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Man makes money from cold calls with his own higher-rate phone number (2013)
- TheSpiceIsLife 8y ago10p an hour? And he keeps them talking for longer? I have better things to do with my time. Edit: hour? I meant to write minute. Vagued out I guess.
- tecleandor 8y ago10p a minute, although checking rates for calling an 0871 in UK from a landline, it can be from 15 to 30p a minute.
- TheSpiceIsLife 8y agoYeah oops, I meant to write minute. Vagued out for a minute there. Slip of the tongue, or fingers as it were.
- scarcely 8y agoSo a typo.
- TheSpiceIsLife 8y agoWouldn’t a typo be more like mintue instead of minute. I wrote an entirely wrong word spelled entirely correctly. Wikipedia has this to say about typos: A typographical error (often shortened to typo), also called misprint, is a mistake (such as a spelling mistake)[1] made in the typing of printed (or electronic) material. Historically, this referred to mistakes in manual type-setting (typography). The term includes errors due to mechanical failure or slips of the hand or finger,[2] but excludes errors of ignorance, such as spelling errors, or the flip-flopping of words such as "than" and "then". Before the arrival of printing, the "copyist's mistake" or "scribal error" was the equivalent for manuscripts. Most typos involve simple duplication, omission, transposition, or substitution of a small number of characters. (emphasis mine) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typographical_error https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typographical_error Hmmm. Definitely spending way too much energy here.
- benj111 8y agoIt isn't an error of ignorance, if you knew it was minute though? Your quote mentions "scribal error". Your spelling part of the brain knew what it wanted to write. The writing part inserted a different word. Now my lack of knowledge of brain parts is an error of ignorance, so 'spelling part of the brain' isn't a typo.
- cyberferret 8y agoPer minute. Keep them talking for 10 minutes and he gets a pound. If he is getting 30 calls per month and keeps each of them talking for just ten minutes, that is 30 pounds worth of beer money that month that he can drink with his friends at the pub - for about 5 hours work/month. Not sure how that compares with minimum wage in the US, but it may be close.
- fabricexpert 8y agoPeople really value getting things for “free” over working for them.
- ada1981 8y agoDon’t believe the florist when he tells you that the roses are free.
- benj111 8y agoIs this a saying? Google isn't returning anything, and I've can't think of a florist structure, where what you were actually buying was obscured. I wouldn't expect the quality of the free roses to be very good though.
- daleharvey 8y agoIn tourist destinations around europe (particularly Italy) there are people who go around with a bunch of roses and will try fairly forcefully to give a free one to your partner then fairly persistantly request a donation from you. Guessing thats what they are referring to although calling them a florist seems a push.
- benj111 8y agoOk, never come across that, even in Italy, but would make sense.
- 8y ago
- depressed 8y agoIf you are able to work on something else at the same time, it's free money. More importantly, he probably has a vastly different opportunity cost than you. If all he was doing was watching the TV, why not make a little extra money for no additional effort?
- justinclift 8y agoHook it up to a chat bot (as mentioned above), so it takes ~no time after configuration. :)
- perlgeek 8y agoI guess the feeling that you are being payed, even if a little bit, helps considerably to raise the mood.
- bonestamp2 8y agoCould write a little bot that answers and then keeps asking generic open ended probing questions, laying out hypothetical situations and then questions related to them.
- koolba 8y agoCheck out Lenny: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/d3b7na/the-story-of-lenny-the-internets-favorite-telemarketing-troll https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/d3b7na/the-story-...
- ravenstine 8y agoLenny's the best. The part with the ducks kills me every time!
- blhack 8y agoOr: https://jollyrogertelephone.com/ https://jollyrogertelephone.com/
- pavel_lishin 8y agoI've never successfully merged a phone call to Lenny. I would absolutely pay money for this to be a standalone app on my phone. I'd be fine with using it as the default dialer.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- sciurus 8y agoIn a similar spirit, check out https://egbg.home.xs4all.nl/counterscript.html https://egbg.home.xs4all.nl/counterscript.html
- system2 8y agoCan this be done in united states? I get 10 calls a day, while I am doing something mundane in front of my pc, I can mess with the Indians.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- rightbyte 8y agoInteresting ... it's more or less like the 90s call rates or post stamp fee. Maybe the most effective way to combat spam is to "tax" it? I would gladly pay 10 cent to the called or receiver for every call or mail I sent to recipients who hadn't whitelisted me, as long as it was mutual. The spammers would not. Then again, I still receive alot of paper spam in my physical mailbox and humans paid full time to sell me stuff still call where the call cost is not the main cost, so it wouldn't solve very much and would be hard to organize practically.
