FTC Targets Massive Car Warranty Robocall Scheme 361
coondoggie writes "Robocalls are a scourge, and the Federal Trade Commission today took action against one outfit by asking a federal court to shut down companies that have been bombarding consumers with hundreds of millions of allegedly deceptive robocalls in an effort to sell vehicle service contracts. According to the FTC, the robocalls have prompted tens of thousands of complaints from consumers who are either on the Do Not Call Registry or asked not to be called. Five telephone numbers associated with the defendants have generated a total of 30,000 Do Not Call complaints. Consumers received the robocalls at home, work, and on their cell phones, sometimes several times in one day. Businesses, government offices and even 911 dispatchers also have been subjected to the calls, the FTC said."
Reader powerlord points out that another such company, not named in the FTC filing, raised the ire of thousands of internet-goers, who struck back by rickrolling the company's voice mail and digging up personal information on the company's president.
How about.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How about.... (Score:5, Insightful)
How about making it so all telemarketers have to register a certain caller ID that say would be (C)*insert name of company here*, then it would be trivial to block all corporate calls. Thus making it easy to have a caller ID filter to purchase to block all telemarketer calls. This would be a lot easier than the do not call list, more effective and wouldn't censor anyone.
These people are already blatantly ignoring the Do Not Call list. Why would they bother to give a legitimate caller ID string?
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A simple string would take all excuses away and make it simpler for the FTC to do its job.
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Caller ID is trivial to spoof. Your solution does not work.
Re:How about.... (Score:4, Interesting)
If this was coupled with the phone company appending the incoming Caller ID to your call record then it would be easy to enforce.
Say you get a telemarketing call with a bogus caller ID, you simply request the phone company send you that information for that time and date and with that you can prove that the company was violating this law (since it would be a matter of record). They would have the originating phone number + the ID they used on a piece of paper you can then forward to the necessary parties.
Re:How about.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:How about.... (Score:5, Funny)
Your solution requires warrants.
My solution requires air strikes.
Re:How about.... (Score:4, Insightful)
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To elaborate on what the AC posted. The phone company knows who makes calls, but the end user doesn't. The phone company just doesn't care and won't respond to complaints unless they are forced to by the police or government. The police won't get involved unless they get complaints from the phone company. The government won't get involved unless...
Notice a trend here? These have been my personal anecdotal experiences anyways.
Exactly. (Score:5, Insightful)
The phone company should care, but does not. They get paid per usage and they simply do not care what the usage is.
All the circuits are theirs - they know who every single line belongs to. They sure don't miss a beat when it's time to send out the bills, do they? This number made these calls, and here's your bill. They have this information in their database - it's necessary for billing. They're great at that part, aren't they?
But they'll turn a blind eye when someone dials out from 111-222-3333 claiming to be 333-222-1111. No problems there sir, just so long as you pay your bill. Fucking jerks.
The only reason someone would spoof their caller id is if they are up to no good. These fucking robodialers do exactly that because they know they're annoying people. They know it, or they'd be more up front about what they're doing. Listening to that smarmy asshole at Auto One trying to justify his business practices is disgusting. If you're so on the up-and-up, Mr. Tabb, then quit spoofing your outbound number, you jackass.
And the phone company is their direct accomplice.
Not difficult at all to have their system screen out spoofed calls:
if(outbound_number!=customer_number)
{
disconnect_line();
play(busy_tone);
}
There you go, I won't even charge a consulting fee.
Now go do it, phone companies.
Re:Exactly. (Score:5, Informative)
I don't know about the USA, but can say that this would be completely impractical in the UK.
For various complex reasons, major users in the UK (like call centres) frequently buy their incoming telephony and outgoing telephony from completely different companies. It's not uncommon to have several companies providing each. The incoming numbers used may not even belong to the call centre. It is increasingly common for these to be allocated and routed dynamically in real time.
(This is exactly the service my company provides - to known, legitimate customers).
There's no way that the outgoing Telco is going to be able to unscramble or keep up with this.
Well, they do care. Caller ID isn't what they use (Score:3, Informative)
At my former company we got fed ANI *automatic number identification* which is a whole heap load different than what caller id is.
We could not be spoofed, it just doesn't happen.
