# Telemarketers now bypassing TeleZapper **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 27, 2003, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-now-bypassing-telezapper/157836 "2003-02-27T05:59:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2003, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-now-bypassing-telezapper/157836/41 "2003-02-27T22:46:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Weirddave \* > I don’t understand why saying “No, thank you, I’m not interested” is so fucking hard, and so much of a burden for people. Don’t y’all have more important things to worry about, like the temperature of spit? Because telemarketing is intrusive. Because telemarketing uses resources paid for by the marketee, yet does not give anything in return (as opposed to TV advertising which pays for the shows you watch). Because the better trained telemarketers don’t let go at “no”, and not everyone is as assertive about getting of the phone as you and I, **Weirddave**. My MIL can’t be rude and simply hang up - it’s not in her makeup. And lastly, because now the firms employing telemarketers look for ways to defeat people’s efforts to free themselves from an intrusiveness that shouldn’t exist in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2003, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-now-bypassing-telezapper/157836/42 "2003-02-27T22:47:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Musicat \* > **:eek: Whoa! You mean phone spammers can now fake their name and number on my caller ID? > How does the phone company allow this (technically or otherwise)?** I believe the PBX switch can be programmed to generate the caller ID text. That way when you call someone from your office phone, your name can show up on the caller id even though the phone company doesn’t have that info. > [@](#): > > \*\* > And just what is “predictive dialing”? \*\* The telemarketing companies know that X% of calls will not be completed for some reason (disconnected, no one home, etc). So they use a predictive dialer to call X% more numbers than they have telemarketers. It detects if the call goes through and then routes the call to a telemarketer human to deliver the pitch. If a call goes through but there are no humans available, the call is dropped. That explains the many hang-ups you might get at your house. A predictive dialer called many numbers and enough calls were answered before you answered your phone that there were no more humans available. Don’t worry about missing their pitch, though. I’m sure they’ll put you back in the pile for a call at a later time. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2003, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-now-bypassing-telezapper/157836/43 "2003-02-27T22:48:27Z")
To partly answer my own question, this is from [DM News](http://dmnews.com/cgi-bin/artprevbot.cgi?article_id=23040): > [@](#): > > To ensure that a client’s identity – rather than their own – appears on consumer caller-ID boxes, call centers must contact their telephone carrier each time they begin work on a new outbound campaign. Because call centers often switch between campaigns and clients several times a day, outbound callers would have to contact their carrier every few hours, an impractical and costly proposition even if the carrier were willing to do it, Elicker said. > > Many call centers opt to transmit no caller-ID data instead. Because of this, calls from telemarketers often appear as “out of area” or “unavailable” on caller-ID boxes. > > Castel solves this problem by letting call centers change outgoing caller-ID information on their own without going through their carrier, Elicker said. Other predictive-dialer makers, including SER Solutions Inc., are touting similar capabilities in their call center technology. Apparently this is designed for very large phone spammers that handle multiple clients or campaigns. With this device, they could easily change their caller ID info without bothering the phone company. But am I the only one who sees a potential for abuse here? I always thought the reason why phone spammers did not transmit caller ID is to deliberately disguise themselves. Have they now had a change of heart and want to warn the victum in advance of picking up the phone? Not bloody likely, methinks. ---
**Author:** ![Apricot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bcef8e/32.png) [@Apricot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apricot)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2003, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-now-bypassing-telezapper/157836/44 "2003-02-27T23:02:55Z")
I think the telemarketers may be trying to get through to vulnerable populations. For instance, if an elderly relative in my house was an easy mark, I would get a telezapper to keep them out of trouble. It’s much easier to not get the calls then explain over and over not to give out credit card information on the phone. If an easy mark is on the “other side” of the telezapper, I can certainly see the telemarketers jumping all over themselves to get around the technology. Bastards. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2003, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-now-bypassing-telezapper/157836/45 "2003-02-27T23:08:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gary Kumquat \* > \*\*You see, this is what happens when you make devices too complicated. There’s no need for anything as complicated as faking the tones of a disconnected number - all I want is a big red button that cunningly throws Tazer style voltage down the phone line. > > “Good evening sir, i’ve called to tell you about our fantast”\*\*kerZUPP \*\* > > Is that so much to ask for? \*\* This is a brilliant idea. Ironically the best way to sell it, bar none, would be over the phone. What a great sales pitch! “Good evening, sir or madam. I suspect I’m probably interrupting you. Pretty goddamn annoying, isn’t it? Wouldn’t you love to be able to just push a button and give me a shock? Well, we’ve got this gizmo…” Of course, it probably wouldn’t be limited to telemarketers, but anyone who annoyed you over the phone. I’d pretty much have to stop calling people, once this went on the market… ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2003, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-now-bypassing-telezapper/157836/46 "2003-02-27T23:14:12Z")
