Message to telemarketers (1 Viewer)

[st dude]

I received two different calls on my cell from numbers I did not recognize. I usually send them to voicemail, but there are some legit business calls I get from unknown numbers, so I answered.

Both calls began with an obviously taped voice that said "don't hang up". Naturally I immediately hung up.

So here is my message to telemarketers. First of all, stop calling me. If you must, find a better lead in than "don't hang up".

It reminded me of taking our five year old to a Ruth's Chris opening in San Diego. As they served one of the plates near our boy the server announced, while my wife and I were not paying great attention, to not touch the plate because it was hot.

As soon as it registered what she said, we both sprung into action, knowing that telling him not to do something was inviting him to do it. We moved too late and he predictably grabbed the plate. You would have thought the searing pain he felt in his fingers would have at least been a lesson to listen to what people say. He was just wired at that age to do the opposite of what he was told to do.

 

[Charlie Brizzown]

Ok, I’ll pass this on to the guys. What if we changed the lead in to something like “OMG, you won’t believe what you’re about to hear!”?

 

[superchuck500]

If I don't hear a voice in half a second - I hang up.

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

Also, just because you masked your number to appear as mine, it doesn't give me an incentive to actually answer the call.

 

[kcirdor]

Sorry bro, but those aren't telemarketers calling you.

 

[Brad Mojo]

I've been getting the same call daily for the past week. Right after "Do not hang up" she says "This is not a sales call", which it obviously is. Then its "This is in response to the inquiry you made about chronic pain..." [click]

 

[efil4stnias]

I've been getting the same call daily for the past week. Right after "Do not hang up" she says "This is not a sales call", which it obviously is. Then its "This is in response to the inquiry you made about chronic pain..." [click]

got that one yesterday

then another that is partly AI- in that when you say hello, she starts her sales pitch. then says what do think? i said "hello" again and it started all over. lol

 

[kcirdor]

I don't get them everyday, but the days I do get them, I get a call nearly every hour during business hours. Always spoofed to be something similar to my number, often times the area code is off by one number, which is the first sign, then the three leading digits will be off by a number or two which is the second sign.

Bad thing is you can look up my name on the internet and get my phone number so long ago my info was published or stolen, etc, etc.

 

[st dude]

Sorry bro, but those aren't telemarketers calling you.

Uh, yes they were, bro. They were calling me to sell me something which, by definition, is a telemarketer.

 

[kcirdor]

They were actually more than likely scammers, as nearly half of all calls are made by scammers.

 

[superchuck500]

They were actually more than likely scammers, as nearly half of all calls are made by scammers.

I got one a few months ago, I'm a long-time Directv customer. The number came in as the actual Directv phone number (1-800 number). I know that number by heart, and that's the number that came up.

So I answered it (already thinking it was Directv) and the guy had a heavy accent but he talked the Directv talk and the deal he was offering me sounded pretty good (good but not crazy, too good to be true). I went through the thing with him and I was going to do the deal - it made sense. It required a one-time full payment, but it came with a substantial discount on the monthly I was paying (which is also not that weird, if you pay at once you get a discount).

But then he wanted my credit card (rather than just going through my normal billing process). So I put him on hold and googled it really quickly, and sure enough it was a scam. I went back and told him I didn't want to do it. He kept asking me why, and I finally said "because this is a scam."

He then said "**** you and **** your wife." I said "Really? You call me trying to scam me and I'm polite with you but tell you no and you say **** my wife? What is wrong with you man? How do you live with yourself?" He hung up on me.

These days I don't do anything over the phone unless I personally know the person and the activity. If charities call, I tell them I don't give donations over the phone for security reasons and if they want to mail me materials, I will look at it.

 

[Hedon James]

My new "favorite" tele-marketer stunt is the lead-in script "hello, is this (insert random name)?" And I happily reply "no, you must have the wrong number", to which they IMMEDIATELY respond, "oh maybe you can help me out instead?"

RUFKM? Immediate hang ups don't work. Cursing doesn't work. Telling them you're on the DO NOT CALL list DOES NOT WORK. Asking them to remove you from THEIR list doesn't work. At this point in time, I simply put the receiver down and walk away. When I hear the signal of a dead line, I'll hang up. Maybe 1-2 minutes later...maybe 20-30...whenever I hear it. If I can't make them stop calling, I'm going to use up as much of THEIR time as possible, while giving them little or none of my own.

As an aside, I'm amazed at the adaptive longevity of the telemarketing business. From live people, to bot calls, to number spoofing, to acting like they're looking for someone OTHER than me...it's obvious no one wants these calls and it's obvious they have to trick people into talking to them. But it's also obvious that it works, or this industry would've died a long time ago!

 

[kcirdor]

The best thing you can do is either hang up or you can drag them along for as long as you can to waste their time. Because if they are busy forking with you, then that is less time they have scamming someone else. I just hang up, cause I prefer not to spend my time dealing with it when they do this all day every day in some warehouse in Pakistan and get kicks out of trying to piss you off once you admit you know it is a scam. There are plenty of videos out there with people messing with the scammers as this has gotten out of hand.

But as for the telemarketers definition. Please don't give these people any credence by saying they are telemarketers. They are not.

In fact answering your phone and doing anything other than hanging up is going to get you put in their database as a live person, and they will target you in the future.

 

[st dude]

They were actually more than likely scammers, as nearly half of all calls are made by scammers.

It very well could have been a scammer, I hung up before hearing the pitch. A scammer who tries to sell you something over the phone is also a telemarketer. Not all scammers are telemarketers, but all of them who try to sell you stuff over the phone are.

This reminds me when I sat behind the two guys who dress up like Romans on the fifty yd line in the dome. I went in between them and asked my buddy to take a picture of me with the "Romans" if they did not mind. The dude was surprising rude and a bit indignant. He told me they were "centurions" , not romans.

After thinking about it I tapped the guy on his shoulder and said no problem if they don't want to take a picture, I don't want one now anyway. But you guys are romans. While all romans might not be centurions, all centurions are romans.

 

[Optimus Prime]

I go through periods when I get a lot of automated messages from “Heather from account services”

Aren’t these calls against the TCPA (telephone consumer practices act)?