Telemarketers are constantly changing their scripts, freebies, and other tactics to reel you in. Some of them will call repeatedly to say you are eligible to receive free magazines, gas cards, gift cards, and more due to a special promotion or a contest you supposedly entered. Others will get around complying with the national do not call list by calling people under the disguise of doing a survey when that is not what they are truly doing. My former employer used the fake survey method and the you've won a contest/sweepstakes method to pump money out of people. In addition to these, my former employer would often tell customers they were being called as a result of a purchase from a completely different company while acting as if they are calling from that company. The real company name of who is calling the consumer is never given to them and thousands of people are misled daily in regards to whom they're really dealing with. The problem for the customer is that when they are lied to, misled, or otherwise unsatisfied, they don't have the proper contact information to track the telemarketer down or file a complaint because they are told they're dealing with another company altogether. Complaints to the company name given if they are ever reached, often fall on deaf ears. Although customers are often angry or have suffered a financial loss by agreeing to telemarketers' survey and sales pitches, they often have no recourse.
Perhaps a free trial or fee-based trial will be offered to you the next time you find yourself on the wrong end of a telemarketer's call. Watch out when the word trial is used. The term has a meaning unique to each company that uses it. Some people hear the word trial and think it's free, other times they are intentionally misled or lied to by the telemarketer. If you don't flat out refuse the offer or the request to be surveyed, be very careful of what you say or confirm because some customers don't realize that by confirming certain pieces of information such as their name, address, etc., they are agreeing to be charged for something that they likely never even asked for. Even customers who specifically ask what confirming their information will do only have a 50/50 chance of being answered in a thorough and completely honest manner. Most of the customers will never be told upfront that they cannot get a refund and customers in certain states must follow through even with verbal agreements for purchases via phone. Check to see if this law applies to you. You may also be told to agree to a sale just for the freebies and then cancel right away, which was another highly misleading favorite of some of my co-workers. Don't let them fool you be saying the call is being recorded. Recordings are only for company purposes of proving you agreed if you make it past the layers roadblocks and track them down to complain. Even then, there's a 99.9% chance that no one outside the company will ever hear any of the recordings. The length of time they are kept is also in dispute by various people within the company if they speak about that at all. Further, it is not difficult to delete certain parts of the call (such as where the customer repeatedly said no) and patch it together if needed. You should most definitely beware what telemarketers say as well as what they do not say and this is precisely why you should never make purchases via unsolicited calls and be very cautious of surveys as well.
A large number of people who agree to telemarketing offers find that the freebies come with very inconvenient strings and some will find the freebies are not free. Some telemarketers will tell you a gift or other freebie is absolutely free, but sooner or later you will receive either an automatic deduction from one of your accounts even if you never personally gave them your banking/credit info. Think about it, if they offer you something for free, they're doing it with everyone else. They can't make money off of a free item. Where are they making up that deficit? On the front end by making agree to pay inflated prices to make up for the "free" item or by going under the radar to raid one of your accounts at a later date? A significant portion of those who trust telemarketers enough to agree to the offer find that they receive nothing at all but deductions from their account and more sales offers via every possible mode of contact. Most of the actual products and services telemarketers offer can be found elsewhere at a much lower cost, with better quality and features, and with much better customer service than any telemarketer provides.
The telemarketer that I worked for uses a variety of tactics to produce profits and the individuals working there used every trick in the book to ensure that people would agree to their offers. Those running the show did nothing to stop illegal and unethical behavior and since they've been doing business in this manner for over a decade, I'd say it is tacitly approved of at the very least. Some of the telemarketers deliberately begin speaking very fast or they make noise so that the customer can not hear that their credit card will be charged. Others deliberately mumble in various areas of the script in the hopes that the customer won't reject what they didn't hear. Also, ignoring certain questions or diverting the customer's attention to another subject is a popular way of trying to coerce the customer into something they often say they don't want. Many times, I heard telemarketers at my former employer outright ignoring or lying to the customer to ensure they had a decent chance of talking the person in to agreeing to a sale, even if the terms of the sale were not fully disclosed. Another popular trick is to lower the volume on the telemarketers' end during critical portions of the script (usually where customers would reject the offer). Customers who ask for loud and clear repeats will not always have that simple request granted and are intentionally misled into something they never expressed interest in to begin with. Other individuals would simply make up their own scripts that didn't cover all the important terms. But, the actual script left much to be desired as well. The tricks are constantly evolving and spread through the call center like a wildfire if they result in sales. Once the volume of use of one trick was brought down to a simmer, the frequency of use of other tricks would explode.
