Joe used to work at a multi-million-dollar fax spam company. Since it’s illegal to cold call fax, here’s the trick they would use to start fax-spamming a company and be covered in case of legal action. It’s all about pretexting the secretary. Here’s how it works:
Joe writes:
1. Telemarketer calls company X and says “hello my name is Jim and I was looking for the person in charge of (ex.) Computer equipment. Often the secretary will say that he or she does not know who is in charge and other times they will get a name their first time up to bat. The telemarketer (if turned down) will then try back another time with “Can I please speak with your I.T. Manager.”
2. Eventually the telemarketer will get a contact name and that is what they build off of to begin faxing. Calls will continuously come in asking more information each time. For example, if you found out Tom handles I.T. then you (the telemarketer) would call into the office and say “Hello can I please speak with Tom in I.T. (which you are generally turned down because Tom has no idea who you are) that is when you ask the secretary “ I am just trying to get Tom some information, can I have his fax number quickly.”
3. As long as the companies secretary (or anyone at the company you are trying to fax) clears it then they are free to fax as much as they want until written notice is given. Generally they will call the company using the lines above and right before hanging up say “I am trying to send Tom some information is his fax number still 123-456-7891? Once the secretary says yes, that is his fax then they legally have the green light to start faxing. All calls are recorded so when these things go to court the telemarketing firm generally will pull out the tape of the secretary giving the verbal and the case is thrown out or the other company drops their complaint.
Really? That’s all it takes to cover their asses? So how do you fight it? I guess by training whoever answers the phone to never say “yes” if a stranger over the phone asks for a fax number to be confirmed and to say something different instead. Any ideas?
PREVIOUSLY: “How Do I Stop Fax Spam?”
(Photo: Getty)
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I had to field these calls on a temp job once. yes, you interrogate everyone, don’t give consent to anything, and take down written messages instead of putting people through to voicemail. It was pretty awful, b/c I didn’t know who was legit and who wasn’t, so I couldnt’ even mess with people who were rude or aggressive. Mostly, at this office, if someone calling in didn’t know Tom in IT’s direct number, then Tom didn’t want to talk to her.
I worked as a receptionist when I first got out of college, and I’m pretty ticked that many of you on here blame this stuff on the receptionist. It’s not the receptionist’s problem for the following reasons:
- I got NO training in anything other than how to answer the phone and how to connect the call.
– The only feedback you get is when you screw something up that you could not have possibly known
– When these people call, I guarantee that the phone is lighting up with about a dozen other calls at the same time. You do not have time to engage in a runaround with these people.
– So Gary in accounting gets spammed? The same guy who can’t remember your name but stares at your tits every time he walks by? Boo-hoo.
- $10 an hour and no benefits leaves me no incentive to do much more than answer the phones and connect calls.
- Finally, I did a lot of mean stuff ON PURPOSE when I worked as a receptionist. If you treat me like crap, talk down to me, or treat me like your personal secretary without thanking me, then I promise you’re going to “miss” a really important call or vendor on a mission from God is going to get ahold of your cell and home number.
I think every new hire at a company in ANY position ought to be forced to man the phones for 2 weeks as part of his training. In the end, you would work in much more smoothly run company. The people who always treated me the best were the older women in the office who started as receptionists and worked their way up. The worst people were men in their 30s who were hooked up with a good job a day out of college.
@howtragic: So, did it occur to you that maybe the mistreatment was the result of people doing their job poorly and that people are blaming things on receptionists because they go on petty vengeance missions by not connecting calls or giving out personal numbers?
Because really, if you engage in that behavior then the way they treat you is probably because of that.
I do agree with you that people look down on receptionists and that you don’t get feedback until you do something wrong. I’ve done a LOT of that type of work in my life. But to me, doing something petty like purposely not letting them get a message because they were mean to me is the equivalent of spitting in somebody’s food, it’s more demeaning to me than them.
