I am being confronted with a new telephonic harasser - "unavailable". "Unavailable" calls me now approximately four times a day, says nothing, and the calls never last more than ten seconds or so. It makes me want to reach through the phone and strangle whoever is responsible for this. My gut tells me that it's not a pharmacy, but since "unavailable" has never actually said anything I can never be sure.
NOT a pleasant experience at 8:00am on a Saturday morning.
At any rate, I decided to call Verizon, and I got a very helpful rep on the phone. I explained the situation to her, and told her how when I used to have Nextel, I could set the phone to accept calls from my address book only. She insisted that my 8300 could do that, and my hopes immediately shot up.
After fishing through the menus for a while, and getting tech support on the line, we determined that it was not possible. This prompted me to complain how my landline had SO many more privacy options. Her defense was, "well, the landline's been around 100 years".
True, but caller ID has not - and not only that, all it takes is a little extra programming to make the phones a little more private.
Please, stupid mobile carriers, SAVE ME FROM UNAVAILABLE! Before my head explodes!
Friday, September 14, 2007
Monday, August 6, 2007
India Seeks Relief... from Indians
Well, isn't this interesting... it appears as if India is going to set up their own Do Not Call registry by September.
Our problem, as victims of international pharmacy telemarketing, cannot be solved by laws, of course. Besides, this law only applies to calls made within India.
I've noted the deficiencies of legislation as a tool to solve the problem of telemarketing harassment many times in this blog. There's just simply no way to enforce any type of law or regulation concerning telemarketing, given the proliferation of VoIP services, and the international nature of these calls.
However, there is one type of law I would like to see on the books. Remember how carriers complained and moaned about the supposedly huge cost of establishing Local Number Portability? For those who may not remember, LNP forced the cell phone carriers to allow you to take your number between providers. As far as I can tell, the carriers are still in business, so it couldn't have hurt that much.
Well, how about a law forcing carriers to give us the ability to block calls from certain numbers? Since the carriers don't feel any obligation to protect the consumers right to privacy, how about we make them do it?
Until then, I'm very interested to see how this plays out on the other side of the globe:
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The government will set up a "do not call" register by September this year to curb frequent, unsolicited calls from companies offering home loans, credit cards and mobile phone services, the government said on Friday.
The court was acting on a public interest litigation filed by a lawyer who complained that such calls were "inconvenient" and violated an individual's right to privacy.
"Irrespective of the subscriber's location and time, professional and personal engagements, cell phone and telemarketing companies keep calling," his petition said.
Many Indians complain of being harassed by telemarketers who offer them house and car loans, credit cards or a new mobile phone service.
"Those who register in the do-not-call registry will not receive unsolicited calls," government counsel P.P. Malhotra told the court, adding the register would start operating on Sept. 5.
India's booming economy over the past few years has led to a surge in mobile phone users, who make an attractive market for banks, insurance firms and mobile service providers.
"These calls can make your day hell," said Namit Shah, a Kolkata-based businessman. "It's about time the government stops this."
Our problem, as victims of international pharmacy telemarketing, cannot be solved by laws, of course. Besides, this law only applies to calls made within India.
I've noted the deficiencies of legislation as a tool to solve the problem of telemarketing harassment many times in this blog. There's just simply no way to enforce any type of law or regulation concerning telemarketing, given the proliferation of VoIP services, and the international nature of these calls.
However, there is one type of law I would like to see on the books. Remember how carriers complained and moaned about the supposedly huge cost of establishing Local Number Portability? For those who may not remember, LNP forced the cell phone carriers to allow you to take your number between providers. As far as I can tell, the carriers are still in business, so it couldn't have hurt that much.
Well, how about a law forcing carriers to give us the ability to block calls from certain numbers? Since the carriers don't feel any obligation to protect the consumers right to privacy, how about we make them do it?
Until then, I'm very interested to see how this plays out on the other side of the globe:
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The government will set up a "do not call" register by September this year to curb frequent, unsolicited calls from companies offering home loans, credit cards and mobile phone services, the government said on Friday.
The court was acting on a public interest litigation filed by a lawyer who complained that such calls were "inconvenient" and violated an individual's right to privacy.
"Irrespective of the subscriber's location and time, professional and personal engagements, cell phone and telemarketing companies keep calling," his petition said.
Many Indians complain of being harassed by telemarketers who offer them house and car loans, credit cards or a new mobile phone service.
"Those who register in the do-not-call registry will not receive unsolicited calls," government counsel P.P. Malhotra told the court, adding the register would start operating on Sept. 5.
India's booming economy over the past few years has led to a surge in mobile phone users, who make an attractive market for banks, insurance firms and mobile service providers.
"These calls can make your day hell," said Namit Shah, a Kolkata-based businessman. "It's about time the government stops this."
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
The Vigilante in Action: Omaha Steaks Pays the Price
By popular demand, check out this audio file of my vigilante actions against Omaha Steaks!
