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Reader Voices: Subscription Scams | 6 comments (6 topical) | Post A Comment
Similar deceptive ads on the phone[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#3)
by Anonymous User on Wed Mar 26, 2008 at 02:24:27 PM PDT

I've been getting similarly scammy spam phone calls lately, perhaps one a week. Someone phones when I'm not around and leaves a recorded message on my voice-mail that says that it's my "final notice" to lower my interest rates.

I don't have any kind of credit card, mortgage, or other sort of loan at this time, so I don't have any preexisting account with interest rates I'd want to lower that might have a problem such as a past-due invoice.

As near as I can tell, it's actually an attempt to sell me a credit card disguised as an urgent notice of an account in arrears. Phoning the number left in the messages, which I haven't done, would probably lead directly to a hard sales pitch. :P

This kind of shenanigan should be regarded as deceptive advertising, IMO. So should television ads that use distinctive sounds like various stations' news-update fanfares, little guitar twangs like Seinfeld uses during scene transitions, and other such "salience indicators" to trick viewers into thinking that the show has come back on or that something else interesting, like a news announcement, is forthcoming.

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Reader Voices: Subscription Scams | 6 comments (6 topical) | Post A Comment
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