Obviously. According to the FTC, millions and millions of dollars worth of worthless car warranties, fake fraud protection, scam legal protection services, and fraudulent pharmaceutical benefit services, just to start with.
Gotta keep those lights on...because they're just marks and screw them if they fall for it amiright /s.
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.
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 it was legitimate and I just looked like a jackass. Got my free upgrade though.
While I didn't need to be so arrogant, I think companies should make it easier to prove their identity. When I call my bank, they ask for information like DOB etc to prove it's me. Fair enough. But it never works in reverse if they call me, like a push message via their app, or an ID number I can call back with. I feel a bit silly asking.
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.
Actually they use it even if you call them. Rather than do the “name, dob, etc”, they send a push notification to the app and require you to accept it.
Which phone verifies you to continue the conversation.
And I guess you’re right. The receive sms and read out the code is similar. Tho this doesn’t have a code. It’s an in app push notification which you simply accept (or reject if not expecting it)
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.
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.
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.
I'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.
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.".
When dealing with these types of calls, my approach is to inform the callers that I am a member of their software development team. I explain that I inadvertently generated a lead from my personal number, and typically they hang up and remove my number from their list.
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.
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.
I ask them if their parents know that their job is to scam old people all day
Oh, hey! I'm not the only one whose done this. A couple of other good one:
- "How did you get into this line of work? Are your parents frauds too? Is it a genetic thing maybe we can weed out? Who do your parents rip off?"
- "When you see your family on the holidays, do you tell them you're a professional fraud, or do you actually have a sliver of shame? Do you have like sibling who think your cool for ripping people off?"
- "What does your god think of how you make a living?"
Get cussed out some, but most of them are obviously fine with it, usually via some variation of "hey gotta pay bills, just doing my job". The 'smile and dial' crowd self selects for zero-ethics worldviews. The god one did get me a death threat, which is nice. I'm sure they added me to a bunch of call lists as 'revenge'. Worth it.
I’ve had that happen too. Unfortunately these seem like edge cases for most companies and sms based 2FA remains the default.
I’ve finally found a good workaround when traveling abroad: adding a local eSim for data-only and keeping my U.S. number on for receiving voice & text.