MP3 audio file (7MB)
MP3 audio file (7MB)
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Omaha Steaks Will Feel My Wrath
Well, apparently the folks at Omaha Steaks have decided to adopt the tactics of the pharmacy telemarketers. My girlfriend has been receiving calls from them, and despite asking to be taken off their list, they do nothing - and she keeps getting calls.
It's very strange - and troubling - to see a U.S. based, reputable company refuse to stop calling you. It is for that reason that I have decided to add them to my target list. They will feel my wrath next. For the next 48 hours straight, they will be locked into a three way conference with themselves.
Then, I will place my usual phone call... from the pay phone at the mall. It goes something like this...
"I need to speak to your manager. Mr. Manager? Yes, I'm the guy that's been tying up your phones non stop. So, here's the deal. To prove to you that I'm the one making the calls, they will stop. The next call you make to me, I will politely ask to be removed from your list. If you do not comply, you will feel the wrath of my dial bot army, and it will gum up your phone lines for days on end. What's that? No, I won't be giving you my specific phone number to be removed... that defeats the whole purpose. The purpose of my call is to make sure that ANYONE who asks to be removed is removed. This is your final warning. Ignore me at your own peril."
Maybe I should change the name of my blog, as this is my first non-pharmacy target. But, they've earned it. Good job, Omaha Steaks. Way to f*ck up your brand.
It's very strange - and troubling - to see a U.S. based, reputable company refuse to stop calling you. It is for that reason that I have decided to add them to my target list. They will feel my wrath next. For the next 48 hours straight, they will be locked into a three way conference with themselves.
Then, I will place my usual phone call... from the pay phone at the mall. It goes something like this...
"I need to speak to your manager. Mr. Manager? Yes, I'm the guy that's been tying up your phones non stop. So, here's the deal. To prove to you that I'm the one making the calls, they will stop. The next call you make to me, I will politely ask to be removed from your list. If you do not comply, you will feel the wrath of my dial bot army, and it will gum up your phone lines for days on end. What's that? No, I won't be giving you my specific phone number to be removed... that defeats the whole purpose. The purpose of my call is to make sure that ANYONE who asks to be removed is removed. This is your final warning. Ignore me at your own peril."
Maybe I should change the name of my blog, as this is my first non-pharmacy target. But, they've earned it. Good job, Omaha Steaks. Way to f*ck up your brand.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
I am Ming the Merciless
Today I got called from 866-204-9190 and I am auto-dialing them with no mercy. None at all. Occasionally I have pangs of guilt, but those moments are brief.
I've been trying to conference them together with a different pharmacy but that is always a difficult proposition. Sometimes they answer at different times and hang up before they ever start conversing. Worst of all, because the timing has to be right, I have to do it manually.
Which leads me to this thought: I realize that setting up an autodialer is not exactly the easiest proposition in the world, so I'm beginning to wonder if we could create more of a "flash mob" army.
What if we had 10,000 people around the country commit to dialing these pharmacies for just five minutes a day? What if we determined that the call times should be from, say, 8am to 8pm? It could mean as many as 60 or 70 calls a minute by my calculation. That alone would be enough for them to have to consider shutting off their inbound dialing.
Either that, or they're going to need some extra mental health professionals on site to deal with the call center employees. While sometimes I feel sorry for them, as they are probably in some rat-infested third world hellhole just trying to put food on their table, I think in the end it's acceptable to make their world miserable.
After all, if they traded my number around like a cheap whore, but then actually REMOVED me from their list when I asked, I would still be pissed - but I wouldn't be Ming the Merciless.
I've been trying to conference them together with a different pharmacy but that is always a difficult proposition. Sometimes they answer at different times and hang up before they ever start conversing. Worst of all, because the timing has to be right, I have to do it manually.
Which leads me to this thought: I realize that setting up an autodialer is not exactly the easiest proposition in the world, so I'm beginning to wonder if we could create more of a "flash mob" army.
What if we had 10,000 people around the country commit to dialing these pharmacies for just five minutes a day? What if we determined that the call times should be from, say, 8am to 8pm? It could mean as many as 60 or 70 calls a minute by my calculation. That alone would be enough for them to have to consider shutting off their inbound dialing.
Either that, or they're going to need some extra mental health professionals on site to deal with the call center employees. While sometimes I feel sorry for them, as they are probably in some rat-infested third world hellhole just trying to put food on their table, I think in the end it's acceptable to make their world miserable.
After all, if they traded my number around like a cheap whore, but then actually REMOVED me from their list when I asked, I would still be pissed - but I wouldn't be Ming the Merciless.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Congressional Dinosaurs outlaw Spoofing
From this article in Arts Technica:
Today the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has passed S. 704, a bill that would make it a crime to spoof caller ID. Dubbed the "Truth in Caller ID Act of 2007," the bill would outlaw causing "any caller identification service to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller identification information" via "any telecommunications service or IP-enabled voice service." Law enforcement is exempted from the rule.
