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.

Comments

I'm sure the FCC would care...

[DewDude]

considering they're probably going to allow this for politicans...and the current head of the FCC has done a wonderful job of giving the public the middle finger; letting them know he does *NOT* work for them and does not care about their opinions...even going as far as to MOCK the American Public. All you can expect from the FCC is a reply mocking you for not wanting a company to do business...no matter how much of a harassment it is.

Kinda

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Kinda

[The Rizz]

That's not what is going on here. This is telemarketers attempting to glitch your cell phones into not ringing, and then leaving voicemail for you.

One big problem is that this doesn't always work. Every single day I get at least 1-2 one-ring-then-hang-up calls, often 3-4 of them within 5 seconds of each other, followed by a voicemail. And those voicemail notifiers still chime, still distract me from what I'm doing, and it still takes time to listen to the voicemail before I determine that it's not really something for me.

And that brings up the reason this is often even more annoying and inconvenient than normal telemarketer calls: People have gotten good at identifying those within 2-3 seconds as pre-recorded crap. These new ones are made to sound like a normal voicemail, so it takes longer to identify it as spam.

I should have the right to call-spam back

[Sebby]

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?

circular file

[PopeRatzo]

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.

It's adorable that you think a complaint to Trump's FCC is going to have any effect.

Not new tech, just a new low for telemarketers

[angryargus]

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.

Telcos are going to love this

[whoever57]

The telcos will charge the spammers for direct access to voicemail and will offer consumers a service (at additional cost) that will block voicemails from spammers.

Out of service SIT tone

[innocent_white_lamb]

I recorded the out of service SIT tone (the three rising beeps that you hear when you dial an out of service phone number) as the first thing on my outbound voicemail message. So my outbound message is "beep beep beep Hello this is me etc. etc.")

Most robodialers are programmed to hang up and remove the number from their dialing lists when they hear those three beeps.

Real people can still leave you a message, but it works amazingly well to keep spammers off of your voicemail.

You can download the sit tone from several places; just run the phrase "sit tone" through google and you'll find it.