
AI That Annoys Telemarketers - mhb
http://gizmodo.com/todays-hero-made-an-ai-that-annoys-telemarketers-for-as-1756344562
======
gregmac
This is very similar to 'Lenny', a script someone developed for Asterisk
systems. It looks like the original website is down, but there's still a
FreePBX module[1], a youtube channel with many, many call recordings[2], as
well as several other forums posts/etc I won't bother to link. There used to
be a hosted service you could forward calls to as well.

The Lenny script's brilliance was its simplicity. Basically, it just waited
for silence, then played back one of several clever lines recorded by a
confusing-sounding old man. He'd ask the caller to repeat because he couldn't
hear, divert questions by asking "Sorry, who did you say you were calling from
again?" and tell long stories about his daughters then say "oh sorry, what was
your question again?".

Note, I appreciate the cleverness and social engineering aspect of this, but I
don't use it myself. I do have a blacklist on my home phone, but it only goes
to a 'not in service' tone, and I've only ever added 4 numbers to it (one in
particular was some guy that told me wife to "f __* off " when she said she
wasn't interested).

[1] [https://github.com/lgaetz/freepbx-
Its_Lenny](https://github.com/lgaetz/freepbx-Its_Lenny) [2]
[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLduL71_GKzHHk4hLga0nO...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLduL71_GKzHHk4hLga0nOGWrXlhl-
i_3g)

~~~
randycupertino
Fun anecdote time Lenny and even this new Jolly Roger AI- it's not just the
telemarketers who are being scammed, some of them are using Lenny to do the
scamming to get around their employers rules and get out of having to do real
work.

At a previous startup I worked at, we had an outbound call center with 500
reps who were incentivized by their talk time- the amount of time they spent
on outbound calls.

We found about 5 sneaky agents who would purposely call Lenny and sit on the
call doing nothing, doing their nails, reading their kindle to keep their
metrics up and high and look like they were doing their jobs well (and winning
monthly contest incentives that would give them small bonuses or extra PTO)
instead of calling real customers.

I always wondered if the people who designed Lenny know about how some reps
purposely call them to keep their own metrics up. Like, they think they are
sticking it to the telemarketer, but really the telemarketer WANTS to screw
around and take forever on the call so their performance bonus increases.

Once we caught on to this, the company changed the metrics around to number of
unique outbound calls. But then the reps also figured out a way to game that.
There were even a few of them who figured out a way to set up dummy numbers
and they would basically call their friends, or even EACH OTHER at the call
center, and sit on the call with their friends instead of calling the call
center. I could never really blame these reps, it was such a crappy soul
sucking job and I gotta say behind the scenes I was always impressed with
their ingenuity to try and get around the metrics. These reps were making $11
an hour and had to clock out even to use the bathroom (illegal practice that
the company just broke the law on).

I'm so glad I left that place, it was such a toxic atmosphere.

~~~
noir_lord
Read a piece years ago that said you should be very careful what targets you
set in business as people will inevitably optimise/game the system them for
those targets.

I've seen this play out at multiple places with staff all the way up to are
managment/director level.

~~~
wlesieutre
Not just business, this is true everywhere. As Goodhart's Law puts it, "When a
measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure."

[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=3978](http://www.smbc-
comics.com/index.php?id=3978)

~~~
EvanPlaice
Yay!! A somebody else referenced Goodhard's law so I don't have to.

The concept has an extremely long and storied history. Just look up the
'Chinese Imperial Exams' for more info. Makes me really wish that Eastern
History was taught in Western schools. Otherwise, we're doomed to repeat their
past mistakes.

------
anotherevan
Telemarketers I tend to just say, "No thanks" and hang up on them. They are in
a crap job, probably forced into it my circumstance, so the compassionate side
of me doesn't want to abuse them.

The argument that wasting their time will ultimately make it uneconomical for
those who employ telemarketers is an interesting one, although I doubt we'd
get enough critical mass to make a difference. Implementing a basic income so
people don't _have_ to work as telemarketers would be better for society as a
whole.