This will, of course be of no help to us in frazzled pharma-hell. First of all, I've noticed that probably less than a third of pharmacies calling me use a bogus number. Most of the numbers can be called back, which thankfully for me, gives me legitimate targets to harass.
And secondly, these guys are overseas. There's no doubt about it. Even if they were in the country, they obviously don't want to be bothered by the Do Not Call list - so why would this law change anything?
Congress needs to get its head out of you know where regarding consumer privacy. Probably the best thing they've done in the last ten years is LNP - local number portability. Remember how the carriers screamed and hollered about its cost? Well, Congress mandated it - and I would argue that everyone, even the carriers, won.
What we need is a law mandating cell phone carriers to give us the ability to block numbers, kind of like Outlook allows you to "add person to blocked list". Until carriers do this, and it seems they aren't in a big rush - everyone is a potential victim of these pharmacy rats.
Finally, I was enjoying a nice night at the Harborlights Pavilion here in Boston before the Wilco show... and guess who called - a pharmacy. Their number was (866) 838-0738. I tried calling them back but had no luck, even though they are listed in the whocalled.us database.
Today the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has passed S. 704, a bill that would make it a crime to spoof caller ID. Dubbed the "Truth in Caller ID Act of 2007," the bill would outlaw causing "any caller identification service to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller identification information" via "any telecommunications service or IP-enabled voice service." Law enforcement is exempted from the rule.
This will, of course be of no help to us in frazzled pharma-hell. First of all, I've noticed that probably less than a third of pharmacies calling me use a bogus number. Most of the numbers can be called back, which thankfully for me, gives me legitimate targets to harass.
And secondly, these guys are overseas. There's no doubt about it. Even if they were in the country, they obviously don't want to be bothered by the Do Not Call list - so why would this law change anything?
Congress needs to get its head out of you know where regarding consumer privacy. Probably the best thing they've done in the last ten years is LNP - local number portability. Remember how the carriers screamed and hollered about its cost? Well, Congress mandated it - and I would argue that everyone, even the carriers, won.
What we need is a law mandating cell phone carriers to give us the ability to block numbers, kind of like Outlook allows you to "add person to blocked list". Until carriers do this, and it seems they aren't in a big rush - everyone is a potential victim of these pharmacy rats.
Finally, I was enjoying a nice night at the Harborlights Pavilion here in Boston before the Wilco show... and guess who called - a pharmacy. Their number was (866) 838-0738. I tried calling them back but had no luck, even though they are listed in the whocalled.us database.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
The Gloves Are Coming OFF!
As many of you may have noticed, this blog has been silent for a while. The calls died down for me, life got busy, and fighting overseas pharmacy telemarketers dropped on my priority list.
I do check the statistics, and despite my lack of posting, many people are finding the blog. I want to remind everyone of the good work being done over at http://whocalled.us in creating what I think is the most useful log of incoming call numbers out there. (Note: I am in no way affiliated with them and am not sure of what they think of my efforts).
BUT, it is time to ratchet things up again. My previous idea of creating an army of auto-dial zombies, using VMWare (which creates numerous virtual machines within a machine) is now officially resurrected. All I need to do is assemble the various operating systems, and I can have ten autodial machines dialing them non-stop.
On the news front, there doesn't seem to be much action. Cell phone carriers still ignore us, so for now, the battle is back on. I will be posting with more frequency in the coming days.
For now, check out this experiment. You can't hear it well, but in the future I'm going to try to get the choicest moments from my calls and post the audio. I was conferencing them all together and annoying the crap out of them.
I do check the statistics, and despite my lack of posting, many people are finding the blog. I want to remind everyone of the good work being done over at http://whocalled.us in creating what I think is the most useful log of incoming call numbers out there. (Note: I am in no way affiliated with them and am not sure of what they think of my efforts).
BUT, it is time to ratchet things up again. My previous idea of creating an army of auto-dial zombies, using VMWare (which creates numerous virtual machines within a machine) is now officially resurrected. All I need to do is assemble the various operating systems, and I can have ten autodial machines dialing them non-stop.
On the news front, there doesn't seem to be much action. Cell phone carriers still ignore us, so for now, the battle is back on. I will be posting with more frequency in the coming days.
For now, check out this experiment. You can't hear it well, but in the future I'm going to try to get the choicest moments from my calls and post the audio. I was conferencing them all together and annoying the crap out of them.
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Silence my telephonic oppressors
Here's a tip for all of you out there with cell phones. I wish I had thought of this sooner, but even I, the Mad Genius Pharmacy Vigilante, can overlook things from time to time.
As you all know, in this blog I have blasted the cell phone companies for being behind in providing us the technological tools to solve this problem. Those of you with landlines have numerous options, as there are a myriad of devices that can be used to block telemarketing phone calls. Those of you with Nextel can set your phone to only accept calls from people already in your phone book. But people like me, who choose Verizon as a provider, have limited options.
