Foiling 'Backdoor' Voicemail Spam? 53
Cheffo Jeffo asks: "After receiving a number of (repeated and irritating) voicemail spams in the past week, I starting investigating what my options were for blocking these pre-recorded messages that are eating up my mailbox and costing me money when I check my messages using a cellphone. While it appears that I can do nothing at this point in time (I am Canadian and the CRTC hasn't had the wisdom to make this stupidity illegal yet), I was wondering if there is a technical measure that I can use to stop the insanity (other than reverting to a regular answering machine).
In my particular case, the telemousketeer autodialer dials into the telco's voicemail backdoor (xxx-210-0yyy) and punches in the phone number xxx-yyy-zzzz. If they find that there is no mailbox, then they hang up and remove the number from the call list. Otherwise, they leave their obnoxious solicitation.How do they determine whether a mailbox exists (as you can tell, I am no expert)?" Might there be some tone that you can record at the start of the outgoing message that will fool the autodialer into marking the number as "disconnected"?
"If I were to record the 'I'm sorry, <some-phony-number> is not a valid mailbox, please try again' message as my mailbox identifier, would that work?
Any other ideas (other than the providing Slashdot with the URLs for the offending companies to punish their web servers)?"
Er... (Score:2)
2) The standard Tri-Tone OOS tone might help, otherwise. I think the CRTC is your best bet.
If The CRTC Is Your Best Bet. . . (Score:2)
The CRTC is never your best bet. Unless you're powerful or rich.
Leave something in your mailbox saying "no ads" (Score:3, Informative)
They haven't a single ad since.
Re:Leave something in your mailbox saying "no ads" (Score:2)
Re:Leave something in your mailbox saying "no ads" (Score:1)
Re:Leave something in your mailbox saying "no ads" (Score:2)
I stole the fee idea from Private Citizen [private-citizen.com]. I first heard about them some years ago, when their founder got interviewed on NPR. At the time, he was just distributing information on how to sue telemarketers in Small Claims Court. (He described the attitude of his first trial judge to the defendent: "Last evening I had my dinner interrupted three times. You lose buddy.") Now I see that they offer a subscription where they publish your name
Re:Leave something in your mailbox saying "no ads" (Score:2, Interesting)
It's been 24 hours and no voicemail spam as yet
Re:Leave something in your mailbox saying "no ads" (Score:2)
Change numbers (Score:1)
I'm Not Sure About This Guy. . . (Score:2)
. . .but as a fellow Canadian who occasionally gets voice-mail spam, the two that spring to mind were for a health club, and a guy running a particularly hopeless campaign for mayor of Toronto [jakobek.ca].
Tom Jackobek isn't to blame... (Score:2, Informative)
I, too, was spammed by him, and called his campaign office to complain. They informed me that some kid (likely the same one sending me 48 minute rap and hate filled messages) hijacked an actual campaign they DID do ONCE and spammed random phone numbers across the city. The people involved in the original compaign, and Bell Canada were apparently "working together" to figure out who did this and how. I haven't received one in a month.
Re:Just curious (Score:1)
Telezapper comes to mind (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Telezapper comes to mind (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Telezapper comes to mind (Score:1)
But, to be fair, my parents (who live in the US) swear by their telezapper
Re:Telezapper comes to mind (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Telezapper comes to mind (Score:2)
Of course, when it's a human, if there's ANY hesitation in the "may I speak with...." then I just hang up immediately. So far I haven't gotten any false positives (that I know of, and if I have, apparantly they haven't been very important ones)
btw, I thought I'd read somewhere that (in CA anyway) it was illegal to leave automated messages. I'd say I get more calls that are recorded messages than I do actual people (reaching both my v
Ask Woz (Score:3, Funny)
Suggestions... (Score:4, Interesting)
Do the spam messages occur at regular intervals? You could try turning your voice mail box off for an hour/day/week. The idea being that they call, find no box, and delete your number from the list.
Starting the message with a "disconnected" tone or somesuch might help. This might not work though - if they're using a computer with ISDN technology, the card gets told digitally when the call is disconnected (or rerouted etc).
Have you registered a complaint with your telephone company (mobile provider or whatever)? Even if they refuse to do something, make sure they get a complaint - written is usually best. If enough customers complain about something they will look into it. Find out if their competitors are willing to help, and if they are mention it in your letter. The prospect of losing a customer to a competitor will carry more weight!
-- Steve
Re:Suggestions... (Score:1)
The problem that they are running into is that the CRTC hasn't decided if existing telemarketing rules (e.g. no prerecorded or synthesized messages may be used for any type of solicitation) apply to direct-to-voicemail spam.
The spammers argue that, since the phone never rings, the rules don't apply.
complain / sue (Score:3, Interesting)
2) The service is costing you money
3) complain to the telco, threaten to swap services (if you can)
Note, in australia I would complain to the TIO, as this costs the telco money either way.
