Rat poison needs to be constantly upgraded because rats develop immunity to every new poison developed.
Similarly the spammers - be they email spammers or tele-spammers develop newer ways to irritate you enough to wish you could put up a trap to stop them once & for all.
I just received a call from 056694 on my cell phone. A guy spoke into the phone:
“Hi, I’m Mitesh do you want to be friends with me?”
Before I could recover from my wt? feeling with my eyebrows up, a girl comes on the line:
“Hi, I’m Reshma..”
Recorded Spam telephone calls now!
It was bad enough getting the telemarketers touting Credit Cards, Car Loans, House Loans - now it’s recorded messages - my cell provider requesting me to change to caller-tunes (which incidentally I don’t do, simple rings works best for me, thank you very much), it’s random companies asking me to join their network (sorry, I’m not giving you guys any publicity).
Way back in 2005, the Supreme Court of India sought to convince the government to have telcom regulators frame rules to ban spam calls and preserve the privacy of mobile phone users.
The Reserve Bank of India subsequently urged banks using telemarketers for credit card & loan services to maintain a ‘Do not call registry’. Judging by the significant drop of people calling me for these services (if any!), it’s fair to assume these services are in place (or that I’ve been very very lucky, fingers, still crossed).
Meanwhile the National Do Not Call Registry (of India) - which was supposed to be active from this month (September 2007) - hasn’t been able to stop either the spam messages or these new recorded telecalls I’ve been receiving.
The message on the Subscription page reads:
Please contact your telecom service provider for more Details. Any existing subscriber or new subscriber can request his telephone number be included in the National Do Not Call Register. Such request would be free of cost. The telecom service provider will acknowledge the request within ten days. Requests will become effective in 45 days from the date of request.
The ‘Details’ of the telecom service providers is linked to a pdf file, which incidentally does not open. Such is life.
The rats have evolved. It’s time to evolve our rat traps.
—
Cross Posted at My India Report
Tags: Cell-Phones, DND, Do-Not-Call-Registry, India, Mobile-Phones, National-Do-Not-Call-Registry, Telemarketing, TRAI, Unsolicited-Phone-Calls
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September 28th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
I’ve stopped snapping at these guys. Now I try and sound really interested and ask them if they could hold on while I go look for my brother. Then I put the phone to the side and carry on doing whatever I was. It doesn’t stop them, but it makes me feel good!
September 29th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Ok, try this. Call your service provider and demand to be put on the “Do Not disturb” List. They’ll tell you that your request is accepted and it takes 45 days to become active. Dont worry, it happens faster (speaking from personal experience)!
After a few days, you’ll receive a confirmation SMS that you’re actually on the list and trust me, once on, you wont get a call (again, from experience).
If you do get a call, do go on about how much you think life is a biaaatch and irritate the f&&k outta those guys. Tell them if they know of any ahsram or even a beach where you could trespass and attempt to set up a house in violation of all laws known to man. That in itself will make the call worth it to you.
Good luck and God Speed. May the power of pissin’ people off remain with you forever.
September 29th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Yup! pensivelawyer’s correct, call up the customer care and it works. if u get another telemarketing call u can simply report the number to your service provider - they are bound by government rules to report this to TRAI.
The service started 1st sep, so worst to worst if they take 45 days and assuming that u subscribed on 1st sept - u wud be at peace from 15 oct onwards.
September 29th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Good blog. Mature thoughts.
October 4th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
This reminds me of a Seinfeld episode where he gets called by a telemarketer at home.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hllDWSbuDsQ
This won’t stop them calling you, but at least you’ll have fun getting rid of them!
October 4th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Hey, I used to work at one of those places. A little kindness goes a long way.
October 12th, 2007 at 2:47 am
Actually, the rat traps are evolved… it’s just that the rat-trap manufacturer is in cahoots with the rats
October 15th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
@ Pensive: Have done that. “May the power of pissin’ people off remain with you forever.”
erm.. NO
@ Secret Admirer: So you admire me in secret and you sleep walk? Nice combo!!
@ Tin Tin: Thank you! Welcome to TVIMH
@ Shekhar: Checked it out - funny!
@ IC: Sorry m’am. Know it’s a job and don’t disrespect the ones doing it. It does get annoying sometimes though when you’re on the other side. See the link Shekhar sent
@ Twisted: Hopefully the new regs should stop that though.