Consumerist
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finally
Federal Judge Shuts Down Car Warranty Robocallers
"Oh hell no!" Federal District Judge John F. Grady told a marauding group of car warranty robocallers who managed to annoy pretty much everyone over the past few months. The judge slapped two Florida companies with an immediate restraining order and froze their assets, which should be enough to finally end those maddening robocalls. More » -
robocaller
FTC Files Suit Against Car Warranty Robocallers
As anticipated, the FTC has filed suit in federal court in Chicago against many of the companies behind the car warranty robocalls plaguing the nation. More » -
justice
Auto Warranty Robocallers Call Indiana Attorney General At Home
Protip for telemarkers: If you're going to engage in random robodialing to unlisted cell phones, pray very very hard that you do not dial the attorney general of a state in which you plan to continue doing business. More » -
telemarketers
Smart Television Alliance Asks "Feature Films For Families" To Stop Using Its Name
Feature Films For Families—the company that's been phone-spamming random people over the past few weeks—follows no man's law! The nonprofit Smart Television Alliance, which works to educate parents on how to improve the television experience for kids*, discovered that the company was using its name without permission. More » -
telemarketers
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heroes
Man Tells Fax Spammers To Go Fax Themselves... And They Comply
Pat is our consumer action hero of the week. He writes: More » -
telemarketing
Tired Of Telemarketers? Try Suing Them
In yesterday's post on rude telemarketers and the people who hang up on them, reader/advice giver Amy Alkon said she just successfully sued a telemarketer in Santa Monica Small Claims Court—and won! If you're one of those unlucky people who can't get the calls to stop, here's how she did it. More » -
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telemarketers
Angry Telemarketer Calls Back, Chews You Out For Hanging Up
This telemarketer has had it up to here with all of you people at home hanging up on her every time she needs to sell you something! Randall Whited in Austin, Texas, received an earful recently, when he answered the phone shortly after hanging up on the unnamed telemarketer. More » -
telemarketing
FTC Listens To Your Complaints, (Mostly) Bans Telemarketer Robocalls
After reviewing the more than 14,000 comments left by living human beings, the FTC yesterday amended its Telemarketing Sales Rule to ban most types of robotic telemarketing calls. By this December, any recorded calls will have to lead off with an automated opt-out option; by September 2009, telemarketers will need prior written permission to contact someone—simply being a recent customer won't cut it.
Of course, there are still exceptions. More »
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do not call list
Hey, How Do I Sue Telemarketers Who Ignore The Do Not Call List?
We've been getting a lot of emails lately from people who are fed up with telemarketers ignoring the Do Not Call list and want to take the bastards to court. Now, to be fair, sometimes the people who email don't fully understand what is and what is not allowed under the law. More » -
pranks
Just Say 'Yes' To Telemarketers
Want to drive a telemarketer crazy and amuse yourself at the same time? Here's an example of how to do it.
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complaints
Obnoxious Police Telemarketers Tease You About Your Bedtime
Reader Chris, a donator to his local police department, is disturbed by the calls he has been receiving from the Richmond Police telemarketers. Besides being unusually aggressive and rude, one of their recent tactics involves placing phone calls late at night. One evening Chris tried to explain to this person that it was too late to take such calls to which the disgruntled telemarketer replied, "Ok little guy, you get to bed." Chris describes the strange phone calls, inside... More » -
hard sell
Chase Telemarketing Tactics: Try Being Sneaky, Then Launch Vague Threats
A reader writes in to share his traumatic experience with a Chase telemarketer who first tried to sneak a sale into the one-way conversation, then launched into scare tactics like asking, "What are you going to do when someone steals your identity?" R. writes, "I feel like I need protection from Chase's employees." More » -
banks
Internal Docs Prove Wachovia Knew About Telemarketer Rip-Offs All Along
A woman sued Wachovia last year because it allowed a telemarketing scam company to process stolen payments through its banks, despite complaints from customers and warnings from other banks and federal authorities. Wachovia said it had no idea what was going on, but now documents have been revealed that prove people high up in the company not only knew, but that "the bank, in fact, solicited business from companies it knew had been accused of telemarketing crimes." Why? How about millions of dollars of extra revenue from steep fees whenever a fraud-related chargeback went through? The lawyers for the woman are now seeking class-action status for the lawsuit. More » -
telemarketers
Get Rid Of Telemarketers, Debt Collectors, And Other Vermin With Phone Tones
Chris recorded a little sound file onto his answering machine that stopped a debt collector robot that kept calling him, seeking people who didn't live there. This .WAV is the U.S. Special Information Tone signal for "vacant circuit", which signifies and out-of-service or nonexistant number. You know it better as "boo-boo-BOOP!" Chris recorded a new message on his answering machine with the tones at the beginning and the next time the robot called, it thought it was getting a dead line and dutifully erased the number from its system. Voila, automatons be gone. Some places have autodialers that don't (or have been tweaked) to respond to SIT tones, but if you've got a persistent unwanted robot caller, it's worth a shot.
SIT-VC.WAV [Art Of Hacking]
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insiders
To Get Telemarketers To Stop, You Must Specifically Say "Put Me On Your Do Not Call List"
According to a reader who works as a telemarketer for a timeshare company, it's not enough to say say, "Stop calling me," to get yourself off a company's calling list, you must unequivocally request the removal.
"If you want a telemarketer to stop calling you, do not say "Quit calling me" or "Don't call me again." In some companies, Reps are informed under strict guidelines to only delete records if the customer specifically requests they do so. Telemarketers are only required to put you on the "Do Not Call" list if you SPECIFICALLY request to be put on it. Be clear about this and ask for written documentation to be mailed to you if they have your mailing address, but don't provide it to them if they do not."
Furthermore, if you're on the National Do Not Call list, you can report the infraction to the FCC here. An important caveat is this technique will only work for non-skeezy, non-fly-by-night telemarketing operations.
(Photo: Getty)
telemarketers
Missouri's Attorney General has
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