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.