Looks like "fake caller ID" laws are about to get a boost [telecom]

Why are so many people like sheep? Once they figured out it was not the hospital they simply should have held down a DTMF button for several seconds followed by a hang-up.

***** Moderator's Note *****

No, no, NO! Don't hang up!

Think about it: you've already been molested. Why not take one for the team, and listen to the whole sales pitch?

Telemarketing is a numbers game: if a phone sales sleezoid makes a sale every n calls, then for every hangup, the salesdroid at the other end of the phone knows he is now 1/n calls closer to making a sale. THEY WANT YOU TO HANG UP QUICKLY!

If everyone whom they called took the time to listen to their sales pitch and then say "No, thank you, but please put me on your do-not-call list", then the whole industry would be out of business in two months.

Bill Horne Moderator

It's amazing how many "honest mistakes" telemarketers have made after they're caught violating various laws, such as calling people on no- call lists, claiming someone had an existing relationship when they did not, calling people in nursing homes or on cell phones, etc.

Per Sam Spade:

?

Per Lisa or Jeff:

It's my take that No-Call is fast becoming moot as more telemarketers move offshore and spoof numbers.

According to the (rather lame sounding) letters I've been getting from the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office, there's "nothing we can do"....

I don't believe it.

I almost never get a telemarketing call and my number has been on the DNC list for nearly three years now.

It works for me.

Regards,

Fred

At 03:43 PM 4/28/2011, you wrote:

When is somebody going to come out with an AI box that you switch on to have a "conversation" with a telemarketer before they finally get frustrated and terminate the call?

Why waste your own time baiting this industry when a bit of technology should be able to do it for you.

I've been on the DNC list since it started.

I get one or two a week. They are mostly for local businesses like carpet cleaning and air duct cleaning. They call again and again and again. I recognize them.

I got one from from Heather at Account Services this morning.

I get occasional mortgage or credit card stuff.

We are having a local election in a few days/weeks. The local politicians have been dialing away... One was a real person. It's less than one a day but more than one a week.

The UK take on "do not call" lists is that if the company exists / trades in the UK then they are legally bound to observe them.

Do you tell them?: Put me on your Do Not Call list.

Also, it would be a good idea to go to the FTC Web site and report whichever company is continuing to call you. If they get enough complaints, they'll at least send them a warning letter.

Regards,

Fred

+--------------------------------------------------------------+ Who is John Galt?

Most of the calls I get are from that same outfit using one or another of its fake names.

Is it interesting that I haven't got a car extended warranty call in quite a long time, after some congresscritter got one of those calls and demanded something be done about it? Maybe we just need them to call a congress member with the credit card scam.

Every spring I get one or more calls from supposedly local contractors wanting to sell me new windows for my house.

[...]

What I have done is ask them to wait, "I'mm just finishing a call on the other line", then press hold and go about my business, glancing at the phone from time to time. Most give up after 4-5 minutes, I have occasionally had one wait 10-15 minutes.

Likewise. But at least with VoIP I can set up a filter, so that the next time they call from that number, it gets a "The number you have dialed has been disconnected" (or busy, or hangup). If I was energetic enough, I could make a custom intercept recording tailored to spammers.

Dave

Give the boys at IBM a call. They can tie a bunch of lines into Watson and there we go.

At some point though I see how it could be Watson talking to Watson.

Of course there's nothing they can do because the legislature has to create the law to be enforced.

Per Fred Atkinson:

Count your blessings.

I would have said the same thing a year ago.

Now, even my cell phone is getting hammered - and they leave voicemail messages... so there's no escape.

There is something you are doing wrong.

Are you ordering things from catalogs? That gives them implied consent to call you.

How are these people getting your numbers?

Are you telling them 'Put me on your do not call list' when they call you (if not, you should be)?

Check Bob Bulmash's Web site

Regards,

Fred

Then fund the enforcement...ha, ha, ha.

Not meaning to dump on the poster here, but what proof do we have that the FTC (and the related for this purpose, FCC) does even this diddlysquat? Yes, we see the periodic press releases that they put out, but as of last month I was _still_ getting calls from "Rachel of Card Services", and the feds have gotten thousands, perhaps tens of thousands... or hundreds... of complaints.

She's been at it for literally (and I mean that literally) years.

For that matter, where in their enabling legislation is there a provision that states "ignore the public and disregard violations of the law unless you get X number of complaints"?

State attorneys general can file TCPA suits if they want to. It's the "want to" bit that's a problem here.

R's, John