Post #26,766
1/31/02 8:44:48 PM
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Opt Out, and telemarketers
Recently I got a dozen phone calls for a "Mary King" who never lived here, and my wife had the same number for over a decade. It is in her maiden name, and we haven't been giving it out to telemarketers and signed an opt-out list that Missouri provided to stop telemarketers.
I guess someone went around it to put a name that doesn't exist at our number to get around this list? Either that or someone is pulling a prank on us? Could it be an ex-coworker? The email address that I gave an ex-coworker to contact me had been fulled up with spam mail and mailing lists, coincidence or not?
Within the past few months someone changed our long distance company, and we never signed up for that agreement. Funny thing is that it happened three times. We had to finally put a password on on LD services and local phone services so they will not be changed again. Someone called up, pretended to be my wife, and changed the service. Also a year or two ago, the same thing happened to my small business number and I had to put a password on that, someone called them up, pretended to be me, and had the service disconnected. They gave my home number, address, mother's maidnen name, etc. So I think someone is out to get me someway, how can I find out who this is?
Remember a while back that someone spoofed my name and handle on Yahoo, and Yahoo never got back to me. The idiot sent me a mail from the spoofed Yahoo account and it had an AOL IP address, AOL never got back to me. I suppose they just don't care? Scum use the Internet as well as nice people. Too bad we cannot get rid of the scum that abuse the services, they break the TOS, but apparently the TOS agreement is not enforced? WTF can we do about it besides get a lawyer a sue? At this point I do not trust any lawyers, having been employmentally screwed by a lawfirm that I worked for.
"Will code Visual BASIC for cash."
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Post #26,797
2/1/02 12:52:43 AM
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Junkbuster's opt-out program
Go [link|http://www.junkbusters.com/declare.html|here], fill out the forms, and print out everything (plain character printer works best -- courier 10 or 12 point (don't recall which) if not). Mail them.
I did that this summer.
Nobody calls me any more.
That's a lie. I've had two calls. One from Marriott, who wanted to sell me a hotel room, I called back on their penny to get off their list and ask how I'd landed on it (several stays in the past few years), and an automated dialer/message (already illegal) selling me time shares. That's in over six months. For the most part, what I got back were letters from the major services saying "OK, we'll take you off our list for (usually 1-3 years) but will add more time (usually 3-5) if you write back. I took them up on their offer.
I get no junk mail other than the 3rd class circs the US Anthrax Postal Service says they have to deliver. The Junkbuster site includes a "pornographic materials" release you can fill out and turn in to get those stopped as well. Legit. I never bothered but likely will.
Incidentally, one of the worst sources of junk mail lists is USAPS change-of-address forms. The [link|http://www.usps.com/ncsc/addressservices/moveupdate/changeaddress.htm|NCOA database] is bought monthly by every major marketing company in existence.
--
Karsten M. Self [link|mailto:kmself@ix.netcom.com|kmself@ix.netcom.com]
[link|http://kmself.ix.netcom.com/|[link|http://kmself.ix.netcom.com/|http://kmself.ix.netcom.com/]]
What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?
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Post #26,813
2/1/02 8:24:01 AM
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I tried it, after submitting the form, I get an error
of the page is not found [link|http://www.junkbusters.com/cgi-bin/junkdec_1en|http://www.junkbust.../junkdec_1en] d'oh!
Thanks for the link, apparently Junkbusters must be working on the script?
"Will code Visual BASIC for cash."
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Post #27,006
2/2/02 4:57:23 PM
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When will you effing learn to READ, Norm???
Norman, King of the Illiterati: after submitting the form, I get an error "Submitting the form"?!? Where the fuck did Karsten tell you to click "Submit"? Nowhere, that's where -- he didn't. He said: Go here, fill out the forms, and print out everything (plain character printer works best -- courier 10 or 12 point (don't recall which) if not). Mail them. [My emphases - CRC] Notice how he DIDN'T say "E-mail"? What the fuck do you think he meant to use the print-out for? Duh, THAT is what you mail! Yes, I know you can't e-mail (or "submit") that. That's why he *didn't say* "E-mail", but "mail". As in, using the REAL (or "snail", but it sure seems to be quicker than *you*...) mail system -- in your case, the U.S. Postal Service. Ever heard of them? Now please at least *try* to quit being such a fucking moron. Christian R. Conrad
The Man Who Knows Fucking Everything
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Post #27,109
2/3/02 8:24:07 PM
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I guess I should just put a gun to my head
or drive off a cliff or breath in car exhaust. Good bye cruel world!
"Will code Visual BASIC for cash."
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Post #27,134
2/4/02 2:21:45 AM
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Give it a rest
You should know better than to throw out glib statements like that, here of all places.
