When Telemarketers Harass Telecoms Companies 234
farnz writes "Andrews & Arnold, a small telecoms company in the UK, have recently been hit with an outbreak of illegal junk calls. Unlike larger firms, they've come up with an innovative response — assign 4 million numbers to play recordings to the telemarketers, put them on the UK's Do-Not-Call list and see what happens. Thus far, the record is over 3 minutes before a telemarketer works out what's going on." The sound quality (and the satisfying humor) of the recording gets better as it goes on.
3 minutes? (Score:5, Insightful)
But I guess this is not as much breaking news as it is a confirmation, .
We need an opt in list for tele and email sales (Score:5, Insightful)
We need an opt in list.
Then it should be published on the internet because it is those bastards who are the ones who have kept the spammers in work all these years, while the rest of us have been trying to get rid of them!
They deserve vilification just as much as the spammers themselves.
funny but ineffective (Score:3, Insightful)
Also, if they're the phone company, why didn't they just identify the real, actual source of the calls or even just pretend to be interested enough to get the company name and then sue the pants off them and put the upper management in jail?
Re:funny but ineffective (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, if they're the phone company
You seem to be under the impression that this is 1900. They're not the phone company, they're a phone company, and they operate largely over BT's lines. The callers are not coming from the same network that they are using, so all they can do is identify the source network (or, more accurately, the network that routed the calls to them).
Re:Do Not Call lists really help TM companies (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:There is an app for that. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:There is an app for that. (Score:3, Insightful)
Since the time wasted of my life can never be recovered, a punitive fine of ten times that wasted time removed from the telemarketing company CEO's life should be perfectly reasonable.
'Did you resent that waste of your time? Press *1 to remove one minute fifteen seconds from Mr M Sandon's life now.'
I understand it's an option on the latest Asterisk build.
Re:Sounds like a good time (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is that the marketeer does not care.
Current TPS regulations punish the marketeer and do nothing about the company that ordered it and for the carrier supporting it.
Marketeers usually work on some sort of commission basis. Nobody (except politicians) pays by the number of calls dialed these days.
If 4 million numbers divert to the same honeypot, the marketeers will soon find they can't make any money in that telco's numbers, and they move on.
If its just an auto-dialer playing a taped message, the honeypot might be ineffective, although it still spares the subscriber from getting these calls.
But for those systems that put a sales person on the line as soon as there is an answer, its bound to punish them a little bit till they move to other targets.
As the recipient of too many of these calls, I really don't care who gets punished as long someone does. Punishment need not be all that precisely targeted, as long as someone in the delivery chain feels some pain I'm quite content to let that person redirect the punishment to the proper party.
Costs will go up, and this advertising method will, like the door to door salesman, become too expensive to deploy.
I can dream, can't I?
Re:Do Not Call lists really help TM companies (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:I wonder... (Score:3, Insightful)
to answer your questions: -the numbers are on a do not call list, so the companies haven't got the slightest right to call them, it's illegal in fact
In this scenario, yes; to be entirely honest, I'm not entirely sure--haven't looked yet--but I'm willing to place a bet that if an unused number is on the United States' Do Not Call list, it doesn't mean a whole lot because a subscriber did not request it, rendering that fact moot. Might be different in the UK, I don't live there, and in many facets their laws and trends are different from those in the US.
The number still belongs to someone, or they wouldn't be allowed to hook up a honeypot system in the first place, ergo they are allowed to request that it be put on the Do Not Call list. They'd just have to take it off the list when they sell the number on to someone else if the subscriber requested it.
Re:There is an app for that. (Score:3, Insightful)
Citation needed.
Re:There is an app for that. (Score:5, Insightful)
Hi, I'm a professional face-puncher. The professional face-puncher has a right to make a living. You may choose to block my punch or to not be there when my punch arrives, but I will still try to make a living punching your face "because I have the right to make a living."
Hi, I'm a professional pot-banger. The professional pot-banger has a right to make a living. You may choose to block my banging or to not be there when my banging occurs, but I will still try to make a living banging my pot "because I have the right to make a living."
Hi, I'm a professional flatulator. The professional flatulator has a right to make a living. You may choose to block my farts or to not be there when my fart arrives, but I will still try to make a living farting on your face "because I have the right to make a living."
I do hope I made my point clear with regards to your first sentence.
Re:There is an app for that. (Score:2, Insightful)
Another time I shifted the conversation onto what colour underwear the caller was wearing.
You would be surprised to learn how welcome such conversations are. A ray of light in an otherwise mind numbing day.
It's easy to forget that the caller is a human being too - one who hates his job. Nobody I know likes this job. People do it because they see no other choices left. No matter how annoying these calls are for you - it's still worse for the poor sod who has to call people 6 to 8 hours a day, always telling the same, always talking about the same bullshit.
Behind the scenes there is often a lot pressure going on. If you don't deliver the numbers, any day could be your last at that place.
Re:Okay telemarketers - your move! (Score:3, Insightful)
If you think about it, someone who pays all their bills is more likely to hold on to the same phone number for
decades. So if you get a new number, there is a higher probability that debt collectors will be calling it.
I have had my number for 6 or 7 years and I still get calls for the same two or three names. I screen ALL my calls
so they are going to keep calling and they are not getting anywhere.
The sad thing is I pay all my bills and I still get calls from debt collectors -- looking for other people.
Re:There is an app for that. (Score:3, Insightful)
So those who want a life long profession in the child abduction and rape profession are good to go, right?
Re:There is an app for that. (Score:3, Insightful)
I look at the question more along the lines of "an individual has a right to make a living" more than "a particular class of worker has a right to make a living" or even "an individual has a right to make a living doing a job which otherwise violates some other portion of the social compact." As to your second point, I avoid law school under the stated reasoning that if I were to become a mafia hitman, I'd probably make more money and get a more fair treatment in the press than my own defense attorney.
Re:Sounds like a good time (Score:2, Insightful)
Mod parent informative!
One question: how do i get on the screamers list ?
Re:Okay telemarketers - your move! (Score:3, Insightful)
Just so we're all clear, telemarketing companies are scum of the earth. The people calling you are just trying to do their job (and aren't getting paid much for it).
While I can sympathize with someone who has to work a job they hate, they chose to do that job. In some neighborhoods kids join gangs because they think it's the only way to survive. That doesn't make them any less scummy when they commit crimes.
You don't get to absolve yourself of antisocial acts by saying you're "just doing your job".