NY Times covers “ghost calls”

On a related note to the hang-up calls I mentioned, Slashdot pointed to a N.Y. Times story on so-called “ghost calls.” The story is a good primer on what web resources exist for tracking these calls. In other words, this story describes the kind of battles I’ve been fighting for the past few months.

The story also provides an interesting tip for defeating the calls that I hadn’t heard of before:

Because the predictive dialers try to identify answering machines by measuring the amount of time that someone or something speaks, one way to defeat them is to give a long greeting, as an answering machine does, rather than a simple hello followed by a pause.

Be sure to check the comments in the Slashdot post, as the geeks (as usual) have excellent information on how these predictive dialers really work.

Warranty phishers call in the evening

The alleged Great Atlantic Warranty/Automotive Warranty Solutions (alleged scumbags), allegedly called my house at 6:30 this evening using “Warranty Division” and the number 732-242-6557 as their alleged CallerID.

I have allegedly filed complaints with the alleged Departments of Justice of the alleged states of Florida and North Carolina. Allegedly they’re on the case. I allegedly have lots of evidence to present to them.

Car warranty phishers get back to work

Thanksgiving is over now and the crooks at Automotive Warranty Solutions have wasted no time in dialing for dollars again. This morning’s call came from 208-844-6519, a number not yet listed on 800notes.com (it is now…heh). I was betting the number was a fake CallerID and I was right.

I’m thinking of calling Automotive Warranty Solutions’s CEO, Ralph Mancusco, at his home number (561) 865-2294 and giving him a piece of my mind. That wouldn’t be right, though.

During a related search, I found a nice writeup in this month’s AARP Bulletin discussing this sleazy company.