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No, Your Phone Didn't Ring. So Why Voice Mail From a Telemarketer? (lifehacker.com)
Slashdot reader midwestsilentone tipped us off to a growing problem. Lifehacker reports:
New technology allows telemarketers to leave ringless voicemail messages, and it's a method that's gaining traction. While there are laws to regulate businesses when they call consumers, some groups argue that ringless voicemail shouldn't count. The New York Times reports,"ringless voicemail providers and pro-business groups...argue that these messages should not qualify as calls and, therefore, should be exempt from consumer protection laws that ban similar types of telephone marketing"... After receiving a petition from a ringless voicemail provider, the Federal Trade Commission has started to collect public comments on this issue. So what can you do about it? First, you can head here to leave your public comment and if you're getting these voicemails, you can file a complaint with the FCC here.
Presumably that only applies if you're in the U.S. But I'd be curious to hear how many Slashdot readers have experienced this.
Presumably that only applies if you're in the U.S. But I'd be curious to hear how many Slashdot readers have experienced this.
But I'd be curious to hear how many Slashdot readers have experienced this.
Not lately nor from telemarketers. But we used to do this back in the late 90s and early 00's
Our circle of friends consisted by the vast majority of "night owls" forced to work first shift jobs.
If it was after midnight and we wanted to get a message to someone or perhaps talk on the phone, we would leave a message directly on the voicemail server without calling their phone.
If they were awake and saw the voicemail indicator, they could call back.
If they were asleep, you'd either not get a call back or get it the next day or something, but safe in the knowledge you didn't wake anyone up.
It just involved swapping carrier voicemail system numbers along with your phone number.
This was before such info was online, or at least easy to find, but you can always call in and get the number for your own voicemail server, since its entire purpose of existing was so you can check your voicemail from someone elses phone.
I am however greatly saddened to see such a useful thing abused in this way.
It's always been the case that the voicemail systems for cell phones have a generic number that can be used to access the system itself (at which point the system prompts for which phone number you want to use for leaving or accessing a message). Generally there's a known mapping for region or phone prefix to VM number (e.g., an example or two) though I think at least AT&T uses one system and number for all iphones. The only thing that's new is telemarketers realizing they might be able to workaround the restrictions by using this route.
Yes...and then due to the fact the FCC now hates Americans (and America); they would probably use that as an excuse to ramp up surveillance so they can prosecute beyond the extent of the law those who are "harassing" the telemarketers. You have to remember...once something is deemed legal; it's game over. Any retaliation you take will be either invalid (like filing a compliant) or criminal (doing just about anything else). IT will be of the opinion of the government that the company has done nothing wrong; and that you're the one in the wrong for wanting to refuse to listen to them. The government is not our new overlords; it's the corporations. Afterall, you can have smaller government and still screw/control people through corporate interests. It's called capitalism...or at least they call it that.
I have century link, I called them and had it disabled.
If they have the right to fill up my voicemail with message I don't want, I should have the same right to continually call them, tying up their phone line. Sounds fair, right?
You absolutely can do that. The problem is that it doesn't do shit. If you call back the number, you get a pre-recorded message. All you're really doing is wasting your own time. Even if you do get their direct line and call in, it's a bank of minimum-wage call center idiots who just hang up on you when they figure out you don't want to buy anything.
These too are on purpose. There are numbers from unique area codes that consistently, if not always, result in dead air when you do pick up. Once / twice would be considered a programming bug or a bad product. ALWAYS? nope.
Not many businesses would keep a botched product for first-contact, considering calls are more noticeable than junk mail and spam. After all, with a call you ALWAYS know when the mark is "live" as soon as they pick up. It's similar to sending email you expect to bounce because you're not sure of a spelling, just to see if an address is inactive or not.
My money here is on "surveillance", the sort you might get from debt collection agencies or cheap scouters finding potential marks for future spammers. You say "hello?" and hang up a second later?
Too late! "They" know the number works now. They now also know if you're male, female, young or old. For scouters, this is the equivalent of saying they have one more mark in a list of "100,000 VERIFIED email addresses for YOU to spam at the low, low price of X dollars per thousand"?
Debt collectors also don't care you say X fake name has nothing to do with you or your family at your house number. They swear they'll remove you from the list, only to call again a day later and promise the same, sometimes by the same phone rep. They poll to see what times you're picking up the phone, and they sometimes mention details of who they're targeting. They use fake caller ID numbers that start with a local area code + 3 digits that match your own phone's to incite familiarity AND evade code blocks. The last 4 digits are never repeated, defeating the purpose of your using cheap landline blocking hardware or cheap non-programmable smartphone call-rejection features.
I wish I had a homebased PBX system without the hassle of actually having to buy servers to do VOIP. That way, I could program responses and direct all unknown numbers to a honeypot like I've seen Google Voice users do.