The Vent and Rant Thread

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by ApK

Any legitimate marking messages from a legitimate company can be stopped on request, and the Do Not Call registry limits most of those just fine. Problem is the vast majority of spam comes from con artists, criminals and other shady fly-by-night types, often off-shore, using fake or throw-away numbers and info, who have no intention of obeying any law or request and no fear of being identified and blocked or found and sanctioned (unless you mean "sanctioned" like when that Russian spammer got shot in the head).
Here's more of that "breaking news: water is wet" type info: Criminals don't obey laws.

Yes ^ , precisely right. Sure, the DNC registry is fine for the regular, typical, law-obeying companies, but the scammers? Not a chance.

Hitch

[CRussel]

And the Canadian equivalent is even worse. With all sorts of legal exceptions, including politicians!

[ApK]

Originally Posted by CRussel

And the Canadian equivalent is even worse. With all sorts of legal exceptions, including politicians!

We have those exemptions here too, but I don't get much legitimate political spam. One or two before an election maybe.

[BetterRed]

There is/was a DNC register here, but there are/were so many exceptions I never bothered registering my now defunct landline number. I'm not sure if you can register mobile numbers - at one time you couldn't.

Interestingly the two spam SMS messages I was getting every day have ceased - maybe they were coming from here

I only get a few easy to spot spam messages on my mobile devices. I also get messages from my telco to say that nnnn nnn nnn just called but didn't leave a message. Not sure how that works - the phone didn't ring.

Because I live in a district that's been held by Labor on wide margins since federation I don't get any unsolicited calls, emails, or messages from political actors.

[tempest@de]

I like reading your posts, you give me insight about how things are in other countries, your experiences are so different from mine, I don’t think spam calls / messages are really a thing here, usually the ones calling are trying to sell you something, it looks in other countries spam is very common.

I found interesting that the politicians and political campaigns can call you and that it is legal to do so, as always they looked after themselves making a law to protect their right to annoy someone else.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by tempest@de

I don’t think spam calls / messages are really a thing here, usually the ones calling are trying to sell you something, it looks in other countries spam is very common.

Spam is unsolicited commercial email. It's all about trying to sell you something.
More often than not, it's an scam, not even a merely annoying attempt to sell you something honestly.

I found interesting that the politicians and political campaigns can call you and that it is legal to do so, as always they looked after themselves making a law to protect their right to annoy someone else.

In a less cynical view, that exception is about a public service, to keep citizens informed about who's running their government. Same reason they get different rules for TV airtime than commercial advertisers.
Sure, in a sense, a political message is trying to "sell" their candidate or their message to you to get your vote, but it's not quite the same as someone trying to get money from you for their own profit.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by ApK

If I have to give a site I'm not sure of working contact info, I use a usually use a custom one-time email address that I can trace back to the source and block if I get spam.

While we're still on the spam topic, I want to give a Hall of Shame nomination to the site "bestquotes.com."

They are one of those site I had to interact with, because reasons, but didn't trust. I get more spam to the address I gave them than any other. I only keep it unblocked and even allow to get to my spam folder because I'm curious to see how broad and deep the abuse is.
The site is a lead generator, so they are totally up front about the fact their reason for being is to provide your info to others. I fully expected to get insurance spam, car buying spam, loan spam and other related stuff, but I immediately started getting pure scam and phishing email in the vein of IRS fraud notices and Nigerian Prince scams.

So if you are genuinely looking for insurance quote comparisons, don't use them!

[CRussel]

I'm curious, @ApK, did they actually get you a reasonable set of quotes? If so, they might be useful but ONLY with a throwaway email address. (And it would get thrown away here, for sure.)

[ApK]

Originally Posted by CRussel

I'm curious, @ApK, did they actually get you a reasonable set of quotes? If so, they might be useful but ONLY with a throwaway email address. (And it would get thrown away here, for sure.)

I only provided them my info because I got a reward of free coins in an Android game I was playing.


If you were serious, I'm sure there are more trustworthy options out there for comparison shopping that are more deserving of your clicks and eyeballs.



ApK