Foo - Explain this to me #9

Why do some *******s rig machines to do automated spam calls?

I've got a few recently, and I can't for the life of me understand the point. How can profits be made by doing this? What is the purpose?

Gotta knock on a lot of doors to sell a toothbrush.

But I don't think they are trying to even sell anything.

One call some recording of some ***** comes on threatening to sue me. Another someone asks for the person who pays the columbia gas bill. Then it hangs up.

I don't understand this ****.

The phone call itself costs as much as any other phone call, except they don't have to pay a baboon to sit at the other end and pitch whatever worthless crap they're trying to sell. Plus, if you hear a person on the other end, and you tell them to put you on their do-not-call lists, they technically have to oblige, but that doesn't apply if it's just a tape running.

In short, the telemarketing industry is a fleet of dump trucks full of ******bags.

One call some recording of some ***** comes on threatening to sue me.

Yeah ...... ummhhh .... that one sounds like a real call :eek:

Yeah ...... ummhhh .... that one sounds like a real call :eek:

No. I looked the # up on google. Its a recording that calls a ton of people.

I may be a jackass, but no one has a reason to sue me.

I usually look up the numbers... most of the time its something offshore basically spamming US numbers. Since the autodialer isn't in the US, they don't need to adhere to any US laws.

My trick is to have a public number which doesn't ring, and quietly dumps all messages to voice mail, then a private cell phone number that friends know, and that gets changed every so often. This way, the verbal vomiters are handled, but I don't miss people who genuinely need to get in touch with me.

Best way to deal with those types of scumbags is to find a way to jack up their costs of operation to the point of unprofitability.

A really fun one if if you are lucky enough to get a dial-in to their PBX, see what it takes to drop the entire system....I'm pretty familiar with older Fujitsu PBXs (many of them were remote configurable....BAD mistake), and can really inflict some serious mayhem on those things.....nothing is quite as fun as making all outgoing calls from that PBX go instead to the same company's 1-800 number (owners of 800 numbers get billed for every incoming call). Make sure to wipe the PBX logs too. Nasty and effective.

Or alternatively, you can just plaster an entire city with one of those spammer's 800#s (need a job, call.....want to be a video game beta-tester call.....want better drugs now, call....) and see if they stop.

Did you recently move or get a new phone number? If so, it sounds like you got the number of a dead beat. When we bought our house, we had to get a new number and I was lucky enough to get the old number of a someone who did not pay their bills and had friends in jail based on the calls I got.

When I got my cell phone, the number I got was from another guy who did not pay his bills. I spoke with Ford Credit quite a few times to get them to quit calling me.

And it is cheaper to pay a machine to call a leave a message, and they now have a record of the call. All they are trying to do is leave a trail they can follow when they do end up suing someone for non payment or whatever.

Same # I've had for 2 years.

Could be that some collection company just bought some old debt from a lender or somesuch and is tyring to reopen an old case from whoever had teh number before. May listen to the recordings, get a call back number and try to get to the bottom of it if you want the calls to end.

when I pick up the phone and its a recording...it pisses me off. I listen to it so I can find out where there calling from then I call them about a hundred times and tell them not to call me anymore.