[lbo-talk] Call interception

[Michael Pollak]

A week or so ago we were talking about how to foil telemarketers and I
suggested that you could eliminate them entirely by just screening your
calls.  But I know some people are uncomfortable making their friends
announce themselves, and I just accidentally ran into a technical
solution, a more subtle and refined version of call screening called "call
interception."  What happens is you enter the numbers of all your friends,
and they get through as if nothing had changed.  But any number that isn't
on your list gets a message telling them: "You have reached a phone with
call interception.  This service only lets calls through from an approved
list of numbers.  If you want to proceed, please announce your name and
hit the pound sign."  It then pipes in some music while they wait.  The
end result is that any friends you left off the list will only go through
this once, but telemarketers will never get through.

I just thought I'd pass it on.  For me, call screening has always worked
perfectly and all my friends adapted years ago.  But for people who feel
funny about it (and really hate telemarketers) this might be a good
option.  It's offered by my local baby ball (Verizon) and probably by
others as well.

Michael