No all caller id services are created equal. The fact that your local provider is more likely playing with it versus "evil long distance company". I guarantee that AT&T or whomever had it nationally past it on to the local. The local filtered it. What your getting as a spoof is probably some trick which passes through just t
Good comment. MOD PARENT UP. (Score:4, Interesting)
First sensible comment. The state and federal governments have been doing NOTHING, for YEARS, about this scam. When I tried to report the scam, someone in the Oregon state government just laughed, happily telling me that the attorney general's office had gotten many, many complaints.
During the years of the Bush administration, the government became extremely disfunctional, in my opinion.
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It gets worse than simply ignoring the Do Not Call list. You see, in order to be compliant with government regulations, legitimate marketing firms need to purchase an annual subscription to the DNC list. They then need to purge from their prospect list any number appearing in the DNC list.
Unfortunately, the government sells this list to anyone who asks; thus, Russian telemarketing companies sometimes buy the DNC list as a source of pre-verified, valid phone numbers.
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I was referring strictly to cold-target marketing (that is, contacting people who don't have a prior business relationship with the company). Hence my use of the word "prospect" in "prospect list" - as in, a list of prospective clients.
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I guarantee that all the loophole groups (charities, political groups, etc.) do that. Before signing up for the DNC, I almost never got called by them. Now I get several calls a day from them. And that's in addition to the "dead line" calls I now get.
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I can look up Jim Smith in the phone book and assume he has a visa.
"Hello, is this Jim Smith"
"This is Jerry calling from Mastercard. We see recent unusual activity on your Mastercard and are concerned that you may be a victim of credit card fraud. We see 14 purchases in the past 24 hours totalling $2200"
"I understand your concern Jim, that is why we are calling - please calm down sir. Unfortunately, due to privacy laws and to confirm whom I am
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NONE of those calls are legitimate. Credit card companies simply block the card and wait until the customer notices and calls them.
Re:How about.... (Score:5, Informative)
Wrong. I get called once every few months by my visa card due to something that sets off their software. It hasn't been real identity theft yet, but they do call you before shutting off the card. Shutting off the card is done if they can't contact you.
But yes, it's safest not to believe it when someone calls you. I always hang up and then call the number on the back of my card to make sure I'm talking to the CC company. The last few times I did that they forwarded my call directly to fraud without going through voicemail, despite just calling the general customer support number- they must have had the phone number on the card flagged.
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Visa used to call me about gas purchases... I didn't have a car, but I'd fill up friend's tanks occasionally. I'd get a call asking if this was something I had meant to do, and I'd say yes. Or I'd miss that call, and have to call them back when I couldn't use the card.
They always just instantly re-instated the same card, since there was no fraud.
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Wrong. I get called once every few months by my visa card due to something that sets off their software. It hasn't been real identity theft yet, but they do call you before shutting off the card. Shutting off the card is done if they can't contact you.
Your experience is limited. Banks can and do shut your card down and then call you. I've had it happen a number of times when I've made online purchases - large ones late at night and foreign ones (DVD orders for non-domestic DVDs). They block the transaction, then they shut you down for any new transactions and then 8 hours later they robo-call you to tell you they shut you down and that you should call them back.
In the many cases where it has happened to me it has been excessively stupid because I use
Re:How about.... (Score:5, Interesting)
credit card companies (banks) watch account habits and WILL call you if you do something weird. My manager got a call last year from his bank asking if he was in the USA. There was someone at an atm in hong kong in the process of trying to guess his pin number.
They don't verify anything really, they just plain cancel the card and will send you a new one with a new number. There's no reason for them to verify you ARE who you are, they're more interested in verifying the OTHER guy ISN'T you and cutting it off ASAP. Since they have your number and you're agreeing with them there's a problem, they don't need any more incentive.
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...Kinda like spammers forging From: lines...
Re:How about.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Anything which makes unwanted bells go off in my house by remote control is an invasion of my peace and quiet. Get some laws passed that allow the victim to hit #5 on their phone to charge the caller $5.00, then I'll be happy. If someone WANTS these calls, that's fine. Don't push #5. Most people don't want these calls and the victims should be able to instantly make these groups feel the pressure back in a big way.
Groups like The American Teleservices Association [ataconnect.org] (rebranded to remove "Telemarketing" from their name) and The Direct Marketing Association [the-dma.org] talk U.S. Congressmen into passing laws which enable annoying, invasive and often fraudulent activities from this lowlife "industry". It's an industry to the extent that people get paid to ring bells in my house but jeez - earn a living some other way. Annoying everyone over the phone [I believe] is not an "industry" as the lobbyist associations claim. If there was money in ringing your doorbell and hitting people with buckets of paint ten times a day, I'm sure there would be a lobbyist group for that, too. Oh wait... that's PETA.