Great idea, **Giraffe.** “Buy our gizmo and you won’t get any more calls like this one!” Reminds me of the protection racket. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2003, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-now-bypassing-telezapper/157836/47 "2003-02-27T23:24:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dwc1970 \* > I suppose the TZ will need to be designed so that it can be easily upgraded once the TM side gets wise to the TZ’s methods to thwart them. DATA Borg telemarketing calls are breaking through our shields, Captain. PICARD Rotate shield harmonics! ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2003, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-now-bypassing-telezapper/157836/48 "2003-02-27T23:24:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Weirddave \* > \*\*I don’t understand why saying “No, thank you, I’m not interested” is so fucking hard, and so much of a burden for people. Don’t y’all have more important things to worry about, like the temperature of spit? \*\* Let me explain it gently and slowly. A lot of people try to conduct themselves with manners and finesse. With some of these jerks, “No thank you” is just an opening for them to insert some hurt “is there something about the product you don’t understand” type segue into yet MORE attempts to stay on your phone. Some people aren’t comfortable with a “rude” (what feels to them as rude) “NO” and {{{CLICK}}} That’s why people are complaining. To answer your phone, hoping, for instance, that it’s your boyfriend saying he’s on his way to pick you up and it’s some jerk trying to sell you tickets to the underwater basket weaving fair and then YOU are forced to be the “rude” one by hanging up on someone is not just annoying but an invasion of a person’s privacy. Or, to make it short and sweet. To a lot of people it’s the principle of the thing. We, people who don’t want telemarketer calls, have asked the telemarketer industry not to call them. But the telemarketer industry refuses to comply and indeed is looking into ways to ignore people’s request to be left alone. That’s another answer to you “why is it so hard to just say ‘no thank you’” question. ---
**Author:** ![BioHazard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3bc359/32.png) [@BioHazard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BioHazard)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2003, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-now-bypassing-telezapper/157836/49 "2003-02-27T23:27:42Z")
Ive seen and heard of plans for faking/masking caller ID since I first heard about Caller ID. Apparantly its very easy and can be made from radioshack parts. A friend of mine made one and it worked, he could set his number from anything from 000-000-0000 to 900-545-9874 or anything at all! He even freaked out a non-lawabiding enemy of ours by putting in the police station’s phone number. Anyway, like I said, I think “Consumer Requests Delete” is the quickest and easiest way to deal with **them**. ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2003, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-now-bypassing-telezapper/157836/50 "2003-02-27T23:42:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by KneadToKnow \* > \*\*Why do people act like it’s so hard to deal with telemarketers? > > Do. Not. Answer. \*\* Nice try, but it doesn’t always work. I’ve had one tenacious tele-spammer that has called me at least once a day for over a year now…probably 500 calls total. They usually call in the middle of the day when I’m at work too, so I can’t answer and tell them to leave me alone. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2003, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-now-bypassing-telezapper/157836/51 "2003-02-27T23:51:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ataraxy22 \* > \*\*Nice try, but it doesn’t always work. I’ve had one tenacious tele-spammer that has called me at least once a day for over a year now…probably 500 calls total. They usually call in the middle of the day when I’m at work too, so I can’t answer and tell them to leave me alone. \*\* AMEN!! Besides, it isn’t that it’s “hard” to deal with telemarketers. Obviously it requires no real effort physically. The point is not that it’s “hard” the point is, as another poster said, that it’s invasive. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2003, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-now-bypassing-telezapper/157836/52 "2003-02-27T23:57:51Z")
