[quote]
GREELEY, Colo. -- The Weld County Sheriff’s Office is trying to track down the phone number of a telemarketer who they say threatened the life of a homeowner in Mead.
Sgt. Tim Schwartz told 7NEWS that the homeowner received a call from the telemarketer Tuesday evening.
“The telemarketer was explaining to him that he had won some money,” Schwartz said. “The homeowner was not interested and hung up the phone.”
Schwartz said the telemarketer called back immediately “and got pretty rude, telling the homeowner, ‘I’ve placed a bomb in your house.’”
The homeowner, who declined an on-camera interview, told 7NEWS, “I think the call came from overseas. He had a very thick accent.”
After hearing the threat, the homeowner called 911.
Authorities responded and evacuated nearby homes while searching the victim’s house.
“It was like Oh my God! A bomb threat,” said Elaine Stanchfield, one of the evacuees.
Deputies took the evacuated residents to the Mead Fire Station and Town Hall.
Deputies from the Weld County Sheriff’s Office, and officers from the Colorado State Patrol, Dacono Police, Firestone Police and Mountain View Fire Department searched the home looking for explosives. They did not find anything.
Stanchfield said she can’t believe what happened.
“I personally think that telemarketers are a big pain because they constantly call you even when you ask them not to. But to go to those lengths to actually threaten someone is just ridiculous,” she said.
Schwartz said threats like that are very rare.
“It’s completely out of the ordinary,” Schwartz said. “I don’t know how to explain it. They’re just pretty pushy I guess.”
Schwartz said it may be next to impossible to track down the telemarketer.
He said if they determine the call came from outside the U.S., they’ll alert the FBI to the threats.
He said if they determine the call was made in the U.S., they can issue an arrest warrant, if they learn who made the call.
[/quote]
[url]http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/31397964/detail.html[/url]
I'm sure we all had similar moments
[quote]After hearing the threat, the homeowner called 911.
Authorities responded and evacuated nearby homes while searching the victim’s house.[/quote]
That's exactly why I would hang up again and not give a fuck.
The fact somebody first talked about my victory of money I know nothing about invalidates any threats he could bring afterwards.
"Accept this free money or I will blow up your house!"
Well isn't that something.
On a related note, I know a girl who got a call from a telemarketer called "Habib" who started flirting with her, and actually kept her number and keeps calling.
I must've been put on some database recently because I've started getting frequent calls and texts from consumer information groups, PPI claims companies, injury claim companies, and even one from a company claiming that I'd recently contacted them about sorting out my will. At the moment I just hang up or ignore them, but I might start fucking with them soon.
PPI Claims calls seem to be the current trend, I like hearing their brains screethc to a halt when i tell them I've never had a loan in my life, ever. One guy even tried arguing that fact with me.
[QUOTE=RayvenQ;37536894]PPI Claims calls seem to be the current trend, I like hearing their brains screethc to a halt when i tell them I've never had a loan in my life, ever. [B]One guy even tried arguing that fact with me.[/B][/QUOTE]
That's always the best part. You've either got to be very ignorant or extremely overconfident in your telemarketing abilities to try and convince people that they've taken out loans or been in an accident.
[QUOTE=RayvenQ;37536894]PPI Claims calls seem to be the current trend, I like hearing their brains screethc to a halt when i tell them I've never had a loan in my life, ever. One guy even tried arguing that fact with me.[/QUOTE]
Maybe you should just stop lying and admit you had a loan you just obviously don't remember.
I sometimes humor telemarketers because I know they must have 100s or even 1000s of calls that people either yell or curse at them. Telemarketers are people too and so I respectfully decline their offer and wish them well.
I've had a couple of foreigners call and pretend to be Microsoft, I just tell them to go fuck themselves and hang up.
It's like "herp derp ur compootr is virus infecterd and we are gonna turn your pc off if you don't fix it" mmk go get hit by a bus.
[QUOTE=markg06;37537015]Maybe you should just stop lying and admit you had a loan you just obviously don't remember.[/QUOTE]
And obviously I also have relatives in Nigeria who I've simply fogotten about but who have left me large sums of money.
Maybe I'm lucky? I never get telemarketers. I kind of wish I would get one so I could troll them a bit.
[QUOTE=Mechwarrior;37537054]I sometimes humor telemarketers because I know they must have 100s or even 1000s of calls that people either yell or curse at them. Telemarketers are people too and so I respectfully decline their offer and wish them well.[/QUOTE]
Calling someone while they're trying to eat dinner and watch TV with their family solely to sell them something they don't want or need is grounds for an immediate suspension of common courtesy and respect.
And they'll do it [i]right as you're eating dinner[/i].
I had one were they said they wanted to rape my non existant kids after saying "Why?" to everything.
I don't have a home phone anymore and I never get calls on my cell except like once a year from this cruise company (???)
when we did get telemarketing calls my dad would just scream or fart into the phone and hang up
One of those Microsoft scam people called me and said I had a virus on my computer and needed to download a file or whatever to fix it.