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If someone WANTS these calls, that's fine. Don't push #5. Most people don't want these calls and the victims should be able to instantly make these groups feel the pressure back in a big way.
The US cellphone system is as broken as SMTP (the cost of delivery lies on the recipient). If I had an option to charge US$ or block every call that I had not explicitly white listed, I would use it.
Your first statement is so nice, I want to repeat it.
Anything which makes unwanted bells go off in my house by remote control is an invasion of my peace and quiet.
Amen! Brother Slashdotter.
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You are NOT new here, are you #19540? Tnx for the comment.
It shouldn't take this long to figure out there's a pattern of abuse going on. Here's an alternate idea: let people dial something like #11 during a call which records the connection as an annoyance in a database. If a pattern of annoyance develops from a particular source, a red light lights on the FTC directors desk and he calls out the black helicopters.
Nah... I'd rather have the $5.00.
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Yeah! you hit 5, your bill is reduced by $5.00 and the caller's bill is increased by $10.00 the other $5.00 is for the phone company. You can hit 5 about once a second until the other guy hangs up.
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I just got a call today that said "Car Warranty.." on the caller ID. I did not pick up.
Hurray! (Score:2)
These bastards have been calling my place of work for months. I always hit 1 and wasted their time for a few minutes.
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OK, that's great about the warranty and stuff, but what I really want to know is... what are you wearing?
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+1
I suppose I should have asked the person I talked to what color of underwear she was wearing ...
Re:Hurray! (Score:4, Funny)
Telemarketer: Hi, would you be interested in switching over to TMI long distance service.
Sienfeld: Gee, I can't talk right now. Why don't you give me your home number and I'll call you later.
Telemarketer: Uh, I'm sorry we're not allowed to do that.
Sienfeld: Oh, I guess you don't want people calling you at home.
Telemarketer: No.
Sienfeld: Well now you know how I feel.
Re:Hurray! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Hurray! (Score:5, Insightful)
I used to hate people like you.
I'm pretty sure that's the idea, yes.
Re:Hurray! (Score:5, Insightful)
Sucks to you. But hey, you have to expect that sort of thing when you take a job you know is immoral and unethical.
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But hey, you have to expect that sort of thing when you take a job you know is immoral and unethical.
What exactly makes the job immoral and unethical? I will admit that I myself have been annoyed by some in the industry who could care less about regulations, but the company I worked for did nothing to show either of these things. When I worked in QA, if I saw/heard anything even remotely questionable it was immediately reported to both my manager and the rep's supervisor. The problems rarely surfaced again after that. I really hate that people generalize an industry because of a few bad apples.
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I agree immoral and unethical are not the best choice of words. Words that come to mind are despicable, ugly, vile, slimy, unworthy...
By 'few bad apples' do you mean, 'overwhelming majority'?
Re:Hurray! (Score:4, Funny)
I also really hate that people generalize ax murderers and baby rapists because of a few bad apples.
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Your story is a little different [on the positive side] from everyone's earned impression of telemarketers. It still smacks of trying to call armed robbery where nobody actually gets killed "ethical".
Re:Hurray! (Score:5, Insightful)
The fact that you call and harass me without my consent with no valid business reason. Because you harrass me at work when I am trying to do my job, because you waste my money for calling me and making me use up cell phone minutes waiting for your stupid rep to put me on your do not call list that I'd say a good 50% of your industry ignore or try to circumvent anyway.
I don't NEED you to tell me what I want or need. If I need or want your product I will seek YOU out not the other way around if I have not contacted you before then leave me the frack alone!
In reference to my previous post if you don't understand this and choose to work in that industry then you deserve what you get.
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You can't win here.
I work in an inbound center they still bitched that they don't get their way immediately.
Only on slashdot would working in a call center (inbound or outbound) be seen as comparable to being a baby rapist or axe murderer.
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Only on slashdot would working in a call center (inbound or outbound) be seen as comparable to being a baby rapist or axe murderer.
And only on slashdot would someone be moronic enough to equate an inbound call center with a telemarketer.
Won't someone please... (Score:3, Funny)
think of the baby axes?!?
Re:Hurray! (Score:5, Insightful)
Every aspect of it that involves bothering vast numbers of people on their private time in their private space using services that they pay for and normally use for family conversations, work and emergencies.
