A new type of robo-dialer

I posted a new entry for this under the 7148745966 number I received it from ( ), but I thought this warranted larger exposure before it takes off and becomes a huge P.I.T.A. for more people. I'll simply copy/paste my posting here.
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Here's a first for me - and anyone reading this should be prepared to get a ton of these calls from now on. There will be NO phone ring and NOTHING will show as an incoming cell phone notification - that you've gotten or are getting a new call... but you DO find a new voicemail.

And what's in the voicemail? Someone's telling you about a new marketing technique that boasts about the no-ring voicemail-only call that they just slipped by you, and how you should PAY THEM to tell you how to "cash in" by using it for your own marketing campaign. They are obviously targeting cell phones, since the caller states that you should "redial the number showing in your voicemail notification". Seems like someone has rewritten the calling cue routine for robo-dialing software that will limit the outgoing calls to only dial known cell phone numbers.

The good news... You will at least see the dialing number after the fact as a voicemail notifier, and it will also show in your 'recents' call log and voicemail list.

The bad news... As these 'marketing schemes' begin to be abused by all the usual robo-dialing dick-heads, they'll flood you with enough calls to fill up your voicemail storage and make it impossible to rely on getting legit voicemails.

Caller: [no names given]
Call type: Telemarketer
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As a longtime IT manager and all-around techie, this is not something I see as a splash in the pan or a fad that will go away anytime soon. In the mid 1980's I worked at a local ABC affiliate TV station, where we used robo-calling machines to conduct surveys and political polling at election time, so I'm very familiar with how they actually work and I know how to 'program' them. This was in a time when they were used far more responsibly than they are now.

With all the recent news blurbs and legislative calls for the robo-calling bafoons to finally get prosecuted and fined/jailed, it seems that someone is looking for a possible loophole for robo-dialers to get past any future legislation by explaining that they don't actually ring anyone's cell phone to annoy people. When there is huge money at stake - legitimate or illegal - no one is about to stop trying to pry the cash out of your wallet. I presume that the scammers are no different than the telemarketers when it comes to ramming a call through to rip off a potential sucker. This may become the next big thing for every robo-dialer-idiot on the planet.

I created a throw-away email account to sign-up and post this, so I won't get alerts or anything on this topic for replying - but - I figured it was important enough to get this in front of people before the abuse starts raging if this thing takes off big-time.

anon

There are already several forum threads reviewing this, here are two, and I know there are several more.  That particular topic was brought up here at least a year or more ago.

https://800notes.com/forum/ta-10c09544cbbe07b ... the-river-again
https://800notes.com/forum/ta-e1b1192aca8a6f3-2/ringless-voicemail

BigA was correct. We have prior discussion of some auto-dialing goofs selling mass telemarketing and of stealth voice mail in general. Your finding apparently merges the two.

see also: https://800notes.com/forum/ta-10cc4c5b99056c5 ... less-voicemail'

} I won't get alerts ... for replying

This site does not go out of its way to alert registered users of replies anyway. A list of replies is attached to your profile for private review.

It's called "sly dial".  No need to pay them money to tell you that.  Sheesh

This is old news.  See links above. Subject has been discussed several times.  I don't know about the others, but if my phone doesn't ring, that's fine with me!  "Silent calls" aren't bothersome whatsoever.

Until your voicemail fills up with this trash several times a day and none of the important calls can leave a message.  Not to mention that you will have to wade through each and every one to figure out which you should listen to an which ones to delete.

Big A, I didn't consider that part of it.  I don't get many calls on my cell so it's not a problem for me. I just delete everything I see, which isn't much.  Sorry I made it sound trivial

I do not know about others, but this would only be a minor annoyance for me.  My phone service provides a website where I can see the history of calls (incoming and outgoing) and voice messages in the queue.  The voicemail page lists time the message was left and number called from and a checkbox for deleting the message.  It will be all too simple for me to check off the messages with unknown numbers (or possibly no number) and delete them without ever hearing the message.  About the only reason I would ever listen to such a message would be if I was curious to see if there was a legitimate business that deserved to be boycotted by myself for using such a stupid advertising method.

Verizon makes me listen to at least part of the message before deleting it.  If I had one call that was important, such as a call from my Doctor, and 25 other calls, I would have to wade through them all to see which ones are important and which ones are nothing more than scams, so, even though I don't get very many calls, it would still be a major inconvenience to me.

NBC just had a video piece on it, and they suggested you try to ignore them. If you get dozens of these daily filling up your voicemail, how easy is that going to be? You can't just ignore something that will prevent you from using your voicemail, or like BIgA, take a time investment to wade through.

Personally, I think we need to counter attack as consumers immediately on this before it becomes a widespread problem. Don't wait for Congress to figure it out, or the FCC/FTC to decide if they have authority. If I do start getting these, I'm probably going to call up every one of them and complain about it. If they get magnitude more complaints than sales, it will make businesses think twice about using (or at least abusing) this technology.

Now see, that is an offensive attack I could get behind.  They will have to leave numbers that are not spoofed for callbacks.  If they are political calls, then you could flood that person's mailbox as well.  Wonder how much it would cost to sign up for one of these programs,  Use their own tactics against them.

Unless it is like the two I received this week inviting me to an off road vehicle extravaganza with a challenging course to play on. No call back number just the name of the location where the sales event is taking place. And the message was just distorted enough that I could not clearly understand where this event even was.

Maybe they should have spent the extra $25 for the better scam system?

Im a tech guy too. Please examine this article, Ajit Pai [head of FCC] is a total idiot, probably the biggest in FCC history. he is considering "exempting" ringless voicemail from the "do not call" list GRRRR

"As ringless voicemails are deployed by more business and political groups, the Federal Communications Commission is considering a petition to officially allow them, exempting them from 'Do Not Call' rules."

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/robo ... wmakers-n772941

I just went to the website for the company listed in the above article.  Ironically, they claim that they do not support spam, yet want people to use this new "technology" to deliver spam.
They also don't have an address for the company listed on their website.  Wonder why that is?  They do have an 800 number though, maybe we should sign up for their systems and deliver a pile of "non-nuisance" voicemail messages to them?
https://straticsnetworks.com/contact/