Besides the usage of air time, the most annoying aspect of getting these calls is the fact that you must jump to get your phone. If you're like me and you keep your phone on at work, nothing is more annoying than being in the next cubicle, hearing your cell phone ring, and finding a mysterious number on the caller ID. For me, 90% of the time that means it's a pharmacy.
Well, my workaround involves tediously adding each phone number to a contact in my Verizon VX8300. The first entry is simply called "Pharm", and I've set it to silently ring. This won't eliminate the annoying call waiting beeps when I'm on the phone, but at least I won't be jumping off the couch and running into my office while I'm watching some enormously important TV show.
In the picture above, you'll see the entry I've created, while in the background the various visitors to this site are a thousand points of light. Or, in my mind, a thousand aggravated people who wonder what figure in business or government will take notice of our problem.
After all, the dinosaurs in Congress passed the Do Not Call list, but as we all know, that only stops a few people. Technology, and the vigilante use of autodialers, is our only hope.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Riga Calling!
After several weeks of quiet, the calls began anew this week, but with an interesting twist. They said they want to call "to confirm the shipping address before they send out the medication". That's funny, I didn't remember ordering anything!
And, in another interesting twist, they said they were calling from "LV Riga" pharmacy. Immediately the name rang a bell - I had screwed them out of about $150 around two years ago.
It was the only time I tried this trick, but when they were relentlessly calling me in early 2005 I decided to take a risk. I needed some ambien at the time, as I was having trouble sleeping, so I placed an order with LV Riga. They were one of the most relentless callers at the time, and I figured I was already on every list anyway, so my calls couldn't possibly increase.
I received my medication about three weeks later (after they promised me a two day delivery) so I decided to dispute the charge with my credit card. Instead of saying that I received it later than promised, I just told them I never received it at all. They investigated, and issued me a full credit.
Now, this is certainly a tactic that involves financial risk. That was the only time I ever did it; I thought that by going through the process I would find out some details about who, or what company, was calling me so relentlessly. (Of course, there were the additional side benefits of getting some free medication, and swindling them out of some cash.)
I was surprised to find out that the credit card company had very little information on this vendor. Either that, or they were unwilling to share. If anyone has any information on how credit card companies process these transactions, I would be fascinated to learn.
Do they know exactly who is charging me when I place an order like this? All I know is that Riga is the capital of Latvia. It doesn't exactly seem like a hotbed of pharmacy telemarketing.
And, in another interesting twist, they said they were calling from "LV Riga" pharmacy. Immediately the name rang a bell - I had screwed them out of about $150 around two years ago.
It was the only time I tried this trick, but when they were relentlessly calling me in early 2005 I decided to take a risk. I needed some ambien at the time, as I was having trouble sleeping, so I placed an order with LV Riga. They were one of the most relentless callers at the time, and I figured I was already on every list anyway, so my calls couldn't possibly increase.
I received my medication about three weeks later (after they promised me a two day delivery) so I decided to dispute the charge with my credit card. Instead of saying that I received it later than promised, I just told them I never received it at all. They investigated, and issued me a full credit.
Now, this is certainly a tactic that involves financial risk. That was the only time I ever did it; I thought that by going through the process I would find out some details about who, or what company, was calling me so relentlessly. (Of course, there were the additional side benefits of getting some free medication, and swindling them out of some cash.)
I was surprised to find out that the credit card company had very little information on this vendor. Either that, or they were unwilling to share. If anyone has any information on how credit card companies process these transactions, I would be fascinated to learn.
Do they know exactly who is charging me when I place an order like this? All I know is that Riga is the capital of Latvia. It doesn't exactly seem like a hotbed of pharmacy telemarketing.
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Congress moves to outlaw Caller ID spoofing
I came across this interesting article in regards to caller ID spoofing:
Congress Moves to Outlaw Caller ID Spoofing
While it may have some effect on my efforts, I find that most pharmacies that block my number from a common VoIP client do so only temporarily. Overall I have to say it sounds like a reasonable idea, though.
Finally, as part of my internet browsing about the industry, I came across a guy who has taken the legislative route to try to stop calls. Not only does he go out and sue telemarketers (good luck serving papers in Bangalore) but he also organizes petitions to Congress.
Frankly, I think all of that is a waste of time. It comes back to the cell phone carriers, it always comes back to them - they could implement a system whereby you block calls from particular numbers. Most of the time I find it is one particular pharmacy that starts dialing and persists for months.
If only I could call Verizon Wireless and say, "block this number", or "block 800, 888, and 866 numbers and send them all to voicemail"...
Congress Moves to Outlaw Caller ID Spoofing
While it may have some effect on my efforts, I find that most pharmacies that block my number from a common VoIP client do so only temporarily. Overall I have to say it sounds like a reasonable idea, though.
