Slashdot Mirror
Fake Google Salesmen Are Actually SEO Telemarketers (vortex.com)
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.
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.
Google actually takes these guys on. I wrangled one of them into giving me a mailing address to pay by check and reported it to Google they were prompt in responding,got me in touch with their legal department and took as much info as I could give them. I saw on the news 2 months later that they filed a multimillion dollar lawsuit against that exact company so it's clear they're always building cases against these guys.
I answered one of those calls that was spoofing an area code where I still have lots of friends. When I realized what it was about, I started asking questions about how it worked, what they did, etc. The guy said they had arrangements with Google to promote pages and it was guaranteed.
He asked what kind of business I have. "Oh, I work for Google. By the way, we both know this is bullshit, right?" "Oh, no no no sir! It is not bullshit! It is real!" "Well, thanks for all your company information. I'll give it to my boss this morning and you'll be out of work." "Oh, no no no! There is no need to be doing that!" You could hear his butt pucker from over the phone.
I don't work for Google, but he didn't either so I don't feel bad.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
If I don't recognize the number, I do not answer. If it's legit, they'll leave a message.
The truth behind this started long ago, and only seems to be more and more applicable as the years go by.
Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
For the last 2 years or so I had been getting a relatively high string of calls to my home [unlisted, "Telephone Preference Blocked" {UK opt-in scheme to keep telemarketers out}] number, with all of them trying the "Windows Technical Support phone scam.
Then some time in march I got a call from someone who claimed to be calling from my Telco/ISP [phone and internet service via the same provider] and who began by telling me they would prove their identity by quoting me the Customer Account Number that is only printed on the paper copy of my quarterly statement. Funny old thing, it was the *right* number.
I went through a lengthy and convoluted process to get the Police to give me a crime number and then contacted a UK part of my telco [not trusting their India Call Centre] and to my surprise, [having got passed the bored tekkie] and having explained that the only explanation for this disclosure would have been if there were a criminal or criminals working within the Telco themselves, I suggested that they might want to check their records and determine who had access my client account information in the preceding 30 days...
The calls stopped, dead. I mean, not one since then.
The *only* explanation I can offer is that all the criminals calls I was receiving were actually being made by a rogue unit, working inside my telco and using my telco's own phone lines and equipment, to scam UK clients...
Funny old thing, my telco is doing the best job ever of pretending this didn't happen - right down to "disappearing" the incident reference number they gave me when I first spoke to them. Fact is, however, the calls stopped.
It would be entirely unfair - and misleading - to draw connections between the outsourcing of customer support services to third-world locations and then the rise in boiler-room scams from those locations. Having said that, I always wondered how these scammers were able to afford the international call charges. Even had they been using Skype with dial-out from a local PoP, it would have still cost them a lot of money to prosecute their attacks. But if they were embedded inside UK telephone operating companies, using the India-based call centres, then calling and scamming customers would be so very, very easy.
It's getting to the point these days where almost anyone calling you is a crook or a scammer...
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.
"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...
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.
Best not to interact with them at all. Any interaction gets you on a "live prospect" list, which they can sell to other scammers.
--Don't answer if you don't recognize the caller. Your friends or business contacts will leave a message.
--If you do answer, hang up the second you figure it out. Don't ask to be put on their do not call list, don't "press 9 to be removed," Anything proves to them that there is a live person at that number.
--Get on the real true Do Not Call list: https://www.donotcall.gov/. Once this takes effect you know that any unknown caller is a scam, because the scammers do not honor the Do Not Call list.
--Anytime you get a mortgage, credit card, insurance, etc. fill in and submit their privacy form when you apply, before they can sell your name. The form should have a tick box saying no calls, emails or mail not directly related to your account. And of course, no selling to third parties.
When the scammers get no-answers or immediate hang-ups for a while, your number becomes less valuable. My calls have slowly faded away since I started doing these things.
Of course you will still get political calls (in US, first amendment?), and calls from people you have done business with. But these last should honor Do Not Call if you ask. And you know where they are.
When the "IRS" kept calling, using a mobile phone number from a local area, I decided to have fun with it. I put them on my autodial for my fax machine. The number came back to a boiler room operation. After the third ring it forwarded and the ring tone changed slightly. Lotsa background noise. The operation had about six people. I know because the fax ran about four hours....and most of the folks clearly don't know what a fax machine identification tone ( booop boooop ) is ...... probably called them 30x and listened to each one hang on, yellling "this is IRS inspector Dildo ! Identify yourself." I hope I caused enough problems to save at least one dupe.
More fun and less work than keeping microsoft on the phone as my 85 year old grandfather and letting slip only 10 min in that I have an Apple computer.
When a call says "Internat" in the caller ID, I answer in French and refuse to speak anything other than French. (The only people I know who are abroad and phone me by conventional means are French - all those living further afield use Skype.)
It's quite fun. My French isn't that good, but it's better than that of the average scammer.
Really? Because google works great for me.
Not being facetious... just giving my anecdote.
What kinds of things are you searching for?
Most of my searching is technical related (either about nuclear engineering or programming in Python or C++). I find that Google is fast and the top couple of hits are almost always what I want.
Can you give some examples of searches that go awry?
I get at least ONE of those calls, a day, running the largest hotel for 40 miles around. I usually go, "Oh, I gave the girl/guy [switch it up, keep life interesting...wait, not like THAT] my credit card number and SS#. You should have it on file. (click)" My BOSS gets 4-5 cold calls a day, though not typically from the (ahem) Google people. I just tell them he was recently killed in a car accident, you'll have to call back in a few months, once they get the estate sorted out. It was really bad, beheaded. They're still looking for the head."
News for Senior Citizens. Stuff that Matters to AARP...
Seriously, do any tech guys not know this? Oh also, did you know Google didn't make the iPhone?
I don't remember ever receiving a legitimate cold call on my current land line and I have had it for almost 17 years. I get phones call on it 4-5 times a week mostly someone claiming to be an IRS agent, Microsoft technical support, or card service but it's not Rachael anymore.
I think the only legitimate calls I get on my land line are to confirm appointments for the doctor's office and vet or the pharmacy letting me know prescriptions are ready and these are few and far between.