Everyone Wants My Personal Information

In summary: I always give them my email address instead. If they need my phone number, they can always call me.When I try to take a tour of a gym nearby, they won't let me unless I give a cell number AND my email address. I've never given out my cell phone number to anyone, ever. I'm just getting so fed up. When I go to a store to buy some stupid thing like a pillow, they want to know my zip code or phone number.When I try to take a tour of a gym nearby, they won't let me unless I give a cell number AND my email address. And now I try to sign into my old
  • #36
DennisN said:
Ask yourself if you put a lot of unjustified trust in profit-driven companies in general? Because I've seen "trusted" companies doing worse things than these.

Absolutely not.

Profit-driven or not, I'm just saying I would not consider any company that sends out something like that reputable. Not only are they asking you to click a link and give them your email, they're asking you to give them your "friends" email too...and, essentially, whoever gives them the most emails for future spamming wins a "prize"? lol ok... sorry, but any company that sends out something which is, in a best case scenario, spamming to get them email addresses or, more likely, is running an actual scam is not reputable.
 
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  • #37
Code:
EDIT: And by the way, the company I'm talking about IS a very reputable company where I live. But not in my eyes anymore

One lazy whiz marketeer/salesman who thought pavement pounding to gain business and profile by what was presented to management as a quick and easy and cheap method, is seemingly having am opposite effect. If you think that way so do many others who are going to quit having a relationship with this company, or at least a jaundiced view in the future.

I forget what it was about, not extra information demands,but I think if I recall it was the add-ons requested at point of sale. the buy a pack of cigarettes and do you want a lighter with that. with a 'No' they go on asking if you need a lottery ticket. After being annoyed like that a few times I told the cashier that her boss is an moron for implementing such directives, If I wanted more I would ask, her questions slow up the line, the annoyance drives me to purchase at another place, blah, blah. Nothing like the rumour mill and gosip of employees to eventually work its way up to powers that to do a change.
 
  • #38
Marketing industry has got so over the top it's earned my contempt.

I always enter my phone number backward and if asked, give a friend's birthday. .
If it's somebody I trust I tell 'em about the phone number.
I figure that foils automated machines that just scan and pass your info on to telemarketers.

I started doing that after an awful(and ongoing) period of harassment by a call center in Altamonte Springs/Casselberry Fla that uses robodialers peddling "Senior Medical Alerts". For a while I was telling them I'm Tim Macveigh and asking 'em to call me back at (number of Oklahoma City police department).
They laugh at the "do not call " list.
I've filed out scores of FCC form 1088 complaints;
written to my representatives, the FCC, my representatives, Attorney Generals of my state and Florida, my phone company, and CEO's of companies that manufacture the product.

So now I try to get the agents talking. They're pretty hardened so it takes a really creative insult to break the ice.
According to somebody who says he worked there , copy&paste these numbers into Google Maps shows the roof of the call center.
28.654034,-81.333775
behind Cypriana's restaurant

So - lie about your demographic. My socialist stepson taught me to enter age around ninety-four, household income less than $5000, zipcode worst part of town, and some annoying politician's office phone number.
What salesman would follow up that lead?
 
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  • #39
jim hardy said:
... some annoying politician's office phone number.
I have to look up a few of those now. :smile: :thumbs:
jim hardy said:
According to somebody who says he worked there , copy&paste these numbers into Google Maps shows the roof of the call center.
28.654034,-81.333775
behind Cypriana's restaurant
Could someone please hack those coordinates into one cruise missle please?
 
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  • #40
It makes me angry too, Lisa. I try not to take it out on the store clerks, but sometimes my frustration is too great. However, it might eventually get to the place where enough employees will get sick of dealing upset customers and complain to their bosses. Their bosses will get sick of disgruntled employees and send it up the chain. The probability that such a chain of events, if it happens, will accomplish anything? Small, I'm sure, but oh well.

