Comments on: Skype + Telephone Scams: A Love Story http://www.brendonwilson.com/blog/2005/11/09/skype-telephone-scams-a-love-story/ The personal web site of Brendon J. Wilson, a software developer living in Vancouver, British Columbia. Fri, 16 May 2008 03:45:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Bob Thornton http://www.brendonwilson.com/blog/2005/11/09/skype-telephone-scams-a-love-story/#comment-768 Bob Thornton Sun, 27 Nov 2005 00:54:26 +0000 http://www.brendonwilson.com/?p=275#comment-768 Just an observation, I live in the UK and am on the marketers "do not call" list (via http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/ ) yet still get plauged with annoying telephone marketing calls which seem to originate in the USA. Seems Skype would just cheapen existing, pondscum marketing methods. I also get "you have already won" snail mail junk, which originates mainly in Canada. The UK's Direct Marketing Association recently launched a campaign to regain the public's trust (like they ever had any!) See http://www.the-dma.org/cgi/dispnewsstand?article=4197 It's my personal view that advertising 'noise' has increased to intolerable levels in recent years. It invades our life constantly - magazines, flyers, posters, radio, tv, email, websites, IM, telephone calls, cinema, dvds... Marketing - the cancer of media in the 21st century. Just an observation, I live in the UK and am on the marketers “do not call” list (via http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/ ) yet still get plauged with annoying telephone marketing calls which seem to originate in the USA. Seems Skype would just cheapen existing, pondscum marketing methods. I also get “you have already won” snail mail junk, which originates mainly in Canada.
The UK’s Direct Marketing Association recently launched a campaign to regain the public’s trust (like they ever had any!) See http://www.the-dma.org/cgi/dispnewsstand?article=4197
It’s my personal view that advertising ‘noise’ has increased to intolerable levels in recent years. It invades our life constantly - magazines, flyers, posters, radio, tv, email, websites, IM, telephone calls, cinema, dvds… Marketing - the cancer of media in the 21st century.

]]> By: Tom Weir http://www.brendonwilson.com/blog/2005/11/09/skype-telephone-scams-a-love-story/#comment-546 Tom Weir Mon, 14 Nov 2005 19:59:41 +0000 http://www.brendonwilson.com/?p=275#comment-546 Imagine the possibilities when you mix-in distributed outsourcing such as Mechanical Turk, and its eventual competitors. Not only do you no longer need to make the calls, you no longer need to know the people making the calls. Just post a HIT with a phone number, a script, and a set of information to collect. If you post similar HITs with the same phone number, different questions, and staggered times (say once or twice a month), you could build a very substantial database of information without raising too much suspicion. For bonus points, each subsequent HIT could build on the last. i.e. If the target knows you have X information, it (potentially) increases the amount of trust they have in you, increasing the chances that they will give you Y information. From this point, its just a question of developing the cost model. How much is the information worth? How many HITs to acquire/refine the information? How much to offer for each HIT to attract sufficient interest? Ain't technology wonderful ;) Imagine the possibilities when you mix-in distributed outsourcing such as Mechanical Turk, and its eventual competitors.

Not only do you no longer need to make the calls, you no longer need to know the people making the calls.

Just post a HIT with a phone number, a script, and a set of information to collect.

If you post similar HITs with the same phone number, different questions, and staggered times (say once or twice a month), you could build a very substantial database of information without raising too much suspicion.

For bonus points, each subsequent HIT could build on the last. i.e. If the target knows you have X information, it (potentially) increases the amount of trust they have in you, increasing the chances that they will give you Y information.

From this point, its just a question of developing the cost model. How much is the information worth? How many HITs to acquire/refine the information? How much to offer for each HIT to attract sufficient interest?

Ain’t technology wonderful ;)

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