A First for Me: Phone Spam!

[Makosuke]

I'm used to getting umpteen-hundred "Top ranked search engine placement" e-mails every day via any e-mail with "webmaster" in it, but today I saw something entirely new:

A client I'm working for had a message on her answering machine from a womain offering "...the top spot on Yahoo!...". Totally free service (of course), just have to confirm some information.

I've never even heard of anything like this--do other people who work on business sites get these kinds of calls? Would somebody actually call a non-toll number back to give some information? I can only assume it was a scammer fishing for suckers the old fashioned way.

Better yet, the message was left at 9pm on a Sunday night--her cell phone time must've been cheaper then.

 

[mkrishnan]

A client I'm working for had a message on her answering machine from a womain offering "...the top spot on Yahoo!...". Totally free service (of course), just have to confirm some information.

My father, who refuses to sign up for national do-not-call , gets a lot of these at home. I'm trying to think if I ever got a business one? Just recruiters I guess. But at home, all kinds of, you've already won a vaction, or I'm calling you back to confirm your refinancing qualification kind of crap.

I think there should be a law against people using *machines* to call *you*. Sometimes I've been home and I get infuriated when the phone rings and I answer, and I'm talking to a machine pretending to be a person.

 

[yoda13]

Used to have this problem, then I finally got caller id, and now if I don't recongnize the name and number....I don't answer.

 

[mkrishnan]

Used to have this problem, then I finally got caller id, and now if I don't recongnize the name and number....I don't answer.

Legitimate calls that somehow block out caller ID are one of my biggest pet peeves! Like calls from Mexico on my cell never give ID, and my parents and some others call me on calling cards. I totally hate that! But my experience was that do-not-call actually made a difference.

 

[Makosuke]

I'm trying to think if I ever got a business one? Just recruiters I guess. But at home, all kinds of, you've already won a vaction, or I'm calling you back to confirm your refinancing qualification kind of crap.

I guess you thought I was surprised about a phone solicitation for a business--businesses get those all the time. What I was shocked by was that the lady was selling web services--of the stupid search engine placement sort that spammers love--over the phone.

So when I asked if anybody else had gotten a call like this, I meant a call trying to sell you services for a website, which was very new to me.

I always figured that spam only worked because out of the 1,000,000 messages you send, four suckers hadn't seen your ripoff ad before and get suckered into it. Calling somebody on the phone (particuarly in person, not with a machine) seems like it'd be so futile that the only way somebody'd even try it was with leftover minutes on a cel phone (hence the 9pm Sunday call).

 

[FriarTuck]

Having never sent a text message from my cell phone, and speaking no Spanish, I can't figure out why I keep getting Spanish language text spam on my cell phone.

 

[grapes911]

We just got this new feature, and I can't remember what it is called. If someone calls my house and their number is blocked, they get a machine and are asked to leave their name. The service then calls my phone and asks if I would like to take their call (kind of like how a collect call goes though). If I say yes, we are connected like a nomal call. If I say no then the machine basically says that I don't want to talk to them. You still have to answer the phone, but if it is some annoying spam, then you don't have to go though the trouble of saying no, no, no to them over and over. Plus they can't get to my answering machine.

 

[mkrishnan]

Having never sent a text message from my cell phone, and speaking no Spanish, I can't figure out why I keep getting Spanish language text spam on my cell phone.

Maybe someone thinks your cell is their chico's and she's sending dirty messages you can't appreciate cuz you don't understand Spanish.

The only text msg spam I ever get is an entry message greeting me when I cross into Canada...like dial 411 for info, welcome to Microcell, etc. And I don't really get solicited on my cell either. I am *VERY* glad for that!

Do you have to pay anything to receive incoming TM's?

 

[Nermal]

There's an ad on TV here where a woman answers the phone and gets a telemarketer. She then recites the message from her answering machine, followed by a beep from the microwave

Do you have to pay anything to receive incoming TM's?

Only when they're sent from MSN Messenger, which I think has only happened once.

 

[mkrishnan]

There's an ad on TV here where a woman answers the phone and gets a telemarketer. She then recites the message from her answering machine, followed by a beep from the microwave

Once, after getting so many calls to switch long distance service, I said, in my sweetest voice, "I'm sorry. That sounds really interesting, but we don't have a telephone." Precious silence from the other end of the line.

 

[yahooz]

Once, after getting so many calls to switch long distance service, I said, in my sweetest voice, "I'm sorry. That sounds really interesting, but we don't have a telephone." Precious silence from the other end of the line.

man! i have got to use that one!

 

[mkrishnan]

man! i have got to use that one!

I'm tellin' you...crazy is like yeast. A little bit works its way through the whole loaf.

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

What's worse is that the cell phone companies may put our cell phone numbers in a directory that will open a new telemarketing avenue.

 

[Squire]

Having never sent a text message from my cell phone, and speaking no Spanish, I can't figure out why I keep getting Spanish language text spam on my cell phone.

I get spam text messages on my cell all the time. Most of them are "sex industry" related. Maybe someday when I'm lonely, I'll call back.

Kidding.

Squire