Or the general attitude the industry shows towards the worth of time of the people they pester, such as by using machines to call five people and hang up on four of them so that telemarketers don't have to waste their time waiting for people to answer.
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...and have to give negative reports because of their inability to do their job because of morons who couldn't simply ask to be removed.
Poor baby. How's this for a negative report: you'll just put my name on a list for the next shell company and call me back. You've earned everyone's ire.
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It is funny that you write a rude and angry post but then self-censor the word shit.
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The post you are responding to never accused you of cold calling.
You need to understand that warm calling is so close to indistinguishable from cold calling that nobody really cares about the difference except for people like you who need a way to rationalize their actions and thus think it makes all the difference in the world.
Just look online for all the people bitching about Omaha Steaks - you buy one thing from them and they are all over you. Someone sends you a gift through them and if the sender was
I actually find those amusing. (Score:3, Funny)
At least 3 complaints from me... (Score:5, Informative)
If you get one of these types of calls, just go Here: http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm [fcc.gov] and fill out the form. In a week or two you get the print copy mailed to you of your filing.
Im glad they are acting on these @holes.
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Same here, on my cell phone for a vehicle that doesn't exist. So I reported it to the government via the website. I'm not positive, but I suspect it was the same outfit that's the article talks about.
Re:At least 3 complaints from me... (Score:5, Funny)
x2. I get alternating calls from these guys and a company that wants to help me lower my rates.
That said, the best thing you can do is waste their time. It's like Groundhog day. Every time they call I get to try something different.
Sure warranty my 1969 VW beetle. Click
Oh I don't carry a credit card balance. Click.
*FCC*. Click
vs
Oh my Gawd. I'm so glad you called. So yesterday I was out shopping and my credit card got declined. Have you ever had your credit card declined, trust me it sucks. So how much can you lower my rates. [Cut them off] So that's great. So when do you think that I can get this rate actually implemented. I'm planning on proposing to my girlfriend, do you have a girlfriend. I'm so in love, she's going to love her ring. I just put it on layaway with the last $500 on my Visa. You do lower the rates of Visa right? [cut them off]. So. Oh, you need my number. Damn it, my card is out in the car. Can you hold for ONE second. Please. [set phone down for 5 minutes]. Hey are you still there? Great. So my card number is, hey wait a minute. Are you sure this is safe. One of my friends, John, yeah he got his credit card stolen through his pants. Some guy had this magic reader that you just need to brush up against someone and it steals the credit card.
See how long you can keep it going...
-
That said, Today I just left my cell phone at home. I came home to 5 missed calls.
I've filed both companies with the FCC, but the calls keep coming. I can't wait for both of these to stop.
Same outfit, different MO (Score:5, Insightful)
For a few months, I had the vehicle warranty scammers calling me on my PREPAID mobile phone. That's actually abated somewhat. Funny, because I don't live in the US much and I don't own a car.
Now, I think the same group is calling with health insurance. Repeatedly.
Oh, I've had a few calls from random "IT support" tell me that they're calling me about my recent computer problems.
Someone needs to nail these guys to the wall.
So they get shut down and... (Score:5, Insightful)
A newly-registered corporation with a very similar name comes along and uses the same offices/machines/employees to carry on the work...?
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Oh. Good point. Everyone. Call it off. Don't bother. Kill Joy has just made a revelation.
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The FTC is asking the court for Temporary Restraining Orders that would halt the illegal practices while the cases proceed, impose an asset freeze on all the defendants, and put two of the corporate defendants under the control of court-appointed receivers. The agency also is seeking a permanent injunction that would force the defendants to give up their ill-gotten gains so they can be used for consumer redress.
I doubt the resources for such a scheme are trivial. So yes, this could make it impossible for them to finance a brand new corporation doing exactly the same thing. Maybe some of the lawyers in the audience can tell me if the above actions actually matter.
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Re:So they get shut down and... (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, they don't wait to get shut down, usually.
I used to work for one of the top level (*cough*) product companies in this type of scam. I was too naive at the beginning of my employment to truly know what was happening. I learned really quick after the FTC paid a house call and quit the company. No charges were ever filed.