- xfitm3 8y agoIf you are in the US your paper spam subsidizes the USPS.
- bredren 8y agoThe usps is in league with paper spammers.
- dsl 8y agoThe Lumber Cartel
- calvertdw 8y agoI would gladly pay the extra tax to opt out.
- JamesCoyne 8y agoThe USPS is not directly funded by taxes.
- chrisseaton 8y agoForbes says that they're effectively funded by tax payers to the tune of $18 billion a year. http://fortune.com/2015/03/27/us-postal-service/ http://fortune.com/2015/03/27/us-postal-service/
- MisterTea 8y agoThis almost sounds fair; Time is money. You want to use my free time to sell me something? Then compensate me for using up that free time or get lost. 10p a minute is £6 an hour or $7.83 USD, slightly more than US minimum wage which I see as being a fair starting point.
- goatherders 8y agoTime is indeed money. Most companies track customer acquisition cost in dollars and I've often wondered whether both parties - customers and companies - would like a more direct model. Let's say an employee earns $50/hour. And a SaaS has identified that employee as being a decision maker on their service. And let's say my current CAC ie $10,000 and the lifetime value of the service is 25k. And let's say that the SaaS closes 1 out of every 5 people that sees the demo. Wouldnt there be appetite for the SaaS to offer 5 potential decision makers $500 each to participate in a demo? And another $1000 to the DMs company? The CAC decreases by 25% and the spend goes to the people and companies most participating in the process as opposed to tools like Marketo, and spend, etc. Anyway, I think the guy here has hit on something but not at a high enough price.
- LoSboccacc 8y agothat would be surely against any anti-birbing policy a company has. at least do what doctor do and book them expensive vacation at exclusive venues where you coincidentally are pitching your company product.
- lbotos 8y agoMost serious companies have ethical policies that would require disclosure of such a scheme (as in, if you are targeting me, and giving me a gift, I need to tell my boss) and others will flat out deny or disallow such gifts.
- goatherders 8y agoI think a disclosure would be part of it for sure.
- SubiculumCode 8y agoIs there an american equivalent to this VAT number in the article?
- techsupporter 8y agoA VAT number is (more or less) analogous to a sales tax number in the States (that have a sales tax). If you mean is there an equivalent to a calling-party-pays, premium-rate number, it is +1-900 or +1-area code-976 numbers. I am all but certain that zero businesses or spammers will call it even if you ask them and they’re virtually useless these days because VoIP and mobile carriers don’t generally support making calls to them. The only lines that still work for calling them are regular, regulated, post-paid billing POTS lines. Added: I also just looked and apparently both AT&T and Verizon no longer bill customers for premium-rate charges (pass-through billing) so there are even fewer lines that still support calling those numbers.
- SubiculumCode 8y agoWell 900 numbers I'd guess, used for psychic hotlines and other entertainments. I suppose if I had a 900 number and used that in place of my real number on all the signups (e.g. safeway club), who I know sales their info whatever they claim, that would be funny. I wonder how many of these spam services blacklist 900 numbers?