Finally, as part of my internet browsing about the industry, I came across a guy who has taken the legislative route to try to stop calls. Not only does he go out and sue telemarketers (good luck serving papers in Bangalore) but he also organizes petitions to Congress.
Frankly, I think all of that is a waste of time. It comes back to the cell phone carriers, it always comes back to them - they could implement a system whereby you block calls from particular numbers. Most of the time I find it is one particular pharmacy that starts dialing and persists for months.
If only I could call Verizon Wireless and say, "block this number", or "block 800, 888, and 866 numbers and send them all to voicemail"...
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
When Telemarketers Collide
One of the interesting phenomena I've noticed is the odd conversations that can occur when two offshore telemarketers end up randomly connected to each other.
While it is immensely fun to autodial them 1000 times in a row, sometimes when I've got a couple of minutes to kill, I'll conference them with each other manually and try to get them conversing. Usually this takes a little effort; reps may answer at different times, their proficiency in English may be of varying degrees, they may hang up pretty quickly, or one will silently listen for a few seconds before simply hanging up on the other and moving on.
But when the stars line up and they are actually communicating with each other, the same bizarre scenario has played out a half dozen times: one of the reps will begin to order from the other. They'll then get halfway through the fake order process and suddenly hang up. They never get any specific information, like prices, so there's no indication that they do this for any useful reason. It just seems like they've gone into some hypnotized state. I can't explain it. Maybe they really do need a refill, but come to the sudden realization that they can just go back to the inventory area at their own call center and help themselves.
And what may be even more bizarre is that they never seem to think that maybe someone has conferenced them together as a prank or a joke. They never attempt to even ask the most basic inquisitive question about why they've been conferenced with some other pharmacy telemarketer for the 64th time today. Wouldn't you at some point try to get to the bottom of the situation if there were actually a strange live voice on the other end of the line, reading from roughly the same script, and that voice was asking if you needed something?
Maybe something like this:
Rep # 1 Hi, this is USSecureNetHealthWebRefillPills, how can I help you?
Rep # 2 Hi, this is AmericaMedHealthPillRx Services, how can I help you?
Rep # 1 I believe you called me.
Rep # 2 No actually you called me.
Rep # 1 Well this is the 64th time this has happened today, who did you say you worked for?
Rep # 2 I refill prescription medications for AmericaMedHealthPillRx Services
Rep # 1 Wow, wait, I do the same thing for USSecureNetHealthWebRefillPills!
Rep # 2 No shit, I think you're three streets away.
Rep # 1 Well how the hell does this keep happening? It's been happening all day.
Rep # 2 I have no idea, but it really is fucked up.
Rep # 1 Yeah, it is. Let's tell our managers. We have to do something, block the number, something! It's driving me nuts-- so nuts I think I gotta go have a drink down at the (insert liquor establishment).
Rep # 2 Okay, I'll meet you there.
I mean, c'mon. Are you telling me that they know so little English that they can't accomplish at least part of the above conversation?
It hasn't happened, not even once.
While it is immensely fun to autodial them 1000 times in a row, sometimes when I've got a couple of minutes to kill, I'll conference them with each other manually and try to get them conversing. Usually this takes a little effort; reps may answer at different times, their proficiency in English may be of varying degrees, they may hang up pretty quickly, or one will silently listen for a few seconds before simply hanging up on the other and moving on.
But when the stars line up and they are actually communicating with each other, the same bizarre scenario has played out a half dozen times: one of the reps will begin to order from the other. They'll then get halfway through the fake order process and suddenly hang up. They never get any specific information, like prices, so there's no indication that they do this for any useful reason. It just seems like they've gone into some hypnotized state. I can't explain it. Maybe they really do need a refill, but come to the sudden realization that they can just go back to the inventory area at their own call center and help themselves.
And what may be even more bizarre is that they never seem to think that maybe someone has conferenced them together as a prank or a joke. They never attempt to even ask the most basic inquisitive question about why they've been conferenced with some other pharmacy telemarketer for the 64th time today. Wouldn't you at some point try to get to the bottom of the situation if there were actually a strange live voice on the other end of the line, reading from roughly the same script, and that voice was asking if you needed something?
Maybe something like this:
Rep # 1 Hi, this is USSecureNetHealthWebRefillPills, how can I help you?
Rep # 2 Hi, this is AmericaMedHealthPillRx Services, how can I help you?
Rep # 1 I believe you called me.
Rep # 2 No actually you called me.
Rep # 1 Well this is the 64th time this has happened today, who did you say you worked for?
Rep # 2 I refill prescription medications for AmericaMedHealthPillRx Services
Rep # 1 Wow, wait, I do the same thing for USSecureNetHealthWebRefillPills!
Rep # 2 No shit, I think you're three streets away.
Rep # 1 Well how the hell does this keep happening? It's been happening all day.