Regarding the rest of the discussion going on in this thread; I've yet to be refused service for not giving my email/zip/phone#. In the rare case when someone tells me they can't proceed until I give it to them, which I think is bull**** by the way, I provide the most unhelpful numbers/letters as possible: zip - 11111, phone - 123-456-7890, email - spam@<random provider here>.com.

I've gotten some weird looks before, but I really don't give a crap. :smile:
 
  • #41
in the gym, ask them to show you That specific law that states you are to give them your details, rest assured there is no such law.
 
  • #42
Regarding post #38 above:
... after an awful(and ongoing) period of harassment by a call center in Altamonte Springs/Casselberry Fla ...
I've filed out scores of FCC form 1088 complaints;
written to my representatives, the FCC, my representatives, Attorney Generals of my state and Florida, my phone company, and CEO's of companies that manufacture the product.
Hey maybe those letters did some good - in January they busted that telemarketer, along with two others !

http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/agents-arrest-owners-3-central-florida-telemarketi/ncsQs/
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. —

Three people were arrested in connection with illegal telemarketing operations in central Florida, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Friday.

In a press release, the agency said after an investigation of consumer complaints the department determined that Arcagen, Inc., Excellent Marketing Solutions and Best Caribbean Trader, Inc., were operating illegally. The owners of all three businesses were arrested.
 
  • #43
Back in the day hotmail was a junkmail and not a big deal, why the junk phone is, the big deal?
 
  • #44
m k said:
Back in the day hotmail was a junkmail and not a big deal, why the junk phone is, the big deal?


Wait'll you come into the demographic that is targeted twenty times a day.

1. I resent having my peace and quiet interrupted inside my own home. It is an assault on my privacy.

2. Junkmail on paper one discards as part of the daily task of retrieving the mail when that is the focus of his attention. A Phonecall however demands your immediate attention to see whether it is important , interrupting whatever it is one was trying to do.
Do you know the terms "Context switch", "Push and Pop the stack" ?

The telephone has been transformed from a beneficial communication convenience to an implement of torture. It was a colossal mistake to break up Bell for it's made a laughingstock out of FCC and congress' toothless consumer protection legislation.

Adblock Plus works. Telephone Consumer Protection Act does not.
Some tasks are best served by a well behaved monopoly. Ma Bell would not have tolerated the present situation.
Whom can FCC hold responsible now? Nobody but Congress - they dissipated control.
"When nobody is responsible, everybody is irresponsible" rickover
 
  • #45
All calls on my home phone number are telemarketers. I haven't had a legitimate conversation on the landline in a long time...perhaps time to disconnect the landline since cell phones make them nearly obsolete.
 
  • #46
I get lots of telemarketers on the phone, what I wonder is, where on Earth they got my phone number. It's not public knowledge and I'm not giving out my own Personal number to anybody who doesn't need to know it.
 
  • #47
lendav_rott said:
I get lots of telemarketers on the phone, what I wonder is, where on Earth they got my phone number. It's not public knowledge and I'm not giving out my own Personal number to anybody who doesn't need to know it.

Have you put your number on the do not call list?
 
  • #48
Drakkith said:
Have you put your number on the do not call list?
As soon as the list was started and renewed a couple times a year.

That's part of my rant - they laugh at it. One of them actually said "FCC is a joke, they do nothing." And it WAS Florida who busted the guys not feds.

You'd think with all the TSA's technology the simple task of rooting out rogue telephone system abusers would catch some right-thinking bureaucrat's interest.
Guarantee it'd raise Obama's approval rating .
 
  • #49
lisab said:
And now I try to sign into my old hotmail account and they say I won't be allowed access anymore unless I give them my cell phone number in the next 30 days. Guess that means I won't be using hotmail anymore, and it was my very first email! I've had it for almost 20 years but I DO NOT want to give them my cell phone number!

I was going to tell you a very simple way to recover it in a few minutes in an untraceable manner. Without giving personal information or a phone number... or an email address that can be associated with you or your IP for that matter. But then I realized this is a thread from last year.

Nothing to do here... *goes away in a flying jetpack*... *in an untraceable way*... *I hope*...
 