4) ???
5) PROFIT
Re:complain / sue (Score:2)
Fight fire with fire! YOU can change things! (Score:5, Interesting)
To force spammers into finding a better way to conduct business, we must tip the balance of costs. If every victim called them up and wasted 5 minutes of the spammer's time, the ratio of sales to non-sales would become pretty thin, pretty quick. Their costs for paying phone-monkeys would quickly surpass penis pill profits.
It's even better if they have a toll free number you can call, because it's their dime. (Beware of ANI, don't counterharass them from your own phone!) It actually costs them extra if you call them from a payphone, hint hint. I got answering-machine-spammed a while ago, and it turns out that 800 470 0865 is also answered by a machine. There's a voicemail system behind it, and it's possible to tie up the line indefinitely just by pushing 1(wait)*(wait)1(wait)*(wait)....
If they have a website you can visit, well, I'm sure you can figure out what to do. Evil blackhats of the world, unite and make the world a better place! If spammers' hosting costs skyrocket, they might see the light.
Place an order! Then cancel it. Document both. Keep CLOSE TRACK of your CC bills! If they charge you anyway, reverse the charges. (That costs them BIG, and if it happens too often, they'll get their merchant account canceled.)
It only takes a small percentage of spam victims, pissed off and ready to take action, to impact the spammers' bottom lines. You probably spend at least 5 minutes a day sorting through spam email, listening to junk voicemail, and throwing out the dead-tree junk that lands in your mailbox. Spend 5 minutes a day fighting back.
Re:Fight fire with fire! YOU can change things! (Score:3, Interesting)
I did tie up the receptionist and owner of the firewood delivery firm (the spam was sent on their behalf) for about an hour, demanding the name, address and phone number of the spammer (which I think I am entitled to under current legislation).
I requested callbacks, then didn't answer
Perhaps no
Re:Fight fire with fire! YOU can change things! (Score:2)
Re:Fight fire with fire! YOU can change things! (Score:3, Informative)
You can get a basic stamp cpu for anywhere between $30 and $60, with maybe $10 more in parts (speaker, battery, a board to put them all together on, etc) and maybe an hour learning to code its DTMF commands, and you can build one yourself.
I dunno if close to $100 is cheap or not for ya though.
Cheaper way to do it (Score:1)
Fight back. (Score:2, Redundant)
Re:Fight back. (Score:2)
Re:Fight back. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Ugh (Score:1)
The reason that this stupidity should be illegal is that there is no recourse to get removed from the list (it's not like you get to interact with the telemarketer
These are the same reasons that spam is bad
Re:Ugh (Score:1)
Re:Ugh (Score:1)
And the groovy co-incidence of how that kind of 'free speech with anonyminity and no accountability' invariably causes communication to degrade to shoe-size IQ level rhetoric/marketing?
Mmmm, bait.
Here's your problem: It's not automated (Score:5, Informative)
Check out this help wanted ad from Boxpilot [boxpilot.com] (one of the companies in this business) to see how this is done. A live person calls your company and asks the receptionist to be transfered to your voicemail box, and then s/he presses play on the message. There's no automated/technological solution to block that, and I don't know if you want the receptionist to question the intentions of anyone who wants to be transferred to your voicemail.
Re:Here's your problem: It's not automated (Score:1)
They are definitely dialing into the backdoor (which is also used to check your messages from a phone other than your own) and punching in my mailbox number.
Just send one dollar (Score:3, Funny)
Boop-boop-beep (Score:3, Informative)
I've gone one better and found an entire WAV of the "We're sorry" message online, and have that for my voice mail message. Now, not only do telemarketers not have me on any lists, but only the people I know and want to have call me leave me messages.
If you'd like the WAV or can't find just the three tone WAV (you can have just the three tones then put in your real voice mail message; the telemarketing systems won't notice), post a reply here and I'll work out a way to get it to you.
Re:Boop-boop-beep (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Boop-boop-beep (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Boop-boop-beep (Score:1)
Re:Boop-boop-beep (Score:1)
Re:Boop-boop-beep (Score:1)
Several tips: (Score:3, Insightful)
- I believe the telco will readily reduce your bill by $X per month if you can provide a suitable $X for the cost of these spam messages.
- There is a national opt-out service which is highly effective. I don't know the number off-hand. I recall having to hassle the telco to get the number, and it did take a bit of phone tag to find the person who did know it. But in the past eight years, I've had NO telemarketing calls and VERY LITTLE junk snail mail.
- If you can identify the company that left the mail, I suggest you can take them to small claims court for the cost of retrieving their mail, the cost of filing the claim, and the cost of attending court. And I expect you will win (for starters, they won't show up to defend themselves!)
All in all, I think you can readily resolve the problem, quite possibly to your profit!