In short, this is how the scam works: A company is selling suspect products, web pages, in my case (hey, it was the 1990s). The hire a shady parent telemarketing company who then sets up, or hires out, smaller boiler room telemarketing companies. These smaller companies are the ones actually placing the calls and rarely have much more than 50 employees. They sell the "product" and everybody takes a cut of the deal. The small companies are rotated out, as the parent post pointed out, with a similar company with the same office, equipment and employees under a new company name and official owner every 3-6 months. This is faster than the FTC and FCC can process complaint claims. When said government agencies question the upstream companies about the crooked deals, they point to the small boiler room company, now closed and with all it's paperwork destroyed, as the source of the criminal act and show the feds sham paperwork that states their "clearly legal guidelines that the rogue company clearly disregarded." Of course, everyone, at the managerial level, is in on the corrupt deal and are fully aware it's illegal. But, this shell game scam creates plausible deniability and prevents the government agencies from putting the top level companies out of business and their owners in jail.
The owner of this "warranty" company in TFA sounds just like the boss at the company I used to work for and is likely just as guilty. The biggest problem is that this system works so well that you have to put some really suspect laws on the books to have any hope of going after the people really responsible as you can never prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they were having proxy companies commit a crime for them unless they make a serious mistake.
On a slightly related note: Why do government agencies never talk to the likely underpaid and abused file clerk(s) when they investigate a company? Why do they only interview the managers? The managers usually have a well prepared set of lies for the feds and self motivation not sell out the company. The file clerk(s), even if they've been given the company lie, will likely be more than willing to sell out the managers, especially if immunity and a cut of the fine are offered, and will have the documentation, if there is any, to back up any claims they make. (Guess what my position was at the web company?)
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I think it's time to rethink the justice system.
Innocent Until Proven Guilty = Only for living breathing human beings.
Guilty Until Proven Innocent = Only for fictional corporate personhood.
Make it more easy to go after the execs responsible for disregarding the laws and hold them responsible for the acts of the company they've signed off on. (IE. Sending their telemarketing to these suspect telemarketing companies for example).
Finally (Score:5, Interesting)
I actually called the number back to figure out what the scam was, the guy on the other side asked me for my auto information. I told him that since he called me up, he should already know what my information is. Then the guy hung up on me.
I hope there is a public lynching.
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I told him that since he called me up, he should already know what my information is. Then the guy hung up on me.
I had the exact same experience. How dumb do they expect people to be?
Please fuck them up (Score:5, Interesting)
So the Do Not Call list became "Cheap list of verified numbers for people who can give you money but whose government can't arrest you."
So as the title says, please, when you find them, make an example out of them. Call them terrorists. We'll agree then look the other way!
Why I'm not on Do Not Call (Score:2)
So the Do Not Call list became "Cheap list of verified numbers for people who can give you money but whose government can't arrest you."
I always figured it like this-- the Do Not Call list has certain exceptions [fcc.gov]-- political calls (of course), charities, and companies with whom you've done business (e.g., even though you cancel AT&T, they continue with the "please switch back" calls), non-profits, etc. There may be even more exceptions [ca.gov] (like local businesses within 50 miles of your home, etc.) for you
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FWIW, Google Voice is essentially a poor man's call router. Totally free except for Google keeping a record of all your phone calls.
I have never had a robo-call, or in fact any other unwanted call, get past the system and make my phone ring. Somedays I'll check the log of hang-ups and just smile.
Wow, it only took 30,000 complaints... (Score:5, Interesting)
Holy crap, the FTC did NOTHING until more than 30,000 complaints were received. You'd think the threshold would be a hell of a lot lower. Your tax money at work- thanks assholes.
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Agreed. What the FUCK took them so long?
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Honestly, that doesn't bother me that much. The U.S. has more than 330MM people; 30,000 is less than 1% of 1% of that.
What number do you feel is fine for acting on something this minor? 10,000? 1,000? 1% of 1% of 1%? If you have a hard number, how did you decide that? When the FTC director (or a relative) gets one of these calls himself?
I'm sure a variety of groups could get 30,000 people together to do any number of things or file complains; anything from religious sects to lobby groups. I'd actually be
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Until 30,000 people will get sick? That would be what, few hours? I can live with that.
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Ditto. That is the story I heard, Charles Schumer [winknews.com] received a call and threw a hissy fit.
cost THEM money, here's how (Score:5, Insightful)
I always take the call. Listen politely and tell them that yes, I do want to extend my car's warranty. They ask for my VIN and I say I have to go outside to get it.
Then I put the call on hold and get back to work. They actually often call back and I take the call, telling them that I'm still looking for my registration.
Then I put the call on hold and get back to work.
You don't want to be abusive to the person making the call. I have a friend who had no other job options and worked for firms like that. Often these people are either just trying to make ends meet, or just need a mindless job so they can concentrate on college. (My friend later went on to get his PhD.)