Peter
Shill For Hire
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
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Post #27,255
2/4/02 4:38:07 PM
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I'll second that.
Don't cry wolf about suicide. Or anything else. Crying wolf and suicide are both bad things. Combining them is even worse.
[link|http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/marlowe/index.html|http://www.angelfir...e/index.html]
Sometimes "tolerance" is just a word for not dealing with things.
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Post #27,112
2/3/02 8:35:34 PM
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Take another look at the page.
It looks to me like you fill out a bunch'o'stuff, hit the 'I agree' submit button, it will generate some nice customised letter you can (snail)mail away. The bottom of the page (below the submit button) says "Please read your Declaration carefully when it is returned to you". (My emphasis). That text points to the whole 'click submit, get a nice generated letter' thing.
And sure enough clicking the submit button causes the error. Karsten will have the ultimate word on the proper behaviour of the page, I guess.
Norman: If I threatened to kill myself every time somebody called me dumb, I should be dead a hundred times over by now. Put the gun down.
On and on and on and on,
and on and on and on goes John.
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Post #27,290
2/4/02 7:00:40 PM
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Apparently a site error
I thought I saw a mention of it elsewhere on the site, though on the relevant page would be helpful.
The site's most useful for knowing who and where to send things to, and for automating the process. You can still get a [link|http://www.junkbusters.com/cgi-bin/optout?from=eg&to=dma|template letter] and run the mods yourself.
To CRC and others -- back off, Norm was right on this, the form doesn't work.
To Norm: killing yourself over a busted webpage is, well, an inappropriate response (killing the programmer who wrote the page might be ever so slightly more healthy an impulse). If this is your default response to any event in life, you've got some very serious issues to address. Please do so soonest.
--
Karsten M. Self [link|mailto:kmself@ix.netcom.com|kmself@ix.netcom.com]
[link|http://kmself.ix.netcom.com/|[link|http://kmself.ix.netcom.com/|http://kmself.ix.netcom.com/]]
What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?
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Post #27,294
2/4/02 7:26:44 PM
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So it was a form? OK, I was wrong on the issue...
...this once. Norm's stupid whining, though, is just as annoying even when he happens -- for once in a blue moon -- to be right.
"Back off"? Sorry, perhaps I ought to have picked one of the zillion other similar posts to let it finally get to me...
But that's all.
Christian R. Conrad
The Man Who Knows Fucking Everything
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Post #27,333
2/5/02 2:19:25 AM
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Oh NO!
...must...realign...universe...
...must...restore...ORDER...
Peter
Shill For Hire
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
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Post #27,355
2/5/02 9:51:22 AM
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No harm done
you are forgiven.
"Will code Visual BASIC for cash."
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Post #26,816
2/1/02 8:29:29 AM
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I got slammed
About a year ago, I got "slammed" by some long distance service. I'm not paying the bill, of course, and sent complaints.
It didn't inconvenience me too much, since I don't call long distance very much anyway. But it was invalid at best, and illegal at worst, for them to do it.
"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it."
-- Donald Knuth
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Post #26,822
2/1/02 8:41:47 AM
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They do it anyway
and we didn't have this problem before the breakup of AT&T. Slamming is against the law in my state, and the phone companies do it anyway. Just read the fine print in any sweepstakes form or contest form that you fill out, usually by agreeing to their rules, you agree to switch your LD service. The same goes true for some of the free stuff on the web, like free gifts, downloadable software, etc. If they ask for your address and phone number, they might slam you to their service. I think someone filled out some of these forms and used my name and phone number. I am suspecting a few people from my former employer as they used to pull in-office pranks like that. One joker used the ipinger service to have it call up my work number at different times of the day, he also used Photoshop to modify employee photos and printed them out as a joke, he would lower our chairs to the lowest setting, he would get in very early in the morning and mess with the stuff on our desks and rearrange the items, etc. He is a real good friend with the boss, and he even got a promotion to Project Manager, which he quit after a few months of doing that and reassinging his projects to me and another developer, then he went back to being a programmer analyst. They kept him, and let me go?
"Will code Visual BASIC for cash."
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Post #26,854
2/1/02 11:22:42 AM
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Contests and free stuff
Just say no.
Better yet, don't say anything.
Nothing is free in the commercial world. Know what the other party wants before you accept anything.
----
"You don't have to be right - just use bolded upper case" - annon.
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Post #26,942
2/2/02 12:13:10 AM
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I know that
problem is that I suspect someone else is entering my phone number so that I get flooded with telemarketers. Either my name, or another name with my phone number. I myself am not doing this. I know that I don't get anything for free without some strings attached. Like I ever catch a break anyway?
"Will code Visual BASIC for cash."
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