Magazine Renewal

Not certain, but I have always assumed they are phishing for data.

One big phish can make several trips to the pond worthwhile, I suppose.

They need the circulation to attract advertisers, so the loacal scout group is probably getting a copy too.
Kris shreds 'em to line his drey...
Del

Yeah - I used to talk to them, as I do read some of the mags on related topics to my work. Most of them developed a similar canned question routine about 10 minutes long with pre-canned options of A through G for "business sector" amongst others. I tried telling them that they did not have my business sector in their list and they insisted that I pick the "medical devices" category. (they could not accept - other - as an answer)So then I started getting about half a dozen mags related to the medical field, and dozens of company fliers for medical equipment, which my company I work for has nothing to do with. That's when I quit answering their calls. Kind of proves the phishing theory as they passed this data on to companies in the medical devices field. Not dangerous phishing, but rather annoying.

When I give my contact info to such people, I keep track of the little white lie that I tell them.

I would give the name 'Charlie A. Jones' to a fellow. The next guy I would tell 'Charlie B. Jones', the next would get 'Charlie C. Jones'. As unsolicited junk mail would show up, I could tell from where the sender had gotten my info.

As time went on, I could tell which of these prospective vendors I had given my info to were NOT giving out/selling my information. I would trade with those vendors, feeling a little better about their ethics and practices.

Excellent - I had that happen once where one of them got my name wrong, and I could tell what had came from them. I never pursued it with all the phone callers as you did.

Thanks Mizuti, that was very funny; I always enjoy the techno-blabbering from the movies, it is pretentious, anoying and insulting but in the end it's so funny that I can't help LMAO.

I think that a blog devoted to the subject would be appreciated here at CR4...

I'd be curious as to whether the latter form of "hacking" actually works. I've grown paranoid of the crafty telemarketers / phishers / annoyances. Very recently, I had someone call me up, tell me I won something, then immediately asked for my social security number. Makes me concerned for how often it probably works.

Changing gears - I do enjoy how physics and logic take a back seat when it comes to entertainment purposes. I could spend days talking about the inconceivable paradoxes tied to any time traveling movie

The publisher makes a profit from advertisers, but the people who calls you is only making a living from it.

2. If they need this info to renew, why do the magazines not quit coming?

Because if they reduce their circulation then they lose the paid advertising. Which is their profit not subscriptions.

Ahhh - but - in the days before phone pests were the accepted method of gathering this data, they sent paper forms on the magazine to fill out with the same stupid questions and claimed if they don't have this information for their auditors they will have to quit sending the magazine.

If you didn't fill them out did they didn't stop sending them.

Well.....no.

I have gotten some to stop via the internet when they have an associated emag.

Don't want anyone to think I am down on all of them - the ones related to process instruments, valves, and cabling, which relate to what I do, are a good break from work for a few minutes. Trouble is I get mags on finishing (painting/plating), medical equipment, chemical processing.....All because the questionaires are flawed and get me on a list of un-related topics. Don't need all that stuff. Terrible waste of paper. We have a large waste paper can at work devoted just to industrial /trade mags and it is filled nearly every day. I guess someone has found a recycler for these.

Like i said it's all about circulation and advertising money. One of the criteria companies base what publication they advertise in based on circulation.

I also receive a number of these so-called paid subscriptions without ever having paid for them.

I think that maybe they are happy to let you have them gratis to keep their circulation numbers up there to convince advertisers that it is a viable vehicle for promoting their product.

Whilst the advertising probably covers their production and distribution costs they are likely also even happier if you are silly enough to contribute even more cash to their coffers.

Why do they continue to call?...How many folks do you still hear about who continue to fall for the Nigerian scams etc., there are plenty of fools out there just waiting to be parted from their cash, and it becomes a matter of dangling enough lines to catch enough fish.

"Why do they continue to call?" ... (I, for one, don't care...!)

I got sick-&-tired of answering such calls LONG ago.

H E R E _ is 1 good way to deal with them....(so long as yer phone co-operates).

When you see a number calling you that you don't recognize: DO NOT ANSWER!

