# Telemarketers

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers/107503>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [May 6, 2002, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers/107503 "2002-05-06T06:37:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Squish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Squish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squish)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers/107503/1 "2002-05-06T06:37:51Z")

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Sorry, folks, but you’re pretty much up the creek on this one. The phone numbers telemarketers call are now pretty much generated randomly, that is, a computer keeps generating combinations of 4-digit numbers that it adds to a list of prefixes.

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**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers/107503/2 "2002-05-06T19:40:55Z")

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Welcome to the SDMB, and thank thee for posting thy comment.  
Please include a link to Cecil’s column if it’s on the straight dope web site.  
To include a link, it can be as simple as including the web page location in thy post (make sure there is a space **before** and **after** the text of the URL).

Cecil’s column can be found on-line at this link:  
[Is there any surefire way to stop telemarketing calls? (27-Sep-1996)](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a960927.html)

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moderator, «[**Comments on Cecil’s Columns**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?forumid=1)»