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Telemarketers might get OK to call cellphones [telecom]

We've all seen the repeated warnings, make that WARNINGS, that the telemarketers were about to Get All The Cell Numbers or get directories or get the law changed to allow Robot Calls to cell phones, etc.

And 99 percent of the time this has been [a lie].

(That doesn't mean they all follow the current laws, of course, but most of the time most of them do.)

I just got an e-mail chain letter with yet another claim of this sort. It's a warning that the House is about to push through a law to... yes, let telemarketers bother us, legally, on our cell phones. Which in the US also means most of us pay for incoming air time.

Seems this one is real:

[ US Chamber of Commerce ]

Letter Supporting H.R. 3035, the "Mobile Informational Call Act of 2011" ...

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world's largest business federation representing the interests of more than three million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region, strongly supports H.R. 3035, the "Mobile Informational Call Act of 2011." This legislation would update the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) to help ensure that consumers can receive time-sensitive information on their mobile devices, while maintaining current restrictions designed to protect wireless users from unwanted telemarketing calls.

------------- rest:

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- they dress it up in nice language, making it sound like it's for the recipient's own good, etc., etc., and so forth.

_____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key snipped-for-privacy@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

Reply to
danny burstein
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Per danny burstein:

It's already a reality for some of us.

Out of every 10 calls I get on my cell phone, I estimate that 7 are telemarketers and most of them are robo calls.

Yes, I'm on the no-call list - both Penna state and US government.

No, you may not be so lucky.... yet.... but wait a year or two...

My understanding is that telemarketers are becoming immune to prosecution as they move offshore and use VOIP (with "multiple relays" - whatever that means, but the phrase appears in the lame-sounding letters I get from do-not-call complaints to Penna) to make tracing difficult or impossible.

Cresswell Predicts: Somebody will start offering, and people will start moving to some sort of challenge-response scheme on their phones.

My personal fantasy: "Hello, you have reached nnn-nnn-nnnn. Please enter the extension of the person you wish to speak with or leave a message at the beep. Press 1 for Fred, press 2 for Sue, press 3 for Tom......." and so-forth.... where I'm "99" or something, more than 1 try, or a pause of more than n seconds flips them to voicemail, and the magic number can be entered as soon or even before they hear "Hello".

Reply to
Pete Cresswell

Pete,

There has to be something that you are doing to invite those calls.

I've been on the DNC list at my present address for a few years now. I've rarely gotten telemarketing calls and the ones I did receive were usually for the previous holder of my telephone number. But even that hasn't happened in over a year.

It could be as simple as ordering from a mail order catalog. Some years ago, I renewed my driver's license in Maryland. I had been a member of Private Citizen at that time and rarely got telemarketing calls. But I was suddenly being hammered by telemarketing callers.

I discovered that Maryland was selling my information to marketing companies. At that time, they had a toll-free number you could call to opt for Maryland MVD to not sell your information. So I used it and it stopped after a short while.

Years later, Maryland MVD stopped selling the information. Now it's not a problem there. But it might still be in your state. When I do get one, I always give them the 'Put me on your Do Not Call list' line. I rarely hear from them again.

Regards,

Fred

Reply to
Fred Atkinson

I think I've heard that before, but blew it off figuring that it would be beyond somebody like me.

OTOH, I do have a 24-7 box - Albeit running Windows XP.... All my outgoing except 911 and 800 calls goes via VOIP. My incoming is still POTS.

Am I still a candidate for Asterisk?

I do that from time to time. A standup comedian once said "I tell them that I've lost my job, my wife is fooling around on me, my son is on drugs, my dog died......" and eventually *they* hang up on *me*. I try to get caller-specific information... but as soon as they catch on they tend to hang up.

But that stuff doesn't work with robocalls... and the vast majority of the calls I get now are robocalls. I guess I could "Press 1 to speak with a bottom feeder..." but that gets old and I've got a life to live.

- - PeteCresswell

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

Yes, Asterisk can do that, and you'll thank me later.

As for pressing 1 to "speak with a bottom feeder", you don't need to do it every time. Just every /other/ time, or every /third/ time, or whenever you're bored. You see, sometimes the team takes one for /you/!

Bill Horne Moderator

Reply to
Pete Cresswell

On Fri, 11 Nov 2011 10:47:21 -0500, Pete Cresswell wrote: ........

Or a little Artificial Intelligence app/device is developed that when you get one of these calls, it starts its own conversation with the caller that will eventually burn up their time until they realise they are not talking to a human.

Just think of the money someone could make creating this!

Reply to
David Clayton

On Fri, 11 Nov 2011 10:47:21 -0500, following Pete Cresswell's comments on danny burstein's OP, ***** Moderator ***** noted:

Alas, in my experience at my home phone, the odds of a human actually coming on the line from a robo-dialed call are under one in ten -- my impression of predictive dialing is that it's way too optimistic with regard to the time a human in the boiler room will take to get on the line once the call's been answered by a flesh-and-blood human -- thus the few times I *have* tried to pick up the robo-call, I've met only a robo-voice encoraging me to stay on the line for an agent to speak with me, but no agent before my patience wore thin and I hung up.

Cheers, -- tlvp

Reply to
tlvp

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