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April 29, 2009
"I don't know how they're getting away with this."
Every time I think I'm getting too cynical, some asshole or another will come along and remind me that I'm not cynical enough. A recent example is the horrific car warranty "telemarketing" which has plagued my cell phone in the past few weeks. My cell phone, get it? I've had it for years, and like many clueless Americans, I always kind of assumed that cell phones were sacrosanct, and that no one could call them unless you were dumb enough to give out your number. No more. The latest generation of criminal spammers uses robocall technology to randomly generate numbers in the hope of targeting any that ring. And on top of that, they use Caller ID spoofing (available here to anyone) to completely conceal their location and identity. Mind you, although I'm sophisticated enough to Google a number that appears to be the source of a harassing phone call, at first I was foolish enough to believe that someone named "Angie Xxxxxx" in Chewelah, Washington was behind the suspicious car warranty scam. But then I also saw that another woman named "Euralee Xxxxxx" in New Bern, North Carolina was also involved. (I tried calling both of "them" back, but naturally, "their" numbers have been disconnected.) I learned that these same two "people" (who probably once had listed phone numbers) had been irritating thousands of clueless citizens just like me, who dutifully checked them out, and warned others: thorWell, in all probablity, they are not even telemarketers, but criminal phishers, and they might not even be in the United States. It's easy to say that this should be made illegal, but it already is. The best analogy is to Nigerian spammers. What bothers me is that there is nothing to stop them from calling your cell phone, and in what seems like a cruel joke, impersonating ordinary people, who then find themselves hated by thousands and getting death threats: An anonymous reader writesI feel very sorry for this woman (like the two who appeared on my Caller ID, her mistake appears to be that of having a listed phone number), but I don't know what the Feds can do. Technology is outpacing the ability to police it. As to the "DO NOT CALL" registry, forget it. It's useless against criminals, and besides, many of these people are beyond the reach of the United States. It's easy to say, "just change your number!" but I don't want to do that. What would be really nice would be to track some of these people down, and see to it that they are severely punished. Hmmmm.... Maybe I should update the Classical Values Torture Poll, and ask readers which punishment should be applied to spoofed Caller ID telemarketing spammers. posted by Eric on 04.29.09 at 12:07 PM
Comments
Well, since they're not 'enemy combatants', torture would be legitimate in this case, right? I suggest strapping them down, then play a recording of the same stuff they spam us with, repeatedly. Loudly. With the dial tones and everything. Think of it as an audible version of water torture. And this is coming from someone that has a cellphone who only uses it to dial home to family, who rarely gets called on it by family (due to land line at work), and who has said spammers hit said cellphone more than said family members. I'm not sure how they do the spoofing, but there does appear to be some sort of number forwarding if you actually go through the 2ND FINAL NOTICE spiel. No clue if it's a 900-number that they get to charge you on, but something needs to be done. Either finding out explicitly where and who are doing these, or some sort of concentrated campaign of something like Credit Card Chargebacks to fry them monetarily. They are scammers, and since nobody in government is really pushing on this, somebody else has to strike back. Anon · April 29, 2009 01:19 PM I've heard that what's going on is thus: Company A wants to sell people stupid, overpriced, but legally legitimate "added warranites" for their cars. Company B says "we can call people and connect them to you for a fee, and we promises, cross our heart, that all the phone numbers are legitimate and we're not breaking the laws". Company B takes the money, robo-calls everyone in the world, and rarely if ever bothers to connect calls to Company A. Company A is out their money, and Company B doesn't give a damn, because Company A suddenly finds out that their contact information doesn't work anymore... Sigivald · April 29, 2009 02:41 PM The lady mentioned in the article is getting death threats over the phone and the FBI and local police don't give a damn? She should go to her US Reps and senators and complain through them. Things would probably start to happen then. RT · April 29, 2009 03:55 PM No criminal prosecutions are required. The problem is that long distance phone service is no longer metered. With unlimited long distance, a phone spammer has every incentive to call as many numbers as possible. The only solution is to charge by the minute for outgoing calls or assess a small fee to the caller for every call that is answered. That would add up to significant charges for the caller who makes thousands of calls per day. Jardinero1 · April 29, 2009 05:03 PM I don't know what works or doesn't for cell phones. In NY, for such calls coming in over a land line (despite the Do Not Call List), I was told by Verizon that the Attorney General would have to get involved, and the only way to do this would be to a) Press *57 following receipt of such calls HMI · April 29, 2009 06:59 PM To take a lesson from spam, what we need is a voicemail based CAPTCHA system for phones. A voice could ask you to punch in an answer to a simple verbal math problem in order to ring the phone. This will inevitably happen. Pax · April 29, 2009 07:22 PM I've been using a bicycle horn with good success. :-) Len · April 29, 2009 07:34 PM Nigera. The only reasonable solution is a thermonuclear solution. Some may disagree. Roy Mustang · April 29, 2009 07:58 PM The solution here it to not buy new cars. Nobody ever bothers me with deals to warranty my 1991 Ford pickup. Donna B. · April 30, 2009 12:29 AM My response is to press "1" and then try to waste their time. OTOH, they're the experts in that field. As for punishments, James Lileks had a suggestion. Joseph Hertzlinger · April 30, 2009 12:51 AM This and the "lower your rates" thing are both phishing scams. All they want is your credit card number. They aren't in the US, so we have no jurisdiction. They are in a country that doesn't care, or is profiting from the criminal activity. The solution is to "accidentally" drop an "anchor" on the undersea cable connecting their nation to the phone grid. brian · April 30, 2009 01:19 AM I'm waiting for Obama to get a call from them in the middle of a press conference. Georg Felis · April 30, 2009 04:00 PM |
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These people are a biblical plague. I get them too.
I'd describe what should be done for them for addition to your poll, but it'd render this site distinctly family-unfriendly.