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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.
>Do we have some kind of privacy protection in Europe? I guess so....
No, you don't, since the calls often originate from countries friendly to telephone spam and European law doesn't apply to India or Nigeria no matter how big the EU thinks they are. Sure, they're routed through a local VoIP box to save on long distance, and European law will shut down that VoIP box, but I think you know just how many minutes it takes to build a replacement.
What does work in your favour is calling European cell phones isn't free.
Who gives a fuck? Your job is to call me and sell me shit, I have no way of telling the difference between the scammers and the people who deem themselves legitimate.
And it's not my job to figure out which is which, all telemarketers get the same response ... fuck off.
Get a real fucking job, and stop calling me peddling your shit. But don't expect a polite response, you called me unsolicited, you get the response you deserve.
Sorry, no way I can muster any sympathy for telemarketers. Not now, not ever.
What telemarketers? I have had zero such calls on the mobile in 17 years. Do we have some kind of privacy protection in Europe?
Yes. First, most telemarketers are trying to get a CC#. European credit cards have chip+PIN, so the number alone is not enough to steal money like it is in America.
Second, most telemarketing calls originate in low wage countries such as India and the Philippines, and caller-id spoofing to make it look like a local call is much more restricted outside of America.
Third, in America the cell phone network is directly overlayed onto the landline system. There is no way to look at a number and know if it is a cell or a LL. In most other countries, cell phones use a different numbering system, and there are greater restrictions on auto-calls to cell phones.
Fourth, the political system in America does not respond to diffuse issues that are not geographically or ideologically important. So politicians focus on wedge issues like who uses which toilet, and ignore issues like massive telemarketing fraud and identity theft that affects millions of people regardless of their political affiliation. Fixing these problems is not even on the political radar.
Fifth, America speaks English. If you are going to set up a 3rd world call center, it is far easier to do so for English, which many people learn and there are hundreds of millions of people to call. Where in the 3rd world are you going to hire German, or Swedish, or Polish speakers?
Bottom line: American is a big lucrative market with many fraud-friendly laws and policies. Crooks go where the money is.
we still should acknowledge that there are telemarketers who do have humanity
False. Anyone who signs up to do this job accepts the shit storm they will receive. You don't get to say "I'm just doing my job." Find a different job.
Mike @ The Geek Pub. Let's Make Stuff!