketeers usually work on some sort of commission basis. Nobody (except politicians) pays by the number of calls dialed these days.
If 4 million numbers divert to the same honeypot, the marketeers will soon find they can't make any money in that telco's numbers, and they move on.
If its just an auto-dialer playing a taped message, the honeypot might be ineffective, although it still spares the subscriber from getting these calls.
But for those systems that put a sales person on the line as soon as there is an answer, its bound to punish them a little bit till they move to other targets.
As the recipient of too many of these calls, I really don't care who gets punished as long someone does. Punishment need not be all that precisely targeted, as long as someone in the delivery chain feels some pain I'm quite content to let that person redirect the punishment to the proper party.
Costs will go up, and this advertising method will, like the door to door salesman, become too expensive to deploy.
I can dream, can't I?
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Hi, I'm a professional face-puncher. The professional face-puncher has a right to make a living. You may choose to block my punch or to not be there when my punch arrives, but I will still try to make a living punching your face "because I have the right to make a living."
Hi, I'm a professional pot-banger. The professional pot-banger has a right to make a living. You may choose to block my banging or to not be there when my banging occurs, but I will still try to make a living banging my pot "because I have the right to make a living."
Hi, I'm a professional flatulator. The professional flatulator has a right to make a living. You may choose to block my farts or to not be there when my fart arrives, but I will still try to make a living farting on your face "because I have the right to make a living."
I do hope I made my point clear with regards to your first sentence.