Reddit Community Discovers Phone Numbers To Reach Car Warranty Telemarketers...
from the poetic-justice? dept
Pretty much everyone is getting those telemarketing scam car warranty calls these days. They're the ones that start out "this is the second warning that the factory warranty on your car is about to expire...." Of course, it's not the second warning (in some cases it's the 100th) and it doesn't matter if your car warranty is about to expire or even if you own a car. They just call everyone. Last summer, the FTC announced that (partly in response to those calls), all prerecorded telemarketing calls were banned. But, considering these guys are scammers, that wasn't going to stop them. It looks like the folks over at Reddit got fed up and social engineered the phone numbers of the company out of a rep, and then the community just started calling repeatedly, overwhelming the company's phone lines. Of course, while it certainly has that poetic justice feel to it, it won't stop them. They'll change their phone number and get right back to it. What's not clear is why the Reddit folks could track down who was responsible while the FTC has been unable to do so...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.
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Filed Under: car warranty, mob justice, scams, telemarketing
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Maybe they used the Jack Bauer approach and lied to get the information, something our govt. probably doesn't believe in anymore.
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I'd say it's pretty clear why,
Some people actually CARE and others actually don't.
To the FTC this was just a pile of paper reports to ignore. To the people getting the calls it became a HUGE annoyance.
FYI I was at peak getting 3 to 5 calls a day from those scammers on just one of my lines.
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Case in point, my brother had his identity jacked. They got a car repair at Sears in his name among other things. Shops always write down the owners name and tag number. All the cops had to do was go to Sears, get the tag, run it and bust the guy. Did they do it? Nope.
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John Doe
Guess what, when given a map (by GPS), proof of ownership (from you and your cell phone company) and a computer program pinging your email the cops still wont arrest the guy because the iphone is just worth so little (in the eyes of the law).
My question is given how connected we are, and the volume of the calls why cant thay backtrack via the tel co? I mean unless the system is routing around the world several times its not like there unfindable.
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FTC Ineffective!
We are forced to spend our tax dollars on ineffectual and wasteful Government programs that accomplish little in the way of doing their jobs, except for spending Taxpayer money.
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I just got one of those calls not 30 minutes ago
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We are forced to spend our tax dollars on ineffectual and wasteful Government programs that accomplish little in the way of doing their jobs, except for spending Taxpayer money.
Apparently; they aren't quite as effective as bloggers on the 'Net.
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I know why they can't find them
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Profit!
I just coined that term.
For royalty and use payments... I accept PayPal.
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i just waste time
do non-voip companies offer whitelisting service?
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Tele-monkeys
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Re:
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They're watching me!
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The FTC should do something useful
I'm tired of having my phone ring, only to see "Unavailable" on the display. News flash, those calls will not be picked up.
EtG
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Re: The FTC should do something useful
Spoofing caller ID is simple and cheap. Never believe what the caller ID says.
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caller id
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Re: caller id
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Re: caller id
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Sharing good info
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