Today I recieved a call on my mobile today from a caller offerring me a free mobile phone if I switched to Telstra. When I asked where he was calling from he advised he was from a Telstra reseller. When I asked him how he got my number he said it was provided by Telstra and that he was on a dialler which means he didn’t physically dial the number.
I’ve never had a call like this before on my mobile, never in four years.
When I questioned the caller further he advised that I should call the Telstra Privacy Officer and gave me a 1800 number.
Not one to give up easily and a little concerned as I had only a week ago added both our home number and my mobile number to the do not call register I brought this up.
At the mention of the Do Not Call Register the caller said “Aren’t you Ben Johansen?” When I said “No” he told me he must have the wrong number and he wouldn’t bother me any more.
Now I’d be happy enough with that response, had we not received THE EXACT SAME response when a similar call came through on the home phone two days prior!
Our home phone is an unlisted number except for this list. Also when I received my mobile phone number it came from a fresh batch of numbers, no one had ever been assigned my number before.
Funny thing is, I’m sure he used my name at the start of the call!
My concern is this: The Do Not Call Register would be sent out to the companies so they may prepare their systems for the implementation of it after May 31, 2007. And no complaints can be registered on the Do Not Call site until after this time.
Further once adding yourself to the Do Not Call Register it takes up to 30 days for that registration to become active.
What if, some unscrupulous companies are using these numbers now? Cold calling them and trying to get a sale? Even after implementation these companies would have 30 days during which newly registered numbers are open to abuse by all of the companies that receive it.
Further to this, what a rort that Schools and Religious groups will be exempt from having to use the list and to not call those listed on it. Let’s hope they don’t have access to the list, I mean I’ve put an unlisted number, which has been relatively free from cold calls, on this list. It had better not start getting calls from Schools, Charities and Religious groups.
I’d love to know if anyone else has received a similar calls on their recently listed numbers?
I don’t receive many calls but registered to hopefully get rid of the few I did get. Does this stop your current service provider from sending txts at stupid hours advertising a new product? I had one call the other day clearly from India. She told me she would like to give me a new mobile phone. No idea where she was from or what she was on about because I couldn’t understand a word she said, I would have questioned her but that would only leave me stuck on the line longer to someone who couldn’t speak or understand english.
It’s infuriating. By law, even before the Do Not Call register, companies were required to remove your contact details if asked to do so by you.
A uni lecturer had a great idea a while back. She said that whenever you have to fill out information like a competition, voucher or similar, and were suspicious the information may be used elsewhere, that you should purposely mispel or alter the information in a way recongnisable by you. Either incorrectly spell your own name, include the date in an address etc. That way if you receive calls soliciting information or other unrequested information that you’d be able to identify where it came from and then contact that organisation.
I’ve done it a few times, sometimes it’s difficult tracking down where it all came from, but overall it does work.
Still very annoying. On the upside though, it’s even worse here in America than it is in Australia. I’ve made a very concerted effort to not give my information out, and yet it’s still managed to “leak”. Scary given I’m only a visitor to the country.
Bloody tele-sales people.
David had a call the other day at home, that was for me, from an insurance company and they told him that before they would stop calling they had to hear from me that I didn’t want them to call.
Quick slap in the face when he told them the phone was in his name and that he is registered on the DNC register… I guess this is a little bit of a grey area – his phone my calls… but hey I hate when they call.