TeleZapper - A Way to Avoid Telemarketers?

VeniDormi asks: "While watching TV on my TiVo, I actually stopped to see an ad for a device called 'The TeleZapper', which claims to foil tele-marketers by convincing their auto-dialers that your number has been disconnected. The FAQ is light on technical details, only mentioning that the device 'emits [a] tone briefly when the line is answered'. I'm hoping Slashdotters with more telecommunications expertise can enlighten me as to: how/if this might work and whether or not it is something I could reproduce with a sound card, say for recording at the beginning of my voicemail message. Could it be as simple as playing back the three shrill tones I hear when I dial a wrong number?" Ah, the telephone equivalent to SPAM. Too bad phones don't have the equivalent of procmail filters.

I use PacBell's Privacy Manager

[crispy]

I haven't had a single phone solicitation since I signed up for the service a few months ago. It's well worth the $3/month.

How it works

[.@.]

It emits three rising tones, identical to those that precede "invalid number" errors. Automated telemarketing tools recognize these control tones and disconnect the call, AND remove the number from their dialing pool, since they think it's now an invalid number. After the three tones, the phone rings as normal. Two drawbacks: This won't work with telemarketers that don't use automated tools, and it may confuse people who call you, since their brain may also think "it's an error message, I'm going to hang up now." After all, who listens to the phone errors? When you hear the tones, you know you're not getting through, so you disconnect.

My solution to telemarketers

[atrowe]

I haven't gotten a call from a telemarketer for years.

My solution: I don't have a home phone. Whenever I am forced to give out my telephone number, I give the number to my cell phone. In my locality (Virginia, US), it is illegal for a solicitor to call a cell phone. This is because if a solicitor were to call my cell phone, *I* would be the one paying for their call.

I'm not sure if this is a nationwide law, or just a local one, but it's certainly worth looking into. Many cellular service providers are now offering unlimited local plans for around $50 US, so the cost is close to that of a regular land line.

Telezapper - How it works

[Anonymous Coward]

Heres how it works.

Slimy Telemarketter's computer dials your number, it waits until the phone goes off hook. Then it listens. If it hears the 'disconnected' tone the computer hangs up, and is supposed to delete the number. If it does not hear this tone, the line is sent to the next live scumbag er, telemarketter.

The telezapper hangs out on your line and when you PICK UP the phone (no matter how many rings) the telezapper will insert this tone into your line. (Documentation says to insert 1.5 seconds of silence before talking, answering machine, etc.)

Of course all callers will hear this tone, but followed by a 'hello' or with whatever creative way you answer your phone.

A recording of this wav and a clone of the telezapper is here:

http://www.sandman.com/tmstop.html

Sadly though, patents have caused the above URL to cease sales, but good info.

-Aileronix-

Re:Related question

[Rackemup]

One or two times a day I receive calls with nobody on the other end. I usually say "Hello..... Hello??? Anybody there?" for a while and then hang up.
I have been told that this is a telemarketing system seeing if my number is "good". Is there any truth to this?

Most likely... they program their computers to try a number several times. If someone answers it gets flagged as "active" and you go into the caller databse.

The same thing happened to my parents last month. Every day for a week they get ghost calls (no one on the other end), then a week later someone calls to ofer them a credit card, carpet cleaning, etc.

Re:Caller ID

[SteveMonett]

There is even a way to answer an "Out of Area" and still avoid the telemarketers. Pick up the phone but instead of just saying "hello" pretend to be an answering machine. The autodialer computer listens for sounds that are short, like "hello", or long like a typical invitation to leave a message and only connects you to a human if the burst is short. When my kids use calling cards they show up "unavailable" so when I see such a call after 8pm I use my little speach that ends in "how may I help you." Most real people catch on quickly enough to stay on.

Re:Adam, this wont work and here's why:

[merlyn]

A major problem with this method is that most potential employers, landlords and utility companies DEMAND a local, home number be on file. I have been refused service because of this.

But is there a demand that you answer it when called?

I've got a home phone line that I use for my home alarm system. It's also the number I give out to the average Joe who wants "my home phone number", but never anyone I'm interested in talking to (for them, I give them my always-on-my-belt cell phone). I have one ringer on in the very far end of the house. I hear it ring occasionally (when the DVD player isn't on), but I don't answer it. I couldn't care less. It's like having a lightning rod for useless calls. {grin}

Re:My solution to telemarketers

[FattMattP]

In my locality (Virginia, US), it is illegal for a solicitor to call a cell phone.

Better yet, if they call your home phone, ask them "Are you aware that you're calling a cell phone? It's illegal for a solicitor to call a cell phone in this state."

Do it even if they call your land line.