I had her on the line for a good half hour, while I was playing solitaire. Just with simple "Uh huh, okay" kinda thing, and then I finally said "Well, it's not letting me open this file because I run Ubuntu"
The noise that came out of that phone was pants-shittingly loud then they hung up.
I honestly feel a bit bad for telemarketers. I would absolutely hate to become one.
I just answer and immediately hang up.
[quote]“It was like [B]Oh my God! A bomb threat[/B],” said Elaine Stanchfield, one of the evacuees.[/quote]
...Did nobody else catch this?
[QUOTE=Itachi_Crow;37537419]I don't have a home phone anymore and I never get calls on my cell except like once a year from this cruise company (???)
when we did get telemarketing calls my dad would just scream or fart into the phone and hang up[/QUOTE]
This is where one of those pooters would come in handy.
[QUOTE=ShaneAlvarado;37537624]I honestly feel a bit bad for telemarketers. I would absolutely hate to become one.[/QUOTE]
I call people to see if they qualify for Market Research Studies by running them through over the phone surveys, and it's not all that fun. Luckily most of the time we call people who are signed up with us, but even then you get the occasional jackass. But I've witnessed the other side too, overhearing my fellow employees lose their cool or insisting on a point. My general policy while running people through surveys is that they're always right, no matter what information we have on them.
We do occasionally call people who are not on our list, and the worst/funniest thing is when you get people who accuse you of breaking the law since they're on the Do Not Call List (Doesn't apply to Market Research Groups, only applies to actual telemarketers trying to sell you something at least in Illinois) and threaten legal action if you call again. I haven't, but I do know that a few of my coworkers have deliberately called these people back out of spite.
Really just fucking treat people with respect no matter if you're the one making calls from a call center or receiving one.
[QUOTE=Upgrade123;37537665]I just answer and immediately hang up.[/QUOTE]
If you don't want to keep on getting called, it might be best for you to simply say you're not interested first. I'm not sure how telemarketers work, but if it's someone calling from Market Research, we're usually told to keep calling until we have some sort of final disposition (I.E He/She qualifies, doesn't qualify, isn't interested, etc.), though where I work we are limited to one call per day.
I hear telemarketing companies actually have a very high turnover rate. They are people, and most people just can't take being yelled at or messed with all day, it's a very stressful job. My dad tried it once to get a little extra money, but I don't think that lasted more than a month, and it's the same with many others.
[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;37538525]I hear telemarketing companies actually have a very high turnover rate. They are people, and most people just can't take being yelled at or messed with all day, it's a very stressful job. My dad tried it once to get a little extra money, but I don't think that lasted more than a month, and it's the same with many others.[/QUOTE]
I can tell you that we have a high turnover rate where I work. I've probably a dozen of people start and quit shortly after, and I've only been working since the start of this year. I'd hate to think how much more shit telemarketers have to deal with.
What people need to understand is telemarketers aren't taking any pleasure in bothering you, but when you give them shit or make their life harder you can stop; they have to get right back on the phone and call someone else who most likely is going to give them shit.
At times it just feels completely useless, and you just keep hitting a brick wall and you end up hoping that every call you make that the person on the receiving end doesn't pick up, just so you don't get a rude or snide comment. That's what it feels like to work in a call center.
[QUOTE=Upgrade123;37537665]I just answer and immediately hang up.[/QUOTE]
An answering machine could work too. That's what I have, and they immediately hang up when the pre-recorded message starts. Also useful so I can hear who's on the phone before picking it up for normal calls.
Here is a handy guide to giving shit to telemarketers:
Determine if they are a scam
if scam then
be asshole
else
hear them out and politely decline in a timely and clear fashion to allow them to make other calls to people who may actually be interested
This is an interesting form of Agrssive Marketing
all my telemarketer calls are something involving winning a ton of money so i say in a black girlish voice "MAMA MAMA WE WON THE LOTTERY, WE WON THe LOTTeRY!!" then start banging on something metal and ask how much we won and he tells us and then i just hang up
[editline]4th September 2012[/editline]
they haven't called since
[QUOTE=Inspector Jones;37537953]
If you don't want to keep on getting called, it might be best for you to simply say you're not interested first.[/QUOTE]
Someone picking up and hanging up before the telemarketer can say a word is a pretty good indication that they aren't interested.
[QUOTE=TestECull;37542371]Someone picking up and hanging up before the telemarketer can say a word is a pretty good indication that they aren't interested.[/QUOTE]
Not always. Telemarketers don't know the circumstances, Who Picked Up, Why they hung up (kids tend to pick up and hang up if they don't know the # and parents are not around). If everyone was marked to not be called if they were hung up on, they would talk to far less people. Telemarketers probably don't have bigger call lists then we do, and that's why they continue to call; they have no new numbers to call from the lists provided to them.
[QUOTE=Beetle179;37537802]...Did nobody else catch this?[/QUOTE]
A bomb!
A bomb? Why would he give her a bomb? It might BITE her!
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
