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Fake Google Salesmen Are Actually SEO Telemarketers (vortex.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the dialing-for-dollars dept.

Long-time Slashdot reader Lauren Weinstein writes: It seems like almost every day I get junk solicitation phone calls "from Google." They call about my Google business local listings, about my not being on the first page of Google search results, and so on -- and they want me to pay them to "fix" this stuff. When I look up the Caller ID numbers they use, I often finds pages of people claiming they're Google phone numbers. Sometimes the Caller ID display actually says Google!

Is Google really doing this? Negative. NONE of these calls are from Google. Zero. Zilch. Nada. These callers are inevitably "SEO"; (Search Engine Optimization) scammers of one sort or another. They make millions of "cold calls" to businesses using public phone listings (from the Web or other sources) or using phone number lists purchased from brokers. If you ever actually deal with them, you'll find that their services typically range from useless to dangerous.

5 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Hello from America by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    every opportunity

  2. Re:I had fun with this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    All people involved with marketing are scammers. It's really that simple.

  3. Gosh really by ledow · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Up next,

    That guy from "Microsoft" that offers to fix your PC if you just download this program is fake too.

    So are the guys trying to sell you that product for your embarrassing sexual ailment by email.

    So are the websites that just need you to enter your credit "to verify your age".

    Seriously, Slashdot, the mediocre-to-shit ratio (used to be signal-to-noise) has fucking plummeted around here.

  4. You don't say..... by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Fake Google Salesmen Are Actually SEO Telemarketers"

    Allow me to be the first to say, "Duh".

    I used to get these calls quite a bit. Then I started wasting their time and making their lives a living hell. I would quiz them on stuff, take forever to make up my mind, then change my mind, make them repeat themselves over and over again, and generally ruin their mood for the rest of the day. They'd be cursing by the time they hung up on me. :)

    Eventually they stopped calling, lol. I almost miss them, it was kind of fun to creatively torture them and waste their time.

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  5. Re:My Incoming Call Rule #1 (much better) by hwstar · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If solicitors call you on the phone, DON'T DO BUSINESS WITH THEM. Tell that if you need a product or service, YOU will track it down yourself...

    Part of the problem here is that most people acts as enable for telemarketers and advertisers. We should teach young people in elementary through high school to ignore telemarketers and advertisers, and track down the product or service you need yourself. If more people did this, they'd get better products and services, plus it would help solve the problem with robocalls the government is trying to solve. Folks, if it is telemarketed or advertised, then the product or service is probably inferior to what you can find with a little effort on your own. Also, very few products or services marketed in this manner are indispensable.