[plug] [OT| growing VOIP -> POTS spam problem

[Milan Pospisil]

On 5/31/05, Gavin Chester <gavinchester1 at hotmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 2005-05-31 at 17:20 +0800, Chris Caston wrote:
> > Has anyone else got to the point where you cringe before answering calls
> > that just come up as "overseas" on the CND screen?
> >
> > regards,
> >
> > Chris
> >
> > __________
> 
> SNAP! Kill all telemarketers ;-)

  I second that one; isn't telephone spamming actually illegal in WA?
Not that it would make much difference to the spammers until someone
hits their pocket really hard...
 
> One of the benefits of calling-number-display is that all these numbers
> come up with "unavailable" showing they're an overseas call.  I had long
> ago got to the point where I ignore them entirely.  Then recently jsut
> for fun I answer and wait long enough for the telemarketer to try to
> talk and then hang up just as they say hello.  That's nasty, but that's
> how pi$$ed off I've become.  My call ID logs show an average of around
> six/mth for most of this year alone.
> 
> My methods came back to bite me in the bum, though.  A good friend
> recently moved to NZ for a year and tried to call us.  I hung up on her
> (only the once) before I was told my mistake!  I now listen long enough
> to tell whether it's her or telemarketing :-0

  The good old answering machine seems to be doing a reasonably good
job for me here; all I had to do was to 'train' my mates to start
talking when they hear the recorded message. Needless to say that they
usually swear, but that in its essence does not effect the system - I
know who is calling and pick up the phone.
  There are some individuals, however,  who actually enjoy a
conversation with these pests.  As soon as the phone rings they would
pick up the handset and abuse the living daylight out of the spammer.
And boy, do they feel good about it...
  Perhaps another way how to deal with these creeps would be to divert
them (after they have introduced themselves) to a prerecorded audio
loop with an appropriate spicy message. A particular section of Kevin
Bloody Wilson's famous song about Telecom comes to my mind but, one
could possibly strike some legal issues there...
    
> Gavin
>