Cold callers are getting irritated

Posted by battletactics@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 257 comments

Barring cold callers like Carbon Black (we all know about them) I've got this new one who gets more and more irritated with each ignored email. I'm now getting things like, "Hey, I've emailed you a couple times on this. I'd appreciate the professional courtesey of a response."  Dude, get. fucked. I am under no obligation to do anything but mark your shit as spam and carry on. I know you've got a job to do, so throw your bait out there and see who gets on the hook. But we don't play with cold callers. We want something, we'll seek you out. And attitude? That gets you blacklisted. The hell is wrong with people?

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257 Comments

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Yuugian@reddit

I got tired of a vendor sending calendar invites and calling my manager saying i was ignoring them. So i accepted the tech demo and was polite but INCREDIBLY unhelpful. (not my area) No, i don't know what we are using right now. No i don't know how much data we are passing through it. No, I don't know our growth plan for this. No, i don't do this regularly. No, i won't be a reference or conference someone else in. No, i'm not authorized to purchase this product. No, i don't think we need an on-prem demo. "Yuugian, why did you accept the tech demo?" "Because your sales guy won't stop calling after i told him the same thing i just told you. And it's my lunch break" Never heard from them again

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gort32@reddit

>and calling my manager saying i was ignoring them If you call my manager I'm gonna DNS block your entire domain, blacklist you for all inbound email and phone, and add regex for your name in your spam filter. You Will Not Exist To Us.

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in50mn14c@reddit

BofH shit like this needs to make a return.

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showyerbewbs@reddit

Those steps are PFY level. BOFH level, he would not exist anywhere. To anyone. Except the fishes in the Thames.

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bananaj0e@reddit

I'm picturing something like socially engineering his company's facilities department to hook his office's outlet ground to 480V hot, or the old etherkiller trick for a slightly less toasty demise.

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cobarbob@reddit

First step is forwarding your number to the talking clock. Old school BOFH

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BoredTechyGuy@reddit

<Lenny has entered the chat>

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InvisibleTextArea@reddit

/r/itslenny

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sieb@reddit

I switched from Lenny to a dial a Rick Roll for a while, then I settled on "Callin' Oates".

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s3ntin3l99@reddit

10000000 I can say this works !

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11879@reddit

It never left, you've just been blacklisted.

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itmik@reddit

use blocklisted instead. BofH should not perpetuate stupid stereotypes, and focus on the real slurs like executive and quarterly earnings calls.

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11879@reddit

Listen here you genderbender stripper! I'll kick yer ass too!

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goshin2568@reddit

This isn't even BofH. That dude was just straight up malicious, whereas this is imo a pretty reasonable response. Calling someone's manager because someone didn't respond to your cold call calendar invite is absolutely insane behavior. It's like blackmail-lite, and any company who engages in behavior like that is malicious and needs to be blocked.

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unixuser011@reddit

A real BOFH would just hack MoD and call a tactical nuclear strike on the spammer themself, then they really wouldn't exist

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rjchau@reddit

The fact that it ever left for you should be considered your "well there's your problem!" moment...

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isoaclue@reddit

I don't hesitate at doing this with inappropriately aggressive sales people. Don't piss off the guy with administrative control over the filters!

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USS_Frontier@reddit

I seem to remember stories of sales drones calling spouses and relatives of sysadmins. I would be apoplectic if that were me.

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Spida81@reddit

Oh, that would put them on my permanent chew toy list. Bored? Let's find a whole new way to mess with them just for the hell of it. Years later.

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general-noob@reddit

If a sales person pulled this on me, it would be war. I would take this to all their social media, stalk LinkedIn for ceos/presidents, and make sign up their email for all the disgusting spam I could find.

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LordVic@reddit

It was war. I won. Idiot sales person kept trying to get me. Phone, Email. Somehow got even my personal non-work number and I had to block it. Eventually this asshole went to reception, claimed to be a staff member and that there was an emergency they needed to talk to me about. Reception forwarded it directly to me thinking it was an outage. I lost my shit. Yelled at the guy directly and told him that not only was I blacklisting him, his phone number and his entire company from all future communications, I am member of a large Credit Union network and their company was now going on the forever shitlist in which no Bank or Credit Union will do business with. within a week, his manager actually called to apologize and that the individual had been fired. Told the manager tough shit. Get better grip on their staff and that they’re permanently shitlisted.

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general-noob@reddit

Wow!?! That’s insane and glad you got them fired!

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Valkeyere@reddit

Sign it up to pornhub. Turn on all notifications.

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TrueStoriesIpromise@reddit

pornhub doesn't use double-opt-in? lol.

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mr_ballchin@reddit

That's the right way. I don't want my manager to get your shitty calls and emails.

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doctorevil30564@reddit

This!!!!! But I am willing to do it to companies that send dozens of emails to email addresses that they obviously harvested from LinkedIn. When you are sending IT specific emails to department managers who have no connection whatsoever to our IT department, or you keep sending me messages after I have clicked your damn unsubscribe button, you get blocked.

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Turdulator@reddit

That’s an intentional tactic by some of these SaaS companies, they intentionally avoid talking to IT. They want managers outside IT with their own budgets to sign up for monthly subscriptions so that can get their claws in and by the time IT finds out about it it’s already a critical part of their workflow and you are forced to accepted and just spend 6 months begging to make it SSO. F’n assholes

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Moontoya@reddit

This is the way If you wont take the hint and fuck off, you will be fucked off right into the sun.

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purawesome@reddit

Yep! Haha fuckers

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Rubik842@reddit

Yeah, waste their time. I used to do this with telemarketers with inane questions about their products until they hung up on me. The sales model collapses when just a small percentage of victims have the time.

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Spida81@reddit

Bonus points if you can actually have them schedule calls with you for the express purpose of rescheduling again...

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Churn@reddit

This. If we all start accepting the calendar invites and waste their time, they will stop doing it. Everyone, accept the calendar invites, then don’t show up unless you want to for fun.

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Spida81@reddit

I have taken more than a few meetings like this. Made abundantly clear by the end that I would be communicating a complete lack of interest as far and wide as possible as well. Seems to irritate the poor bugger

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chum-guzzling-shark@reddit

i get the feeling they are incentivized based on some sort of engagement. So if their calendar is full of meetings with potential customers, even if every last one of them dont buy anything, it looks positive to their boss

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TrueStoriesIpromise@reddit

That's exactly it. They get paid for each meeting the line up for the actual sales guy.

