Well it just happened. I'm sitting here at my computer, after midnight, looking at AR blogs, when my phone rings. It was my business cell so I answered it, as I always do. I'm sure everyone out there gets the spam about someone in some faraway country wants to use your account to bring in Millions of dollars, giving you a cut in the process. Well, this phone call, from Malaysia he said, was exactly the same thing. Got my number off my website. I stopped him mid sentence and told him to never call this number again. I wonder if other people are starting to get these; and does anyone have any ideas how to stop them?
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Rainer
146,445
146,445
Whitelaw & Sons Real Estate Services - Morgan Hill, CA
Broker, CEO, Realtor , ePro
Wow. I had not heard that these scams had stepped up from being emails to phone calls! How nuts! I would guess that doing it this way would have even less chance of success. Totally nuts.
Jun 06, 2007 08:29 PM
#3
Rainer
67,462
67,462
Helm Home Inspections - Bellingham, WA
Bellingham, Wa. Licensed Home Insp
Yes Mott, we have to have our numbers out there to get business. My spam filter picks up 5 or 6 of these things a day, so it must not be passe. This just feels like an escalation; and do I look that easy???
Jun 06, 2007 08:38 PM
#4
Rainer
67,462
67,462
Helm Home Inspections - Bellingham, WA
Bellingham, Wa. Licensed Home Insp
Phone calls, Robert, have to be nuts. They open themselves to all kinds of verbal abuse (not that I would do that of course.). Maybe they think if they talk to you personally they have a better chance of convincing you.
Jun 06, 2007 08:40 PM
#5
Rainer
15,597
15,597
RE/MAX Olympic Realty - Haymarket, VA
I am always bombarded with new and wonderful services that will bring me buyers or help finance my buyers or improve my website....blah blah. It is very irritating to get these calls! but I have never been spammed from some Prince in Nigheria who wants to thank me for my part and would like to send me $1,000,000 US Dollars.
Rainmaker
89,382
89,382
Benchmark Realty - Franklin, TN
Broker, GRI, SRES
Yes, they get your cell # of of your web page; it's not a violation of the "no call" rules since you advertise! They are surfing for idiots and truth be told they find someone...that's why they keep it up. Eventually someone will fall for their scam, lose hundreds if not thousands of dollars and tomorrow it starts all over again.
Jun 06, 2007 11:55 PM
#10
Rainmaker
2,950,193
2,950,193
Feng Shui Manhattan Long Island - Locust Valley, NY
Certified Feng Shui Expert, Speaker & Researcher
I have recently gotten at least FIVE calls to "Be on the Front page of Google" -- And I read somewhere else on this site that others were getting them as well. Fast talking salesmen that I now say "sorry" and hang up on.
Jun 07, 2007 01:02 AM
#14
Rainer
67,462
67,462
Helm Home Inspections - Bellingham, WA
Bellingham, Wa. Licensed Home Insp
Kristine, I guess they try everything, a good reason to not fax.
Doug and Tony, Nothing is sacred; the downside of AR.
Christopher, Me too. I don't mind regular sales calls nearly as much as this something for nothing crap.
Rainer
67,462
67,462
Helm Home Inspections - Bellingham, WA
Bellingham, Wa. Licensed Home Insp
Paul, I hate to be lumped in with idiots. I find it hard to believe that there are people that naive. But I guess this is America and we have all kinds.
Gary, I'm sure your right. At least with email you can block their address. I'd love to have a spam filter for my telephone.
Matthew, Yeah, my mama taught me to be polite. Who knows, maybe he'll want to move here from Malaysia and need my services. . . . not!
Jay, Thanks, I have done that but as paul said, it's not really a violation.
Carole, Yes, those are a pain, and some are very aggresive. Those I hang up on without even a word of sorry.
Rainer
15,597
15,597
RE/MAX Olympic Realty - Haymarket, VA
I guess it is the price we pay for having to advertise our cell phone and office numbers. When it comes down to it, I don't mind that much because I forget about the call immediately after I hang up. If we didn't do it we wouldn't get legitimate business!
Rainmaker
92,669
92,669
Elliott Home Inspection - Chicago, IL
Chicago Property Inspection
Yeah I keep getting the ones who promise first page ranking,and go on to tell me my site is not even ranked by Goggle.
My reply is wow that's amazing since all of my business comes off the internet,to which I add "if you get 1'000 customers how will you fit them all on the same first page".
Rainer
8,742
8,742
Greenville, TX
I haven't gotten such calls on my cell phone yet, but I do get occasional calls on my business line from people who want to sell me web site optimization or other such services.
I wouldn't expect to get a lot of the "Nigerian Letter" pitches via phone call because it just isn't very workable. The scheme works with email because the con man (woman) can easily send the email to a million people. If only one in one-thousand fall for it, then they have managed to rake in one thousand suckers. Making a thousand phone calls to get one "hit" wouldn't work as well.
As someone who is out there trying to market my services and trying to get attention in the local market, I tend to be sympathetic with people who are trying to pitch their services to me. I never purchase anything from a cold call, but I tend to be polite--"I'm really not interested, but thanks for calling--click." Allowing them to talk on is just a waste of my time and their time, so I do us both a favor by cutting it off quickly.
David Harkness, P.E.
Consulting Engineer / Inspector
http://homeanalytical.com
Rainer
67,462
67,462
Helm Home Inspections - Bellingham, WA
Bellingham, Wa. Licensed Home Insp
So Bob, Don't you want first page ranking?
Kathy, thanks for stopping by. I think I would leave my cell phone on in spite of the weird calls. Being accessible seems to me to be very important.
David, Good response, although it is hard to think I would be doing them a favor.
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