29 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981

Add this Digest to your personal   or  

  The Telecom Digest for March 04, 2011
Volume 30 : Issue 55 : "text" Format

Messages in this Issue:

Annoyance Calls(Fred Atkinson)
Re: ShopAlerts by AT&T(David Clayton)

====== 29 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======

Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Bill Horne and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email.

Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome.

We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime.  - Geoffrey Welsh

See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer, and other stuff of interest. 





Date: Thu, 3 Mar 2011 13:34:54 -0700
From: fatkinson.remove-this@and-this-too.mishmash.com
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject:Annoyance Calls
Message-ID: <f56534d0e00df2b4555dd93dfd7dd4a3.squirrel@webmail.mishmash.com>

Folks,

      I have been getting annoyance calls from phone numbers in Harlingen,
Texas.  The latest numbers are:

                   (956) 440-8466
                   (956) 364-2583
                   (956) 428-2888
                   (956) 365-3962
                   (956) 440-8857

      This has been going on for quite a while.  So I started blocking
them.  When I do, a short time later I get another call from yet
another number always in Harlingen, Texas.  According to Mapquest,
that is down by Brownsville, Texas at the Southernmost part of Texas
on the Mexican border.

      When I call one of those numbers, I get only a touch tone
auto-dialer.  No voice or company identification is given.

      When searching these numbers on the Internet and in the reverse look
up services, I get nothing that identifies who the offending company
is.

      But I do find notes on the Internet that suggest it is a company
that markets toll-free numbers and that they are apparently looking
for toll-free numbers that they can acquire and then sell.

      I called my VOIP company.  They are unable to help me contact the
offenders.  I called Southwestern Bell.  They refuse to help me
since I'm 'not their customer' and never mind that one of their
customers is placing annoyance calls.

      This has been going on for weeks.  Is there anyone on Telecom Digest
that can tell me who this company is so I can contact them and tell
them to stop calling my toll-free number?

      Yes, both my home number and my residential toll-free number are
listed on the National Do Not Call list.  And I did confirm with the
FTC that a *residential* toll-free number could be included in the
National Do Not Call list.  In fact, they showed me how to bring up
the part of the DNC law that authorizes residential toll-free
numbers and I read it.

      I guess I'm going to be filing a complaint with the Federal Trade
Commission soon if I don't resolve this.

      HELP,

                                        Fred Atkinson




Date: Fri, 04 Mar 2011 09:43:17 +1100
From: David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: ShopAlerts by AT&T 
Message-ID: <pan.2011.03.03.22.43.16.154259@myrealbox.com>

On Wed, 02 Mar 2011 21:18:42 +0000, Stephen wrote:
.........
> But - the phone user bears the cost of the text messages while AT+T make
> money from the advertiser as well.
>
> anyone else think this part is backwards?

In Australia (and probably other countries as well) mobile users do not
pay to receive calls or SMS - but on the flip side all outgoings from
mobiles cost way more than "normal" phones.

Have we had a discussion of the merits of this way versus the US way of
doing things where the example of this thread costs the (passive) receiver
money?

--
Regards, David.

David Clayton
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a
measure of how many questions you have.





TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecom-
munications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in
addition to Usenet, where it appears as the moderated newsgroup
'comp.dcom.telecom'.

TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational
service offered to the Internet by Bill Horne. All the contents
of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in
some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work
and that of the original author.

The Telecom Digest is moderated by Bill Horne.

Contact information:    Bill Horne
                        Telecom Digest
                        43 Deerfield Road
                        Sharon MA 02067-2301
                        781-784-7287
                        bill at horne dot net

Subscribe:  telecom-request@telecom-digest.org?body=subscribe telecom
Unsubscribe: telecom-request@telecom-digest.org?body=unsubscribe telecom

This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm-
unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and
published continuously since then.  Our archives are available for
your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list
on the internet in any category!

URL information: http://telecom-digest.org


Copyright (C) 2009 TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved.
Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA.

 ---------------------------------------------------------------

Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as
yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars
per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above.
Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing
your name to the mailing list. 

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the
author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only
and messages should not be considered any official expression by the
organization.

End of The Telecom Digest (2 messages)

Return to Archives ** Older Issues