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SolidKnight@reddit

Show up and spend the whole time trying to sell your company's products/services to them.

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skynet-is-near@reddit

Just WFH, accept the meeting, mute the speakers and let them watch you boil a kettle and make a coffee in your kitchen. Maybe dunk a biscuit or 2 in it.

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SublimeApathy@reddit

In your underwear.

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sithelephant@reddit

I don't like crumbs. They're coarse, and rough, and irritating.

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SublimeApathy@reddit

And they get into everything.

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pocket_geek@reddit

And hard to comb out of my pubes.

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showyerbewbs@reddit

Have you tried getting a puppy?

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PeteyMcPetey@reddit

>And hard to comb out of my pubes. Share this with the salesmen and challenge them to come up with a better solution to your problem.

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pocket_geek@reddit

The world totally needs a better pube comb.

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showyerbewbs@reddit

I ran out. Can I borrow yours?

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Xibby@reddit

>I got tired of a vendor sending calendar invites The days I'm "always" available for a meeting are: * April 31 * June 31 * September 31 * November 31

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Flyingpigtx@reddit

April Ludgate failure

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DreamerFi@reddit

I won't be in on June 31, I'll be celebrating National Calendar Awareness Day.

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RobieWan@reddit

You forgot February 30

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jackmusick@reddit

Don’t forget January 0, the true beginning of the year.

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SamanthaSass@reddit

pretty sure I'm still drunk that day

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pittyh@reddit

They just get a "No thanks, we're right thanks" and hang up from me.

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kernpanic@reddit

I'm like this regardless. No i won't answer your questions and give you a picture of our systems. You've got five minutes to convince me your product is interesting to me otherwise I'm ending the meeting now.

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Obvious-Water569@reddit

Oh mate, they're getting right on my tits lately. I have near zero tolerance for sales people.

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Cyali@reddit

I mostly get calls instead of emails, and with some of them it's kinda funny the IMMEDIATE attitude change when I simply reply "Sorry, we don't give business to cold callers" or "We don't provide any infrastructure information to cold callers." For emails, I'm in the same boat as you, I just ignore them and if they get snippy I block them in the spam filter. Seriously, the last people salesfolks should piss off are the people with the access to block all communications from their company lol

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HotelRwandaBeef@reddit

I generally don't care about the sales pitches or calls to my work stuff. But SOMEHOW some fucker (I'm sure I messed up somewhere) got ahold of my PERSONAL CELLPHONE and now I get sales calls there. I politely explain that I know they're just dialing a number on a sheet given to them by their manager, but if you call this number again I will never entertain your business here. Those calls have slowed down a lot but one will trickle in every few months or so.

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Caulifornication@reddit

Check your LinkedIn. I once had a vendor follow me after leaving a company. He called me, on my PERSONAL number, after only having my work cell number from my previous employer. I wouldn’t talk to him until he told me how he got my personal number. Another vendor pulled a similar move. Turns out, companies are using various plugins to steal your number from the unpublished sections of your profile. I’ve removed my number from my Settings & Security section.

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in50mn14c@reddit

My favorite is to answer with something like "Blacksite Tango switchboard - code-word of the day?" And then when they goo "uuuhhhh" you hang up on them.

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stephenph@reddit

Don't know if it was illegal, but I would respond with " thank you for contacting the FBI, please have your case number handy and your case worker will be contacting you shortly, goodbye."

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i8noodles@reddit

it is illegal in most countries to impersonate federal agencies. i would not risk this. it would be wiser to make up a name that is similar but can distinct if they were focused on the call. i would go with "FDI, cyber crimes division" close ebough but also clearly fake if they listened in correctly

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stephenph@reddit

Ok, new script OPS,,. what is your sitrep? [Dramatic pause] we have tracked your location and team bravo has been activated, expected backup in 20 mikes. can you get to safe house 142? [ Concerned voice ] God speed Alpha...

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CPAtech@reddit

My personal cell also got added to one of these lists. They call my office line first, which I ignore, then my cell immediately rings from the same number. I politely explain that because of this we will never do business with their company. They don't get a second chance from me. I don't care if they are just dialing numbers they were given. That's their company's problem, not mine.

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Dwonathon@reddit

I'm a bit interested in how you guys get so many cold callers/emails. I've been in IT for a few years now and have never once had a cold call and probably like 2 emails.

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SeriousSysadmin@reddit

Good on you OP. We went through a VoIP migration about 2 years ago and as we were about to spin up the project I pitched to my team what if we just ask users if they even want a desk phone? The company provides everyone a smartphone. If you don't have someone's contact info handy you can just make a Teams call. So we were curious and put out a survey. >50% of users had no interest in a desk phone line with the main reason being "All I get is sales calls on it anyway." Helped us out big time with hardware and license cost of the project.

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r0cksh0x@reddit

Those that name drop some senior partner is always fun. I walk to that partner’s office and ask about “sales rep” … crickets or that dude was a “insert expletive”. Name dropping a partner that died years ago is always good for their sales pitch. That’s happened a couple times.

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magikot9@reddit

I got a few of those name drop a dead guy. Often went like this: Them: "Hey, this is Bob from Dumbass Corp, is Al there?" Me: "He's not taking calls." Them: "C'mon, man, we do a ton of business with him and I just got a few quick questions. Can you just patch me through real quick?" Me: "Let me give you his personal number and you can try that." Proceeds to give number to the cemetery where he's buried.

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r0cksh0x@reddit

Damn, that’s gold.

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Zenkin@reddit

Probably won't help for calls, but do any of you guys ever reference the FTC when vendors don't give you an "unsubscribe" button in their emails? Because I've started sending the following link to such people, along with a short "No more, please," and it has been **very** effective. https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business Items five through seven being the highlights.

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i_accidentally_the_x@reddit

That is gold right there

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battletactics@reddit (OP)

Ohh, I like this.

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Zenkin@reddit

I made a special little folder for all the people I send this to, that way I could actually follow through with my threat if they don't leave me alone. But so far they've not been so brazen as to keep trying.