Re:It's kinda simple

[13013dobbs]

I had my answering machine set up like that when I was in college. As an added bonus, friends calling me from a pay phone often times got their quarter back.

Re:You people are getting it all wrong... try

[MrResistor]

well, it worked for the software industry, right?

Sort of...

Actually, that's what led to the invention of Unix. It replaced MIT's Multics, which had some sort of pay-per-use license.

That's the way I remember it anyway...

Missouri's telemarketer problem is solved!

[Mustang Matt]

http://www.ago.state.mo.us/nocallfaqs.htm

Attorney General Jay Nixon implemented this program this summer and I've only received one telemarketer call since compared to the 10+ a week I was receiving before.

I highly recommend that you try to convince your state reps to mimic this program.

Anti-Telemarketing Software

[PingXao]

This may be a program recommended by Junkbusters (not sure) ... ENIGMA [verinet.com]. This baby guides you through the relevant questions to ask when those annoying scum-of-the-earth telemarketers call. It allows YOU to take control of the call and ultimately ends up having them add your number to their official Do Not Call list, which they are required to maintain by law. It also keeps a log of the calls and allows you to document persistent offenders in cases where you might have the opportunity to sue the bastards for violating the law.

When I first got Enigma, I was being bombarded by TM calls. One round of calls with Enigma and now I am virtually telemarketing free! Yay! I actually wanted the bastards to call back so I could sue them and/or make documented complaints to the proper authorities. Unfortunately they haven't been calling so I haven't had the ultimate joy yet, but some day I know they will call back. I'll be waiting.

Re:...and why it DOESN'T work....

[srw]

Unless the telezapper presents such a low DC load (high resistance) that the answering machine doesn't detect it. You can still insert AC (sound) onto the phone line without loading the DC.

I'm assuming that the DC load is how your answering machine detects an extension going off-hook.. If not, ignore me.

Free, huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

From their FAQ:

"If you answer your telephone and there's no one there, the odds are that you just zapped a telemarketer. After about a month, you'll notice that fewer and fewer of these calls arrive."

And a bit lower:

" Order now and we'll ship you a brand new TeleZapper to try in your home for 30 days! If at any time within the 30 days you're not completely satisfied, just call 1-866-786-7225 for free pickup and return."

Um, sure, that's a good business model.

Credit Bureaux

[Zeinfeld]

Each time I have moved into a new house we have had serious trouble with some credit beureux calling up for the previous user of the line. I used to think that this was simply because we had by chance been assigned numbers that had been used by deadbeats.

Then I made the mistake of buying a washing machine from Best Buy on its 'interest free credit'. The scumbag finance company deliberately credited the final payment to the account late so they could claim a huge interest penalty. I pointed out that NACHA credits take hours to clear, not 10 days. We had the scumbags calling up every day for months trying to get us to pay $650 that was definitely not owed.

Interesting fact was that sending the original finance co a cease and desist had no effect. When they put the alleged debt out to a third party collection agency they stopped calling almost imediately they recieved my cease and desist.

It seems that a lot of Americans just pay up when faced with this type of fraud - which is why the stores can offer 'no interest' credit I guess. If you need credit (which I don't) then they can get you blacklisted with Equifax or TRW. In Europe the directors of the companies concerned would be sitting in jail, in the US they purchase legislation.

Re:It's hasn't been much of a problem lately...

[coyote-san]

They may be required to identify themselves (both company and individual) upon demand, pursuit to the "DNC order" since you must be able to document who you told not to call you again (d'uh), but about half the time I demand this information they "accidently" disconnect me before providing this information..

By some amazing coincidence this almost always happens with blocked caller ID information. I could probably call Qworst and ask them to trace it, but I know that it's a dead end.

I only happened once, years ago, with valid caller ID information. For a long distance carrier. I couldn't reach the same department, but I reached another department and had a chat with the supervisor about the consequences of hanging up on people exercising their legal rights to stop solicitations - something that was especially pointless in this case since they were trying to sell me business services for "distinctive ringing" on my home phone number, not a separate business line! She couldn't give me the name and numbers I requested, but did promise to forward my demand (not request, demand) that a senior manager contact me on the following Monday about their violation of federal law. They never called me back, of course, but they never called me back *at all* so I let it slide.

The other scam some have tried is to claim that it could take "up to 90 days" for the DNC order to be processed. I tell them I didn't care, if they call me again they can tell it to the judge. They try to insist that the federal law permits this, I repeat that I don't care - if they call me again they'll be explaining it to the judge.

I'm sure that the law *does* allow a "reasonable" time for the DNC order to be processed, but that should be a few weeks at most with a manual system that depends on paper forms physically mailed to a central site, then physically mailed to each site in an update list. With a computerized system, the DNC order should go live either immediately or some time during the middle of the night.