EULA be sorry!

[athelind]

Your Obedient Serpent just got a spam call on his cell phone.

It wasn't one of the scam calls about my "automobile service contract" expiring, the ones that everyone was getting for a while there. This was a local carpet cleaning outfit.

I assume that it was a spam call, and not a wrong number. I hung up as soon as she identified herself.

You know, I've heard that there are some providers that let you customize the incoming ring on your cell -- the one that people hear when they dial your number.

I want to do that, and have a EULA as the ring for any unknown number:

"Unsolicited callers are advised that, by dialing this number, they have agreed to be invoiced for Mr. Stormdancer's time and attention. Billing amount is entirely at Mr. Stormdancer's discretion, and will commence as soon as the call has connected; this includes leaving messages on Mr. Stormdancer's voice mail. The use of an automated calling system is considered to be automatic consent to this license agreement. Thank you."

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Comments

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

I want one.

But I also like the old idea of answering - "why yes, I do need my carpet cleaned. How do you deal with blood?"

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Dude. You SO get a cookie.

[azhdragon.livejournal.com]

this is why the american mobile phone system is so unfair.

it costs *you* money when someone rings you ... an event you have no control over, in cases like the above for example.

I couldn't believe it when Cingular turned out to be charging me for making calls that didn't even connect - it rang out at the other end, and yet I still lost my 25c worth of credit, just the same as if I had connected.

there's something seriously f*cked up about the american phone system.

[tombfyre.livejournal.com]

I've been getting a lot of spam calls on my cell as well, but they're mostly of the automated kind. Plus the odd request for a survey or market research group. Further proof that our do-not-call list up here failed miserably.

People there selling off the numbers to telemarketers probably didn't help.

[araquan.livejournal.com]

In my case it was the bogus debt collectors that got a hold of my number. I managed to ward them off though. Mostly by telling them in no uncertain terms that they would be hearing from the FTC if they didn't stop calling me.

[mocha-mephooki.livejournal.com]

I get about three calls a day on my cellphone, but most of them are kind enough to use area codes that I don't recognize, so I've learned not to answer.

I figure if it's important enough to get a hold of me, then its important enough to leave a message that I can wait to hear until the night shift when I don't have to pay for the minutes to hear the spam in my phone's inbox.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

My cell is the number I use on my resume, so I EXPECT and HOPE FOR numbers I don't recognize. This includes area codes -- we have four or five different ones within a 30-minute drive.

Of course, that just makes it even MORE annoying when some spammer calls!