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Leathal
Premium Member
join:2002-02-09
Richmond Hill, ON

Leathal

Premium Member

Question

Is there a forum here were I can talk about my phone line??

I have a big beef with Bell Canada. It seems with the US and Canada starting to clamp down on people spamming the crap out of users on the internet the spammers themselves have gone to higher heights by sending spam mail into your voice mail without calling you in person first. And to top it all off they are sending me about 1 to 3 messages per day on my business line.

This should be illegal!!

Leathal

Steve
I know your IP address

join:2001-03-10
Tustin, CA

Steve

Bell Canada is spamming you? Really?

Leathal
Premium Member
join:2002-02-09
Richmond Hill, ON

Leathal

Premium Member

Never said Bell Canada is spamming me. I am said spammers are spamming me via voice mail. If I recall when my friend tried to setup a spam system that would do exactly what others are not doing more so, he was told by Bell Canada to stop or risk losing his company phone lines. (not 100% sure)

Leathal

Steve
I know your IP address

join:2001-03-10
Tustin, CA

Steve

OK, so why do you have a beef with Bell Canada? For "not stoppping this" somehow, event though they did shut down your friend?

MacGyver

join:2001-10-14
Vancouver, BC
·TELUS
Actiontec T3200M
Arcadyan WE410443-TS
Sipura SPA-2102

MacGyver to Steve

to Steve
For those that don't know, telemarketers have discovered that they can leave voice mail for Bell customers with Bell's Call Answer service by calling a telephone number that goes directly to their voicemail. This number is intended for people to quickly check voicemail, but the telemarketers have discovered this alternate use for it.

Solution: dump call answer and get an answering machine. Saves you $7 a month, too.

Leathal
Premium Member
join:2002-02-09
Richmond Hill, ON

Leathal

Premium Member

Bell Canada owns the phone lines here and regulates them under the CRTC rules.

Leathal
Leathal

Leathal to MacGyver

Premium Member

to MacGyver
said by MacGyver:
For those that don't know, telemarketers have discovered that they can leave voice mail for Bell customers with Bell's Call Answer service by calling a telephone number that goes directly to their voicemail. This number is intended for people to quickly check voicemail, but the telemarketers have discovered this alternate use for it.

Solution: dump call answer and get an answering machine. Saves you $7 a month, too.

Yes, been thinking of dumping it and using my Panasonic voice mail (3 mailboxes) but I would prefer to give Bell a chance first!

The recent call I got was from some lady at Century 21, she left her phone number and I called and told her never to call and leave spam mail on my voice answer service again, that I would be taking it up with Bell Canada in the morning. Stupid bitch!

Leathal

En Enfer
This account has been compromised
join:2003-07-25
Montreal, QC

En Enfer to MacGyver

Member

to MacGyver
said by MacGyver:
telemarketers have discovered that they can leave voice mail for Bell customers with Bell's Call Answer service by calling a telephone number that goes directly to their voicemail.
Hmmm, ok, for when the "enlarge your manhood", "lose weight" and "get a fake university diploma" voicemail spam?

MacGyver

join:2001-10-14
Vancouver, BC
·TELUS
Actiontec T3200M
Arcadyan WE410443-TS
Sipura SPA-2102

MacGyver to Leathal

to Leathal
said by Leathal:
Yes, been thinking of dumping it and using my Panasonic voice mail (3 mailboxes) but I would prefer to give Bell a chance first!
Bell can fix this problem in a hurry by changing the system so that people can only check their voicemail and not leave any using the number, which is the way it should have been in the first place. (In Toronto, the number is 416-210-0xxx where xxx is the first three digits of your phone number)

The biggest reason I dumped Call Answer is that it would not discard blank one or two-second hangups. So I'd end up with 20 hang up messages which I'd have to listen to and delete each one. I called Bell and complained but they didn't do anything. My answering machine doesn't do this.