Rep # 2 I have no idea, but it really is fucked up.
Rep # 1 Yeah, it is. Let's tell our managers. We have to do something, block the number, something! It's driving me nuts-- so nuts I think I gotta go have a drink down at the (insert liquor establishment).
Rep # 2 Okay, I'll meet you there.
I mean, c'mon. Are you telling me that they know so little English that they can't accomplish at least part of the above conversation?
It hasn't happened, not even once.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Spoof my caller ID!
As I continue my vigilante journey, I am coming to the realization that my army is fighting with muskets.
What I need, what we need, is to upgrade to the Sherman Tank of weapons - a call system with spoofed caller ID. From what I hear, there's an open source phone system called Asterisk which runs on Linux. I don't know much about Asterisk or Linux, but I do know you can set your caller ID to whatever you want, so that has certainly piqued my interest.
This will get past one of the countermeasures I've outlined below - blocking me based on my area code. Not all the pharmacies are doing it, and the ones that are seem to be turning it on and off, but changing my caller ID on the fly would seem to solve this problem.
Imagine if I could devise my script to show random numbers on their end. Now that is the kind of tool we want in our arsenal.
I will keep you updated on my progress.
What I need, what we need, is to upgrade to the Sherman Tank of weapons - a call system with spoofed caller ID. From what I hear, there's an open source phone system called Asterisk which runs on Linux. I don't know much about Asterisk or Linux, but I do know you can set your caller ID to whatever you want, so that has certainly piqued my interest.
This will get past one of the countermeasures I've outlined below - blocking me based on my area code. Not all the pharmacies are doing it, and the ones that are seem to be turning it on and off, but changing my caller ID on the fly would seem to solve this problem.
Imagine if I could devise my script to show random numbers on their end. Now that is the kind of tool we want in our arsenal.
I will keep you updated on my progress.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Today's Trick
As I watch people from all over the U.S. come to this site, I will post additional tricks as they come to me.
But first I want to address the question - "why don't you just change your phone number?" Like I said in an earlier post, that's a huge pain in the ass for me. Not only that, but as others have posted on http://whocalled.us, anyone can become a victim of this - even those who have never ordered anything. I feel like I am making a difference in a small way and that this issue needs attention from somebody - the cell phone carriers! They are the key.
Second, changing my number means that a dingy third world call center can force us to change our phone numbers at any time. That means they win, and I'm certainly too stubborn to allow that.
Lastly, this is fun. While I was war dialing a pharmacy the other night from VoIPStunt, and a different caller ID was showing up every third call, I heard one rep say to his manager "look at this guy! I tell you, he is good!" That brought a pretty big smile to my face.
Now, today's tip. I have noticed that when you call back, some telemarketers simply put you on hold and never answer. This is especially true after hours. And I also know that for my own IT business, 800 number calls are 7.4 cents a minute if I go over my monthly allotment.
So what I did today was pick a particular one that never seems to answer and call them from Skype and VoIPStunt; on VoIPStunt I conferenced them to themselves three times. I let these calls reach their maximum 60 minutes six times on VoIPStunt, and Skype let me stay on three hours at a time twice. (60 x 6 x 3) + 360 = around $106.
Maybe they have a cheaper plan than I do, but I can't help but imagine I cost them some money today.
But first I want to address the question - "why don't you just change your phone number?" Like I said in an earlier post, that's a huge pain in the ass for me. Not only that, but as others have posted on http://whocalled.us, anyone can become a victim of this - even those who have never ordered anything. I feel like I am making a difference in a small way and that this issue needs attention from somebody - the cell phone carriers! They are the key.
Second, changing my number means that a dingy third world call center can force us to change our phone numbers at any time. That means they win, and I'm certainly too stubborn to allow that.
Lastly, this is fun. While I was war dialing a pharmacy the other night from VoIPStunt, and a different caller ID was showing up every third call, I heard one rep say to his manager "look at this guy! I tell you, he is good!" That brought a pretty big smile to my face.
Now, today's tip. I have noticed that when you call back, some telemarketers simply put you on hold and never answer. This is especially true after hours. And I also know that for my own IT business, 800 number calls are 7.4 cents a minute if I go over my monthly allotment.
So what I did today was pick a particular one that never seems to answer and call them from Skype and VoIPStunt; on VoIPStunt I conferenced them to themselves three times. I let these calls reach their maximum 60 minutes six times on VoIPStunt, and Skype let me stay on three hours at a time twice. (60 x 6 x 3) + 360 = around $106.
Maybe they have a cheaper plan than I do, but I can't help but imagine I cost them some money today.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
The Plague of Pharmacy Telemarketers
There is a new and disturbing trend in the world of telemarketing.
While the Do Not Call list has helped to put a clamp down on U.S. based telemarketers, call centers in far away places have begun to utilize the low cost telephony tools at their disposal to repeatedly call U.S. residents.
