http://blog.matthewgast.com/2006/11/06/special-hell-for-misconfigured-robocallers/ A former physicist tries to make sense of technology Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:57:11 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 http://blog.matthewgast.com/2006/11/06/special-hell-for-misconfigured-robocallers/#comment-6 Thud Tue, 07 Nov 2006 02:16:52 +0000 http://blog.matthewgast.com/2006/11/06/robo-caller-meet-asterisk-asterisk-ignore-robo-caller/#comment-6 The robo-calls you note are tricker than that; they are designed to sound like they are coming from the opposing party. In this case, it's a Republican-funded call that sounds like it's coming from a Democrat. If you hang up, you continue to get pestered -- and you continue to miss that the call is funded by Republicans. If you don't hang up, you *do* hear the attribution but you also have to sit through the entire negative message. It's cunningly designed, and it ought to be illegal. The robo-calls you note are tricker than that; they are designed to sound like they are coming from the opposing party. In this case, it’s a Republican-funded call that sounds like it’s coming from a Democrat. If you hang up, you continue to get pestered — and you continue to miss that the call is funded by Republicans. If you don’t hang up, you *do* hear the attribution but you also have to sit through the entire negative message. It’s cunningly designed, and it ought to be illegal.

]]>