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This is very similar to 'Lenny', a script someone developed for Asterisk systems. It looks like the original website is down, but there's still a FreePBX module

by gregmac 11y ago

This is very similar to 'Lenny', a script someone developed for Asterisk systems. It looks like the original website is down, but there's still a FreePBX module[1], a youtube channel with many, many call recordings[2], as well as several other forums posts/etc I won't bother to link. There used to be a hosted service you could forward calls to as well. The Lenny script's brilliance was its simplicity. Basically, it just waited for silence, then played back one of several clever lines recorded by a confusing-sounding old man. He'd ask the caller to repeat because he couldn't hear, divert questions by asking "Sorry, who did you say you were calling from again?" and tell long stories about his daughters then say "oh sorry, what was your question again?". Note, I appreciate the cleverness and social engineering aspect of this, but I don't use it myself. I do have a blacklist on my home phone, but it only goes to a 'not in service' tone, and I've only ever added 4 numbers to it (one in particular was some guy that told me wife to "f* off" when she said she wasn't interested). [1] https://github.com/lgaetz/freepbx-Its_Lenny https://github.com/lgaetz/freepbx-Its_Lenny [2] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLduL71_GKzHHk4hLga0nOGWrXlhl-i_3g https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLduL71_GKzHHk4hLga0nO...

thaddeusmt 11y ago
On the topic of Lenny, "who" is great, if you want to just listen to one recorded Lenny call to get a sense for how it plays out (and have a laugh too), in this particular one a car crashes into the building where the telemarketer is working, adding to the strangeness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lL870ixdsY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lL870ixdsY
- nchelluri 11y ago
  this is exactly what i thought of when i read this article. just heard this lenny convo ~last week as i saw it posted on reddit. told my coworkers about it as well :) edit: here's a great link about the video, with the bonus of giving subreddit info: https://np.reddit.com/r/itslenny/comments/40ul71/telemarkter_figures_out_lenny_is_a_recording_then/cyx7mlw?context=3 https://np.reddit.com/r/itslenny/comments/40ul71/telemarkter...
randycupertino 11y ago
Fun anecdote time Lenny and even this new Jolly Roger AI- it's not just the telemarketers who are being scammed, some of them are using Lenny to do the scamming to get around their employers rules and get out of having to do real work. At a previous startup I worked at, we had an outbound call center with 500 reps who were incentivized by their talk time- the amount of time they spent on outbound calls. We found about 5 sneaky agents who would purposely call Lenny and sit on the call doing nothing, doing their nails, reading their kindle to keep their metrics up and high and look like they were doing their jobs well (and winning monthly contest incentives that would give them small bonuses or extra PTO) instead of calling real customers. I always wondered if the people who designed Lenny know about how some reps purposely call them to keep their own metrics up. Like, they think they are sticking it to the telemarketer, but really the telemarketer WANTS to screw around and take forever on the call so their performance bonus increases. Once we caught on to this, the company changed the metrics around to number of unique outbound calls. But then the reps also figured out a way to game that. There were even a few of them who figured out a way to set up dummy numbers and they would basically call their friends, or even EACH OTHER at the call center, and sit on the call with their friends instead of calling the call center. I could never really blame these reps, it was such a crappy soul sucking job and I gotta say behind the scenes I was always impressed with their ingenuity to try and get around the metrics. These reps were making $11 an hour and had to clock out even to use the bathroom (illegal practice that the company just broke the law on). I'm so glad I left that place, it was such a toxic atmosphere.
- nl 11y ago
  I always wondered if the people who designed Lenny know about how some reps purposely call them to keep their own metrics up. Like, they think they are sticking it to the telemarketer, but really the telemarketer WANTS to screw around and take forever on the call so their performance bonus increases. I suspect that the authors of Lenny would think that was the best possible outcome. Stop a telemarketer annoying people AND wasting the money their employers? Sounds like a pretty good outcome.
- noir_lord 11y ago
  Read a piece years ago that said you should be very careful what targets you set in business as people will inevitably optimise/game the system them for those targets. I've seen this play out at multiple places with staff all the way up to are managment/director level.
bambax 11y ago
What I do is put the call on speaker and pass the receiver to my four-year-old son, who's super excited that someone wants to speak with him. It transforms an annoying experience into an entertaining one.
- jbandela1 11y ago
  Sounds awesome! All around win. You change the economics of telemarketing by keeping them on the line while also doing some parent-child bonding as you are enjoying a shared activity together.

by gregmac 11y ago

thaddeusmt 11y ago

On the topic of Lenny, "who" is great, if you want to just listen to one recorded Lenny call to get a sense for how it plays out (and have a laugh too), in this particular one a car crashes into the building where the telemarketer is working, adding to the strangeness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lL870ixdsY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lL870ixdsY

nchelluri 11y ago
this is exactly what i thought of when i read this article. just heard this lenny convo ~last week as i saw it posted on reddit. told my coworkers about it as well :) edit: here's a great link about the video, with the bonus of giving subreddit info: https://np.reddit.com/r/itslenny/comments/40ul71/telemarkter_figures_out_lenny_is_a_recording_then/cyx7mlw?context=3 https://np.reddit.com/r/itslenny/comments/40ul71/telemarkter...

randycupertino 11y ago

Fun anecdote time Lenny and even this new Jolly Roger AI- it's not just the telemarketers who are being scammed, some of them are using Lenny to do the scamming to get around their employers rules and get out of having to do real work. At a previous startup I worked at, we had an outbound call center with 500 reps who were incentivized by their talk time- the amount of time they spent on outbound calls. We found about 5 sneaky agents who would purposely call Lenny and sit on the call doing nothing, doing their nails, reading their kindle to keep their metrics up and high and look like they were doing their jobs well (and winning monthly contest incentives that would give them small bonuses or extra PTO) instead of calling real customers. I always wondered if the people who designed Lenny know about how some reps purposely call them to keep their own metrics up. Like, they think they are sticking it to the telemarketer, but really the telemarketer WANTS to screw around and take forever on the call so their performance bonus increases. Once we caught on to this, the company changed the metrics around to number of unique outbound calls. But then the reps also figured out a way to game that. There were even a few of them who figured out a way to set up dummy numbers and they would basically call their friends, or even EACH OTHER at the call center, and sit on the call with their friends instead of calling the call center. I could never really blame these reps, it was such a crappy soul sucking job and I gotta say behind the scenes I was always impressed with their ingenuity to try and get around the metrics. These reps were making $11 an hour and had to clock out even to use the bathroom (illegal practice that the company just broke the law on). I'm so glad I left that place, it was such a toxic atmosphere.

nl 11y ago
I always wondered if the people who designed Lenny know about how some reps purposely call them to keep their own metrics up. Like, they think they are sticking it to the telemarketer, but really the telemarketer WANTS to screw around and take forever on the call so their performance bonus increases. I suspect that the authors of Lenny would think that was the best possible outcome. Stop a telemarketer annoying people AND wasting the money their employers? Sounds like a pretty good outcome.
noir_lord 11y ago
Read a piece years ago that said you should be very careful what targets you set in business as people will inevitably optimise/game the system them for those targets. I've seen this play out at multiple places with staff all the way up to are managment/director level.

bambax 11y ago

What I do is put the call on speaker and pass the receiver to my four-year-old son, who's super excited that someone wants to speak with him. It transforms an annoying experience into an entertaining one.

jbandela1 11y ago
Sounds awesome! All around win. You change the economics of telemarketing by keeping them on the line while also doing some parent-child bonding as you are enjoying a shared activity together.