Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!decwrl!hayes.ims.alaska.edu!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request
From: tad@ssc.UUCP (Tad Cook)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Mercury Marketing Again
Message-ID: <13221@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 9 Oct 90 18:18:18 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 726, Message 4 of 12


In article <13068@accuvax.nwu.edu>, bgsuvax!jyoull@cis.ohio-state.edu
(Jim Youll) writes:

> Yesterday my secretary got hit with a call that went something like
> this:

>    (caller) "Hi. This is Mary from Western Supply. How many toner
>              cartridges did you want this week?"
>    (sec'y)  "Toner cartridges? Western Supply? What is this pertaining to?"

> This is incredibly annoying, and the bastards don't even give you a
> chance to find out who they are. No idents given, even if you ask.  We
> absolutely do not accept calls like this for more than the minute it
> takes to figure out that it's an idiot and okay to hang up on them.

> You might tell people to watch out for this ruse. We have had two or
> three calls like this in the past couple months (that I know about).

These are getting quite common.  Our receptionist routes all calls
like this to me, even though handling office supplies has nothing to
do with my job description.

They usually call and right off want to know the model number of our
fax machine or copier.  Then they act like they are our "regular
supplier."  The scam is, they want to find someone new or naive who
will accept a delivery of this stuff, and they will tell you that they
have a "fantastic deal" for you.

I have fun trying to get these folks to give me some kind of basic
information about who they are, where they are, etc.  I rarely get
them to tell me a last name, and the company names are always generic
sounding (National Data Supply, etc).  They never will give me an
address, and rarely anything but an 800 number.  Once I ask a couple
of fundamental questions that people would normally ask before doing
business, they hang up.

One guy actually stayed on the phone a whole minute and a half.  I
joked with him that I was getting two or three calls a week like this,
and "they always hang up on me."  I got him to promise not to hang up,
got a first and last name, a company name, but then he had trouble
telling me where he was calling from.  "California", he said.  "Where
in California?", said I.  "Uh ... L.A.".  I tried to get him to give
me an address, and he choked.  I asked again for "the actual physical
address where you are now".

He hung up!

These guys must be working under a horrendous quota.


Tad Cook  Seattle, WA   Packet: KT7H @ N7HFZ.WA.USA.NA  Phone: 206/527-4089 
MCI Mail: 3288544       Telex: 6503288544 MCI UW  
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