ABP and telemarketers

[rick752]

I have been getting irritated by the number of telemarketers lately. I get many calls all day long from these clowns trying to sell something or give something away. I am on the USA National "Do not call" registry.

These people seem to have a blatant disregard for people's privacy .. and for their wishes to not be disturbed. I thought about these a-holes being a pain in people's asses and although ABP doesn't work on telephones, I wondered what would happen if I started blocking their websites in the EasyList because of the way they annoy millions of people every day.

The scenario would play out like this:
1) I would add their address to the EasyList.
2) Eventually, someone would draw their attention to the fact that their website is all screwed up.
3) They would have to get in touch here to complain and ask to be released from the EasyList (3 million subscribers is going to bother them).
4) I would then tell them to go f*ck themselves until they stop calling me and members of my family and friends on the phone constantly and leaving no message.
5) They wouldn't really know me or my family, so they wouldn't know who to stop calling.

I was reading at a forum about telemarketing harassment and one person who was getting calls constantly from a Florida company finally asked for a supervisor. The person told the supervisor that he was on the "Do not call registry" and asked him why he kept harassing his household. The answer from the supervisor was, "Because I can!" ... and hung up.

This story pissed me off in a way that I would just love to have a telemarketing rep come here and ask me why his site is blocked in the EasyList .... guess what my reply would be? "BECAUSE I CAN"

And I would start with these 2:
accelerateddebtrelief.com
ixeacceleratedfinancialservices.com

Wouldn't you just love to slap one of these annoying SOB places right in the puss?

I wouldn't actually do this (well .. maybe not). It was just a humorous thought that could just work though

[chewey]

3) They would have to get in touch here to complain and ask to be released from the EasyList (3 million subscribers is going to bother them).

The problem is: It won't. Even if all of those were in the US, this would be less than one percent of the population - and still mostly
those tech-savy enough to use something else than IE as a browser and to modifiy their alternative browser, therefore (yes, that's
a bit elitist) those more unlikely to fall for some sort of scam. And you'd be surprised how many Firefox users are totally unaware
of the fact that there are extentions for it.

Unless ABP achieves a user base about an order of magnitude bigger than now, none of those bastards will care, because there still
are many many potential scam targets left - more than enough to get a reliable source of income apparently.

The good news being ABP's growth rate of course

[rick752]

3) They would have to get in touch here to complain and ask to be released from the EasyList (3 million subscribers is going to bother them).

The problem is: It won't.

It might if it became another big internet story. Blocking things seems to be big news these days. Throw in a couple of these place's names .. and presto ... Danny Carlton again. Ad intrusions are one thing, but I would think that most would say telemarketers HAVE to be at the top of the intrusion list. People hate ads .. but LOATHE telemarketers

[LanikSJ]

What I've been doing sorta works for me. I disconnected my main house line a few months back since I only use cell phones and have no need for a house line outside of DSL. Currently the DSL line has no phone number, so I freely give it out if and when asked. If they want to call go ahead they can wait till I pick up which won't happen because I wouldn't even know if they are calling or not, nor would I care. Only my friends and family have my cell phone and of course it has caller ID so if I see a toll free number I don't answer or let it go to voice mail if I'm unsure who's calling.

I'm also on Do Not Call list make sure your subscription hasn't expired because you do have to renew it every 5 years or so I just had to do mine recently.

[Stalker72]

http://www.houstonpolicefoundation.com/

They call all the time! ... Donate $50-1000 ... Are you interested in? ... Please help, we need your support ... What's your address and telephone number ... Participate in ... Get a sticker for your car ...

We say we're absolutely not interested in any more phone calls, but they keep calling. My dad donated some money back then, just to make them stop. They didn't!

This is a great idea by the way!

[jade]

i wish there was a way to write an app on the iphone that ties in with the actual telephone part. you could maintain a "blocklist" of phone numbers, and when the number called, the app would simply disconnect them. perhaps by muting the sound, picking up the call really quick and hanging up on them. that way they don't even get your voicemail.

unfortunately, i heard that when the iphone receives a phone call, all other applications are closed.

i don't know much about the whole thing though. i wonder if there is a way, somehow? maybe it might work on other pda phones, like the windows mobile based ones? would certainly be nice, with all the phones that have internet connectivity now-a-days. although i'd imagine it would have been done by now if it was that easy =Z