Reminds me of Lenny
People Hire Phone Bots to Torture Telemarketers
11–20 of 41 posts
Re: People Hire Phone Bots to Torture Telemarketers
#12I've gotten pretty good at finding ways to get them to immediately disconnect. For example, ask where they're physically located. Or ask for their name, job title, and supervisor. I'm not as good as keeping them on the line though. Sometimes I just put them on silent hold awhile.
That reminds me: if you ever receive a call from a legit collection agency, be prepared in advance. You have the right to ask them specific questions that they need to answer, according to regulation, if they have a legitimate debt to collect. Your second opportunity to ask the questions will be more difficult, so take advantage of them reaching out. Have a list by your phone or on your Favorites.
https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/how-can-i-verify-wh...
Re: People Hire Phone Bots to Torture Telemarketers
#13I wish this kind of behavior was more condoned and encouraged in society. Let's brainstorm some similar techniques that we could do to similarly unscrupulous people.
I had a neighbor at one point who kept a compressed air horn next to his phone (back when phones were things that hung on walls or sat on tables), and every time he got a telemarketer he'd blow it in the receiver until they hung up. Funny for a while, but got old fast.
Should be able to rig up a noise emitter into the line that can work without suffering from the noise yourself.
Re: People Hire Phone Bots to Torture Telemarketers
#14Eventually it's just going to be bots calling bots, wasting nothing but computing cycles. Who even answers calls from unknown numbers these days?
Unfortunately, people have jobs where they don't know every number that might call them before hand, so as part of being responsive clients, pick up. Until we hunt telemarketers for sport, this will not stop being a miserable experience.
Well, clearly they must be selling something to someone to keep the lights on...
Re: People Hire Phone Bots to Torture Telemarketers
#15I've gotten pretty good at finding ways to get them to immediately disconnect. For example, ask where they're physically located. Or ask for their name, job title, and supervisor. I'm not as good as keeping them on the line though. Sometimes I just put them on silent hold awhile. That reminds me: if you ever receive a call from a legit collection agency, be prepared in advance. You have the right to ask them specific…
A few weeks ago I picked up, I must've given some people some fake data because the telemarketers always ask if they're speaking to a Mr. $[not my name], and I interrupted her as she blah-blah-ed away. I said "Hold on. So, from now on this phone conversation is recorded. If you consent, continue speaking, if you don't consent, hang up.".
Re: People Hire Phone Bots to Torture Telemarketers
#16You'd think the phone companies would care about this. It erodes people's need for a phone number. Why even bother any more?
Re: People Hire Phone Bots to Torture Telemarketers
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had a neighbor at one point who kept a compressed air horn next to his phone (back when phones were things that hung on walls or sat on tables), and every time he got a telemarketer he'd blow it in the receiver until they hung up. Funny for a while, but got old fast.
Should be able to rig up a noise emitter into the line that can work without suffering from the noise yourself.
Or what about just incorporating this into the telemarketer aggravation bot? Reduce the volume, they'll have to turn their headset up to continue to conversation, then blast them with a bunch of highly clipped distortion.
Although most of the spam calls I get are bots on the other end - political, police shakedown, lazy leadgen for some company (eg cable TV), etc.
The ones that are actually human are generally outright scams targeted at old people ("microsoft", "medicare", etc). After playing along for a bit, I ask them if their parents know that their job is to scam old people all day and if they consider that success. That usually gets them pretty riled up.
Re: People Hire Phone Bots to Torture Telemarketers
#18You'd think the phone companies would care about this. It erodes people's need for a phone number. Why even bother any more?
Because they know other companies require people to have phone numbers for "2FA".
Re: People Hire Phone Bots to Torture Telemarketers
#19You'd think the phone companies would care about this. It erodes people's need for a phone number. Why even bother any more?
Because they know other companies require people to have phone numbers for "2FA".
I'm on vacation now. Had an o shit moment when my bank wouldn't let me complete a purchase because they just hadddd to SMS me, with no other option.
Re: People Hire Phone Bots to Torture Telemarketers
#20This is the first legitimate use of chatGPT that I’ve heard of.