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People Hire Phone Bots to Torture Telemarketers

wsj.com

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Re: People Hire Phone Bots to Torture Telemarketers

#31

Post by RileyJames »

tastysandwich wrote: post #23

One time I received a call from my mobile provider, offering me a free upgrade. I thought I was very smart and sophisticated, and rudely demanded information - "oh yeah? what's your name mr SCAM CALLER!" I also wanted a session ID so I could call back the official number and be reconnected. He was quite baffled and said "errr... we don't do that". I immediately felt like Kitboga - I'm onto you, scammer!! Turned out i…

That’s how it works with my Australian bank. It verifies me via a push notification to my app. And vice versa, doesn’t that also validate they’re the bank?

Not that I have an option to request them to perform the validation. But they require that validation to continue the conversation now.

Re: People Hire Phone Bots to Torture Telemarketers

#32

Post by LilBytes »

RileyJames wrote: post #31
tastysandwich wrote: post #23

One time I received a call from my mobile provider, offering me a free upgrade. I thought I was very smart and sophisticated, and rudely demanded information - "oh yeah? what's your name mr SCAM CALLER!" I also wanted a session ID so I could call back the official number and be reconnected. He was quite baffled and said "errr... we don't do that". I immediately felt like Kitboga - I'm onto you, scammer!! Turned out i…

That’s how it works with my Australian bank. It verifies me via a push notification to my app. And vice versa, doesn’t that also validate they’re the bank? Not that I have an option to request them to perform the validation. But they require that validation to continue the conversation now.

That's cool, which banks that?

I've been looking at alternatives from ING recently.

Re: People Hire Phone Bots to Torture Telemarketers

#33

Post by BasedAnon »

RankingMember wrote: post #4

Eventually it's just going to be bots calling bots, wasting nothing but computing cycles. Who even answers calls from unknown numbers these days?

I do, because I have no idea who needs to call me at any given time, but now I have to just say 'hello' repeatedly and nothing else until they tell me who they are so they can't sample my voice.

Re: People Hire Phone Bots to Torture Telemarketers

#34

Post by jannyfer »

RileyJames wrote: post #31
tastysandwich wrote: post #23

One time I received a call from my mobile provider, offering me a free upgrade. I thought I was very smart and sophisticated, and rudely demanded information - "oh yeah? what's your name mr SCAM CALLER!" I also wanted a session ID so I could call back the official number and be reconnected. He was quite baffled and said "errr... we don't do that". I immediately felt like Kitboga - I'm onto you, scammer!! Turned out i…

That’s how it works with my Australian bank. It verifies me via a push notification to my app. And vice versa, doesn’t that also validate they’re the bank? Not that I have an option to request them to perform the validation. But they require that validation to continue the conversation now.

You mean if someone calls you and tells you they are the bank, then you get push notification to your app, then you can validate that they are the bank, right?

That’s true if it’s done right, but it also sounds very similar to how people scam (call a victim, let them know they will receive a message from the bank, and ask them to read the verification code back to them)! It’s a little tricky.

Re: People Hire Phone Bots to Torture Telemarketers

#35

Post by ncr100 »

RankingMember wrote: post #3

This is brilliant- he took the Abe Simpson "tell people stories that don't go anywhere" and ran with it.

Yammer is a skill in the role playing game, Anachronox.

https://anachronox.fandom.com/wiki/Grumpos_Matavastros#Weapo...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mB9W-EXzNYk

Re: People Hire Phone Bots to Torture Telemarketers

#36

Post by JohnFen »

hsjqllzlfkf wrote: post #28
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #10

Telemarketing is just a subset of the greater evil of marketing in general. It is an industry of invading your attention in an effort to manipulate you into doing something you otherwise wouldn't. We should take every opportunity to worsen their lives as they have employed themselves to worsen ours.

> It is an industry of invading your attention in an effort to manipulate you into doing something you otherwise wouldn't. Just to play devil's advocate for a second. Some times you don't do things that would benefit you. In these cases getting your to do something that you wouldn't otherwise do is beneficial.

> In these cases getting your to do something that you wouldn't otherwise do is beneficial.

Which is something that marketing very nearly never does.

Re: People Hire Phone Bots to Torture Telemarketers

#37

Post by red-iron-pine »

RankingMember wrote: post #4

Eventually it's just going to be bots calling bots, wasting nothing but computing cycles. Who even answers calls from unknown numbers these days?

Canada has a lot of issues with spam calls. Something systemic compared to the US - it shows up in DBIR and cybercrime stats.

Point is, at this point I don't even bother answering unknown numbers. If it's important they'll leave a voicemail or text me

Re: People Hire Phone Bots to Torture Telemarketers

#38

Post by red-iron-pine »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #10

Telemarketing is just a subset of the greater evil of marketing in general. It is an industry of invading your attention in an effort to manipulate you into doing something you otherwise wouldn't. We should take every opportunity to worsen their lives as they have employed themselves to worsen ours.

Telemarketing is invasive and scammy but the idea all marketing is evil reads like something written by a moody teenager.

Marketing does more than just create ads: they research what their customers want, what they say they want vs. what they actually buy, and it doesn't matter how good your product is if no one knows about it.

The problem is that there are almost always other companies making the same/similar products, so you create a race-to-the-bottom effect where you have to eventually get more and more crazy in your methods of reaching a target audience. Don't blame marketing, blame capitalism.

Re: People Hire Phone Bots to Torture Telemarketers

#39

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

red-iron-pine wrote: post #38
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #10

Telemarketing is just a subset of the greater evil of marketing in general. It is an industry of invading your attention in an effort to manipulate you into doing something you otherwise wouldn't. We should take every opportunity to worsen their lives as they have employed themselves to worsen ours.

Telemarketing is invasive and scammy but the idea all marketing is evil reads like something written by a moody teenager. Marketing does more than just create ads: they research what their customers want, what they say they want vs. what they actually buy, and it doesn't matter how good your product is if no one knows about it. The problem is that there are almost always other companies making the same/similar produc…

> Don't blame marketing, blame capitalism.

I can blame both, as well as the underlying sociopathic mechanisms that the modern understanding of the terms necessitate.

If I am not mistaken what you are describing is market research, not marketing. Marketing is, in practice if not theory, about invasion of attention and manipulation. If marketing were not these things then companies would be content to have their products discovered in catalogs and store shelves where interested parties willing to devote attention to such things would readily find them.

Re: People Hire Phone Bots to Torture Telemarketers

#40

Post by RileyJames »

LilBytes wrote: post #32
RileyJames wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s how it works with my Australian bank. It verifies me via a push notification to my app. And vice versa, doesn’t that also validate they’re the bank? Not that I have an option to request them to perform the validation. But they require that validation to continue the conversation now.

That's cool, which banks that? I've been looking at alternatives from ING recently.

CommBank. From a tech perspective they’ve been pretty good. They had careless cash early on.
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