Dave Barry Strikes Back Against Telemarketers

ikkonoishi writes "The Miami humor columnist Dave Barry in his column here encouraged his readers to exercise their constitutional rights to call a telemarketing firm which had declared the National Do Not Call List unconstitutional. Well it seems to have worked." Needless to say, the targets of the prank were none so keen on being called themselves.

Re:Revenge

[Mr. Darl McBride]

Maybe we can simply get a dialing machine and have it call the telemarketers non-stop

In most every state, dialing machines are illegal except when used by non-profits -- this might even be federal law now. This is why the occasional commercial message you get from a dialing machine is usually "[Sleazy company who does this and offers this] is calling to be sure you know about some charity event! [Sleazy company continues pitch about their products]"

Good luck even finding a dialing machine, by the way. I don't think they're even being produced anymore, but rather being traded and sold second-hand. You'll see them go for upward of $10k on ebay now and again.

Number is Toll Free!

[CoolQ]

For those of you too lazy to read the articles, here's the phone number to call:
1-877-779-3974
Let's /. their phone system!

--Quentin

Oh well, we are too late

[drkich]

We're sorry you have reached a number that has been disconnected or is not in service. If you feel you have reached this recording in error, please check your number and try your call again.

Disconnected

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't bother, you'll only get a recording saying the number has been disconnected.

Use the Net

[Anonymous Coward]

Using the internet seems like a much more effective method.
With today's computer hardware it would be trivial to just whip together a program which would do the calling.
Then you could just distribute the program on a blog of some sort.
On your blog you could coordinate the readers to set their software to call certain numbers at certain times.
Better yet.
You could have you software automatically check you web site to see if there are any 'Call Worthy' events.
Maybe when people sign up for account they have a preferences section which they can choose the type of events or companies which their software should call.
Anyway you get the picture.

New Number is Listed on their Site

[CoolQ]

On their site [ataconnect.org], they list a new contact number:
[phone]
As others have pointed out, their old number has been disconnected.

--Quentin

Re:They only stopped ANSWERING thier phones

[fermion]

I don't know about this. I get many calls from advertising vacations and time shares. I am sure that these get some of thier income from people calling back.

ATA numbers that work

[user138]

Since those guys have turneed off the 877 number here is updated contact info: Administrative Office: 3815 River Crossing Parkway, Suite 20 Indianapolis, IN 46240 Toll Free: (866)) 500-4272 [e-mail] Legislative Office: 1666 K Street, NW, Suite 1200 Washington, DC 20006 Toll Free: [phone] [e-mail] give em a jingle.. i am

Junk Mail?

[spoonist]

And their address is published at the bottom of their web site [ataconnect.org].

Perhaps they'd like some junk mail too [slashdot.org].

American Teleservices Association

1666 K Street NW Suite 1200

Washington, DC 20006

877-779-3974

[e-mail]

Re:Not at all the same....

[gilroy]

Um, it's the "laws against mugging" that make mugging a crime. So if you hypothesize that muggers have a "right to a living", then the laws against armed robbery interfere with that "right". The analogy is actually a pretty strong one.

You're upset because you see Barry making a moral equivalence between the two, but he's talking only about the "right to a living" argument. He's not saying telemarketers are as bad as muggers -- or if he is, it's irrelevant to this particular argument -- only that their position is as untenable as a mugger's would be.

My only quibble is that the analogy would have been even better had he used, not mugging, but house burgulary. In both cases someone comes uninvited into your house -- even when you take steps to keep them out -- and take something precious (in the telemarketers' case, your time).

Re:The ends justify the means?

[mkldev]

And you'll note that AT&T is excluded from the do-not-call law....

AT&T local service used to bombard me with three and four phone calls per day. I repeatedly informed them that I had DSL, and was thus ineligible, and asked to not be called again, and was told repeatedly that I'd be added to their do-not-call list, only to find myself getting more calls than before.

Here's how I solved the problem:

First, I called my long distance customer service number and informed them that I would cancel my long distance coverage unless they stopped calling. They told me that they couldn't help, and that I needed to call another number.