- Jerry2 8y agoThe 1-900 number as other poster mentioned is an obvious "premium rate number" [0] but there are also others which are typically used for scams which are assigned to Caribbean countries. [1] [2] I have no idea how to acquire one of those and how to link it to your SIM card or land-line. >Consumers usually receive a message telling them to call a phone number with an 809, 284, 649, or 876 area code in order to collect a prize, find out information about a sick relative, etc. The caller assumes the number is a typical three-digit U.S. area code; however, the caller is actually connected to a phone number outside the United States, often in Canada or the Caribbean, and charged international call rates. >The 876 area code has been linked to a form of telephone fraud known as the "one ring scam". The person perpetuating the scam calls the victim via a robodialer or similar means, sometimes at odd hours of the night, then hangs up when the phone is answered with the hope that they will be curious enough to call the number back. When the victim does this, an automatic $19.95 international call fee is charged to their account, as well as $9/min thereafter. Similar scams have been linked to Grenada (area code 473), Antigua (268), the Dominican Republic (809, 829, and 849), and the British Virgin Islands (284). [2] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premium-rate_telephone_number#United_States_and_Canada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premium-rate_telephone_number#... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/809_scam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/809_scam [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_code_876 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_code_876
- Scoundreller 8y agoThere was some story here before about a person that figured out they could muse these kinds of semi-premium numbers for automated verification calls from online svcs (like Microsoft and Twitter). (If) They automated the process and could make some semi-reasonable amount of money per hour. edit: here it is: https://www.arneswinnen.net/2016/07/how-i-could-steal-money-from-instagram-google-and-microsoft/ https://www.arneswinnen.net/2016/07/how-i-could-steal-money-...
- OrgNet 8y agothat is great... you could pay back the 7p to legitimate callers... if only this could be automated (at least for numbers on your contact list)
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- SimeVidas 8y ago> Because he works from home, Mr Beaumont has been able to increase his revenue by keeping cold callers talking - asking for more details about their services. ROTFL
- streblo 8y agoHow would you do something like this in the US? 900 number?
- sha666sum 8y agoWhile cold calls are an issue, I don't think phone numbers should be able to charge you money without you being aware of it.
- MrStonedOne 8y agoYou are aware of it. They always have a well known prefix, in the us its 1-900, in the uk its 0871.
- iMerNibor 8y ago..unless you're not, since you don't know the magic prefix of the country in question. There is a lot of variety https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premium-rate_telephone_number https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premium-rate_telephone_number
- lqet 8y agoWell, yes, it is up to you to check beforehand what certain things cost in different countries. Do you want countries to post signs with their exact speeding fines at borders?
- MiddleEndian 8y agoIdeally I could charge anybody any amount to call me. Not a timed rate but cash just to get through. I could charge nothing for my friends, family, building doorbell service, and everyone else I approve, and $10k for everyone else. If robots fail to determine that charge that's on them.
- metildaa 8y agoFyi, calling normal phone numbers costs your carrier anywhere from $0.05 to $0.00007 per minute in the US for normal numbers. The more rural a number is, the higher the cost
- Semiapies 8y agoI'm just amused by Phone Pay Plus huffing about how people shouldn't do this. Maybe don't pester people with cold-calls...
- thaumasiotes 8y agoHuffing? They're saying that as the operator of a pay phone service you have several legal obligations and you will be subject to possibly stiff penalties if you don't comply and someone complains. I'd be pretty surprised if their lawyers would let them discuss this scheme without emphasizing that.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- fma 8y agoI've thought about getting a 1-900 number and putting that as my cellphone number on my company profile. Any weekend or night production calls... I'd get some extra $.
- pfriend 8y agoIt's called proof of work. I did this for email. Get in touch if you want to try it. I'm now working on doing this for the browser.
- msla 8y ago> It's called proof of work. > I did this for email. Get in touch if you want to try it. How? Via email? I'm not going to implement your proof-of-work scheme just to email you. Nobody else is, either.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- sytelus 8y agoIs there an opportunity for startup which can give you a pay-call number and handle all legal requirements behind it? Then it would be easier to own pay-call number for everyone and give it out to everyone. The company can give you option to absorb the cost by yourself instead of charging caller. Math wise, if cost to accept legitimate call is 3 cents and if you get 20 such calls a month then its less than a dollar for you each month.
- rausej 8y agoYes there is a great opportunity here, and I know that because when I read this article I thought to myself what a wonderful specimen of native advertising this is. Turns out that its not though, its actually a five year old article and PhonepayPlus is a public regulatory body.
- mrhappyunhappy 8y agoWhat I can’t stand is the default practice of recording phone calls. “This call may be recorded for training purposes” with no way to opt out. Sure, I could hang up but what if I absolutely have to make that call. I don’t want my calls recorded by default, I want to be asked and the answer will always be No. If you are using my calls to make your company money by training your staff, I want to be compensated.