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chum-guzzling-shark@reddit

my personal cell phone has made it out to cold callers. I have no idea how because people at my work dont have my cell phone. When I get a call I have a script 1. Hey is it ok if I record this call? 2. What company are you calling from and what is your call back number if we get disconnected? 3. This is my personal cell phone and I have no business relationship with you. Please remove me from your list. 4. Jot down the info and time of call. Next call, I do the same thing and let them know what day and time they previously called me and I requested to be removed from list. So far I haven't got a 3rd call back. I'm no lawyer but I think I can sue after x amount of calls. I'll figure that out if it comes to it

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LimeyRat@reddit

I’ve done the same thing in the past, and then looked up a manager and sent them records of the removal request, noting the Can-Spam Act, and how each further spam contact could cost them $16,000, after they started spamming again at a later date. Now I just block them at the email gateway. And I don’t answer my phone. And I blacklist callers that don’t leave a message (and some that do) And get off my lawn!

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sithelephant@reddit

I did a similar thing with per-message email IDs, for usenet posts, with a similar disclaimer. Couple years later, spam hit, and I ended up at 6% of my ISPs inbound emails. (spammer forging return address bounces from 50000 posts)

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reviewmynotes@reddit

I've replied to such messages on a few occasions. If say about half of them argue that they aren't spam. I suspect they're just reading the name "Can Spam Act" and jumping to conclusions AND misunderstanding that "spam" isn't just phishing or forged email.

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Bartghamilton@reddit

Most phone systems have a block feature. I’ve used it on multiple systems to blacklist calls to company numbers.

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wedge_47@reddit

I stopped answering my desk phone all-together unless I recognize the number. Especially now that a lot of vendors are using number masking to hide where they're actually calling from. My phone will ring, and it'll show that it's from a small town about 20 miles away from me that has about 75 total people in it. And I know for a fact (because I've been there), that there's no businesses that would have any reason to call me from that little tiny town. Every cold e-mail I get from anyone is immediately marked as spam and blocked. It's freaking constant. Every day, all day long.

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ambscout@reddit

I think it was Artic Wolf called from a number in my area code a couple of weeks ago an hour after sending an email. It was a no.

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cocogate@reddit

From the perspective of someone in Belgium, Europe this sounds insane. I'm not the PoC for vendors but still am in contact with some, me nor our admin get calls like this, at worst some mails for 'the newst bestest awesomest seminar you need to follow to yeet yourself to success' or cascaded calls from the guy who manages the programmers and BA's. Hearing about it over and over from people in the US mainly (i think?) how bad it is makes me feel like throwing my phone at the wall. Alas its a personal one so id have to buy a new one. Perhaps it helps that ours is not a native english speaking country

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chrissb1e@reddit

I got a cold call from a nearby town which some of our employees live so I answered. I asked the guy where he was and it was somewhere in CA. I asked if it was misleading to say your from close by and all I got was "This is an industry practice". We need to keep a blacklist of domains and phone numbers on this sub.

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battletactics@reddit (OP)

We never answer phones at my shop. Ever.

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ambscout@reddit

ParkPlace Technologies has sent me 2 random calendar invites from 2 different reps in a month.

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ambscout@reddit

Foxit PDF sent emails to a bunch of people a while back. I called them 0ut and I think blocked the rep. Spectrum our ISP has thr audacity to cold call via email. I always call the cold call rep or cc my rep in to make it awkward There was some rep that emailed like 75% of the company. My boss called him out and he just asked who the right person was...

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WackoMcGoose@reddit

Try signing them up for Cat Facts and any other mailing lists you can find (Morning Brew has like a dozen, and they're educational too!). Make it harder to do their "job" by having to sift through _unsolicited marketing_ of their own ;)

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SamanthaSass@reddit

I'm a fan of signing up people to political mailing lists. especially the smaller ones that don't need the confirmation emails, and aren't well managed regarding unsubscribing.

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unixuser011@reddit

Sign them up for Trump's weekly grift email if you're feeling particularly petty

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SamanthaSass@reddit

yeah, but he probably has full time administrators because he's grifting large scale. But the "honorable member in Wyoming" is running on a shoestring, and really want's your attention and money, so he probably just has a big string of email addresses. Also true for Montana, ND, SD, WI, AZ, etc...

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unixuser011@reddit

>yeah, but he probably has full time administrators because he's grifting large scale These would be the same guys running truth.social from a shoebox in Moscow, right?

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SamanthaSass@reddit

probably

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WackoMcGoose@reddit

...Oof, I didn't think about the confirmation emails most newsletters now require because of _exactly this reason_. Still worth a shot, at least.

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SamanthaSass@reddit

yeah, they would only get the one email, and then nothing from the bigger lists. marketing emails are good for this too, since once they get an email, they usually don't let it go as readily, so find the shadier luxury brand resellers, and sing them up there. There is a chance that they will resell the email address to another mailing list, and another. This way your work is multiplied and continues to pay dividends. Also, don't waste your time with "Adult" sites since most of them are way better and following rules than we give them credit for. Politicians and sales sites are the way to go.

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Rafael20002000@reddit

I once read a report that church websites have more malware than porn sites

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SamanthaSass@reddit

yup, those and community clubs. Mostly because they don't have full time administrators, so they only look at it once the hack has taken them offline, or at least impacted performance.

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EmptyRedecans@reddit

I never understand why with cold marketing they start an email with RE: in the subject .. Like right from the get go you're being underhanded and deceitful. Why would I want to do business with you...?

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secret_configuration@reddit

That would land him on the companywide blocklist immediately.

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badlybane@reddit

Been on the other end of this. The guys are just buying lists of names and emails and blasting them out using 3rd party tools. Even at a 1% success rate with contracts worth as much as they are selling its worth it. Though one day the companies will realize the best way to get noticed is to make good products and get people on Reddit, and other communities with other admins talking good things about it. I do not understand the love affair that Gartner has garnered with Executives. IT's like JD power an Associates, they invent quadrants that companies pay to get put on. Google <insert product you want to buy here> sucks if there's a ton of hits from multiple different sources esspecially IT communities. Then it's garbage. In addition you'll have the benefit of seeing what real work IT people are using instead of that sucky program that just had a good marketing department and deep pockets. Don't just Google the product as that's gonna give you just AD's and paid for content.

