• had a call yesterday at around 5:20p at the shop. telltale clue that

    From Aug@2:460/256 to All on Fri Jan 5 16:38:27 2024
    Hi All...

    had a call yesterday at around 5:20p at the shop. telltale clue that it might be a marketer cuz of the delay and clik after answering with "hello?". them: "this is merchant review.. can i speak to the owner?" me: "no. we're closed." them: "oh.". me: <click>.

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    https://t.me/aabolins

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  • From Kurt Weiske@1:218/700 to Aug on Fri Jan 5 06:45:00 2024
    Aug wrote to All <=-

    had a call yesterday at around 5:20p at the shop. telltale clue that it might be a marketer cuz of the delay and clik after answering with "hello?". them: "this is merchant review.. can i speak to the owner?"
    me: "no. we're closed." them: "oh.". me: <click>.

    I have a realtor in the area who had my telphone number (I've had it
    since 2015, I still see my number on her marketing materials when I
    google it...)

    I used to get people calling for her, I'd get creative with my
    responses, like holding the phone and yelling "Hey, is Barbara back
    from rehab yet? No?" then ask if I could take a message. Or, forwarding
    them to my friend who is a competing realtor.

    I called her at her new number and she told me that it wasn't her fault
    and I should "call google".

    Now I'm getting calls from American Express looking for payment.



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  • From August Abolins@2:221/6 to Kurt Weiske on Sat Jan 6 01:35:34 2024
    On Fri, 5 Jan 2024 04:45:00 -0800
    Kurt Weiske <0@700.218.1> wrote:

    had a call yesterday at around 5:20p at the shop. telltale clue that it
    might be a marketer cuz of the delay and clik after answering with "hello?". them: "this is merchant review.. can i speak to the owner?"
    me: "no. we're closed." them: "oh.". me: <click>.

    I have a realtor in the area who had my telphone number (I've had it
    since 2015, I still see my number on her marketing materials when I
    google it...)

    Google search results still put up a lot of outdated info. It's pathetic. Perhaps it's not Google per se, but the products like independent aggregators that skim the 'net, build resultant pages and never change them. Then, Google keeps finding those.

    I used to get people calling for her, I'd get creative with my
    responses, like holding the phone and yelling "Hey, is Barbara back
    from rehab yet? No?" then ask if I could take a message. Or, forwarding
    them to my friend who is a competing realtor.

    Ah.. PHONEGAMES!

    I had a business number with the last 4 digit 1704, but the local CanadianTire's number ended with 1074. So.. I'd get calls asking for a variety of things. I had plenty of opportunity to play games with that and misleed people, but that would be cruel. <G>


    I called her at her new number and she told me that it wasn't her fault
    and I should "call google".

    I dunno.. it's a waste of time. I remember getting the odd call claiming to be FROM Google. I had my doubts about the legitimacy of that.


    Now I'm getting calls from American Express looking for payment.

    Ha! Just put them on hold, or if you can see the number on your display, block it?

    ---
    * Origin: nntp://news.fidonet.fi (2:221/6.0)
  • From Kurt Weiske@1:218/700 to August Abolins on Sat Jan 6 09:50:00 2024
    August Abolins wrote to Kurt Weiske <=-

    I had a business number with the last 4 digit 1704, but the local CanadianTire's number ended with 1074. So.. I'd get calls asking for a variety of things. I had plenty of opportunity to play games with that and misleed people, but that would be cruel. <G>

    When I was a telecom manager, I bought a new bank of DID numbers for my
    company. I assigned the lead number of the bank of numbers to the phone
    in my switch room, and as soon as I saved the change, it rang.

    I picked it up, and it was a wrong number for a museum. Thinking about
    it, It seemed likely that a museum patron would have an old number
    written down somewhere instead of looking it up. :)

    I dunno.. it's a waste of time. I remember getting the odd call
    claiming to be FROM Google. I had my doubts about the legitimacy of
    that.

    I'm getting SPAM calls from "Google Voice Verification". They keep
    asking for the "business owner". Not sure what they want to charge for,
    but when I ask them to take me off of their list, they double down with
    what great value they offer - or once, told me it wasn't his job to
    take me off of their list and I "need a secretary".

    I've got around 60 calls logged, am considering taking them to court.




    ... What is the reality of the situation?
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  • From August Abolins@2:221/6 to Kurt Weiske on Sun Jan 7 02:21:16 2024
    First all, apologies for starting this topic here where it does not belong. :( I'll be posting subsequent replies in CHAT.

    ---
    * Origin: nntp://news.fidonet.fi (2:221/6.0)
  • From Jas Hud@1:103/705 to Bob Worm on Mon Jan 8 07:03:29 2024
    To: Bob Worm
    Re: had a call yesterday at around 5:20p at the shop. telltale clue that
    By: Bob Worm to Kurt Weiske on Sat Jan 06 2024 10:53 pm


    Ughh... this reminds me of when I was in university and some guy called "Baz" had given out my number to *everyone* thinking it was his own. I would be woken up at 3am by his wasted mates during the week, then at 7am on Saturday morning by his dear aunt. I politely asked her if, when she eventually caught up with "Baz" she could please tell him he was giving out the wrong number. She told me I was being rude.


    i had a guy named t-bone/gino who had bad credit and people after him who gave out my number instead. then his aunt would leave long msgs begging for money.
    i would call her back and she wouldn't answer. i would leave a msg saying wrong number. still kept calling and begging.
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  • From Nightfox@1:105/7 to August Abolins on Tue Jan 9 12:08:45 2024
    Re: Re: had a call yesterday at around 5:20p at the shop. telltale clue th
    By: August Abolins to Kurt Weiske on Sat Jan 06 2024 01:35 am

    Google search results still put up a lot of outdated info. It's pathetic. Perhaps it's not Google per se, but the products like independent aggregators that skim the 'net, build resultant pages and never change them. Then, Google keeps finding those.

    I've searched my name online and found sites that I've never visited that have a "profile" of me.. It's a little creepy that there are sites that do that. Aside from (probably) telemarketers, I wonder who's even looking at these generated profile pages.

    Nightfox
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  • From Jas Hud@1:103/705 to Nightfox on Wed Jan 10 04:59:48 2024
    To: Nightfox
    Re: Re: had a call yesterday at around 5:20p at the shop. telltale clue t
    By: Nightfox to August Abolins on Tue Jan 09 2024 12:08 pm


    I've searched my name online and found sites that I've never visited that have a "profile" of me.. It's a little creepy that there are sites that do that. Aside from (probably) telemarketers, I wonder who's even looking at these generated profile pages.

    Nightfox

    i spent several months deleting myself online. i had to keep doing it because they all share the same lists. right now it only shows a few things i posted
    on public sites.

    people who look you up are looking at these online profiles.
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