India, May 4, 2010
Endless Vodafone India Mobile Phone Spam
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On my second day in Delhi, India, I bought a local SIM card from Vodafone India. Before the line activated to make an outgoing call, I got an inbound call. Picking it up, the caller surprised me - it was an automatic telemarketer call. Phone spam less than an hour after activation.
And the phone spam never stopped. My entire time in India, I would get spam text messages and spam calls - 3-4 per day - in Hindi and in English promoting third party services and products. So it wasn't even Vodafone spamming me through my mobile phone, but India's version of late-night telemarketers. But that's the odd point - they were robo-calls. Not a single phone call came with a human voice, nor did they seem to switch from computer to human when a pick-up was detected. In the land of cheap labour, I was surprised by this. But I was even more surprised by the last robo-call I got. Just watch this video to see why:
Yes, my Vodafone India SIM card even allowed international spam calls! |