I really like Pennsylvania’s Do Not Call list. There used to be 6 or 8 “Unavailable” entries on my caller ID box when I got home from work every day. They often left me messages, sometimes recorded and sometimes from a live human. I especially hated the message which always claimed that “we just happen to be in your neighborhood installing satellite TV”. Those people “happened” to be in my neighborhood 2 or 3 times a week! I also received 1 or 2 similar calls (which I didn’t answer) most evenings. Since I got on the list, most days I receive NO calls during the day and my evening calls, with very rare exceptions, are all from people that I actually want to talk to! ---
**Author:** ![kevja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/aeb1de/32.png) [@kevja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kevja)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-now-bypassing-telezapper/157836/53 "2003-02-28T00:27:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kambuckta \* > \*\*How ya doin’ **Snoooopy**? I just wandered in to another thread that inadvertantly mentioned the glut of telemarketing one’s in the pit at the moment, and I thought of you mate. I had a brilliant day…scored my charity a five-hundred buck donation and I’m feeling fine…so do you reckon we are all doomed to the eighth circle of damnation or what? > > 😛 \*\* congrats, **kabuckta** Way back in the mid 80s when I was working for famous local theater, I got a $500.00 donation too. My hat’s off to you though. That was in '85. Getting a credit card back then was a little easier than it is now. That was one of my most productive, and FUN rooms. We went out almost every night after work. Good commisions too, and a lot of great bonuses too, including a $150.00 lunch at the Clift Hotel. And I thought it was the new 10th circle. I’ve been in managing research call centers for the past eight years. I sure hope the telemarketing rooms I’ve worked in the previous years counts, and gets me in. It will be hella fun. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-now-bypassing-telezapper/157836/54 "2003-02-28T00:35:06Z")
We usually ignore the Unknown or Unavailable on our Caller ID, but for some strange reason, my husband’s work line shows up as unknown. So if I’m expecting a call from him, I’ll usually pick up rather than wait for the machine to get it. Like tonight. “Is Mr. or Mrs. FairyChat there?” “Who’s calling please?” “This is a courtesy call. May I speak to Mr. or Mrs. FairyChat?” _“Who’s calling please?”_ “This is a courtesy call.” And that’s when I hung up. How courteous is it to refuse to answer a simple question? Especially when I was hoping it was my sweetie… ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-now-bypassing-telezapper/157836/55 "2003-02-28T00:58:43Z")
So what’s with telemarketers leaving their spam on my answering machine/voice mail? ---
**Author:** ![GrandfatherTrout](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f17d59/32.png) [@GrandfatherTrout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandfatherTrout)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-now-bypassing-telezapper/157836/56 "2003-02-28T01:40:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Monty \* > \*\*So what’s with telemarketers leaving their spam on my answering machine/voice mail? \*\* An interesting new development, this. Our number is on the state’s do-not-call list. But apparently leaving a message is somehow exempt, because we get one or two messages a week. Yes yes yes, it’s easily deleted from the machine. But it still cheeses me off. Or: Many of the messages have been from “not-for-profit corporations offering a valuable debt-consolidation service to the public.” I guess that, properly spun, this means that they aren’t _selling_ anything…ergo they can call us with impunity? Oh, and while we’re at it: one of the most annoying things about them is that they all have the gall to make the message sound like there was an actual person at the other end, leaving the message. Complete with casual, off-the-top-of-the-head diction, and everything—the occasional midsentence “uh…” and like that. But we _know_ that this is their machine leaving a message on our machine, right? For some reason, this stupid little conceit makes me totally insane. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-now-bypassing-telezapper/157836/57 "2003-02-28T01:45:33Z")
It’s especially annoying, Grandfather Trout, in that I can’t tell them, “Take me off your list and do not call again” and also in that it takes up space for a message I really would rather have! ---
**Author:** ![Jurhael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@Jurhael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurhael)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-now-bypassing-telezapper/157836/58 "2003-02-28T04:26:45Z")
“Consumer Requests Delete” Hmmm…sounds great, but according to [antitelemarketer.com](http://antitelemarketer.com), the telemarketers are trained to twist such statements around into making it seem like you want off their do not call list. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-now-bypassing-telezapper/157836/59 "2003-02-28T06:36:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by KneadToKnow \* > \*\*DATA > Borg telemarketing calls are breaking through our shields, Captain. > > PICARD > Rotate shield harmonics! \*\* RESISTANCE IS FUTILE. PREPARE TO BE ASSIMILATED … INTO THE SIERRA CLUB. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-now-bypassing-telezapper/157836/60 "2003-02-28T18:51:49Z")
What would be the legalities of screaming, talking dirty, or blowing a police whistle into the receiver when a telemarketer calls? Not that I am considering it, mind you, or recommending it to others. Regards, Shodan [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-now-bypassing-telezapper/157836.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-now-bypassing-telezapper/157836.md?page=4)