Do you know who else thought “But we were just following orders!” was a valid excuse?
For a while, my outgoing voice mail message went like this:
“Hi, this is Sqweels…
If you owe me money, press 1.
If you’re a hot woman, press 2.
If you’re a telemarketer, continue to hold, and some hired goons will be with you shortly”
C’mon, there’s no way I didn’t see that one coming. I even thought about heading it off at the pass myself. The proper response, of course, being: while both of these are examples of following orders that are illegal and/or reprehensible, they’re on vastly opposite ends of the same scale.
And, too: shooting one concentration camp guard in the head isn’t going to do shit to stop the Nazis from rounding up more Jews, gays, Romani, and various other icky types. You want to go after the people *giving *the orders.
The people giving these particular orders will pay the little fine and go on, until the government shuts them down, at which point they open back up under another name and/or another state. The people doing the calling know they won’t be targeted so they keep on keepin’ on, knowing that they will never be touched.
Yeah. And the problem is clearly that the repurcussions aren’t strong enough. So work to make them stronger, until it can’t be considered just another cost of doing business.
:knock:knock:knock:
“Who’s there?”
“Goons.”
“Who?”
“Hired goons.”
Won’t somebody please think of the Rhinos???
Pwned!
Well, I get Heather from Cardholder Services. But Heather is a recording. In order to find out who it is really, so that I can nail them for violating my rights by calling me when I’m on the DNC list, I have to listen through the recording and press 1 for the next available creep. If I do that, and then ask the name of the company, next available creep hangs up on me. (It’s probably Heather, that little bitch.)
So the only thing I know is Cardholder Services, and the number. Sometimes not even the number. There are ways to do it so the number you see is not the number you get.
Much as I hate to be Dr. Buzzkill here, the phone companies all have devices on the lines that limit the maximum volume passed on a conversation. It will make you feel better, Shodan but it won’t really do much to the person on the far end.
The telemarketing companies do, or the companies that own the lines? If you mean the latter, it’s entirely possible to get a very painful–or at least uncomfortable–sound without going into ear-damaging decibel territory.
Typically there’s a local phone company (or ëxchange carrier") that owns the lines. They bring the lines to the customer’s premises where they get hooked into some type of phone system. Usually there are peak limiters in the telephone equipment and the phone company has something on the lines as well.
The phone equipment manufacturer has an interest in not allowing dangerous voltages (sound is transmitted as a voltage) on their equipment, the phone company has a set of tariffs specifying how high a level can be transmitted, and the phone company has limiters too (just in case and for lightning).
So we can annoy them. Too bad we can’t send an equipment-blowing-up signal down the line and take 'em off line for a while…
Yeah, looks like I interpreted you right. I doubt that **Shodan **was hoping to *literally *blow the eardrums of the person on the other end of the line–just make a noise of a pitch and volume that was uncomfortable/painful.
You can probably get a free google voice line that will work for them.
Seriously? Google has voice lines now?
I should start taking bets on when their actual name-change to Skynet happens. Oh god, we’re all gonna die.
Well, shit. I’ve already done the “scream obscenities at them”.
Regards,
Shodan the Disappointed
Tell them you’ve laced their drinking water with dihydrogen monoxide.
My friend, I have one word for you
Vuvuzela.
Vuvuzela, right in the fucking ear. May as well put those damn things to some good use for a change.
I like the ones
Warning! The insurance on your car (or registration, or whatever) is about to expire!
I don’t even have a fucking car.