On the other hand, the calls from, "Microsoft Security" are actively trying to
harm me, so I'll waste their time all I can, delaying their opportunity with
the next person.

~~~
joezydeco
Having worked a telemarketing job back in my high-school days, I was
_grateful_ for the hang ups. We had quotas on calls completed and sales made,
so letting us move on to the next household was a good thing.

------
stcredzero
How about a service that uses a Siri-like voice recognition service to do one
very limited context task: Screen your calls against telemarketers?

A lot of telemarketer outfits with trashy setups are already at a
disadvantage: Their predictive dialers leave a huge gap of silence at the
beginning of an answered call because they don't properly time their dialing
with available operators. Such a service could learn the vocal characteristics
of your family and friends and would probably do a great job with recognizing
cues telemarketers produce unconsciously.

~~~
cballard
You don't really need something that complex. You can either:

1\. Just don't answer any call if it's not in your address book, as I do if
I'm not at a computer.

2\. Do a Google search for the number, if your doctor, tailor, or dry cleaner
doesn't come up, don't answer. Add these to your Address Book for the future.

Usually [http://800notes.com/](http://800notes.com/) or similar sites will
come up for telemarketers, with many notes. If implementing #2 in software, it
would make sense to go the other way, validating that a number probably _is_ a
telemarketer, instead of validating that it's something relevant to you (which
would be harder).

~~~
pavel_lishin
I always pick up the phone, because I don't want to miss a call from a friend
or a family member calling from jail, or a hospital, or a stranger's phone
after they got in a wreck.

It's less of a concern now that nearly everyone has cellphones, but I'd rather
not risk missing a call like that :/

~~~
soared
It is common practice to call twice in a row for emergencies. So if a random
number calls twice in a row, then you should pick up.

~~~
mandeepj
or if that call is really from your known ones then they will surely leave a
voice mail

~~~
ma2rten
Another thing is that in the US junk calls more often than not come from out
of state.

~~~
MereInterest
Except that cell phone numbers tend to tell you where somebody lived 5 years
ago, as opposed to where they live now. This makes it quite hard to screen
based on an out-of-state area code.

------
js2
I use Anveo as my VoIP provider. They have a neat web-based call flow tool. My
line is setup so that if you're not ona white list, you get a recording asking
you to press a digit, else the call goes to voice mail. This has gotten rid of
all telemarketing calls. Maybe 1 in 10 even make it to voice mail (most hang
up first).

But anyway, Anveo has had a "robotalk" feature for years, though I dunno how
much _AI_ it has.

------
wstrange
This would be perfect for the "This is Microsoft Windows calling" scams.

You know the one - a dude with a very thick Indian accent who wants you to
install some program to "fix" your PC.

~~~
ChuckMcM
Even better, rather than an AI you outsource the talking to someone who has
nothing better to do with their time and a mobile phone. Pay them a graduated
scale depending on how long they kept the caller on the phone.

~~~
wstrange
These scammers called my 88 year old father, and managed to talk him in to
_attempting_ to install some malware.

He isn't terribly computer literate, and Windows confuses the heck out of him
(switched him to Chromebooks - _so_ much better, but I digress).

Anyhow, after spending almost an hour with him, they hung up in frustration -
as he could not follow their directions to get the malware installed.

So Windows _is_ secure after all.

~~~
rokhayakebe
_Anyhow, after spending almost an hour with him, they hung up in frustration -
as he could not follow their directions to get the malware installed. So
Windows is secure after all._

Thank you for the laughter!

------
dhimes
I first heard of Tom Mabe on the radio when the morning show ("Kirk, Mark and
Lopez") out of Baltimore played some of his bits on the air. He would prank
the telemarketers ("Hey, I'm glad you called. (Darkly:) You wouldn't know how
to get blood out of a carpet, would you? I've got a _lot_ of blood here...").
He had some of them going quite a while- in a really quite funny way.

------
pavel_lishin
Where's the cruelty? This robot isn't calling them names; it's not insulting
them. The worst you could say about it is that it's wasting their time.

But it's not even wasting their time as much as they're wasting mine. Never -
not _once_ \- has a telemarketer call been something I would remotely be
interested in. But they get paid for their time, while mine evaporates into
the aether.

That's even assuming the best case scenario - that they're cold-calling me for
a product I may conceivably benefit from. What about all the scammers? What
about those who call up the elderly, and continue to try to sell them hard,
even if it's obvious that the person on the other end should not be making
financial decisions?