  • #50
Psinter said:
I was going to tell you a very simple way to recover it in a few minutes in an untraceable manner. Without giving personal information or a phone number... or an email address that can be associated with you or your IP for that matter. But then I realized this is a thread from last year.

Nothing to do here... *goes away in a flying jetpack*... *in an untraceable way*... *I hope*...

*follows contrail*
 
  • #51
lisab said:
*follows contrail*
:eek: *tries even harder* *switching to propane gas combustible*
 
  • #52
I love it !

http://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/documents/cases/140113seniorsafealertcmpt.pdf

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF FLORIDA ORLANDO DIVSION FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION,

and STATE OF FLORIDA, OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL, DEPARTMENT OF LEGAL AFFAIRS,
Plaintiffs,
v.

WORLDWIDE INFO SERVICES, INC., a Florida corporation,
also d/b / a THE CREDIT VOICE; ELITE INFORMATION SOLUTIONS INC., a Florida corporation,
also d/b/a THE CREDIT VOICE; ABSOLUTE SOLUTIONS GROUP INC ., a Florida corporation,
also d/b/a THE CREDIT VOICE; GLOBAL INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGIES, INC ., a Florida corporation,
also d/b / a THE CREDIT VOICE INC.; GLOBAL SERVICE PROVIDERS, INC., aFlorida corporation;
THE CREDIT VOICE , INC., a Florida corporation, also d/b / a TCV; LIVE AGENT RESPONSE I LLC, a Florida limited liability company,
also d/b/a LAR; ARCAGEN ,INC. ,a Florida corporation , also d/b/a ARI;

and so on

i guess enough people complained to move leviathan.
 
  • #53
It is frustrating enough getting about 15 calls a day despite being on the no call list.

Lately I have been getting about four calls a day from, anonymous. I have a cordless phone with voice and text caller ID. It says in it's weird little voice: "call from annogomous".

It butchers the names of my friends too, but they don't call me 15 times a day.

It is bad enough that it mispronounces every blasted name including junk callers, the volume control only turns up the ringer volume. If I want to hear what Ms. weird voice says I have to go into silent running mode just to hear if by some remote chance it may be a call from someone I actually know. vent vent

Back when the thread topic was, retailers asking for our phone numbers, before I changed it.:devil: It was and is all about marketing. At first it was just zip codes, then they got really arrogant when they realized that they could compile our entire purchasing patterns with very little information.
 
  • #54
lisab said:
I'm just getting so fed up.

When I go to a store to buy some stupid thing like a pillow, they want to know my zip code or phone number.

When I try to take a tour of a gym nearby, they won't let me unless I give a cell number AND my email address.

And now I try to sign into my old hotmail account and they say I won't be allowed access anymore unless I give them my cell phone number in the next 30 days. Guess that means I won't be using hotmail anymore, and it was my very first email! I've had it for almost 20 years but I DO NOT want to give them my cell phone number!

I'm mad as hell and I won't take it anymore!1

My philosophy is, the relationship between me and a merchant begins when I walk in the door and ends when I leave. Am I the only one who is tired of giving people access to ME?
My father prefers to give instead the post code of one of main TV station (yes, in different city).

Anyway, my e-mail company provides me with aliases generator. I'm usually a bit too lazy to use that all the time, but technically it would be possible to create one alias per company.
 
  • #55
And now I try to sign into my old hotmail account and they say I won't be allowed access anymore unless I give them my cell phone number in the next 30 days.

i'd enter it backwards.
 
  • #56
jim hardy said:
i'd enter it backwards.
Unless someone else has that phone number. Then they could hijack your account. Also, the site probably has code to check if the area code and exchange is valid. I know that on many web sites, if I enter an invalid zip code or a zip code that isn't in the state that I entered, it fails. Free email is getting to be less and less free.
 
  • #57
DennisN said:
I fill (...) sometimes even false information. I don't feel ashamed at all by this;

I seriously do think that this is a good solution. I have used it sometimes.
 
  • #58
For cheapest plan the google gave 1e/month, shouldn't be too much for junk phone.
 

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