I thought that was how lawyrers were made. 
And lawyers are the larval form of politicians.
My suspicion is that they are ‘legal’.
However, any money paid by them to you for a car issue would only happen if they planned to use you in a commercial.
That is my suspicion.
SOmething like the life insurance with no doctor checkup…they can do it because they don’t acually cover/pay out for your death for x years…after which you’ve paid more in premiums then they would pay out in your death.
I get so many calls from extended warranty people ,that i do not answer a call with a number I do not recognize. There must be huge profit in health insurance for cars.
I have a perfect solution for this. 1-900 numbers for all. You can call me at the rate of $5.00 per minute. I have a code I punch in at the end of the call if I choose to refund your money. You better hope the call is as important to me as it apparently was to you. I would wager that this would be surprisingly cost effective to initiate. The telephone companies already keep track of who called who, and for how long, and billing is completely automated these days.
Now that is a plan i could get behind.
Not entirely true. From the FTC’s website,
Placing your number on the National Do Not Call Registry will stop most telemarketing calls, but not all. Because of limitations in the jurisdiction of the FTC and FCC, calls from or on behalf of political organizations, charities, and telephone surveyors would still be permitted, as would calls from companies with which you have an existing business relationship, or those to whom you’ve provided express agreement in writing to receive their calls.
The problem with this is that spammers already spoof their numbers. How can you be sure the spammer is actually being billed and how do you collect?
Double hard as a lot of these are overseas.
Though I suppose the FTC labels these kinds of calls as telemarketing by definition, I don’t consider them to be that. Political organizers, charities, and telephone surveyors aren’t trying to sell me something; and any company with whom I have an existing business relationship is generally one I don’t mind talking to.
Try this: The next time one of them calls you, say “You know, I was just wondering if my warranty was about to expire. Hang on - let me see if I can find my documentation.” Then wait for long enough that you think they’ll still be on the line, and say “I’m sorry, it’s not the car I thought it was. I have several. Which car is about to run out of warranty?”
The spammer won’t know, because it’s a random cold call. So he’ll give you some BS song and dance. Interrupt him, and say “Never mind, I’ll go check the other documentation. Please wait.”
Then just never go back to the phone. If you really want to make sure you waste the maximum amount of his time, you’ve got to sound like you’re really interested.
Here in Canada, the government set up a ‘do not call’ registry. They then made the ‘do not call’ list available to telemarketers, who universally responded with, “Hey! List of valid phone numbers! Sweet!” And everyone who put their names on the do not call list had their spam calls increase dramatically. D’oh!
Anyone with half a brain should have seen that coming. Which is why the government didn’t, of course.
Huh?
How the fuck are the telemarketers supposed to know which numbers they’re not allowed to call if they don’t have access to the list? Are they just supposed to guess?
From the US Q&A for Telemarketers and Sellers About the Do Not Call Provisions of the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule:
I’d love to see the DNC list expanded to include calls from all these folks, except the ones that I’ve given express written agreement to call me. No, I DON’T want Sears to call me about my vacuum cleaner’s warranty. They know my address, they can send me a postcard.
I really doubt that we’ll ever see a DNC list that political organizations have to take heed of.
I see your point but just wanted to clarify your comment. I’m one of those geeks that reads up on the law and other relevent info when I take a job. Like my current job, I’m probably one of the few insurance agents in CA who has actually read AB1672 (and can quote it). It’s the law that governs the sale of health insurance to small businesses. Same when I was in telemarketing. When the national DNC came about, I read up on it.
This is the catch-22: The only way to prevent telemarketers from calling you is to give them your phone number.
These are the same people who have shown no hesitation in abusing the telephone numbers they already have.
In the case of Canada, the numbers were collected by offshore telemarketers who couldn’t be prosecuted.
But they can be persecuted.
If the home of the owner of a scumbag telemarketing firm burned down, and then another, and then another, it wouldn’t take long for these sociopaths to understand that they do not stand to profit from their activities. The home addresses of the world’s worst spammers are generally known and available. I have seen photos of the houses posted occasionally to the nana* newsgroups. Far be it from me to advise anyone to commit an act of arson – that would be conspiracy – but I merely note that I am surprised these residences remain safe and unburned given all the damage these folks have done to others.
(sniffle) I miss Cervaise.
Then maybe some sort of system should have been put in place to prevent off-shore people from using the list.
You took a gratuitous swipe at “government” (quelle surprise!) for giving out the numbers, and yet you concede that it’s the only way that such a list can actually work.
I don’t know if your characterization of the Canadian experience (i.e., people actually “had their spam calls increase dramatically”) is correct, but in my experience, and in the experience of almost everyone i know, there’s little doubt that the Do Not Call registry has been a dramatic success here in the United States, despite the persistence of occasional assholes like the extended car warranty people. So the simple fact of making the list available is not, in and of itself, a guarantee that the system will fail.
Whether you are “advising anyone to commit an act of arson” or not, you sure seem to be encouraging it.
That violates your the terms of the membership agreement:
This is an official warning. Do not do this again.
Gfactor
Pit Moderator
See this article for comments about the DNC list up here. I’m not necessarily saying that it is still not working now that the dust has settled (I seem to recall seeing other news articles saying some people did see a significant drop in calls), but people were definitely complaining about it shortly after it came in to effect.
I’ve always wondered what a telemarketer would say if you answered the phone with something like “FBI Anti-Fraud Task Force, how can I help you?”
I hope I’m not taking premature offence here - but you VOLUNTARILY provide your email address - then mark the resulting email as spam?
Seriously, I hope I have parsed this wrongly. I hope that any such marking is not reflected in you ISPs listings. Otherwise words would totally fail me on what you should be called.