Deceitful Telemarketing Tactics
In Australia the mobile phone network works quite a bit different than in North America. Over here the person who originates the phone call pays for it. So if I were to call a mobile phone from a land-line, that land-line would be billed for the time spent talking to the mobile phone user, the mobile phone user would not be billed for the call.Recently some of my friends and I have received phone calls on our mobile phones from people who hang up after a single ring. This is too fast for us to answer the phone, but our phone still picks up the phone number and records it. Usually we will call the person back to see what they want based on the phone number that was left on our phone.
The problem is that some of these phone calls that hang up after a single ring are from telemarketers that want you to pay for their sales pitch! Out of curiosity you would call back the phone number, thinking that it was a friend who was trying to get a-hold of you, but you would get someone on the other end asking you to buy a product, or switch mobile phone companies, etc. It's quite deceiving I find and it's ripping people off. It surprises me that something like this isn't illegal.
Since hearing about this happening to my friends I have stopped calling people back if my phone only rings once. This might unfortunately mean that I miss some calls from friends, but at least I won't be paying to hear a sales pitch...
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I am a full time volunteer with Reef to Outback - Youth With A Mission (YWAM) where I work in Communications and Information Technology. I am married to a wonderful wife, we have a five year old son and a one year old daughter.
- Oops
Fightingfemale on Saturday, June 10, 2006Although never successful, I too tried calling those telemarketers back. Not out of the goodness of my heart, but so they could see how it feels to have someone ring the phone once or twice and then hang up on them. Thanks, I'll be more careful. P.S. Jessica is the cutest baby ever, great pics!
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