Telemarketers Plaguing Bloomberg's Batphone
from the ring-ring dept
Back in June, it was reported that hotlines the Department of Homeland Security had set up for governors around the country were getting hit by telemarketers, who apparently just randomly dialed the numbers. Now, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the "batphone" in his kitchen at home gets sales calls, too. He says the phone's never been used in an actual emergency, so that every time it rings, it's an insurance sales call. We still wonder why government bodies seem unable to get these numbers on do not call lists (which is a little surprising given how it was such a hot issue for politicians), or why they can't come up with some other solution. Given Bloomberg's comments, it seems like there's a real danger of a boy-who-cried-wolf situation developing here, where people will tend to ignore these hotlines whenever they ring, assuming it's just another sales pitch -- which sort of defeats the point of having the hotlines in the first place.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Disappointed
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Disappointed (continued)
Wouldn't you think that you could give all the hotlines a specific prefix (KL5-XXXX) or a specific area code only for these hotline phones that would be made off limits and hopefully unknown to phone hasslers? Back it up with hefty, hefty fines. Sort of like the do not call list, which worked great with my old number but has not worked at all with my new one.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
PIN?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
For secure lines such as this the pin code works great.. We have a system in place like this and if you don't know the pin code the call never gets though all done though computer system
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
I've been on the national DNC list for a couple of years, companies I deal with know not to call me or sell my info, and I can go a month or more without a single unsolicited phone call.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ban telemarketing completely
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Doesn't the solution already exist?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
wasting police time
Perhaps there's a legislative gotchya. Maybe the rules say they must serve everyone as an emergency service, including calls from the telephones of spammers, that would make sense. If they blocked any number and failed to respond to an emergency then someone would have their head on the block.
The way out is rather obvious imho. Emergency services have special status. If I call 911 and say "Hi,I rather carelessly seem to have got my arm stuck in an industrial meat mincer and would like an ambulance please... but while we're waiting would you be interested in a great special offer on a selection of pies and pasties..", I'd get nicked for wasting the operators time.
So do them for that.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: wasting police time
woah - sick! too early for that one ;0)
DNC only works unfortunatly if the company is in the same country - I too am in the UK and have signed up to the lists (for anyone interested its www.tpsonline.org.uk)
Admitedly my sales calls have dropped dramatically since, but I still get calls from Indian call centres and have been told that since these are in another country there is no legal way to stop them
I can see how having an emergency phone which gets sales calls would be annoying as it would lead to people ignoring it, but other than the PIN idea which seems the best one so far, all I can do is second the idea that sales calls to private numbers should be illegal full stop
Sales companies have no right to invade my privacy in this manner and I have no idea what gives them the impression they should have. Just like email SPAM however it will only change if law makers become involved (not likely) or if dufusses stop buying from them (highly unlikely)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
DCL does not work if the telemarketers are calling
[ link to this | view in thread ]
callnotes
http://callnotes.org
[ link to this | view in thread ]