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way__north@reddit

> Google <insert product you want to buy here> sucks this works, IIRC first time I used it was to find workarounds for annoyances in new windows verions

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CaptainObviousII@reddit

When I get BS like this, I flip the script. I request a meeting with their leadership team and when I get it, I explain to them what an impetuous little gem they have on their hands and that following this meeting, as long as I am calling the shots, they will never earn 1 red cent from my organization. Yes, there is a job to be done and if I had someone on my team performing cold calls / emails like this then they would not have said job any longer.

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ButlerKevind@reddit

One of our users got repeated "cold caller" spam emails from some company called AppZen. Replied to the sales guy and as many of his leadership I could identify including the CEO/CIO/CTO/etc. of the company multiple times with replies stating how annoying they are, how annoying my replies to them may be, and the threat of blocking their entire domain if I receive any new complaints about them. Thus far, seems like they got the message.

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Intrepid00@reddit

Back in the day someone told me their solution for cold call (actual calls) for salespeople trying to sell IT services was to forward them automatically to a VM box with the [Picard song](https://youtu.be/X6oUz1v17Uo?si=WY3DnOs8Y5kThm9O) if they didn’t take no for a hint.

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superkeys7@reddit

That is awesome! Thanks!

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HJForsythe@reddit

Those arent sent by people. That is probably Salesforce.

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pbyyc@reddit

Ive stopped answering my phone at all times unless its a known number now. Its ridiculous. I get calls as early as 6:30am

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No_Investigator3369@reddit

Put no purchasing power in your LinkedIn title

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battletactics@reddit (OP)

Ohhhhhhh

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Angy_Fox13@reddit

"sorry i don't take cold calls. thanks bye" that's what I do.

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LordVic@reddit

Mark as spam. If they continue to send calendar invites, and emails I engage with the team and blacklist their email organization completely. Sometimes (despite not even a sysadmin anymore) I get dozens of these crappy emails a day. and they all follow the same tired basic direction “I know your busy, but I’m going to keep sending you these until you respond” We have ZERO obligation to respond to cold calls and emails from non-vendors. If that somehow offends these sales people, they can fuck off

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JH6JH6@reddit

i avoid answering my desk phone unless i'm supporting an active ticket.

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Jaymesned@reddit

If I don't recognize the number or the name on the caller ID, I simply don't answer any phone calls.

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butter_lover@reddit

I changed my desk number not too long ago and it’s been incredibly effective. Forwarding my desk to my mobile defeated sone auto calling but not all.

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hoboninja@reddit

I've been getting a lot of this lately, on my personal damn cell phone too. If you call my personal cell when I have my business number in my damn email signature I am never doing business with you if I can avoid it.

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Sintarsintar@reddit

That's a one-way ticket to 550 rejected due to spam content for me

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no_regerts_bob@reddit

I like to put custom messages in the 5xx response.. like "571 we just don't like you" Probably nobody sees them, but it makes me feel better

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pdp10@reddit

This is the traditional way.

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GotBeaverFever@reddit

Yuuup. I do this a lot as well. Surprises me that they don't know you should never spam the one in control of email delivery...

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Moontoya@reddit

"what do they know, theyre just tech monkies paid to push buttons, let me speak to the real decision makers" oh the number of times Ive run into \_that\_ attitude, if I had a nybble for each one, Id probably have enough bits for the encyclopedia britannica pdf

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PandaBoyWonder@reddit

it is so wild that they have an attitude like that. Does that actually work for them to get more sales? Ive seen a few snippy emails that immediately struck me as offensive and I blocked the sender immediately. You'd think that being very polite would get the most sales...? makes no sense. Does this only happen in IT?

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noother10@reddit

If I get annoyed enough I just threaten them with blocking all emails from their domain to all of ours, all of their phone numbers I can find as well. It usually stops them.

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N01kyz@reddit

Create a forward rule that anything from X spammer gets forwarded back to X spammer.

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fccu101@reddit

Just do what i do if they call - transfer them to a fax line.

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_haha_oh_wow_@reddit

This is why I never answer my phone and when I do because I forgot that it's a sales bro 100% of the time, I say, "Yeah, hang on, let me transfer you over to our purchases guy, Leonard." Then I transfer them to LENNY! r/itslenny

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xpkranger@reddit

My favorites are the cold calls from sales reps from companies *you already do business with*. Probably because their sales software spells our company name eight different ways and only two of those eight have a sales rep associated.

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Rhythm_Killer@reddit

Oh MY GOD there’s this one account manager from a contractor agency we are using who asks every week when we’re going to go out for a coffee or lunch.. I ignore him totally, dude makes my skin crawl, but we’re perfectly happy with the guys we have through that agency can’t he just let it be!??

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codykonior@reddit

I see that all the time, and just assume it's another spammer.

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RiknYerBkn@reddit

It's a sales tactic to elicit an emotional response. Continue on, eventually they might, but crm software auto generates spam way more effective today than ever before :/

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DreamerFi@reddit

*to elicit an emotional response* Describe in single words only the good things that come into your mind about your mother.

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chum-guzzling-shark@reddit

i block their domain with no rejection message

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Rough_Condition75@reddit

I filter them all as junk so they can rage all they want into the void I won’t see it.

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Rhythm_Killer@reddit

This is the way

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alzee76@reddit

I don't get calls, thankfully, but my standing rule is just to reply "ok" to every email I get from these people. Eventually they get the message.

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Rhythm_Killer@reddit

Ok.

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battletactics@reddit (OP)

I like this...

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meh_ninjaplz@reddit

I love it when the call your manager. At one of my jobs in 2014 this guy was spamming me for months and I was just ignoring hi. He then preceded to spam my boss complaining about me that I was ignoring him. My boss who had no clue who this guy was called me into his office which never happened so I was nervous like wtf did I do wrong? So he asked me who this guy was and he complained about me being unprofessional and ignoring him. I laughed and said he was just a sales guy spamming me, boss blocked him everywhere right there and called him a cuck which is funny coming a 70 year old guy.