Five years ago, when I had trouble sleeping, I ordered sleep medication from an online pharmacy. Back in those days I didn't really think twice about giving my phone number - boy, what a mistake that was. A single entry in a single database ended up leading to years of trouble.
About two years ago my number was sold and the calls began. The names all sounded very similar - "US Online Pharmacy", "Online Health Network", "US Medication Services"... etc. etc. I asked politely to be removed but noticed that I would be called from the same number over and over again. They seemed to come in waves - non stop for two months, then nothing for three months.
Changing my phone number was simply not an option for me. There are hundreds of colleagues, friends, and family who have it. I haven't had a landline in ten years, and this is my only number.
Complaining to the FTC, or putting your number on the Do Not Call list does absolutely no good against these people. I've told them that the person they are calling has passed away, that I'm a federal agent, anything and everything. They never stop.
So, I devised a way to automate my computer to call them repeatedly for days on end. The instructions are below. It's a difficult process but has given me some satisfaction, knowing that I'm tying up their lines and making them think a bit about their business practices.
I'm sure most people feel the same way I do; yes, telemarketing calls are a fact of life, despite the Do Not Call list. But to ask to be removed five times and not have it happen is simply reprehensible.
As a technologist, I don't think there's any permanent solution to this other than to pressure our carriers to give us the tools we need to stop this. Laws will never work. Like spam, it will continue forever - but different from spam, if we can prevent 99% of the calls, maybe these call centers will wither on the vine. With spam you'd need to stop 99.9999999% of it to achieve the same effect.
So, enjoy the instructions below.
While the Do Not Call list has helped to put a clamp down on U.S. based telemarketers, call centers in far away places have begun to utilize the low cost telephony tools at their disposal to repeatedly call U.S. residents.
Five years ago, when I had trouble sleeping, I ordered sleep medication from an online pharmacy. Back in those days I didn't really think twice about giving my phone number - boy, what a mistake that was. A single entry in a single database ended up leading to years of trouble.
About two years ago my number was sold and the calls began. The names all sounded very similar - "US Online Pharmacy", "Online Health Network", "US Medication Services"... etc. etc. I asked politely to be removed but noticed that I would be called from the same number over and over again. They seemed to come in waves - non stop for two months, then nothing for three months.
Changing my phone number was simply not an option for me. There are hundreds of colleagues, friends, and family who have it. I haven't had a landline in ten years, and this is my only number.
Complaining to the FTC, or putting your number on the Do Not Call list does absolutely no good against these people. I've told them that the person they are calling has passed away, that I'm a federal agent, anything and everything. They never stop.
So, I devised a way to automate my computer to call them repeatedly for days on end. The instructions are below. It's a difficult process but has given me some satisfaction, knowing that I'm tying up their lines and making them think a bit about their business practices.
I'm sure most people feel the same way I do; yes, telemarketing calls are a fact of life, despite the Do Not Call list. But to ask to be removed five times and not have it happen is simply reprehensible.
As a technologist, I don't think there's any permanent solution to this other than to pressure our carriers to give us the tools we need to stop this. Laws will never work. Like spam, it will continue forever - but different from spam, if we can prevent 99% of the calls, maybe these call centers will wither on the vine. With spam you'd need to stop 99.9999999% of it to achieve the same effect.
So, enjoy the instructions below.
Introducing the Pharmacy Vigilante
Let us create an army of dialers. There are several steps involved with this.
1) You need a valid call back number for the pharmacy or telemarketer. My tactic is to show some enthusiasm for ordering, but tell them that my cell phone is about to run out of battery life, and that I need to call them back from my home number.
Remember, the number that shows up on your caller ID is not always valid. There is software out there to alter, or spoof, caller ID – caller ID is done on a sort of “honors system” where the system on the other end takes you at your word – spoofing our own caller ID may be something to investigate in the future due to some problems (detailed in #2).
2) You need a VOIP program for your computer. It has to have the ability to make free 800 calls. I have found two that do this very well for our needs – one is Skype, and the other is a European program called VoIPStunt. VoIPStunt has popped up a couple of times and told me that I have reached the limit of free calls, but I just hit “ok” and it seems to let me continue calling.
Skype is preferable because you can conference up to nine parties together, and as long as they are all 800-type numbers you never have to pay anything. There is a problem with Skype, though, that one pharmacy has learned how to counter – the caller ID shows up as 000-123-4567. The pharmacy in question set their system to block all calls from the “000” area code. I verified this by calling from a payphone in my area code, and they answered.
Skype has a major flaw in their system in that 99% of the time you cannot identify yourself in any other way – the number always shows up as the “000” number.
So with this in mind, I found VOIPStunt, which seems to identify you by the area code that you signed up as. Just in case, I put in my number as the correct area code, but the wrong phone number. Then I called my cell phone and it showed up as a seemingly random 617 number (I’m in
3) Next you will need a windows automation program. I use Macro Express (get it here). I may actually buy this because it’s a 30 day trial and as of this writing I only have ten days left.