Calls to customers are made from my former employer (and thousands of other telemarketers) using caller ID spoofing that never shows any name or phone number that will directly lead the customer back to the company, which is a violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The reason for this can only be negative, the offending company is doing more illegal and unethical things if they cannot display correct information so the customer can call them back for any reason. Calls are also frequently made to cell phones and to customers who specifically asked not to be called. These are more TCPA violations, not to mention lying to customers about who is calling them. Customers are not asked for their banking info on many of the leads because they already have every bit of information needed to charge them. If you're wondering, there are some telemarketers who would mislead the customer or simply try to charge them without their permission. If you don't want what they're selling, say so and make it clear and do not even act as if you are interested. I can honestly tell you that it is possible that the caller is so desperate for a sale, they may manipulate or lie to you for a sale and you will be charged. I witnessed this behavior on many occasions. If you're not asked for your bank/credit card information, you should be just as worried as if they had because you truly have no way of knowing who just called you seeking a sale and they very well could just charge you knowing you have only one way out of it via charge back. If they have your actual bank routing and account number, it's possible the charge may not be reversed. Never give any of this info to anyone calling you.
Do not allow them to talk you into turning your no into a yes because you will be opening the floodgates for them to sell your name and information to other companies who will try to squeeze more sales/money out of you. While many of us cannot avoid answering unknown phone numbers (co-workers, traveling friends & loved ones), we can say no and ask to be placed on that telemarketing company's do not call list. Some will comply but many won't and this is why they call from spoofed numbers so they can keep changing numbers but keep their con game the same. If they say they're calling on behalf of another company, ask to be placed on BOTH companies' do not call lists or you will continue to receive calls from the company that was paid to call you. Each time they call back, it's a violation of the TCPA. It is best if you say no and stick to your guns in doing so. Hang up if you have to. Keep a log of the phone numbers, dates, times, etc. of telemarketers who call you if you can. If you ever get your hands on a valid address for the company, you can have them served with papers to come to small claims court in your city. Make them come to you! If found guilty (most just settle because they know they're in the wrong or simply don't want to fight it) they have to pay $500 per violation of the TCPA.
My former employer often has everything as far as information goes on the majority of customers they call. So much so that anyone of the couple hundred or so employees could easily take that information and steal the customer's identity. Another important fact is that there is a large number of employees who are convicted criminals and others there who are on the path to becoming one. They can easily get your address if they are a pedophile or rapist and speak to you on the phone to boot. Or, if they're craving drugs and looking for a new source of funds, they could very easily take your banking or credit card info. Further, there are no background, reference, or credit checks done on any employees there. My guess as to the reason why no checks are done would be that the costs would be a business killer when most of the employees are encouraged to start working the same day or the day after they apply and many quit or are fired just hours, days, or a few weeks after starting the job. Turnover is extremely high. To illustrate how likely you are to find yourself on the line with a bad apple telemarketer, there are thousands of telemarketing companies with each company calling thousands of consumers daily. For every one that is eventually found to be operating in an illegal manner and/or shut down (which is relatively rare), there are dozens more that are not.
Be extremely careful of the companies that you do business with online and off because many sell/share not only your name, phone number(s), and address with others, but also your very private banking/credit card information and social security number. Some websites and fake emails are actually used for the sole purpose of getting new leads so the information can be sold repeatedly. Opt out of pre-screened offers at the credit bureaus (they sell your info too) to cut down on junk offers & the chances of identity theft related to unsolicited offers traveling to your mailbox. Don't provide your phone numbers when they are not absolutely needed and register your home and cell phone numbers on the national do not call list. Ask the companies you do business with not to sell or share your information and also let them know you don't like telemarketing. Regardless of whether or not you have an established business relationship with any company, you don't have to be subjected to interruptions or invasions of your privacy. Don't fill out entries for contests and sweepstakes as this information is often sold to telemarketers and similar types. Don't order stuff off of the t.v. commercials and infomercials you see, find a local store that sells them without bugging you for your private info. While the prices seem to be fair to some, the companies advertising these products on t.v. are also selling all the information you provided to them to other companies such as telemarketers and direct mail companies. Only money changes hands. The sellers of your contact and financial information do not care enough about you to do a complete background check on the buyers of your information. Buyer beware.
Sherry Snead
http://www.keepscamsaway.com
Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert
Source: http://newsandsociety-crimenews.blogspot.com/2012/02/telemarketing-fraud.html
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