Happyrat6
Google Is Your Best Friend
Premium Member
join:2002-07-01
Disneyland

Happyrat6 to Leathal

Premium Member

to Leathal
Actually I have Bell Call Answer and I learned long ago the easy way to deal with some annoying novel-sized telemarketing spam is to just hit the numbers "33" while the message is playing and that lets me skip to the end of it. Then hit "7" and it's deleted. No biggie. It's also useful for some of my personal friends who insist on leaving me a novel everytime they talk to the machine

Leathal
Premium Member
join:2002-02-09
Richmond Hill, ON

Leathal to En Enfer

Premium Member

to En Enfer
said by En Enfer:
said by MacGyver:
telemarketers have discovered that they can leave voice mail for Bell customers with Bell's Call Answer service by calling a telephone number that goes directly to their voicemail.
Hmmm, ok, for when the "enlarge your manhood", "lose weight" and "get a fake university diploma" voicemail spam?

Ah, well I have received scam spams. The recent one a couple of days ago was from a place offering a $2500 trip for only $270 CAD. The rest are legit places offering their services to you, such as those YouGotJunk kind of places, real-estate agencies, etc. Pretty F'n LAME!

I wonder if their system is as smart enough as my friends was back in 2000. He's system would figure out the phone numbers number using Bells 210-0xxx system and then send them a message. He should of sold the technology back then he would be RICH now! Ah well.

I hope the CRTC decides to step in before it gets out of control and imposes a law with harsh penalties so that Bell doesn't have to waste their time with their own lawyers and such.

Leathal
Leathal

Leathal to Happyrat6

Premium Member

to Happyrat6
said by Happyrat6:
Actually I have Bell Call Answer and I learned long ago the easy way to deal with some annoying novel-sized telemarketing spam is to just hit the numbers "33" while the message is playing and that lets me skip to the end of it. Then hit "7" and it's deleted. No biggie. It's also useful for some of my personal friends who insist on leaving me a novel everytime they talk to the machine

Wait till you start getting your mailbox full of them you will be wanting Bell and the CRTC to do something about it ASAP!

Leathal

Steve
I know your IP address

join:2001-03-10
Tustin, CA

Steve

said by Leathal:
Wait till you start getting your mailbox full of them you will be wanting Bell and the CRTC to do something about it ASAP!
Rather than go crying to the government, why not express your opinion via the marketplace by not giving Bell your business, telling them why, and raising this issue with other customers.

might be fun to start spamming other mailboxes: "If you're sick of this spam in your mailbox, complain to Bell"

Leathal
Premium Member
join:2002-02-09
Richmond Hill, ON

Leathal

Premium Member

Steve,

There is no protection from switching Telco carriers. They all use Bell lines at some point, plus there is no stopping the spam from getting onto the other carriers voice mail system.

Contacting the regulators is the best thing to do, this way they can decide weather or not to put certain laws into effect which stops the spam from spreading. I am sure if enough people are complaining they will consider it, since they know how hard it is to regulated the internet they don't want to be in the same though spot later down the road when the voice mail spam has spread like wild fire.

Leathal
Dave Lewis
join:2004-04-21
Nepean, ON

Dave Lewis to Leathal

Member

to Leathal
I have to agree... It's not really bell's fault for providing you a way to get and send your mail when your not home.. The issue with the "non-legitimate" use of it by telemarketing companies. They are in essence misusing the service, and in most cases people can be refused service if they misuse it.. Same as most instant messenger services, you shouldn't be able to mass mail people one number at a time from your voicemail, like come on I know alot of people yes.. but is it likely that I'm going to dial in remotely and send 250 voicemails to 250 different numbers... not likely..

just my opinion...

Dave

MacGyver

join:2001-10-14
Vancouver, BC
·TELUS
Actiontec T3200M
Arcadyan WE410443-TS
Sipura SPA-2102

MacGyver

said by Dave Lewis:
They are in essence misusing the service, and in most cases people can be refused service if they misuse it..
Except that you don't need to be a Call Answer subscriber to perform this abuse. Any person in the world can call and leave a message without ringing your phone.