IF they do NOT leave you a message (and BY such msg, indicate being a caller WORTH answering), then ADD that number to your contacts_list , TO WHICH you have assigned a "SILENT" Ringtone.

[ I have numerous such 'Contacts'... for EACH Contact, the iPhone5 lets you add up to *8* different #'s : work / mobile / iPhone / home / main / home fax / work fax / other fax...]

I've been adding such annoying numbers for awhile now....and as such, they are "bothering" me less-and-less...!

... sure HOPE that nunna-them "800" numbers were calling to tell me I'd won a sweepstakes , and a "Pick-Up-Answer" was REQUIRED , to have the prize delivered...!

"PS" --- you can download a Silent (.m4r) ringtone for iPhone here or here, among other places I am sure...

"PPS" --- A FEW of those "early calls" that I DID pick-up for were (apparently) "phishers" simply looking for "Good_Numbers" (i.e., "idiots who answer their phones!")... so as to ADD my number to their lists that they probably SELL to scheming marketers, etc... ... ["No_More!"] I 'assume' this, because after I would say "Hello", they would simply hang-up...(?!?)

The biggest annoyance with them is when they do leave a "message". They apparently have several calls going at once and they don't hang up fast enough so they get routed to the phone recording function and I get several seconds of background noise. I have learned not to listen messages of 10 seconds or less. Someday I am going to miss that message, "This is -----, cal me ASAP."

It still is annoying to ignore them. When the phone rings and you are in a cubicle with a set of ear buds in your ears, others in adjacent cubicles assume you aren't answering because you have the volume too high on your music, which is a big "no-no" around here. I will have to try that trick with "silent ringtone" to see if I can do it with my phone.

Unfortunately, as you must have noticed, they keep moving the calling sites around the country and seldom use the "800" code anymore. If I see an area code where we have customers, which is most of them, I have to answer the first time they call from a new site.

Simply "FYI", I have never (and I mean NEVER!) had anyone call me or email me to ask "Why don't you {or "why didn't you"} answer your phone...".

And, I did just add another "800" number a few days back...

What "Gets_Me" now, is, I have added a couple "Contact_Numbers" lately that display as (area code) + only *5* digits, instead of 7. HOW DO THEY DO THAT...?!?

Yeah - I've seen that too. Only 5 digits - near as I can tell, it is the last 2 that are missing. That is another question for the "General" section on this site, unless someone picks up on this from our discourse.

I am always concerned that if I don't answer a call, that is going to be the one where one of our process skids is in a SAT test and has had a controls failure and the engineer for the customer, who knows me from the FAT test here the week before, needs immediate assistance. If he can't get me, he will probably go higher up the chain and I don't need upper management getting involved. Then a small isuue becomes a major one.

'yeah'... YOU could be in-for-trouble, should you miss one-of-them important calls...

EVERONE that *I* know (incl. doctors, dentists, etc) have been informed that I work in a (steel) building with poor cell reception 8-5_M-F... so, "call my desk #"... (this helps to some degree, I am sure).

Re ; your comment "I will have to try that trick with "silent ringtone" to see if I can do it with my phone." Some comments / replies would go-without-saying for MOST people (including yourself I would bet), so, just in case somebody In-NEED is following this:

IF your phone is a Blackberry or OTHER device that requires an mp3 version instead of the m4r files previously linked, a google search would probably reveal those as well. If NOT, simply open the m4r version in iTunes and use the iTunes menu-command to "Create mp3 version".

I've got a pretty old phone, but it still allows a 'black-list' of numbers I want to ignore. No ringing my end, no move to voicemail.

I had performed a pretty thorough search for such a program , prior-to setting-up the silent ringtone arrangement. All of the 'viable' results that I came up with previously involved apps for which you had to pay a monthly or yearly subscription...(!)

At your prompt , I just did another search, and found what appeared to be a *hopeful* hit at CNET : "Blacklist for iPhone - Unwanted Call Blocker"

As luck would have it, following their link to the iTunes store for a search produced:

For now, I'll keep plugging new-annoyances into the "Ignore All These X" contacts...

The function was not an app, just an option when saving the number.

"Understood"...(but, since Apple didn't include that ƒ on the iPhone(s), an app was sought...)