Pot calling kettle black.
The robocalls to my cell phone continue, and occasionally I play along.
This morning I received a robocall from my “local Google specialist” informing me it had a first page location available for me. I wondered if it was Local Lighthouse, the company being sued by Google for misleading customers.
I pressed 1 to speak with a representative. As he started talking, I told him I was already talking to a company about a front page position, and wanted to know if he was with the same company. When I told him it was Local Lighthouse, he quickly said,
“Do not go with that Local Lighthouse!”
He then explained that Google was suing them.
I asked what company he was with, and he said Internet Local Listings.
Santa Ana-based Internet Local Listings has a bad reputation, just like Local Lighthouse.
I asked why Google was suing Internet Local Listing’s competitor, and he said its because they were representing themselves as Google.
So I asked him if his company was affiliated with Google. To his credit, he said, “absolutely not”.
Now, when the robocall stated it was “your local Google specialist”, I suppose that doesn’t mean Google itself.
I asked the guy how he got my number.
“It’s public information, number one,” he said.
Public information? I guess if you take it from Whois.
They might want to at least scrub it against the Do Not Call list.
“This is Sherry, your local Google, Bing AND Yahoo specialist.”
And she sounds like she could use the $5 on fiverr to get new dentures.
Very good call! I’ve had these folks on the hook for few minutes with a string of newbie-ish questions: “What’s a search engine? How does it work? What company are you representing? How much does it cost? What state are you calling from? Do you take credit cards? How did you get my information?”
The last question prompted them to disconnect.