By doing this they person making the call can't even get in trouble, you are doing exactly what they are asking you to do, and clearly that can take a 1 minute or two. But this does cost the company money.
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I just noticed your scare quotes around "friend." Yes, he was. It wasn't me. I waited tables in college for the first 2 summers then wrote code the third.
Writing code paid better and was more fun. I almost didn't graduate because of that. I just wanted to drop out and get a job! Oh man, I cringe when I think about that now.
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Interesting.
I had made the assumption that the company would not treat their employees unfairly, that an "over time" call that was arguably a legitimate call would be ok.
Of course that is extremely naive of me.
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Sorry dude, my policy is still to waste a telemarketer's time in the most effective and entertaining ways available to me. If you then have to watch a powerpoint presentation I count that as a bonus because it's wasting even more of your company's resources.
I don't buy the "no other jobs" defense either. I'm sure the guy who stole my bike last year would give the same excuse but I'm not going to give him a moral pass either.
Vigilantism (Score:5, Interesting)
When people feel that injustice has been done, then justice must either be provided or else the will make their own.
Saying that vigilantism is always wrong or "against the law" is no use if no other alternative is provided to those with legitimate grievance. Unfortunately our legal systems have evolved, and continue to evolve, into artifices that deny their services to the ordinary person. The courts are a closed club, open only to those with inordinate amounts of money and influence.
Faced with this growing reality, it shouldn't be surprising when people take matters into their own hands. The sad fact is that these web vigilantes didn't another more acceptable legal route because they knew full well how futile it would be. Little people often have to make their own justice nowadays.
And now they have the means to do it.
Greetings, friends. (Score:5, Funny)
Don't delay, eternal happiness is just a dollar away.
Re:Greetings, friends. (Score:5, Funny)
I love the car warranty calls (Score:4, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
This is why... (Score:3, Insightful)
Verizon has made money for years played the middle man in the arms race against invasive calls. They sell my name/number, then try to sell me *69, then sell them blocking, then try to sell me....
Nuts to them.
Re:This is why... (Score:5, Informative)
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Oh, I'm glad someone complained (Score:2)
I got called on my *office* phone number over this.
My conversation with them went something like this:
Me: Who are you? (In the very gruff Steve voice)
Them: Auto Warranty company.
Me: Why are you calling me? (In a gruffer tone)
Them: Because your car warranty is about to expire.
Me: That's nice, but I don't own a car.
Them: Um, er, does anyone else in your household own a car?
Me: No and we don't live in the United States.
Them: Um, er, we'll put you on our "Don't Call" list. (hangup)
Of course the source
Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Home, business, and... SkypeIn (Score:2)
These guys have been leaving voicemail on my SkypeIn number. I guess my laptop's car warranty has expired.
Piss off a Senator (Score:4, Insightful)
Did anyone notice that this didn't become an issue for the FCC until a senator bitched?
Apparently he (?) got quite a few of these calls at home too, and alerted someone at the FCC about it. It wasn't until then that FCC took action.
David Tabb is TRUE SCUM (Score:2)
His history spells it out clearly enough. The article in which he gives an interview offers up ALL kinds of denial that he was aware of this that or the other and ended up paying a small fine for the practices of his contractors. As far as I can tell, he's still doing it and still paying the contractors. He is aware of what they are doing and has not stopped using their services. And his previous criminal business history suggests that he is an habitual offender who doesn't give a rat's ass about pissin
gadget manufacturing opportunity (Score:3, Interesting)
I have often thought that someone needs to make a gizmo that you could install on your phone line that would automatically answer all incoming calls and say "Press *random number* to complete this call." If the random number is not pressed within ten seconds, or the wrong number is pressed, then the recipient's phones would never be allowed to ring.
That should defeat robocalls.
SIT Status tone (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Is that the cruise guy with the foghorn sound? Not lately, but I got a bunch of them this winter. (I suppose that's a good time to try to sell cruises in Canuckistan)
The "cardholder services" guys are my current scourge, at least 3 or 4 calls a week.
Re:About time (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Ive actually rickrolled those guys calling about the warrenty thing (as well as making several complaints to the FCC about them). I would hit 1 to speak to someone when they called, and placed the phone next to a speaker with "never going to give you up" playing. (and those of you who say i should just tell them to remove me, i did, many times and they would just hang up on me and not remove me) Anyway i hope the government throws the book at them, or places them in stocks and let the public throw books at