Maybe we should turn off spam filters to stop wasting the time of those who
write the poorly worded viagra and aluminum siding ads.

~~~
LeifCarrotson
Inthe end, it's all about money - and wasting the time of the person being
paid to call you is wasting the money of the person paying them.

Turning off spam filters will have no effect on the time of the person writing
them. Thanks to the magic of computers, when the message is written once, it
can be sent as many times as necessary, with a much smaller incremental cost
than a human on a phone. The cost to a spammer to send a message that bounces
off a spam filter is actually higher (due to the need to buy/find
open/vulnerable STMP relays when their reputation falls or they're
blacklisted) than to send mail that is delivered, so keep those spam filters
on!

~~~
username223
Can you go into more detail? For my personal mail, my default approach is to
toss spam client-side (via automatic filters or otherwise), so the spammer
gets no signal about whether or not it is delivered. Does reducing the
reputation of their relays hurt them much more? If so, which mail hosts
support doing this?

~~~
spc476
I use a greylist daemon ([http://www.x-grey.com/](http://www.x-grey.com/)) as
a first line filter and it easily stops 50% of spam right there (the spammer
will get a transient delivery error---most don't even bother with trying
again). Last year I did look into using some realtime black lists, but there
were a few critical false positives that kept me from using them (and there's
quite a few not worth using---details
[http://boston.conman.org/2015/05/11.1](http://boston.conman.org/2015/05/11.1)).

------
gherkin0
> It can even detect when a telemarketer is getting suspicious, triggering a
> completely inane response that usually convinces them otherwise.

How does it do that? Does it have some sophisticated voice recognition that
can pick up on emotional reactions? Or does it just jump into them on a
schedule that's calibrated to when someone would likely start to be annoyed?

The "yeah uh-huh" stuff seemed pretty straightforward: it sounds like just
shoots them off whenever there was enough silence to imply the telemarketer
was waiting for a response.

------
ADRIANFR
Here is what I have done many times when a telemarketer calls I listen to what
he wants to sell, the I say: “Yes, I think I’ll be interested in this, can you
hold on just a bit?” Then I put down the phone and let him wait. Many times,
the caller was still waiting 5 minutes later.

~~~
pavel_lishin
I believe that some call center forbid, or heavily penalize, the workers for
hanging up on a potential lead.

------
petegrif
I have a solution to telemarketers that I have found to be extremely
effective. No matter what they say you reply "That's very interesting, please
tell me more." Ideally you should do this in a flat monotone. They rarely make
it past 3 or 4 opening gambits.

------
stevewillows
Instead of annoying these poor telemarketers, I'd rather have some software
play a decent stand-up routine before declining the invitation to participate
in whatever their service is.

I can only assume that the telemarketer's day sucks enough without this type
of software in play.

~~~
noname123
Re:how a comedian (Seinfeld) responds to telemarketer:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hllDWSbuDsQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hllDWSbuDsQ)

------
BWStearns
Love this! Almost fell off my chair laughing. Reading through the comments I
saw some tender souls among us feel that Jolly Roger's kindly enticement to go
on speaking is cruel, and wondered if there was a more humane way. I kept
seeing the issue of the "What company is this? .... _click_ " scenario. Given
that there's a fairly high likelihood that the line callers for these guys are
fairly gullible and/or cheaply greedy, as well as unlikely to be long term
employees, I'm wondering if you could get one to flip on their bosses and
provide a real location/target for the promise of $[500-1000?] to a PayPal
account (of course it wouldn't be paid, fuck 'em they're scammers). I'm trying
it next time one of them calls. Granted it doesn't accomplish the initial goal
of being more humane, but good intentions and all that.

Edit: You can apparently be awarded $1500 in private action against an entity
calling you if you're on the DNC list. For social engineering purposes maybe
promise to split it with the representative and suggest that s/he might be
personally on the hook for money if they don't help?

~~~
tamana
You wonder why you can't convince a scammer to give you valuable info in
exchange for a fake promise to pay? You can noodle that out.

~~~
BWStearns
Close but not really what I said. I speculated that it is possible to do so, I
didn't wonder why one couldn't. Think about who is calling you. The people
working those phones aren't and never will be Kevin Mitnick. They're poorly
educated, morally apathetic, have no real options, are unlikely to be employed
at the same place in a few weeks anyways, and may in fact be being scammed by
the people running the operation as well. People fitting that profile are
prone to believing that they've gotten/will get lucky despite the evidence,
see lotteries. They're basically indistinguishable from their ideal marks.

Also, yeah supervisors might be listening to the call/the call is recorded,
but it would be uneconomical to monitor them all live all the time. Any
attempt to turn them would hinge on their expectation that their remaining
time at the gig is going to earn less than what they expect to get from you.
If you can convince them that they could make $1500 now, that's a month's
salary for them. If they expect to be fired tomorrow then even a chance that
you're telling the truth starts looking worth it.

------
gruez
Is there a self-hosted version of this for those of us without 3-way calling
or long distance plans?

