Telemarketing places that don't pay attention

[Seshat]

I just happened to be in Fratching when it happened again.

Telemarketing wardialling call. We have two lines, the numbers are similar. If one was 123 4567, the other would be 123 4569. When both start ringing seconds apart from each other, it's invariably a telemarketer.

Now, this is annoying enough. But wait, there's more!

(It helps to know that I'm in Australia, to get the true depth of the idiocy and annoyance here.)

I pick up. The obviously recorded voice is American, probably midwest accent.

The spiel is "Congratulations! You have just won an all-inclusive trip to the Caribbean! To claim your prize, press 9 now."

Yes, that's right. Apparently telemarketing companies are perfectly happy to send an AUSTRALIAN to the Caribbean. Because 15 hour flights diagonally across the Pacific, followed by 7 hour flights from LAX to the Caribbean, are cheap.

Or, you know, NOT.

I actually got curious enough to hang on to one of those long enough to speak to a human, once. She was shocked and startled to discover that her company was calling Australia.


So not only do I get normal telemarketing calls, but I get telemarketing calls that aren't even for my country! A complete waste of everyone's time. Even if I was stupid enough for the marketing to succeed, the company would turn me down anyway.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!

[AFPheonix]

I'm trying to figure out why they'd program the autodialer to put in country codes. How strange.

This is another reason I'm really glad I've only got a cell phone. I'm pretty much off the grid so I don't get pestered.

Well....except that my brainiac mother gave some debt collector looking for my brother-in-law my bloody cell and work number, so now they're pestering me. Whelp, yay for caller ID, I expect. I'm sure as hell not answering a long distance phone call from another state for debt that isn't even mine. I paid my car off last year.

[chops]

That's like the scammers that keep wardialing every number they can get their hands on, ignoring Do-Not-Call lists, hiding their caller ID in defiance of rules against doing so, using automated recordings in defiance of rules against doing so, and generally being asses about it.

I've heard stories of people who get a human then attempt to get their numbers removed, only to be hung up on. I've heard of the people on the other end being extremely rude, saying things like "I don't give a shit" and other choice quotes.

There's no doubt in my mind that it's a boiler-room operation. (Just call me Captain Obvious.) In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the vacation scammers are working out of the same boiler room.

[lordlundar]

Considering it uses a tone response, there HAS to be a way to cause a frequency blowout, rendering the system unusable.

Oh well, I can dream.

[Dreamstalker]

I seem to recall reading that someone put a high-quality recording of the "out of service" tones on his answering machine and that tells the dialer (assuming a machine doing it) that you don't exist (IIRC there was a 3-second break between the tones and the actual outgoing message).