I’ve been an admin/reception/office person for 5 years now, and I can’t imagine how many different kinds of marketing calls I’ve answered. On top of the robocalls, fax spam, abusive marketers who call back when you tell them no, and walk-in weirdos, there is actual work to be done and real calls to be answered. My favorite one is when they pretend to be a friend of the boss, but mispronounce his name terribly.
Bottom line is: I don’t get paid enough to put up with this crap all day.
I need a raise.
More importantly:
We are not secretaries. We are Administrative Professionals.
I do so hate these stupid telemarketers. I get at least a couple of calls a day asking for my boss by name as he’s a professional and belongs to profession-specific groups & such. I ask who it is and they just give a name. (Sometimes it’s blatantly the same voice, different name.) I ask what company they’re with; sometimes they just hang up right there, sometimes they act like they’re a friend of his. Sometimes they give some generic sounding name like “American General” or “United Mutual” or some dumbass made-up bullshit. When I ask what it’s regarding they’ll say “a business proposal” thinking I’ll be suitably impressed and put it right through. Or at that point they’ll just hang up.
Sometimes they even try to bully their way through, saying “Well, is he there or not?” “Just put him on the phone!” EXCUSE ME?
If only they realized how many of them there are, how often we hear it and how we can tell right away. Anyone with actual business with him has no hesitation about stating who they are and why they’re calling. All customers and frequent vendors think THEY’RE the most important. My boss calls me the Berlin Wall because the scum can never get past me.
I read somewhere (maybe on Consumerist?) that these morons are taught to hang up at any questions or the first sign of critical thinking.
Here is helpful link describing one-party and two-party consent while recording calls on a per state basis. [www.callcorder.com]
Sorry,
and another source:
[www.rcfp.org]
The easiest way to end fax spamming is to give the fax spammer the fax number of your local police cyber crimes unit.
I hope they fax spam hell out of that number.
I usually got around anything like this by saying:
“I’m sorry, I cannot give that information out.”
or
“I’m sorry, our fax number is a private line and it’s only given out face to face.”
Ha! I am such a bitch on the phone to telemarketers! They ask to speak to the IT Manager, I ask why, they say it’s personal, I tell them that’s not good enough, which is usually when they hang up on me or will try a few more times to get me off the phone to talk to someone else. If they ever ask for more info, I tell them it’s none of their business.
Also, saying that your boss is friends with your IT company/bank/misc. company works too. “Nepotism” at its finest. Most telemarketers tend to stop calling after that.
They wouldn’t get past me, I know how they work. I’ve started the “Crystal Tanner” legacy at every office I’ve worked at. The caller, obviously a telemarketer, asks who is in charge of so and so, give them the fake name, tell them she’s not in the office (for whatever creative reason) and no she doesn’t have voicemail. They just call back later and ask for her, not knowing that this person does not exist and they have just busted themselves out as a solicitor. Then, as a receptionist you are free to toy with this person or take your anger out on them or whatever you feel like doing. Tell her she was injured in a tragic polar bear incident in Antartica. No, there is no replacement at this time. The best part is when they get angry because Crystal is never there. “Does she EVER work?” Then they call back in two days as polite as can be. I love it.
We get a regular stream of the toner calls.. and for about 6 years now I have been fielding all of them (I make sure that the receptionists know what to do with the calls.. i.e. no saying yes, transfer call to me.. etc).
I finally came up with a method to deal with them that works rather well.. I ask them for a catalog and tell them that we have a policy in place that does not allow me to discuss pricing or anything related to toner (printers, etc) without a catalog in hand FIRST.
In the 6 years now, I have received on the order of 50-75 calls a year, and a whopping 2 catalogs.
toner call? I just tell ‘em I’m on contract which requires OEM (not reman’s or refills). If they persist, I’ll tell ‘em I pay $30/month for all the toner I can consume. then I fart into the phone.
caller: “Can I speak to the person that handles your [whatever]?”
me: “No, but thank you for calling. Good bye.”