No Call List Bypassed Using Call Centers in India? 94
lollipop17 asks: "My husband and I recently bought a house, and so our three months on the do not call list before we can file complaints is not quite over. We only have one business thus far that has called soliciting anything, but here's the catch: it's always a recording, and when I finally got through on the number they provided, 800-513-4524, the reps that answer are in India and have no idea what's going on other than they have a contract with an American company to take sales orders. The girl on the recording mumbles the business name, which seems to be 'All Digital Satellite,' which I could not locate via Google as it's so generic. Given the recent story about spam faxes, and solicitations overseas, do you think this is the future of telemarketing (the offshore location anyway)? Has anyone successfully filed a complaint with the FTC for violation of the do not call registry (for I am sure they will call again after our three months is over, they call at least twice a week)? Does anyone have ideas for tracking them down (i.e. local phone number or stateside address)? The message even seems fraudulent, but I cannot file a complaint with the better business bureau without local phone or address. Any ideas?"
Phone spam (Score:3, Funny)
Reminds of the few times I have received spam advertising products that took the "cover up" aspect too far: the return address was fake, the name of the product was not in the e-mail, and there was no link or phone # or any way for me to contact them if hell had frozen over and I actually did want to buy their product.
Re:Phone spam (Score:5, Interesting)
There is also a Telemarketer Torture [voip-info.org] script for asterisk someone came up with...
Re:Phone spam (Score:1)
I get phone spam on my Canadian cell phone from a company in the US trying to sell me US-based services/products. Idijts!
Robert Kirkpatrick (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Robert Kirkpatrick (Score:2)
This means .... war! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:This means .... war! (Score:5, Funny)
Never pick a fight with a country that believes in reincarnation and has nuclear weapons.
Re:This means .... war! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:This means .... war! (Score:1)
Unless they are your friends or relatives, you likely don't. Ditto for deaths in Iraq. 5000 or 50000, the average American or Brit or Pole or Turk doesn't care unless they are Americans or Brits or Poles or Turks.
Re:No money? No war. Sorry. (Score:2)
phone bills (Score:3, Funny)
They can use VOIP (Score:5, Insightful)
I thought of this too, but these scammers could probably use some sort of VOIP thing to get their voices from India into the US phone system without long distance charges.
Re:They can use VOIP (Score:3, Insightful)
That's a good point, but you're not just tying up the phone lines: you're tying up the telemarketer as well. Say something like "Hold on a second while I go get my wallet." Then put the phone down and walk away for half an hour or so.
"Be right Bach!" (Score:5, Funny)
And since this is over IP, they might be incurring bandwidth and transmission charges. So, when you put the phone down, turn on a nearby tape player playing some J.S. Bach tocatta with some ridicolously high note resolution (32nd notes, etc) into the phone. Just to maximize the data going over their lines. You'll be on your way in no-time to actually succeeding in slashdotting a telemarketer.
Re:"Be right Bach!" (Score:1)
Re:"Be right Bach!" (Score:2)
Re:"Be right Bach!" (Score:1)
Re:They can use VOIP (Score:1)
Wonder if it's the same people who've called me (Score:4, Informative)
"Again, I can hook up all the TVs in your house with satellite for $XX a month."
Any idea if they are using VoIP? (Score:2, Insightful)
I agree with another poster that ultimatelly these guys want to sell you something, and it is that company that should (also!) get busted big-time. These guys are in the same sewer as Email spammers - t
Re:Any idea if they are using VoIP? (Score:5, Informative)
a) The company located outside the US
b) The call center is outside the US
and
c) The company's bank is outside the US
Re:Any idea if they are using VoIP? (Score:2)
Actually my flat-mate and a number of other folks I know work there.
Re:more power to them (Score:1)
It's astounding how often people relate marxism (or communism) with dictatorship. Marxism is not exactly a form of government, in the same way capitalism isn't, but both are tied tightly to and provide parts of the governing process. A working marxist model
Re:more power to them (Score:1)
That would be no improvement at all over the current centralized systems. After all, under capitalism, the majority of your work is to support your boss's salary, and his boss, up to the stockholders, who do nothing to earn their way.
At least the "centralized" models of socialism don't use a a veneer of public relations to hide what they do to people.
You mean like En
I don't know about the Federal List (Score:2)
However, things like "satellite" services are probably scams to hook up illegal services and the like, so I doubt that they registered with anyone(very few scammers like having the government have info on them, wonder why). Thus being scams they pr
Contact your phone company (Score:5, Informative)
Also, the BBB will be completely useless here. You need to contact the Federal Trade Commission and the FCC. The former regulates various consumer-related things, and the latter enforces many phone regulations.
Re:Contact your phone company (Score:4, Informative)
If you live in Georgia, see this page [state.ga.us].
I get a recorded message everyday saying that someone had entered my name into a contest for a free month of satellite television....grrrrrrr.....it's *soooooo* bogus.
Re:Contact your phone company (Score:1)
Thanks!
