Since all my phone numbers are unlisted, telemarketing calls are randomly generated and “blind.” Sometimes they really try to work the sucker until all hope is lost.
Here’s “Tom,” who thinks that by calling me a terrorist, accusing me of being a psychopath and bomber, that he will soften me up and sell me his special brand of scam. Eventually, he gave up when I asked what credit card of mine he was referring to.
This recording is shortened to remove the waiting time in the middle. Nothing else is changed.
Caller ID says, 360 322-6714, “Senior Shield,” at least this week. Other times the CID changes depending on the Scam Du Jour. There is no way to reach a human at that number unless they call you first.
We get a ton of calls like this, but in the main we just won’t answer them or hang up once it is clear that it is a telemarketer/scammer.
Why even answer.
To fuck with the asshole on the other end of the line.
I once sat through a fifteen minute spiel on how I could lower my monthly mortgage rate. After spending the entire call making interested and approving noises, the guy asked me if I had any questions. I asked, “Is my eligibility for this offer at all hurt by the fact that I don’t own a house?”
I doubt that was a real number. It’s part of the scam: everyone who presses 1 gets the same message about being fifteenth in line. It makes the offer sound popular, and the speed with which the person in fifteenth place gets to talk to an operator makes it sound like it’s a big operation, both of which make the whole thing seem more legit.
Yeah, I already knew who he was as I’ve received calls like this before. Usually they hang up before I can reach a human, which makes me wonder why they even try. I’ve also learned that trying to get off the lists just makes them call more often.
Thank you, Sir! And watch your ass. :dubious:
I imagine telemarketing has changed a lot over the years, as people are getting wise, know how to use Caller ID and blockers. I was just an early adopter.
Stolen from some low-rent elevator.
It’s the only way out. Telemarketers could benefit greatly from small explosives, carefully placed.
At least the scammers from Jamaica have stopped calling us. We were getting four or five calls a day for almost a year, claiming that I had won a huge lottery and all I had to do was send them $200 to process the winning prize. I told them from the very beginning that I knew it was a scam and not to call me back, but they didn’t stop. They even threatened to rape my mother one time when she told them to quit calling here. I went to the local police, contacted the FCC and the phone company, and they all claimed they couldn’t help me. Fortunately, they eventually stopped calling.
The thing about telemarketing (and I speak from experience, telemarketing was my first, and worst, job), is it depends on speed. You need to make X sales per day to make it worth while. If X is 10, and only 1 out of 10 people go for it, then you better be able to get through 100 calls in your shift. If every person just started hanging on the line, the model will not be sustainable.
As a telemarketer, you want one of two things on every call, a sale, or a no within the first minute. A half hour hard (or soft) pitch followed by a no, is crushing. Sixteen of those a day is your whole shift. Even if you have an automated system doing the dialing (I didn’t), even a couple of people a day stringing you along can have serious impact on your income.
And that’s why I try to keep them on as long as possible. I ask questions about the product or service, enquire about whether financing is available, check to see if there’s any sort of guarantee, whatever it takes. Sometimes I’ll ring my own doorbell and ask them to hold while I pay the paperboy. If I can keep them from talking to a dozen people, I’ve made the world a better place, and isn’t that an admirable goal?
That is really funny. That would actually be worth it.
Staying on to ask for the company’s name and number seems like a waste of time. Just my 2 cents. I did enjoy listening to Musicat being accused of being a terrorist; somewhat amusing.
I only worked there for about 5 months (April-August 1993), and the pay structure changed mid way through that period. When I was I hired, we got minimum wage plus a small, escalating commission (something like 2 dollars for the first 5 per pay period with it going up from there).
About half the staff were college kids who didn’t really care how many sales they made, they just were happy to get four hours of minimum wage for sitting around and dialing a phone. Around June, the boss fired everybody and gave us all the chance to sign on as independent contractors working strictly commission. I made more money that way, but all the college kids left.
FTR, I was 18 at the time and waiting to go into the military. The job was at a dying newspaper, so it was all local calls. That limited the time we could call to the evenings and weekends during legally designated hours. We used manual phones (no autodial) and got our numbers mostly from phone books and cancelled subscriber lists. I was really good with the cancelled subscribers. The key was I believed all the crap management sent us in the talking points about improved delivery, new features, etc. I sold to some poor woman twice. Around that time I knew I was part of the problem and would have quit even if it wasn’t time to head to boot camp.
For those curious it was the Sacramento Union. An old family newspaper that was destroyed by the rival paper. Not figuratively either. The media company that owned the rival paper bought the Union, broke all the syndication contracts and fired a bunch of staff before they were forced to sell due to anti-trust lawsuits. The paper folder not to long after I left (no connection).
