But Now That My Auto Warranty Has Expired...

My computer at work has the ability to send my an e-mail alert (on my Blackberry) that I've missed a phone call and the Caller ID of the incoming missed call. What I usually do is use my reverse lookup function to see if the call is from a colleague around something time sensitive. In the past few months, this function has gotten inundated from automated phone calls from all over the country to warn me that my automobile warranty was going to expire. Of course, they had no idea who I was, they were just carpet-bombing random phone numbers in the hope that someone would actually bite and purchase a fraudulent service. If that wasn't bad enough, the fact that there isn't a live person on the other end of the line meant that I couldn't jerk the person around by providing fake names like "Oliver Clothesoff" and "Seymour Butts" and asking for a 2nd mortgage estimate for my poker shack in the woods.

It's funny. I worked at BMG Direct doing Direct Marketing strategy for my junior summer internship, and I remember going to a DMA (Direct Marketing Association) meeting where they talked about the importance of direct marketing in terms of the number of jobs they provided for the middle and lower class.

The good news is that the FTC recently banned these automated "robocalls" effective on September 1st. The bad news is that we've put a whole generation of automatic calling machines out of work. Even worse, nobody's looking to help me find the financial opportunity that I'm not looking for.