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barbie (2653)

barbie
  reversethis-{ku. ... m} {ta} {eibrab}
http://barbie.missbarbell.co.uk/

Leader of Birmingham.pm [pm.org] and a CPAN author [cpan.org]. Co-organised YAPC::Europe in 2006 and the 2009 QA Hackathon, responsible for the YAPC Conference Surveys [yapc-surveys.org] and the QA Hackathon [qa-hackathon.org] websites. Also the current caretaker for the CPAN Testers websites and data stores.

If you really want to find out more, buy me a Guinness ;)

Links:
Memoirs of a Roadie [missbarbell.co.uk]
[pm.org]
CPAN Testers Reports [cpantesters.org]
YAPC Conference Surveys [yapc-surveys.org]
QA Hackathon [qa-hackathon.org]

Journal of barbie (2653)

Friday February 20, 2004
11:30 AM

Cold Callers

[ #17523 ]
Over the years I've been getting the occasional cold call. They were irritating at the time, and that was when they were few and far between. Currently, Nicole is receiving around 5 a day

Most calls are between 3pm and 6pm, just at the point DanDan is at his most restless because he's hungry, tired or both. Some are just the automated test valid phone number, which gets passed onto an operator if one is available, or stored for future reference. When the majority of the calls seemingly hangup just as you answer, it can get a bit unnerving. Until I explained how it worked, Nicole was convinced someone was either stalking her or watching the house to burgle it, if no-one answered the phone. As they block caller ID, a 1471 is useless.

Now that I've told her how these call centres work, she generally gives them a right mouthful when a real person is on the other end. But how many people, particularly old folk, fear that someone is waiting to burgle them or stalking them?

To the best of my knowledge our bank and Guinness are the only companies who we have given explict permission to ring us. Every cold call I've answered has tried to lie their way out of the fact they haven't been given permission. One actually said our bank had, even though they couldn't name the correct bank. Nicole now insists they tell us who they are and that they remove us from their lists. If we start getting repeat offenders, I'm thinking of approaching a solicitor to judge the chance of success for undue stress and mental cruelty.

Why do so many comapnies feel the need to shove absolute crap at you, whether its through junk mail, spam email or cold callers? Even worse why do so many people fall for it, and then complain they keep getting them!

We're now thinking of buying a phone that has a caller ID display on it. Anyone phoning without displaying a number gets ignored. They might leave us alone then.


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  • Go to http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tpsr/html/default.asp [tpsonline.org.uk]and register, I did this and I don't get any cold calls, only the occasional text message.

    To stop spam text messages, forward them to VSPAM (87726), this lets us block them at the network level and so far has been very successful. NB you need to be on Vodafone UK though for this to work.

    • You may also be able to get a service from your fixed-line phone company called 'Anonymous Call Rejection' - basically the same as what you would do with the CallerID box but it works as a network feature. I'm fairly sure that this service is an OFTEL requirement so all fixed-line providers should be able to offer it.
      • I was going to say that it's the landline that is the problem, not the mobile. But having said that I started receiving spam SMS messages last year. I'll look into the 'Anonymous Call Rejection' scheme though, thats sounds exactly like what we want.

        Cheers JJ :)

  • There exist hardware devices one can stick between their phone and the jack that autoscreen calls for you. I believe said devices can include whitelisting, so that certain people calling from certain phones always get through.

    It is not lost on me that a telephony modem could execute some (possibly all) of the same maneuvers. Plus, it could be written to really mess with people's friends -- with conditional inboxes, you could have it greet your friends by name. Plenty of evil uses abound. I just need t

    --

    ------------------------------
    You are what you think.
  • Subscribe to the TPS, it really does work. Since doing so we've had one cold call, and when we said we were on the TPS they immediately made their excuses and hung up. The TPS has a very well handled "abuse" system, and when I filed an abuse complaint for the above call I got a personal response saying it would be dealt with appropriately.
    • Signed up as soon as JJ suggested it :)

      Interrogating a cold caller when I got home, I discovered they are getting their information from a company called DataLink. Although my research into the company seems dubious, as none of the links I found via Google are anything to do with personal data collection.

      I've given Nicole a list of things to ask, should anyone else call. So I'll see if this same company crops up again.

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