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The Story of Lenny, the Internet's Favorite Telemarketing Troll (vice.com)
dmoberhaus writes: Here's a conversation with the developer who maintains the public server for Lenny, a robocalling algorithm that throws telemarketers through a loop. Lenny was created in 2009 and almost a decade later has developed a cult following online. Anyone can forward their telemarketing calls to Lenny, who is a kind and forgetful old man who is interested in whatever the telemarketer is selling. Some telemarketers stay on the line for up to an hour interacting with this chatbot, leading to hundreds of hours of hilarious recordings on YouTube. This is the story of Lenny's rise, and an analysis of its effectiveness at stopping unsolicited calls.
FCC Telemarketer and robocall blacklist
Instructions as to how to "use" Lenny.
Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
The USA and EU (at least the parts of it i'm familiar with) set up their phone systems differently.
In the USA mobile phones get ordinary geopgrahic phone numbers and the amount charged by the receiving telco to the originating telco is the same for landlines and mobiles. The recipiant pays (either explicitly or as part of the cost of their plan) for the call to be delievered from the terrestrial phone network to their mobile.
In most if not all of the EU mobile phones get phone numbers from a special range. The recipiant doesn't pay anything for incoming calls (unless they are roaming outside Europe or are diverting a landline number to a mobile or some other unusal corner case). Instead the originating telco pays more for a call to a mobile than for a call to a landline.
This has two effects, firstly there is the direct cost impact on the telemarketers. Secondly it means they can't claim (truthfully or otherwise) ignorance about the fact that the number they are calling is a mobile.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
PINs have nothing to do with credit cards. You are confusing them with debit cards.
Outside the United States, both debit and credit cards use PINs.