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Dereksversion@reddit

Too true, I've had one particular electronics recycling group call every member of my team and very pushy try to mine entry points of why we should send our electronics to them. I told them in no uncertain terms we aren't interested because we own a recycling subsidiary that overlaps all of their services so naturally we aren't going to contract a competitor to do it. Still the calls persist. Wondering why we haven't reviewed their packages. I just wonder how they feel about themselves when they know full well they are being weird as fuck to other people. Are they like indentured servants to their boss who's making them make these calls and sound serious? I relish the chances I get to deny them and ask them why they've ignored my clear instructions to fuckin beat it. Weirdly the converse is true as well. I've had an MSP trying to sell me on their services who practically beg when they call. " You're absolutely sure you couldn't spare a minute just to hear us out?? ". Like yea dude you're overlapping basically my entire department lol.

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wwbubba0069@reddit

Remember a similar call with an MSP years ago. Dude, why would I buy a service that puts me out of a job... WTF.

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battletactics@reddit (OP)

I completely understand it's their livelihood and they're probably mostly commission. But you've got some humanity in there somewhere. Use it for good, will ya?

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wwbubba0069@reddit

I've gotten to the point I don't answer external calls unless I am expecting it. Hate when I am zone in on something and don't look at the ID before picking up the phone. The spam emails I think are automated, a lot of them have the same formatting/tone and get progressively agro more you ignore them. Now for me, if the first "unsubscribe" doesn't work, domain block in the spam filter.

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rotten777@reddit

It took me about six months at my new position before I realized I have to spend time protecting my working hours from webinars/video conferences/sales calls/on sites if I want to get anything at all done from my task list. It's helpful to take the position that no time or effort is owed to someone who's just trying to get their sales commission.

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xpkranger@reddit

So, what date works for you for lunch? (How about the 2nd of Nevuary, I work from home.)

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ChampionshipComplex@reddit

I found a good way to get them to ignore you - Is demand under GDPR regulation for all details they hold about you and your company, and tell them that you want exact of details of how they came by your information, or who they purchased your details from - and that they have 30 days to comply.

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Few-Veterinarian8696@reddit

I think this now falls under the UK Data Protection Act 2018. GDPR is an EU regulation.

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Poulticed@reddit

GDPR was accepted into British law in 2017, prior to Brexit, as we were still in the EU. It was ratified as a British law in 2018 as the Data Protection Act. If the external company is in an EU nation, they'd be covered by GDPR, even when dealing with third-party countries.

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tipripper65@reddit

if they send unsolicited sales emails, in Australia you can report them to a government agency and they get a reminder from them. if they're found to be repeat offenders they get a fine.

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butter_lover@reddit

I politely and professionally let them know that I am bound to not respond to communications about our infrastructure when they are initiated by 3rd parties that we don’t have an existing formal relationship with. I continue to inform them that there is a process for new vendors for all categories including IT which is linked to on our public web page. The end result of that process would be further conversation bound by appropriate NDAs etc. I also mention just like you that I appreciate that they are just doing their job and wish them luck. Honestly I don’t know why any IT org in this day and age would allow operational staff to engage with cold calls given the risk of leakage of infrastructure design and other proprietary info. Different if you reach out to them but inbound spam? No way.

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Eviscerated_Banana@reddit

Normal solution - add to automated spam filter Troll solution - engage and waste as much of the dicks time as possible without buying anything

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gangaskan@reddit

They are super persistent too, especially on the phone. I had one that I thought wasa vendor for support and they still gldidnt get the hint after I said I'm not interested twice. She was like well let me ask it another way, and that's when I hung up.

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gangaskan@reddit

I've passed oracle cold calls on a co-worker that has some anxiety, he didn't know for the longest time that I got cold called and passed the torch haha.

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never-seen-them-fing@reddit

Yup. I get the same stuff. Right Click, welcome to the "Block domain" list, bud.

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Moontoya@reddit

Professional courtesy, sure, I\`ll show you my version. \*adds domain to spam blacklist, \*adds domain to firewall drop list, \*adds domain to proxy redirected to a local clown school, looks at all clients we have responsibility for, adds the domain to \_everyones\_ "fuck off dipshit" list. There, I have been professionally courteous and made the corporate world a better place for a few thousand users in various companies.

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Kaizenno@reddit

“We would like to set up a 15 minute call with you tomorrow, what time works for you?” Why? Do you not know anything about the product right now?

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unixuser011@reddit

Strange, because the only ones I get are the normal SEO 'Optimization, we can help your website' ones, the annoying (and quite persistent) Indian 'developers' looking to 'develop a new app' - like it's 2013 My favorites are when these budding pen testers find some 'exploit' on our main site and expect a bounty for it... I haven't the heart to tell them that we don't have a bug bounty programme

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Stonewalled9999@reddit

I would appreciate the courtesy to not bug me. I replied "unsubscribe" and got "real person on this end not a bot that was rude and unprofessional" Know what, I will make sure I will never do business with you.

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spyingwind@reddit

Just keep replying with "unsubscribe" Spammer: I'm a real person Me: unsubscribe Spammer: That's rude... Me: unsubscribe Spammer: %$#$&

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MitchellsTruck@reddit

I do this to my Dad when he sends boomer memes to the family WhatsApp group.

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battletactics@reddit (OP)

Yep. that seals the deal of no deal.

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CptUnderpants-@reddit

I work for a school and I'm in a chat group with a heap of other IT Managers. We share numbers of irritating sales people like that in the chat so we can all block them.

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sparkyflashy@reddit

Ha! It hasn’t happened in quite some time, but I have had cold callers threaten to talk to my boss if I didn’t take their call. I’m like you think I’m an asshole, wait till you talk to my boss (he’s really not an asshole, but he has no patience for silliness). He also once told me “no reply IS a reply.”

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Sysadminbvba777@reddit

They do not care if your pissed, they are paid by the numbers of mails and phonecalls lmao

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Shag_Dog@reddit

If I find that an annoying salesman uses the same phone number, I'll set my phone system to route them to one of our fax lines. ....beeeep

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Gedanken-mental@reddit

I have an email message template that says: “Thank you for calling <company X>. We are not currently looking for solutions in that area. Please remove me from your list.” If they send another email, I send a reply saying see my email dated such and such, with the date and time that the “please remove me from your list” message was sent. If they persist after that, they’re blacklisted.

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i8noodles@reddit

don't bother with 3 most people will get it in the first email if you tell them that under your equivalent of the GDRP that they are legally required to remove you from there marketing list if requested and that this email should be considered a formal request to be removed. if they continue tell them that if they continue with more unsolicited emails/calls you will get the legal department on it 3rd time actually get the legal department to act.