~~~
dsr_
Or a sip endpoint so that we can use a little cheap net bandwidth rather than
expensive minutes.

~~~
gruez
There's a dummer implementation of this idea that does use a sip endpoint.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/itslenny/](https://www.reddit.com/r/itslenny/). Too
bad it frequently goes down (due to abuse) and isn't as sophisticated as the
OP.

------
DoctorBit
Reminds me of the "Telecrapper 2000" from a long time ago:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlK_zHisT_A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlK_zHisT_A)

[http://myplace.frontier.com/~pumamanor/](http://myplace.frontier.com/~pumamanor/)

------
MrQuincle
Forgive my ignorance, but has telemarketing always been going on in the
States? Does it depend on the State? Why does the register not work? Is there
no organisation that hands out fines? What's going on that you can not protect
yourself against intrusion in your own home/life?

~~~
sdfin
I thought the same. Where I live there's a register where you can suscribe,
and if telemarketers call you then the company can be fined. Isn't there in
USA such a thing?

Even if somebody calls using VoIP, they will mention their products, so I
don't know why that would be an obstacle to identifying them.

~~~
pandaman
"Telemarketer" nowadays means just anybody making annoying calls. I don't
remember when was last time somebody who actually wanted to sell something has
called. All the calls I am getting now are either asking for donations (which
are exempt from do-not-call law, being a "charity"), doing a "survey" (also
exempt) or are from criminals helping with my "credit card debt" , from
"Windows security", from "IRS" etc. I imagine the criminals, already breaking
more serious laws, would ensure they are not vulnerable to the do-not-call.

------
NoMoreNicksLeft
I will pay $20 for this iPhone app. Take my damned money.

------
metasean
And he gets to run a Turing test on his AI for each call, sorta like training
AI through CAPTCHAS.

~~~
jonbaer
To me this (somewhat) passes the Turing test no?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test)
... if only it had prerecorded context bits that could be recognized ...

~~~
Nutmog
No because the human doesn't expect that he might be talking to a machine. If
he knew there was a 50% chance it was a machine then he'd find ways to
recognize it - like its inability to follow the conversation at all.

~~~
metasean
>Should the interrogator know about the computer? [1]

> ...he states only that player A is to be replaced with a machine, not that
> player C is to be made aware of this replacement.

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test#Should_the_interro...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test#Should_the_interrogator_know_about_the_computer.3F)

------
jpatokal
I've always liked the telemarketing counterscript:
[http://egbg.home.xs4all.nl/counterscript.html](http://egbg.home.xs4all.nl/counterscript.html)

------
mangeletti
I called the robot's number, added a second call to the robot's number, then
merged the calls and muted myself. It was pretty hilarious.

------
brokentone
I've been getting so many calls lately, I've been playing music for them
lately, trying to waste their time, hoping that they will take my number off
whatever list it's on... I really wish there was a way to waste more of their
time. Thus far, all I've determined is that they don't like Ace of Base.

~~~
randycupertino
They might actually start calling you more because the reps get incentivized
by talk time, so getting a chance to chill and listen to music instead of
actually having to talk to people and try to sell scam things people don't
want to buy is a refreshing change for them.

Realize those reps hate their lives, hate their jobs and are probably getting
$11 an hour in some crappy hell hole trying to make $$ to feed their kids...
it's not a job anyone WANTS to be doing and they really don't WANT to be
bothering you, they are just forced to by their employers.

If you don't want the calls, just say, "Please put me on your do not call
list, thank you and have a nice day" and then hang up. Asking for the DNC is
crucial- the words "DO NOT CALL" is the magic phrase that will get them to put
your # into the blocked list of the autodialer. Some scammier telefirms won't
actually add you to their DNC list if you say "stop calling me" it has to be
the phrase "add me to your do not call list."

Also if you just hang up on them without saying anything, the software will
automatically add your number back into the queue to reattempt you again and
again sometimes within days. Our outbound autodialer software used to recall
people who didn't answer and also everyone who sent the reps straight to
voicemail. The autodialer basically throws everyone back in to get endless
calls in perpetuity until you pick up and the rep talks to you. And in a big
shop where you've got 500 reps making 200-250 outbound calls per day, they can
try you 1x a week forever.

So if you really don't want ANY more telemarketing calls ever, stay on the
line until the rep comes on, then say "please add this number to your do not
call list, thank you, goodbye."