DaJatt
@sympatico.ca

DaJatt

Anon

Greetings,

I personally don't believe in Answering Machines; I nor have one of my own neither do I leave a message in other peoples. As for this issue, I would go with Steve on this, starts spamming other people's boxes with "If you don't like this, complain to Bell."

HiVolt
Premium Member
join:2000-12-28
Toronto, ON

HiVolt to Happyrat6

Premium Member

to Happyrat6
said by Happyrat6:
Actually I have Bell Call Answer and I learned long ago the easy way to deal with some annoying novel-sized telemarketing spam is to just hit the numbers "33" while the message is playing and that lets me skip to the end of it. Then hit "7" and it's deleted. No biggie. It's also useful for some of my personal friends who insist on leaving me a novel everytime they talk to the machine

Press "77" while the offending message is playing and its deleted right away, and it skips to the next message if you have more.

Leathal
Premium Member
join:2002-02-09
Richmond Hill, ON

1 edit

Leathal

Premium Member

said by HiVolt:
said by Happyrat6:
Actually I have Bell Call Answer and I learned long ago the easy way to deal with some annoying novel-sized telemarketing spam is to just hit the numbers "33" while the message is playing and that lets me skip to the end of it. Then hit "7" and it's deleted. No biggie. It's also useful for some of my personal friends who insist on leaving me a novel everytime they talk to the machine

Press "77" while the offending message is playing and its deleted right away, and it skips to the next message if you have more.

The problem here is the voice answer service holds only so many messages, what happens if my mailbox fills up with unwanted junk mail and some tries to leave an emergency message for me and can't? Can I sue anyone?

Anyhow I just got off the phone with Bell Canada, they openly admit to their 210-0xxx service allowing people to send spam mail, and do permit this to happen. They also said the CRTC recently said something in the news that they too are going to permit spam voice mail and not try to stop it in anyway. This is a very sad day for Canadians.

Next month I am going to cancel my voice mail and let Bell know why I am disappointed in their service.

Regards,
Leathal

HiVolt
Premium Member
join:2000-12-28
Toronto, ON

HiVolt

Premium Member

Yeah I know it holds a limited number of messages... We use the service at work, and we get spam on it a lot... "Sorry I missed you", yadayada.. F**k off!

We're working on getting a voicemail system addon for our Norstar phone system, and we'll get rid of the bullshit spam.

Leathal
Premium Member
join:2002-02-09
Richmond Hill, ON

Leathal

Premium Member

I know a client of mine who gets spam every once in while on their NorthStar voice mail. It will only be a matter of time when spammers figure out away to spam electronic voice mail systems full-time.

Oh, forgot to mention. Bell said that if you call the spammers up and ask them not to call you anymore, if they do they have violated the privacy act and at that point Bell Canada will do something about it.

Leathal

Happyrat6
Google Is Your Best Friend
Premium Member
join:2002-07-01
Disneyland

Happyrat6 to Leathal

Premium Member

to Leathal
One thing worth noting is that while we don't have a gov't run don't-call-list in Canada, registering with the Canadian Marketing Association »www.the-cma.org/ can significantly reduce the amount of postal and telephone spam you receive in a week. I've had my household registered under this umbrella for a couple of years now and it really does reduce the amount of junk mail and telemarketing calls we receive.

Leathal
Premium Member
join:2002-02-09
Richmond Hill, ON

Leathal

Premium Member

would be nice if there was a "register" link on the webpage you provided HappyRat.

Leathal

Happyrat6
Google Is Your Best Friend
Premium Member
join:2002-07-01
Disneyland

Happyrat6

Premium Member

said by Leathal:
would be nice if there was a "register" link on the webpage you provided HappyRat.
It's the "Do Not Contact List" service Link on the right hand side in the middle of the page