First, open your web browser and then open Skype on top of it – this will be explained later.
Before you capture your mouse movements and clicks, add your target as a contact in Skype and call it once. Then, click on the history tab and you will see an entry there. When we automate this you will be clicking on that history entry over and over again.
Now this is where it gets a little tricky – you need to do a capture operation of your mouse movements and clicks. Right click in the Macro Express program and select “new macro”. Then select “capture macro”. It will give you a warning about “double alts” – I don’t know what that even means; ignore it. From this point it will be capturing everything. Move the mouse over to the entry in your Skype history and double click it. You should hear it dial.
Let about 10-30 seconds go by so they can answer. Then, double click the red hang up button in Skype. Do this even if the target has already hung up; you’ll need to end the call in all cases anyway and this ensures it.
If you want to conference two together, repeat these steps but instead of doing your test call as a normal single party call, do your test call as a conference with two. It’s great fun to hear them talking to each other! And best of all, your sound does not need to be on.
And lastly – this is a big snag if you use Skype – click the minimize button on the top right of your Internet Explorer or other browser (it’s the farthest left of the three buttons on your browser). About every ten calls, Skype brings up a feedback form. You need to minimize this in order to continue calling because it takes over your screen.
Now you can end the capture. I believe this is CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+X all hit at the same time. It assigns a hotkey to your macro – usually CTRL+A is the first one.
4) Now, test your macro by hitting CTRL+A. Make sure it works as designed. Watch the magic as your mouse moves around the screen and makes the call. If you are satisfied that it works, go to Macro Express and right click on the macro you just created and choose “edit with script editor”. Then on the left choose “repeat” and “repeat start”. Insert this at the beginning of the script by selecting the right arrow plus at the top of the middle of the screen. Change the “repeat count” to 99999.
Then choose “repeat end” and insert it at the end using the red plus sign right arrow.
Now choose the green “play” arrow at the top and this should run over and over (99,999 times).
VARIATIONS
Besides the variation of conferencing two together, there’s another great one that keeps them guessing. (Though conferencing them together is great fun because each one thinks the other is the prankster and they start swearing at each other in terrible English).
This requires that you either live alone, or have an isolated room – this gets noisy.
Grab a cheap PC mic and use the sound recorder (Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Entertainment). Record yourself saying things like “hello?... hello? I can’t hear you! Ummm, I’d like to order medication”. Then open the wave file in Windows media player, and choose “play, repeat”. Leave this running, turn your speakers on, and put your microphone next to the speakers. Then start the macro.
Instead of hearing silence, they’ll hear a confused person and try to talk to them. You’ll hear them cycle through reps and some will get extremely annoyed. Others are so dumb that they’ll never figure out it’s an automated voice.
Another variation that I have not tried yet is by using a technology called VMWare. What VMWare does is create “sandbox” computers within your computer. Someday in the future I will create my own army within my computer which will allow me to autodial from what looks like ten computers.
VMWare is tough to get your hands on and requires a pretty beefy machine with at least 2GB of RAM.
And finally, since this is probably not a good idea from work, you might want to install GoToMyPc at home so you can occasionally check in on your bot. GoToMyPc has a new feature where you can hear the sounds that are happening at the remote computer – it’s highly entertaining when I’m stuck in some arduous task. I throw on my headphones and listen to the endless fun.
FEEDBACK
I have stopped by at the payphone near my job a few times and called my targets. I told them that I’m the guy who has been calling repeatedly and I’d like to speak to the manager. They always ask for my phone number and tell me they’ll take me off their list – but I don’t give it to them (could lead to future harassment from them).
I offer them a deal – start removing people from their lists and the calls will stop. I’m not sure if the call center managers have the ability to do this, and while I do feel a little guilty about pestering the rank and file workers, I think the need for them to change their business practices outweighs all else. It’s one thing to be aggressive, it’s altogether different to never remove people.
CARRIER TOOLS
Short of changing your number there are a few other options available to people. People with landlines seem to have many more tools. As for cellphones, Nextel had this awesome feature built into the phone where it would only accept calls from people in your address book; everyone else went to voicemail. I loved it even though I missed a couple of calls.
Unfortunately Nextel’s service was otherwise crappy so I had to switch. But I’m hoping that the current weakness of the system can be solved through technological means like Nextel’s. I envision a future where you can add numbers to a “blocked” list, refuse unidentified callers, or make people identify themselves when they call your cell phone. The carriers don’t seem to know much about the current plague of low-cost foreign based telemarketers.
Like spam, there has to be a technological solution to this problem. The Do Not Call list is a joke, don’t bother filing complaints with them. Laws are a joke because there’s just no practical way to get to these call centers in foreign countries.
But until the carriers wake up, or someone in power tries to do something about this, the army of autodialers is our only defense.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