~~~
tomjen3
If they call back can you sue them?

~~~
randycupertino
Yes.

------
delinka
"It’s absolutely brilliant when it works flawlessly." Ain't it the truth? This
is said of my own software creations.

Though, to be honest, they seldom work flawlessly.

------
pfista
The calls I get usually start by the telemarketer asking to speak to the
owner. I say she isn't available and they always hang up right after that.

------
lispm
In what way is 'AI' involved?

------
mavdi
Haha this is genius, now add a premium rate number to that and profit.

------
bcheung
This could be dangerous depending on what the telemarketer is saying.

TM: Would you to know more? Bot: Yes.

TM: Do we have your permissions to record this conversation. Bot: Uh huh.

TM: Do you agree to the charge of $123.45? Bot: Yes, sounds good.

~~~
pavel_lishin
Who would the telemarketer charge? I don't think you can initiate a charge to
a phone number unless the number itself calls someone, can you?

~~~
zo1
If it's from your provider, yes, they absolutely can. Because on their side,
the number links to a "specific person/account", and they will charge to that,
or add the service to that.

------
erokar
Good job on making things worse for underpaid workers who in all probability
also hate what they do.

~~~
Spivak
So if I hired someone to follow you around in public and gently but constantly
poke you with a stick you would treat this person well simply because I was
paying them? You're just happy they have a job?

At what point is a person responsible for their job/career? Regardless of
whether it was a choice or not, if your job is to annoy, harass, and
manipulate people, those people being angry and treating you like shit is just
an occupational hazard.

~~~
hardwaresofton
Have some empathy. Regardless of how this person got to their decision, you
may be justified in the right to be annoyed, but why not choose to be kind?

Also people complain about telemarketers so much, but how many calls are you
really getting a day from them? Also, how many times has one really
interrupted something important you were doing?

They're just sales people whose business meetings happen over the phone.

Yeah, you COULD treat your waiter like shit (angry customers are just an
occupational hazard), but that's a shitty thing to choose to do, outside of
extreme situations.

~~~
pavel_lishin
> _Yeah, you COULD treat your waiter like shit (angry customers are just an
> occupational hazard)_

What waiter? A telemarketer is _not_ a waiter. I choose to go to a restaurant.
And if my waiter's service is _bad_ , I can always leave, or complain to their
manager. If the service is bad enough - like, oh, for instance, the waiter
wastes my time by taking my order and telling me an hour later that they ran
out of the thing I ordered - I might even be entitled to some compensation (a
discount on my next meal, etc.)

I can't complain to a telemarketer's manager, and while I can hang up, I can't
prevent them from calling me again, and I'm sure as shit not going to get
compensated.

~~~
cballard
The rest is true, but it's pretty easy to block individual telemarketers:

[https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201229](https://support.apple.com/en-
us/HT201229)

[http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-to-block-phone-
calls...](http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-to-block-phone-calls-on-
your-android-smartphone/)

They always seem to call from the same number for me, day after day, then they
go away when I block that number.

~~~
xeromal
I tend to get a lot of calls from 0 or Unidentified. Not sure how to block
that shit.

~~~
slantyyz
If you're on Android, you can whitelist inbound calls using a freemium app
called Mr. Number[1]. I'm not sure there's anything even remotely like it on
iOS.

If you're using a VOIP service, ymmv. Before I switched to Ooma, my previous
VOIP provider allowed you have a whitelist. So basically anyone not in my
contacts got bounced to voicemail, and my phone would not ring at all. Ooma's
call blocking is obtuse and manual, but it's half the price of my last
provider, and the call quality is way better. An unfortunate compromise, I
guess.

As for land lines, I used to use a now discontinued device+software called a
Phone Valet [2] connected to an unused Mac. It basically acted as an answering
machine/lightweight IVR. My phone would ring once so that the caller ID could
get picked up by the device, and then based on a set of rules, my phone would
either continue ringing, hang up (on known telemarketer numbers) or redirect
to voicemail (everyone else). It was a pretty neat device, but I guess the
decline of the landline led that product to be EOL'ed.

[1] [http://mrnumber.com/](http://mrnumber.com/)

[2] [http://www.phonevalet.com/](http://www.phonevalet.com/)

------
fishnchips
This is inhumane. I don't like being cold-called but I really feel sorry for
the lads and lasses doing it. I've been extremely lucky to have had the
privilege in life that allowed me to receive good education, land a sequence
of ever better jobs and build up skills that allow me do things I enjoy and
get paid infinitely more than I deserve. Trolling folks that due to no fault
of theirs were much less lucky in their lives is as ambitious as trolling my
two year old son but way, way more cruel.

