robo calls for Sheriff?

[lbmango.livejournal.com]

Why did I just get a robo-call about voting for Sheriff from a 202 area code? Seems a bit weird.

Comments

[ron_newman]

I got that too!

According to WhereDoIVoteMA.com, he does have an opponent, an Unenrolled (independent) candidate named Ernesto M. Petrone. I know nothing whatsoever about either candidate. The last time Sheriff was on the ballot, the candidates didn't include either of these people.

[lbmango.livejournal.com]

My main question, though, was why is the call coming from Washington DC? You can't get much more local than a sheriff, right?

[smammy]

There are robo-calling companies that anyone can hire to make robo-calls for them. There's no reason for them to set up calling infrastructure in every locality.

[lbmango.livejournal.com]

I guess, but you then you can just buy appropriate phone numbers, or even just hide your phone number. I'm actually surprised that the robocalls had a readible phone number...

[smammy]

A lot of people reject blocked or unknown numbers, so I'm not surprised at all that they show a valid number. I don't know anything about how flexible phone companies are w.r.t. custom area codes.

[mjrocks98.livejournal.com]

Yes, most political campaigns now use this robo call software. I used it when I worked phoning for a previous senate race. It's so your volunteers can work from anywhere, not just a call center. The volunteer logs onto their computer and plugs in some info to get the system up and running on their phone. This way the script the campaign wants stated to callers is in front of the volunteer on their computer screen and since the calls are running through the computer program the campaign is paying for the calls not the volunteer calling from home. When you disconnect from a call you click on your computer to go to the next caller and you can hear the call connecting on your phone.

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

I got it too. Does anyone recommend voting for him? I know nothing about him or the other candidate and generally don't vote for candidates I don't know.

[nathanjw]

I got this call on my cell phone, which is a FCC violation - political robocalls to mobile phones are not permitted, and the FCC recently put out an advisory reminding campaigns and call centers of this. I called up the campaign, and they were apologetic and said they'd investigate how my number ended up on their list.

Nothing personal against the campaign, but I reported it on the FCC's site (form 1088), and with any luck the campaign and/or the robo-caller will be hit with the relevant $16,000 fine, and future campaigns will take note.

[ron_newman]

Your link to the FCC page doesn't work, unfortunately.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

It has random characters at the end. Try this one:
http://www.fcc.gov/document/political-campaigns-restrictions-autodialed-prerecorded-calls

[ron_newman]

Much better, thanks! Chrome isn't even showing me those strange characters so I had no idea they were there.

[nathanjw]

Ack, sorry about that! I'll go hit a Chrome developer and see what's going on here.

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

I likewise got a cell-phone call, but rather than taking the trouble to call Koutoujian's campaign I'm just going to vote for Petrone.

[lizzielizzie.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that - I reported it as well. Very annoying to be calling my cell phone and leaving messages on my voicemail (which means I missed the first half of the recording, idiots!)

[obie119.livejournal.com]

Hm that is interesting - for the Obama campaign right now, the predictive dialing program (at the campaign office) has you plug your cell phone number into the system before making the calls. I assume that these people are seeing my number on their caller ID, though I can't be certain since I didn't call myself as a test.