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soydemexico@reddit

I used to try and get a rapport going just to keep it in my pocket. Just in case. Now: no. They just keep up the act. Straight to spam and I add them to my shitlist so I remember.

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mellowaaron@reddit

“Dude, get fucked.” is probably the funniest shit I’ve read today

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compmanio36@reddit

Yep, there has been more than one vendor like this that I have put into a tenant block list for this kind of behavior. Fuck you, your entire domain is blocked from emailing our organization now. Sadly, they do it because it probably works on a lot of sysadmins and/or execs.

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CumbersomeNugget@reddit

Fucking Virtunet. If you know, you know.

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Gaijin_530@reddit

KnowBe4 has been harassing me for over a year. They call weekly, leave a message and email. It's ridiculous how pestilent sales people are getting.

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RainbowFuchs@reddit

My job uses them and I have no complaints about the service/product, but I rant about them and beg to cancel our contract every chance I get because of their connections to the church of scientology.

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pssssn@reddit

It's a good product. What bothers me about them is once I signed up to a multi year deal they didn't stop calling. Some customer advocate wants to talk to me routinely to make sure I'm leveraging their product to level they think it should be. The enthusiasm is nice I guess, but I can read the documentation myself.

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tcpWalker@reddit

It's a massive vulnerability to let an outside vendor send emails as you... thanks compliance checkboxes.

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Gaijin_530@reddit

Agreed, I have no gripe with the company other than their sales tactics.

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RunningAtTheMouth@reddit

I love BBQ. Did they offer samples?

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Gaijin_530@reddit

I wish. Had they been willing to ship me some like GoldBelly I would have been all about it.

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david_edmeades@reddit

I had to get rude with them to really get off the list. I sent the first guy a reply saying that cold contact from them was unbecoming and he stopped contacting me. New guy rotates in a year later and I just forwarded the previous mail with "Guess John didn't leave notes, huh?" and I didn't hear back.

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OtisB@reddit

these fuckers got my cell phone number from somewhere, and have been calling it instead of my work phone. It's a shame too because I was prepared to consider them a finalist but I just can't get past my inner 12 year old who's annoyed at them.

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vitaroignolo@reddit

That's how it was with me and Service Now. I actually really like service now but a sales person called my personal number to ask if we've considered them. I told them I didn't find it professional and haven't heard from them since.

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Bodycount9@reddit

I always like the people who call my desk phone and want to sell me something. First thing I ask is if this is a sales call. Nine out of ten say it's not then instantly try to sell me whatever they are selling. I tell them I don't make the decisions and I can't take sales calls on company time then hang up.

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skidleydee@reddit

I reached out to a local MSP for a quote when I realized our current msp had no interest or availability to fix the issues we were facing. My shop was small but the upper management had bit down on the VDI model and weren't letting go so it was a requirement. To stay in azure ADV, I knew hardly anything about it but when I got on with their expert I was able to talk circles around him. Long story short I told them they weren't up to task for the VDI portion of services we needed. This dude couldn't take it and legit showed up to my office to try and sway my opinion.

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moonracers@reddit

Anyone here get calls from a company called Pace Butler? They buy used cell phones. Holy fucking hell they call and mail sales materials weekly. I blocked their emails some time ago. I spoke to them about a year ago and told them we were not interested. I think they took that as a challenge. Oh and Shi International. I get a phone call around 4pm est every weekday. Been going on for 6 months the now.

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ericlifestyle@reddit

Cold caller here. But an old cold caller. I reach out every other month or quarterly. My prospects seem to be okay with that cadence. Keep the email to a couple lines. I work for an IT VAR where I hope to retire and feel like on the same team as my customers. I shop for them and show them competitive prices including Amazon when it’s hardware. At the end of the year I buy everyone on the IT teams nice gifts and thank them for a good year. The less I reach out the more successful I am. I love this business. Would love to hear feedback. (Not trying to sell anything here)

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battletactics@reddit (OP)

That sounds quite lovely. The forced meetings on my calendar. The email every week and then snark when I don't reply. The, "HEY this is your blah blah rep" like we've known each other forever. Those aren't received well with us.

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Embarrassed-Ear8228@reddit

>KnowBe4 DELL EMC reps are the worst!

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ericlifestyle@reddit

I lurk here on the sysadmin channel mainly to avoid embarrassing myself and selling my customers junk. You guys help me avoid stuff that isn’t working. Very thankful for that.

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ericlifestyle@reddit

Thank you.

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gort32@reddit

/r/itslenny

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TxTechnician@reddit

I miss the days of scam calls from real ppl. I had time. And they were fun to mess with. Now a days, it's all robo calls. And I'm busy. Call screener from Google rules.

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unobserved@reddit

Damn .. I have never heard of this subreddit before and actually have a similar honey pot idea myself the other day. Might have to take some notes from Lenny.

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IRideZs@reddit

That’s awesome

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GreenJinni@reddit

u dont just block?

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fizicks@reddit

New inbound rule, reject this sender with bounce message "FUCK OFF"

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fadingcross@reddit

>Hey, I've emailed you a couple times on this. I'd appreciate the professional courtesey of a response." No you didn't. Your CRM / sales / leads system emailed me.

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jadraxx@reddit

\> "Hey, I've emailed you a couple times on this. I'd appreciate the professional courtesey of a response." I've had some sales jerk off try that on me. Wonder if it's the same guy lol. I also had someone send me a nasty e-mail for ignoring his emails. I found his CEO's email and forwarded the email to him. Never heard from the guy again lol.

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FelisCantabrigiensis@reddit

"I refer you to the reply given in the case of Arkell v. Pressdram"

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ubiqtor@reddit

That lawyerly [dis]missive is right up there with "...some asshole is signing your name to stupid letters."

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GBMoonbiter@reddit

New bookmark

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sobrique@reddit

Well that was not a wasted bit of googling ;).

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thisisfutile1@reddit

Indeed!

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BoltActionRifleman@reddit

Just throwing this on here as a courtesy, do not answer any calls of invites from Granite Telecommunications. I don’t even deal with our phone bills (thank God) but since phones are “IT infrastructure” it becomes our problem. They’re one of those companies that look through every bill for overcharges and then try to get you to subscribe to their services. Telling them no does no good whatsoever, they call obsessively, hoping someone will relent.

