"Hello, this is Steve from Air Duct Cleaning"
 

Is the same thing going on, south of the border?

Over the last couple of years we've seen an explosion of telemarketing calls from a company calling itself "Air Duct Cleaning." I was home sick, one day last week, and had to get out of bed 4 times to answer calls from these assholes. If you opt for the cleaning then some knuckle dragger shows up at your door, blows the dust out of your heating vents and all over your house, then charges you $75.00 for the privilege.

In Canada we have a national "do not call list." Companies that are in breach of it are supposed to receive legal sanctions from the CRTC (our equivalent to your FCC). Thing is that these assholes are in Karachi, Pakistan and using IP phones, so tracking them down and sanctioning them is a virtual impossibility.

Unless you're a TV news and information programme, apparently.

http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/episod...emarketer.html

http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/episod...-knocks-3.html

You had to get out of bed to answer the phone?

Does your phone number still have a letter in it?

http://blogs.loc.gov/loc/files/2009/09/switchboard.jpg

:lol

Land line. No cordless. I started ignoring home phone technology when I got off dial-up.

So you guys aren't getting these calls too?

Luckily my cell # is really old and not recycled so I only get wrong #'s.

Verizon has an app that I can block pretty much anything. I can specify out of area, specific numbers, etc.... We have a don't call list but it excludes so called charities. So a LOT slip through the cracks.

Up here the limitation on the do not call list excludes newspapers, polling companies, political parties, and companies who you are already a client of.

The problem with these particular telemarketers is that they are using IP phones and spoofing local phone numbers, to the call display function. As a result they slip through and the aggressiveness of their calling is beyond ridiculous.

:lmao:

They're suppose to put bags on all your vents to collect the dust... I have seen it done before.

At the very least they're supposed to cover them over with something like blue poly, to keep dust from being kicked up all over the house. It's also pretty pointless to be using forced air in the air return ducts, when you're vacuuming out the forced air ducts.

In case you're wondering this is still going on, more than a year later. I got 7 calls from them over 3 days.

A big telemarketing call going on here is for home security setups.

Nope, not here :)

The company I work for does some business in Canada and the new do not call rules you all are instituting were just mentioned the other day. For us it was from the B2B perspective which is going to be very strict compared to America (and will include emails). It wouldn't surprise me if the rules governing consumer marketing calls become more strict as well. Get on the list if you aren't already.

https://www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca/index-eng

I'm already on it. When the company in question is calling from Karachi via IP phone, the list doesn't mean much. They spoof local phone numbers and dispatch local duct services, but actually tracking back and fining someone is still problematic.

I haven't received any of those calls.

I "win" a lot of trips. :rockwoot:

I received one from an office that is apart of Microsoft. So they said. She said my computer had a virus and it affected them. So I had to get rid of it with their help. I said no thanks. I will deal with it myself. She said I couldn't and if I didn't have it removed that they would have shut down my system. I wouldn't be allowed to use copy of Windows. :tremble:

James

I get the trip calls, but nowhere near as many as the air duct cleaning calls. I've had three of those over the weekend.

I haven't had one of those "Microsoft" calls in forever. Being a desktop/network support guy I love them, because the folks on the other end of the line are obviously working from a script and have no knowledge themselves. I like asking them what my IP address is, what my MAC address is, the name of my service provider or, if I just want to get rid of them, I just tell them that I'm running Linux.

That is crazy about the microsoft thing. They try planting software in your pc or somin? What's their goal?

They have you go to one of the remote access support sites, that gives them direct access to your PC. at that point they can push/install whatever they want. Key loggers. Spyware. Rootkit. You name it.

WOW... f that. I can't believe people just let anybody do that. I have let some do that in the past, but I called them for support.

I actually had a client do it, then freak out when she realized what she had just done. We had to send the notebook to our network security group for forensics.

Something I've been thinking about posting a thread about, but this seems like a good point to mention it. If you've been downloading and installing software from places like CNet and Download.com, stop. Your computer has likely already been compromised. Those sites, and likely a lot of others, are now installing applications called "Settings Manager" and "Safe Search by Conduit" along with your downloads, without informing you of it. Conduit alters your web browser search settings with a "browser helper object" and then locks it from being changed, and Settings Manager changes and locks your domain name server settings which means that they can send you to any website that they want to, no matter what you actually typed in.