Re:Contact your phone company (Score:1)
Re:Contact your phone company (Score:2)
Re:Contact your phone company (Score:1)
Re:Contact your phone company (Score:2)
The whole "tracing a call being difficult and taking a long time" thing comes from the days of mechanical switches. Back then, when a call was routed, all the connections were made mechanically. Only long distance calls were recorded for billing purposes, and even then it was done on a paper tape which was meant to be fed into a billing syste
You don't need to wait (Score:4, Informative)
You don't need to wait 3 months. Using automated recordings for commercial phone calls was illegal, to any phone number, long before the do-not-call registry was in place. For what it's worth, every time I've gotten one of these it's from a local small business--some schmuck who doesn't know better and gets sold on the neat idea by an unethical firm who knows that use of its software will leave the user liable for bankruptcy-inducing fines...
Get Their Billing Address (Score:5, Funny)
I've never gotten past explaining what I needed the address for, and I've never gotten a return call from the same place. If I ever do get an address, they'll get my best effort to rate their pitch, and a bill for US$200.
Ask and Ye Shall Receive (Score:3, Informative)
Yes!!! (Score:2, Interesting)
Googling (Score:2)
they called me too. (Score:2)
per donotcall.gov this may be legal since they're not calling for us, but even after being told it's a wrong number they proceed to try and solicit us.
interesting phone recording (Score:4, Interesting)
Very strange.
Re:interesting phone recording (Score:1)
... or for someone else in your house (Score:1, Offtopic)
From The Maineiac Site of Jokes and Games [maineiac.com]:
The real problem... (Score:3, Interesting)
It is simply a logical progression for phone / fax spamming companies to use this method of bypassing the law.
Now what I REALLY want to see, is a filtering system for telephone calls. For example, I want to have the ability to be able to block ALL calls using a white/blacklist, or perhaps automatically reject all calls from a certain area / country. I also want to be able to filter SMS text messages.
Re:The real problem... (Score:3, Interesting)
For GSM cellular on the Treo
Re:The real problem... (Score:2)
What? Put HER on a white list? Yeah - like she'll give you her real number. Why do you think she asked for yours in the first place?
Re:The real problem... (Score:2)
Re:The real problem... (Score:2)
FOSS, too.
They've only just begun to use the loopholes... (Score:5, Interesting)
Here's the loophole:
1.Non-profits are exempt from the DNC.
2.Non-profit needs funds.
3.Company pays NPO to make calls on their behalf.
Mine began,
Caller: "Hello, may I speak to (me)?"
Me: "Uh, speaking."
Caller: "Hi, I am calling from the (city) (religious organization) Community Center. Could you take a moment to answer a few questions?"
Me: (not wanting to go to Hell this week) "Uh, sure"
Caller: "Great! Are you (religion)?"
Me: "No."
Caller: "Is anyone in your house (of the XYZ religion)?"
Me: "No."
Caller: "Okay, that's all for that part of the questions, just a few more."
Me: "Great."
Caller: "How many telephones do you have at this number?"
Me: "What?"
Caller: "How many telephones do you have at the address for this phone?"
Me: "Why do you want to know how many phones I have?"
Caller: "Oh, we just want to ask about your long distance carriers"
Me: "What does this have to do with (religious organization)?"
Caller: (click)
This is who owns that 800# (Score:3, Informative)
UniPoint Services / 512 735 1200
Re:This is who owns that 800# (Score:1)
>UniPoint Services / 512 735 1200
Now what would be really nice is if you could teach us how to find that information ourselves, for any 8xx number.
Re:This is who owns that 800# (Score:2)
Claim of randomness... (Score:2)
Use Visa to screw them over (Score:1)
No, better, buy them all in seperate orders, then have them all charged back. When the spammer has racked up a good chunk of chargebacks and complaints, they will either quit (unlikely) or eventually their merchant account will be revoked and they will be SOL.
As a bonus it causes the evil Visa to sp
stupid telemarketers (Score:2)
Telemarketers need to die.
Re:stupid telemarketers (Score:2)
1-800-477-1827
I need to find a payphone to bitch at these guys from. No way am I using my cell minutes on telemarketing scum.
Re:stupid telemarketers (Score:2, Interesting)
Are you paid up on your Beowulf cluster of Imacs?
Re:stupid telemarketers (Score:2)
Re:stupid telemarketers (Score:2)
Google says ... (Score:2)
... it's Equifax Collections, a bill collector. Admittedly, it's not via reverse-lookup but instead from somebody's web page [infoagency.com].
Re:Google says ... (Score:2)
First Management Alternatives, not Equifax.
To verify I had no collections problems, I ordered a 3in1 credit report from Equifax, and I was right, no problems. D'oh! It cost $40
Re:stupid telemarketers (Score:2)
DNC List... (Score:1)
How to find them. (Score:2)
So, call the number, tell them "Yes, I'm interested in your service", etc. Pretend to be interested. They want to sell you something, so if you pretend to be a potential customer, they *will* contact you, tell you who they are, etc.
And at that point, you can file on them.
Complaints (Score:1)