That number turned out to be the AT&T local service sales number. I tried to find out if they did their own calling or paid someone else to do it,but the guy wouldn't answer. The guy then began asking for lots of personal information. I finally asked why they needed that information to file a complaint, whereupon they said that this, too, was the wrong number to call. (What part of "I want to file a complaint" didn't the guy understand? How exactly did he get "I want your local service" from that?) Anyway, they gave me yet another number, but that the number was basically only open on weekdays,

I ignored the guy's warning about it being only open on weekdays, figuring that anybody who interpreted an "I'm not eligible, so stop calling me" complaint as an "I want to get your service" request was so clueless that he probably didn't know what was going on. Unsurprisingly, I was right.

So the number I ended up talking to was AT&T Local Services customer support. I had "the talk", as it is now infamously known, with the service rep, and he apologized profusely and agreed to put me on the do-not-call list.

To date, I have not received any more calls. I guess tying up AT&T's 1-800 numbers for almost two hours and threatening to drop my long distance service if they didn't stop harassing me was enough to convince them that maybe I really didn't want their local service....

That having been said, I think they're only excluded from the DNC law if they are your current long distance provider, so if they annoy you too much, tell them that from now on, "You're not dealing with AT&T" and see what they say. :-)

Re:We should be careful about this

[CommieOverlord]

Several billion dollars will not suddenly vanish from the US economy. People will spend their money in other ways or put in the banks (which then invest it). Only if everyone takes the money and sticks it under their mattresses will it make any difference.

Re:Even Better

[Anonymous Coward]

"It's difficult not to see some malice in Mr. Barry's intent," said Tim Searcy, executive director of the ATA, who said the added calls will be costly to his group because of toll charges and staffing issues.

Domain Name: ATACONNECT.ORG
Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
Fanger, Robert (DUMHRQNOBI) [e-mail]
Fanger Communications
238 S. Meridian St.
Ste. 210
Indianapolis, IN 46225
US
317-636-7635

Searcy, Tim
8645 Admirals Woods Dr
INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46236
317-823-8462

Re:Number is Toll Free!

[drinkypoo]

A DDoS attack does not necessarily mean you are sending garbage packets. That is a myth. That is simply the easiest way to do any DoS. In fact the value of sending garbage packets is highest when you are not making a distributed attack, because this is precisely when that strategy is needed most.

A slashdotting could be a DDoS attack or not, solely depending on intent. Let's look at the words that make up DDoS:

1. Distributed. As slashdot readers are distributed around the globe, and will be making their connections from an assortment of machines similarly if not identically distributed (what with tunneling, the former is more accurate) a slashdotting is clearly distributed.
2. of. Just kidding. :) Let's move on.
3. Service. What are we denying? Service. It doesn't matter if you're sending a bunch of syn packets or if you're actually going (attempting to go) through the process of opening a full TCP connection and downloading a file from the server. Either way, you're connecting to/attacking a specific service.
4. Attack. Here's the kicker. If you did it maliciously, then it was an attack. If you didn't actually mean to slashdot their server, then it wasn't. If you didn't stop to think about the effects of your actions, then you're a nobk, but it's malice that makes an attack. If I trip and fall on someone and harm them, it's not as serious as if I punch them in the face, legally, even though I might do more damage by falling on them.

Calling a voice line and hanging up is harassment, but calling a voice line and hanging up in response to someone else's request is collusion on your part, and conspiracy on theirs.

Re:Just checking...

[drinkypoo]

If you bothered to follow the link [ataconnect.org] from the comment above [slashdot.org] you would have seen that that page is on ATA's own site [ataconnect.org].

Being too lazy to read an article is one thing, I succumb to that all the time, but being too lazy to even roll your mouse over the link, that's pathetic.

War dialer

[jbarket]

Come on man, it's called a 486 and a war dialer.

Now that I think about it, I bet I pissed a lot of people off in the early 90s. It's the middle of dinner and the phone rings "Oh damn a telemarketer" except when they pick up the phone they're greeted by my ever-so-desperate-for-love 486sx.