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OddWriter7199@reddit

Oy. Someone years ago at my extension had purchasing authority. Couple companies have never stopped calling despite my never having answered a single time.

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enigmait@reddit

Send them an email with your response. Attaching an invoice for your time to consider their request and respond. If they want the professionalism of a response, then they pay you as a professional to do so.

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aiperception@reddit

The answer is to just ignore them. Don’t let someone else affect your zen.

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cubic_sq@reddit

Quite a lot of security vendors.

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parophit@reddit

I am with you. This is the worst time of year for cold callers. I had one guy cc my cfo. So I responded to all and added his Vp of marketing and cfo.

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thelug_1@reddit

Dear vendor, Here is the professional courtesy response you asked for (since you won't take a hint...) GET FUCKED. I did not request to be contacted by you. I did not sign up on your site. I did not ask for or permit you to sell my info. Have a nice day.

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battletactics@reddit (OP)

This makes me happy in my pants

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vic-traill@reddit

Man, I just block cold mailers if they are at all aggressive, and never hear from them again. And don't think about them a moment beyond that. Don't let assholes rent any time in your head.

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MasterGlassMagic@reddit

Cold callers go directly on my nope list. 'I know who you are, and what you have to sell, and if I'm ever in the market I will be sure to call your competitors. Now, could you kindly fuck off. You have a job to do, but so do I and your interrupting it."

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lolniclol@reddit

I see that a lot with vendors now - not sure why they feel like they're owed something. They even call now, after I ignore their emails. Not sure where they're getting my personal number from.

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ctrl_alt_lynx@reddit

It sucks. If you're bored, set up a meeting with them. Don't sent a confirmation if they send you a meeting invite. Don't attend. If they try to fall you, ignore their calls for the 2 hours or so after the scheduled meeting time, at least. Claim you didn't get the invite if applicable. Repeat. It costs you nothing to not attend a meeting but it frustrates the hell out of them waiting when you never show up.

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battletactics@reddit (OP)

I have a very good relationship with our Comcast rep as we have fiber all over the place AND cable service at multiple sites. She's always been very good to me. But I still get, "Hey, I'm your new Comcast rep, blah blah." I used to respond with, "I find it difficult to believe that a multi-billion dollar corporation like Comcast has such a crappy CRM that you don't know that we are not only a customer, but have MULTIPLE services with you and are extremely happy with our service." That hasn't done much, so now I immediately send them a few addresses where we have service and tell them I want this service here, and this service here and we're going to probably get it at this address, too. I either hear back a couple days later after the survey with "Um, you already have service" or I never hear from them again. Good. Waste your time.

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Rubik842@reddit

Ooh that's a good one.

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NetworkITBro@reddit

Probably an AI generated message from Salesforce lol

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WMSysAdmin@reddit

Ugh I have this one dude from apps4rent who won't stop calling me daily. Ive made it very clear to stop reaching out and if he doesn't again he is gonna get an ear full from me.

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WizardOfGunMonkeys@reddit

Cold callers are definitely not accustomed to calling people who have the power to cut off their ability to contact a potential client. The situation has gotten so bad I open with "abuse phone and email and we're done forever", instead of waiting until they inevitably do.

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snarlywino@reddit

I’m glad it’s not just me.

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Upper-Bath-86@reddit

Yeah, it's an everyday struggle in this business.

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sqbdyboo@reddit

Instant report as junk when I get them.

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Another_Random_Chap@reddit

I have never used my company email to send an email outside the company. Yet I'm now getting loads of emails from recruitment companies trying to sell me staff, and loads of invitations to conferences & seminars all over Europe. I'm pretty certain someone has just looked for all the people on LinkedId who say they work for my company and just guessed the email address as firstname.lastname@company.com, and sadly they've got it right. Every single one gets reported as spam and blocked.

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variag@reddit

Been dealing with this a lot lately from a different perspective. Last gig a few years ago was great, until we got a new manager who created a difficult environment and the whole team resigned within the year. Just, pretty draconian, degrading stuff. Constant HR worthy remarks about race, women, LGBT folks (as an out gay guy, being asked in front of my colleagues if all gay men were whores in his first week was a clue). I left pretty quickly when upper management didn’t seem concerned, but I kept receipts and left those with HR on the way out. As the senior engineer I documented the hell out of that place, but of course the guy couldn’t be bothered after I left and just ignored things until they broke. Meh, I tried. Fast forward a few years though, and I guess the guy sees me as why he ended up getting fired after I left. So now I get about a couple cold calls a day from vendors saying ‘Hello, MrFormerManager referred us to you’. Every time, he’s told the vendor I still work for him. The last year I’ve been playing whack-a-mole with vendors, and I’m not really sure if or how I should do anything more about it. It’s annoying, but also feels…bullying?

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jmk5151@reddit

don't have the soft phone app on my pc, voicemail filled up long ago. apple has a nice screen unknown callers feature. I get so many emails I just skip past people I don't know. WFH. pretty much unreachable. but yeah call/spam my boss or set up random calendar invites your domain gets blocked. might even block it from web traffic if I'm feeling frisky.

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natefrogg1@reddit

I like to block their domain from our email services, I will never respond or click their unsubscribe link

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battletactics@reddit (OP)

Our mail admin refuses to block anything. It's weird.

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TheDisapprovingBrit@reddit

I am our mail admin. I'll cheerfully give anybody access to maintain their own personal safe lists/blocklists. If you don't wanna do that, I'm gonna need a solid business justification, possibly involving infosec, to block a sender company wide. It's nothing personal, but we both know there's gonna be an exec somewhere who'll make a fuss when he doesn't get his special weekly email to make him feel important.

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natefrogg1@reddit

We had that happen one time, I explained that the company has been getting a bit more strict with cybersecurity since “random incidents heard about in the news”, so sorry, we’ll fix that one immediately. The exec then got mails the next day and was happy 🤷

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battletactics@reddit (OP)

Perfectly valid

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natefrogg1@reddit

Wow that sounds wild to me, I block so much stuff constantly for our company

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Empty_Allocution@reddit

Respond to these emails with: "Unsubscribe."