- lostlogin 8y agoLet the first human who answers know that you are recording too, for quality assurance and training. Additionally, apologise. The call is important but the current high demand has made you slower than normal.
- nulbyte 8y agoIn many states in the US, you only need one party's consent. In the cases where you need dual party consent, they must explicitly ask you. Of course, that works both ways in each case. If you only need one party's consent, you can be that party and record. You don't even need to ask consent. Also, you can opt out. Just ask them to stop recording. If they don't, hang up. But most companies will stop recording when asked.
- koheripbal 8y agoIt's not really about training. It is to provide evidence in court in case you try to sue the company. It also motivates customers to behave in a civil manner because they know they are being recorded.
- abhinai 8y ago"The number of calls received by Mr Beaumont has fallen from between 20 and 30 a month to just 13 last month." I would have expected the calls to fall down to 0. I am amazed that at-least some cold callers don't mind paying the money. Their profit-margins must be high! Is the data on the profit margins of cold callers publicly available somewhere?
- rincebrain 8y agoI would assume that a certain percentage of callers are newly contracting, and the rest recurring. The former probably won't figure it out until after, the latter probably has a percentage dropoff based on how fast their accounting department notices (assuming it's not lost in the noise of being a truly enormous company).
- LaserToy 8y agoBrilliant. Can I setup a line so all Robocalls are charged $1000 per minute?
- reaperducer 8y agoFor those of us not in the UK, what is a PPI refund?
- Doctor_Fegg 8y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_protection_insurance https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_protection_insurance
- simonjgreen 8y agoPPI stands for payment protection insurance. There was a huge legal case where it was found that it was mis sold (card companies and banks didn't follow rules) and so refund were due. The landslide was so huge the business of applying for refund has itself become big business.
- joosters 8y ago[Regulator Phone Pay] says Premium rate numbers are not designed to be used in this way Yes they totally are. The whole point of them is to make money from callers. Exactly what else were they designed for?
- lgeorget 8y agoThis is answered in the article it seems. Those numbers are associated with obligations of fairness, liability, etc. which an individual is unlikely to be able to provide the callers with.
- kwhitefoot 8y agoSurely all he has to do is point out to whoever he gives the number what it will cost them. What more could be needed? And as someone else pointed out, in the UK at least, these numbers all have the 0871 prefix.
- joosters 8y agoRubbish! Why do you believe that an individual can’t be fair yet an organisation can? Premium rate numbers are used by some of the most scammy businesses out there, the regulators don’t seem to mind taking their money.
- toufique 8y agoI've always wanted to do the same thing for my e-mails!
- polskibus 8y ago2013
- nmstoker 8y agoStrange that consumer protection rules would apply to companies (especially those making unsolicited calls)
- djhworld 8y agoThis article was written in 2013, I wonder how he's been getting on since? I'd imagine a lot of companies have wised up and won't call 0871 numbers. Interestingly he mentioned he puts his 0871 number as his contact number for banks/energy bills etc so if they contact him about something he gets money for it.
- pushpop 8y agoGenerally they only contact you by phone if they’re trying to sell you something. Banks being the one notable exception but I still get more than my fair share of sales calls from the bank too. Plus at the time that was written, it was pre-GDPR so you’d often find your number getting sold on if you weren’t extremely careful when signing up to even non-free services.
- Freestyler_3 8y agoFun fact, in the Netherlands the government sells data to these companies, knowing it is against GDPR. They will partly cease this in the future (not immediately) How it works: Chamber of commerce requires all companies to register there. They sell your data to other companies. There is no option to not have your data sold. Since I registered there (one man company) I have received countless calls and mail. Most calls are trying to scam me into a more expensive energy contract. It has not calmed down in the last year at all.
- amelius 8y agoIs there an app that, upon clicking a button, will play a standard message to the caller and hang up the phone?
- chris_wot 8y agoThe problem is that it doesn't cost much to call someone. If the costs rise, then it lowers the rate at which people call. Not a bad idea, if only it can work for everyone!