Better yet, copy the SIT .wav file to your computer so you always have a nice clean copy.
I've been doing this for years (didn't know you could just use the first beep, though) and it works really well against telemarketers who use "predictive software." Does nothing for the manually dialed calls from telemarketers, however. Still, it's gotten rid of about 80% of our telemarketing calls.
Telemarketers may be relentless, exasperating, even unethical. But you have to give them this: Theyre good. With the help of technology everything from autodialing software to cheap overseas labor connected by fiber optics theyve turned phone solicitation into a $270 billion industry.
The key to the telephonic onslaught is predictive dialing, a breakthrough of the mid-90s. These systems churn through huge databases of phone numbers, weeding out busy signals and out-of-service numbers, and routing answered calls to agents. They are mercilessly efficient: Out of an 8-hour day, agents can work the phones a staggering 7.2 hours. One loan company calling deadbeat borrowers boosted promises to pay by 129 percent.
The systems use a pacing algorithm to keep a steady flow of calls going, but there can still be a gap of three or more seconds between your hello and the telemarketers reply. That hiccup is critical its when many people hang up, and its led California and Oklahoma to enact dead line laws that make it illegal to use predictive dialers that drop too many calls. More states are drafting similar laws, and soon dropped calls may be banned altogether.
Telemarketers want to cut down on hang-ups, too they represent lost opportunities. That has driven them toward the latest advance in predictive dialing: IP-based systems. By converting from traditional circuit switches to digital packet switching, a center can increase its hits by as much as 35 percent. Agents dont wait as long for connections, calls dont get dropped, and the center halves its long-distance charges.
Eventually, machines may do all the talking. Avaya Inc. says its predictive dialing system is about 80 percent accurate in detecting a greeting message, bypassing the operator, and leaving a prerecorded sales pitch on the answering machines. Only one thing: Now some states are outlawing that, too.
How to Fight Back
Junk mail can be tossed and spam can be filtered, but telemarketing has always had a technological edge. At least until the TeleZapper. The device AS SEEN ON TV! promises to erase you from telemarketers lists and stop the unsolicited solicitations. And it works, at least until the industry devises a workaround. But why spend $50 for uninterrupted evenings? The fledgling Telemarketing Resistance has banded together online to help you do it for free. Just follow the steps below. N.M.
1. Get the Audio
The TeleZapper fools telemarketers autodialing equipment by emitting the ascending three-note special-information tone you hear before, Were sorry, the number you have reached has been disconnected. You can download this tone from the Web. Do a Google search for sit.wav to find one of these audiofiles.
2. Chop It Down
Open sit.wav in an audio-editing program like Microsoft Sound Recorder. Edit out the second and third notes. (You dont actually need those, and theyre sure to annoy family and friends.) Save the WAV file.
3. Press Record
Play that one note on your computer and record it as the first sound on your answering machines outgoing message. Follow with an oh-so-witty greeting.
4. Enjoy the Silence
Now sit back and screen those calls. Over time, telemarketers will get the zapping tone and take you off their lists.
- Neil McManus