Effective strategy for deaaling with telemarketers

[ajs318]

1. Get a Caller ID Box. Your telco probably will charge you a fee for sending the information, since as they see it, you might decide not to answer the phone based on who is calling and therefore they will not earn the connection charge on the call.
2. Block Withheld Numbers if you live in a jurisdiction where withholding your number is still legal. Your telco probably will charge you for this, but it's worth it. {before I had mine blocked, I used to say to Number Withheld: "Are you a paedophile? Because your number is withheld." That saw them off. On my mobile, where there is no such service available, I have to resort to doing an impression of a recorded announcement: "Anonymous calls are not welcome on this line. If your business is important you may ring back without withholding your number. Goodbye."
3. Don't say anything if you don't recognise the caller's number. This spins them out, because they think it could be an answering machine. A legitimate caller will ask for you by name. A sleazeball telemarketer will just hang up.
4. Ask them how they got your number. This distracts them from the purpose of the call and maybe gets them into an infinite loop.
5. If all else fails, remember that it is your line, and you are under no obligation to be polite with unwanted callers. Any obligation of politeness would fall on the originator, not the recipient.

I think the best solution would be for the do-not-call list to be in the phone directory, by placing a symbol next to the numbers of people who did not wish to receive unsolictited sales calls. I'm not so anti-social that I'd consider going ex-directory, because that would jeopardise things for people who might have a legitimate reason to call me {and because I like looking up my name in the new phone book every 18 months or so, it gives me a kick without harming anyone else}. Having the "do not call" list in the phone book itself would be almost foolproof. Everyone with a phone line gets the phone book, so there would be no shortage of witnesses to the fact that your number was on the list. The only downside is that you might have to wait till the new directory was published in order to get your name properly DNC'd. But the telemarketing companies could be made to subscribe to an update list as a condition of their operating licence.

Re:Do not call lists will lower sales

[whovian]

In order to not just preach to the choir, here are just two examples (pardon me if they have been mentinoed here elsewhere)

• Rebates. You having mailed in all those "mail in rebates" forms would put you in the category of "having a prior business relationship" escape clause of the DNC lists. If not that, the vendor you bought from already qualifies you.
• Store cards. Ever sign up for one of those gift cards/member cards, and the only way to check the balance is to call them? Well, I realized in time Barnes and Noble does this, so I would be certain not to use a cell phone or a home phone. I would use work phone instead because at least that's blocked from telemarketing. Granted, they don't have my name, but they 1) could compare with lists of names previously associated with that number and 2) might learn that it's a valid number (assuming no caller ID blocking and unblocking one-upsmanship).
  

I get the feeling that it is only a matter for time beore companies come up with other insidious methods.

Re:New Number is Listed on their Site

[nettdata]

It just worked from Vancouver, BC. :)

I just called, gave them a fictitious name, and then asked them to call me back on their now un-listed phone number. :)

Made my day.

Another way to contact them

[JustAnotherReader]

This site http://www.ataconnect.org/contact.htm [ataconnect.org] is the ATA's contact us page. The only required fields are first and last name and an email address (Use a real email address at your own discression)

You can send them an email stating your point of view.

NOTE: A well reasoned, polite email will probably have a greater effect than an angry rant (if it has any effect at all).

Re:As Great as the Idea Sounds...

[Anonymous Coward]

Heh. The past chairman of the ata is a bill miklas of omaha nebraska. A google search doesn't turn up contact info through the white pages, but a contractor [rdschuller.com] lists the addresses (and home #s!) of his past customers. Looks like being chairman of the ata is pretty good as bill just had an addition to his house. Why not call him and congradulate him?

Mr. and Mrs. Bill Miklas
4041 No. 116th Cr.
Omaha, NE. 68164
Home #493-1153
Work Done: Addition

(Oh, BTW, the area code of omaha is 402)

They've had the number Dave published disconnected

[DarkVader]

They've had the number Dave Berry published disconnected, but here is the current contact information from their website (including toll-free numbers):

Legislative Office:

1666 K Street, NW, Suite 1200
Washington, DC 20006
Toll Free: [phone]
[e-mail]

Administrative Office:

3815 River Crossing Parkway, Suite 20
Indianapolis, IN 46240
Toll Free: (866)) 500-4272
[e-mail]

NEW NUMBERS!

[Anonymous Coward]

The old one (877-779-3974) seems to be disconnected.

The new numbers at:
http://www.ataconnect.org/contact.htm

Legislative Office:

1666 K Street, NW, Suite 1200
Washington, DC 20006
Toll Free: [phone]
[e-mail]

Administrative Office:

3815 River Crossing Parkway, Suite 20
Indianapolis, IN 46240
Toll Free: (866)) 500-4272
[e-mail]