[LINK] anti-telemarketer devices

[Jan Whitaker]

This on CNN today.  Fascinating options --  Long article, here's a taste:

http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/10/10/blackbox.reut/index.html

Black boxes help zap telemarketers
WASHINGTON (Reuters)

[snip]
Consumers looking for peace at dinnertime have a variety of options other 
than handing off the phone to the toddler.
[snip - loved the live above!]

Spectrum Research's Screen Machine, which costs $59.97, intercepts all 
calls with a statement that sales pitches are not accepted.

Telemarketers are asked to place the number on their do-not-call lists, 
while others are invited to press the "5" button to ring through.

Telemarketers will not press "5" because they will then be legally on the 
hook for a $1,500 fine, Chase said.

Privacy Corps' top seller is the TeleZapper, made by Royal Appliance 
Manufacturing.

Designed by an engineer who worked on predictive dialer systems, the 
TeleZapper emits a tone that tricks the automatic dialers into thinking 
that the line is not in service.

The computer hangs up the call and removes the number from the 
telemarketers' prospect list, eventually reducing the number of calls made 
into the home.

"It's like jujitsu — using the telemarketers' technology against them," 
said Catlett of Junkbusters, who noted that consumers not wanting to spend 
$49.97 could download the out-of-service tone for free from his Web site 
and place it on their answering machines.

But the cat and mouse games continue, Chase noted, as some telemarketers 
have altered their predictive dialers to ignore the TeleZapper's single 
tone. Users can adjust their TeleZappers to send out the distinctive 
three-tone chime used by the phone company to denote that the line is not 
in service.

[snip]

JLWhitaker Associates
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit@primenet.com  --  http://www.primenet.com/~jwhit/whitentr.htm


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