~~~
frik
Have you even read the article and watched the videos? Hint: watch the videos
and read the intro text...

------
hoodoof
Aren't telemarketers people who are just trying to get their bills paid?

Seems like bullying behaviour to be unkind to them.

A quick "no thanks" and hang up is enough.

~~~
hardwaresofton
Someone made a similar comment and was severely down-voted -- be an adult, say
no thanks, and hang up the phone.

If you're being called extremely consistently at the same inconvenient time,
then your case is extraordinary, take some measures to make sure the company
doesn't call you again (no call list, whatever else) -- don't take your
frustration out on the person who's turn it is to call you.

I stated this before, but if you think about it, telemarketers are just sales
people who work over the phone. Even when they're being overbearing, no one
treats sales people this shitty in person.

~~~
dave2000
> If you're being called extremely consistently at the same > inconvenient
> time, then your case is extraordinary, take > some measures to make sure the
> company doesn't call you > again (no call list, whatever else) -- don't take
> your > frustration out on the person who's turn it is to call > you.

There is a large group of people for whom there is literally no way of
stopping them calling. That's the point you don't seem to understand. You're
saying essentially "it's not their fault that they're illegally harassing you
having taken steps to hide their identity so you can't report them". It's a
moronic argument!

You're conflating "being an adult" with "meekly accepting that some people are
going to phone you in the evening when you're relaxing with your family and
try and bullshit you into giving them money without giving them a piece of
your mind". All of the phone calls are inconvenient because they all waste my
time; when are they ever not inconvenient?

You might just as well describe crack dealers as "businessmen, just after an
honest buck".

~~~
hardwaresofton
You're telling me, that you, as a grown functioning adult, can't think of a
solution to the problem of someone calling your phone number illegally
repeatedly?

Change your number? Threaten to sue? Actually sue? Call the parent company?
Call whatever company that is hiring them (whose products they're trying to
sell you), and complain?

How "large" is this group of people? Are you sure the loud complainers on the
internet aren't causing overestimation on your part?

If you're not trying to be interrupted, unplug your phone/silence the ringer.
Then you definitely won't get interrupted.

They may not be inconvenient if they are selling something you actually want.
While this is unlikely, it is possible, this is the same rationale for other
forms of advertising/marketing.

BTW, the same derogatory tone with which you mention "crack dealers", people
also used (and still use) for people who sell pot (which is now legal in a few
areas). Pot and crack are not the same, but the tone with which you're
criticizing people who sell crack cocaine the substance is the same tone that
people used while weed was illegal (and still use today).

~~~
pavel_lishin
> _Change your number?_

Expecting someone to change their number to protect themselves from
telemarketers is asinine.

> _Threaten to sue? Actually sue? Call the parent company?_

Threaten whom? The telemarketer? Instant hang-up. Their boss? Good luck
getting them on the phone. Their actual company? Good luck getting a
telemarketer to tell you that information; that's an instant-hang-up.

> _Call whatever company that is hiring them (whose products they 're trying
> to sell you), and complain?_

Assuming there's even a legitimate item being sold, that's an interesting
idea. The next time I get an offer to get an estimate for having siding put on
my residence, I'll take them up on it.

I'm afraid, though, that the person who shows up to the apartment complex I'm
renting from will just be a local contractor, who's actually completely
innocent party who was duped by a "marketing company" into paying money for
leads. Then I'll have wasted their time. I'd feel bad about that; not about a
telemarketer.

~~~
hardwaresofton
> Expecting someone to change their number to protect themselves from
> telemarketers is asinine.

Asinine options are options. It is hyperbole to imply that someone has zero
options.

Also, your comment is contradictory -- you detail a possibility on how to find
the company that is "providing leads".

~~~
pavel_lishin
I also write short science fiction stories from time to time. They're about as
plausible.