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MagillaGorillasHat@reddit

"We don't accept unsolicited sales calls. Thank you and have a nice day." Click. I can still hear that delivered in a perfectly pleasant voice devoid of all emotion from the network architect at the last place I worked whenever someone somehow got through to his line. Or, if they'd managed to get some names, he'd start with: "Are we your customer? Are you returning their call? We don't accept..." It was beautiful.

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electriccomputermilk@reddit

My favorite are the sales people that just show up uninvited in person! I had one MSP come regularly and would bring doughnuts. Each time I’d tell him I wasn’t interested in using an MSP yet he still persisted.

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BreakdownGhost@reddit

Ive had a lot of vendors lately pull that trick where they add "RE: " to the subject line like it was a continued conversation. Guess what? Your whole domain is now blocked :)

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Ok_Interest3243@reddit

I'm seeing this too, I just blacklist. Is it a marketing tactic? Why would they feel they're entitled to a response?

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enigmaunbound@reddit

I respond to the first passive aggressive action with a reply that their message has resulted in a report of phishing. Their domain is now blocked for the org domains. Have an excellent day. Then I report them phishing and block sender domain. Don't piss off the IT security team. Just don't.

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stignewton@reddit

I make it a point now with these assholes to scrutinize their emails and report them every single time for CAN-SPAM violations. I’ll then forward the email confirmation in that thread letting them know what I did before blocking their entire domain. Best part…manager loves the idea so I get paid to do it now!

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skynet-is-near@reddit

I've got companies tracking me through different jobs. Asking how the new job is and if unlike the old job, I was now interested in their product.  Damn me for looking at emails blocked by mimecast.

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513g3Hamm3r@reddit

When I was the IT manager in my old company I blocked the domains of any company that sent unsolicited emails, they all would receive an email rejection notification stating their domain has been blocked for spam/unsolicited email. Luckily my direct line was not know to anyone outside. I honestly think much more aggressive action should be the norm by SysAdmins.

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vrtigo1@reddit

We set up call screening on our PBX and it's been the best thing ever. We can't just not answer the phone because we get support calls, but if a caller doesn't announce themselves we just don't answer the call. We also set up a dummy voicemail box on the off chance someone gets through (i.e. a transfer from the front desk, etc.). The outgoing message is a really happy and energetic sounding guy advising them to leave a message. The messages go nowhere. Email spam stuff we use the Mimecast for Outlook plugin. Spam? Mimecast > Spam > Block sender's domain.

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caa_admin@reddit

Time to introduce those cold callers to Lenny r/itslenny See sidebar for IT-oriented 'usage'. ;)

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Rhythm_Killer@reddit

Never, ever, EVER reply for any reason. Block and forget. They will always have some doubt they did something wrong. If you reply, that’s objective #1 achieved for them. PS - I cannot believe what I read about some sales c**t actually seeking out a persons manager to complain about them?? Wow as in WOW. Blacklist their domain forever, go to your CTO and make sure his network block them too.

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WechTreck@reddit

Unsolicited Commercial Email is not professional or courteous

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Galileominotaurlazer@reddit

I remember having one meeting with Nitro PDF and even after having a meeting with them they kept calling me weekly after specifically told them not to. Blocked both their emails and phone numbers from reaching me. Even if they have good software, being predatory is a fuck off for me.

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H2OZdrone@reddit

*Rapid7 enters the chat* I get majorly irritated when I get a meeting invite from someone I’ve never talked to then get “looking forward to talking” emails leading up to the meeting I never requested or accepted.

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nlaverde11@reddit

My old MSP cold called me yesterday, clearly using a marketing service, but I was like "You know who I am right? I worked there for 13 years."

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unobserved@reddit

I've responded to those before with "Tell me you didn't write this email yourself without telling me you didn't write this yourself".

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ang3l12@reddit

Oh that would be one fun conversation for me to have with my old msp…

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mikeyb1@reddit

All day, every day - call my office line, my cell, then send email. I don't even answer my work phone. The really persistent ones will also message me on LinkedIn. If you drop "professional courtesy" on me and I \*do\* reply, you aren't going to like what I have to say. Go fuck yourself, I owe you nothing.

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schizrade@reddit

Yeah I have gotten a few of those recently. They end up in Spam.

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thegonzojoe@reddit

You can get blacklisted by 20 orgs, but if one bites and you make your quarter, it’s still a strategy worked.

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Proof-Variation7005@reddit

For like a decade, I had a new rep at research in motion calling to check with me about exciting new Blackberry products cause I ordered Blackberry Enterprise server once in like 2008. The rep would change once every 4-6 months and it was enough where I had the number saved as “new blackberry sales rep” and I’d just get really weird answering the calls cause it was my own little fun game. That decade was the 2010s btw

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NoLongerGage@reddit

Yeah some get an attitude. Then there are some that try to be “funny”. I saw one that was something like: I have been trying to get a hold of you unsuccessfully and can only think of 3 possible reasons: You fell in a well You were abducted by aliens You are not interested in our Gartner Magic Quadrant Emmy winning etc product

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battletactics@reddit (OP)

Sometimes I just reply with the Bugs Bunny "NO". I've also told them to call me and give them the local strip club number.

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sakodak@reddit

Most likely it's not a person doing the actual emailing. It's likely an automated campaign from some CRM software, stuffed with shit like that designed to manipulate your emotions. Fuck 'em.

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battletactics@reddit (OP)

Jokes on them. I have no emotions. Just a finger to click "spam"

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ordray@reddit

I had one get snippy with me on the phone the other day. These guys are just different these days.

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PM_ME_YOUR_BOOGER@reddit

Anyone who demands a professional courtesy deserves none, professional or otherwise.

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nrfx@reddit

I'm absolutely positive someone, somewhere, sold the idea of using this.. phrasing and tone as a marketing tactic. I get a dozen just like this a week, from companies I've never done, and will never do business with. Hell, the majority of them are trying to sell products that have absolutely NOTHING to do with my dept or company.

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deefop@reddit

I don't know whether the people who cold call and cold email me send me angry follow ups, because I block them and never see their bullshit ever again.

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mrhorse77@reddit

we would always call them back and string them on and waste as much of their time as possible, before telling them to pike off. my last place, the boss liked to save them up for slow days so we could have some fun

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nogoodsuggestednames@reddit

So far I've had the best results by being enthusiastic but worthless as a customer (mileage will vary based on the product). Cogent has never called again after I asked them for an assist moving up from a /29 to a /28

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