Junk faxes

[David Mullen]

I received two junk faxes this weekend. The first was from "Central Imaging". They send them a lot and I left another message to them telling them to get me off the list.

The most recent was from Day1. They have a site to get off junk email, junk faxes, and unsolicited phone calls.

The site address is

http://subscribe.appraisal.com/confirm.htm

They claim it works.

Don't know if it works but I tried this AM. I have little faith in the integrity of companies that do business this way and would never patronize anyone with this type of business practices.

 

[xmrdfghap]

<span style='color:brown'>
Being cheap (not conservative :lol: ), I used to really get annoyed at the number of faxes I would get unsolicited. I would get restaurant menu specials from places I never would patronize (would go to the supermarket and get a jar of peanut butter first), "deals" on special financing on cars, inquiries and solicitations of all types. All the while I see that dumb inkjet cartridge getting lower and lower, and the paper supply having to be replaced way too often.

I found a cure.

I went into my old computer parts, built a P1 (133 mhz) computer with a 3 gig hard drive and 16 k ram, and an old 14" monitor that has the green gun gone. Loaded win98, and a copy of my fax management software. It is now my fax machine. It receives faxes and answers my phone calls.

I checked a while back to see what a similar computer sells for at the used computer stores and the thrift shops.......you can get one like it for about $100.00. You can get an old deskjet 500 for between $5 and $15. The fax software (I use Hotfax Message Center) ran about $100 and and has a keypad center on the screen all the time so I can see at a glance how many voice messages and faxes I have. I set it up so it automatically loads when the system boots and I leave it on 24/7.

Any faxes I don't want or like I delete. One company, after I requested they remove me from their fax list ignored me. I finally scheduled them to receive a request from me (Hotfax does the caller id thing) to remove me from their list. It was scheduled to fax them the request every thirty minutes 240 times. After three hours I got a fax back that said I was off their list.....never heard from them again.

Any faxes I want, I print to the old deskjet with nice, crisp inkjet on plain paper.

The other thing you might consider is to use eFax.com and just delete the junk faxes like you do the unsolicited emails you get.

But I like Hotfax....it lists the originating phone number and it allows you to schedule return faxes for when you want to send them. (One car dealer kept sending me notices of sales, so I sent him a 600 page fax asking him to take me off his list.....after I had tried to call him several times and talk to him about it and been ignored......that began every night about 11:00 PM. I successfully ran him out of paper every night for about a week when he called me and asked me to stop....which I did as soon as he agreed to stop faxing me). I have about three files on the wordprocessor that I customize for such people, and it takes less than a minute to schedule the fax..........

I suppose being an appraiser either brings out the contrariness in me, or it has just enhanced my natural contrariness..... :lol: </span>

 

[Leon Stewart]

Even though many Junk Emailers and Junk Faxers have an opt-out at the bottom of the page, it seems as if the new trend is back like it was originally, with no opt-out at the bottom of the page.

leart3

 

[David Mullen]

Goodpasture

I love the way you handled those faxers. I was going to do the same thing but their fax machine does not accept incoming faxes.

If they continue, what I think I will do is use WinFax Pro to send faxes to their toll free phone numbers every 2-3 minutes for a few hours. I think that if it rings and their answering machine picks it up, they have to pay for the call. If nothing else, ith will be hard for anyone to reach on those days.

Thanks for the response

 

[xmrdfghap]

<span style='color:brown'>Dave, if I am not mistaken, you can schedule faxes to be sent through Winfax Pro at any interval you want, also you can resend the same fax 999 times. So, If you have your fax machine/computer to fax them every 15 minutes, they pick up the phone and say "hello,"your fax didn't go through, so it redials in 15 minutes. 999 times on the quarter hour means about 250 hours or 10 days and 9 3/4 hours. Only way to stop it is for them to block your number or put a fax machine on the line at which time you can "offer" them discounted appraisals at $500.00 each. If they chose not to accept you can make a deal with them.....stop faxing me and I will stop faxing you. Otherwise, I will simply tell the computer to send it to you again. At about .35 per call on an 800 number, you are looking at a cost to them of about $350.00 for that ten days, so for a month you are talking about $1,000 in 800 number billings....

Also, don't fax it every 10 or 15 minutes.....do it every 9 or 11 or 17 minutes.......that way they can't time it quite as accurately and anticipate your next one......... :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: </span>

 

[Larry Lyke]

DaveM --

You and Goodpasture are the "Axes of Evil."

My spelling is correct, as in "ax' -- [Smile here]

THERE is nothing that Americans won't use as a billboard or advertising medium.

 

[Bryan (OK)]

Greg,

This is the best laugh I have had in some time. Automation can be a great tool!!

Unsolicited faxes put the burden of supplies on us. Throwing the burden back to them is priceless.

Good work & thanks for sharing.

Bryan

 

[Pat Butler]

Those junk faxes often times don't have a return fax number. But they almost always have a regular voice line. Just send your faxes to their voice line and the recipient will get that screach in their ear every time they answer the phone. Do that for a few hours then call up and they'll be sure to remove you right away. I used to have a dialing script that my programmer friend made for me. It sent a screach right away, hung up, and redialed, in a matter of seconds. Some fax software will delay maybe a minute or so and isn't as effective.

Unsolicited inbound faxes to people with whom the sender has no business relationship are illegal.

 

[Jim McGrath]

But I like Hotfax....it lists the originating phone number and it allows you to schedule return faxes for when you want to send them. (One car dealer kept sending me notices of sales, so I sent him a 600 page fax asking him to take me off his list.....after I had tried to call him several times and talk to him about it and been ignored......that began every night about 11:00 PM. I successfully ran him out of paper every night for about a week when he called me and asked me to stop....which I did as soon as he agreed to stop faxing me). I have about three files on the wordprocessor that I customize for such people, and it takes less than a minute to schedule the fax..........

Great Post, but I couldn't find the website for Hotfax. There is a hotfax.com but it is not the correct one. What is it?

Jim

 

[xmrdfghap]

Jim, I picked up Hotfax at CompUSA, but it is produced by SmithMicro at

http://www.smithmicro.com

It is 69.95 and is downloadable (48 MB)

The Version 5 shown on their product description has some really nice features that my older version doesn't have. I am going to have to do a little research to see if it meets my needs as I anticipate them to be.

For example, I intend to use eFax to have faxes go to my email. From my part of the country eFax costs 9.95 per month (using an 800 number) thus eliminating a commercial fax/phone line (about $70.00 per month), and it allows me to receive faxes as email rather a paper copy. Then I can retrieve the faxes anywhere I am using my laptop and cell phone (I use a sprint service with nationwide long distance....I can get my faxes and conduct business anywhere in the country). I set up an email account with hotmail that will notify me on my cell phone anytime I get email and will only use it for fax reception.

And there are a couple of other things I might be able to do as well that will further reduce my need for a room full of office hardware.

But it appears that with the new Hotfax if the cell phone is connected to the computer all the time, the mobile computer will act as a fax machine/answering machine which means that only the cell phone is needed......which makes it $9.95 I don't have to spend each month. I already print hard copies of reports at Kinkos so I don't have to mess with ink and printers and high speed/high dollar printers........my current printer cost me about $50.00.......and I charge for printing those reports I cannot pdf/email.

Like I said a while back, by spring (April sometime) my office will be in my briefcase....I intend to do away with everything but a file cabinet at that time.........and that file cabinet (hopefully) will become a wallet of cd's by the end of the year.