From: greer@mwk.uucp
Newsgroups: tx.general,austin.general
Subject: Re: Tormenting Telemarketers (was Re: Caller-ID discussion)
Date: 10 Jan 93 15:44:12 CST
Distribution: tx
Organization: M. W. Kellogg, Houston TX

In article <1993Jan4.185843.16973@montagar.com>, davidc@montagar.com (David L. Cathey) writes:
> 
> 	     Tormenting Telmarketers - A Game You Can Play at Home!
> 
(points scoring system for anti-telemarketer ploys deleted)

Just a couple of additions:

                Hanging up on a telemarketer, and getting them
                to call back immediately.                          500 pts.
                   
                  Two tactics come to mind.  One is to sound very interested,
                  and then break the connection while *you* are talking.  The
                  teleslime will assume this is an accident, or the fault of
                  the phone company, and waste his time calling the "hot
                  prospect" back.  +50 pts. if you can keep from laughing
                  and string him along some more.  
                       The other tactic is to get the teleslime so P.O.'d
                  that he just *has* to tell you off, and then hang up.  When
                  he calls you back, you're likely to get the points for 
                  profanity as well (+150 if his call is in violation of
                  applicable laws *and* you file a *police* report [reporting
                  to the phone company doesn't count]).

                Getting their machine to talk to your machine.     25pts./min.

                  Many telemarketing calls today are initiated by a machine
                  playing a recording (I got two yesterday).  The standard
                  tactic is to simply leave the phone off the hook until the
                  machine gets tired of talking to itself.  Telemarketers have
                  caught on to this, however, and now usually use a brief
                  message, followed by something requiring a response.  The 
                  machine hangs up if no response is received.  If you stick
                  around giving responses yourself, you are expending your time 
                  to consume a machine's time (no points for *this*).  You 
                  should, however, get points if you can rig a machine to 
                  string the telemarketer's machine along after it gives it's
                  introductory speech by giving appropriate but non-committal 
                  responses (+100 pts for getting the machine to transfer your
                  machine to a real person, -5000 pts. if your machine commits
                  you to spend money, accept a product, or accept a personal 
                  visit from a salesman, or anything similar).

> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
> David L. Cathey		                |INET: davidc@montagar.com
> Montagar Software Concepts              |UUCP: ...!montagar!davidc
> P. O. Box 260772, Plano TX  75026-0772  |Fone: (214)-618-2117
-- 

Hi Dave!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Greer (greer@mwk.uucp)| This stuff springs entirely from my own mind, and is
M. W. Kellogg             | neither endorsed by nor known to my employer, the 
601 Jefferson Ave.        | U. S. government, the Vogon Poetry Appreciation 
P. O. Box 4557            | Society, or any other entity wise enough to avoid 
Houston, TX 77210-4457    | reading it.