Weekly Telemarketing News Roundup 

Two arrested for hacking personal data of 8.7 million phone users

Summary: KT Corp., South Korea’s second largest wireless service provider, has apologized after personal data of 8.7 millions of its mobile phone subscribers was stolen by hackers. The details are suspected to have been sold to marketing firms, netting the hackers close to $1 million.

There’s no mention of which marketing firms bought this data or whether anything is being done to retrieve it. I’d be curious to know if any American companies are involved and if they knew the data was illegally obtained.

Most cellphones get illegal telemarketing calls

According to a new study by the Pew Research Center, 68 percent of cell owners have received unsolicited sales calls on their phones at some point and 25 percent say their cells ring with telemarketers at least a few times a week.

According to the Federal Communications Commission, telemarketing calls to cell phones “is – and always has been – illegal in most cases.”

What makes illegal telemarketing calls to cell phones even more aggravating is that the victim has to pay for the call.

Polk County judge orders telemarketer to stop after allegations of false claims

A Polk County judge on Tuesday ordered an Arizona company to stop telemarketing to Iowans after Attorney General Tom Miller alleged in court papers that the company made repeated false claims that the proceeds of its high-priced products were going help disabled veterans.

$100 for a box of trash bags anyone? Actually, the telemarketers claimed to be disabled veterans while making calls. The call center owner says he didn’t know they were doing that. Really? Those trash bags were really worth $100?

About the author: Mr. Call Center

Gene Gerwin is president of CCI Telemarketing- a B2B lead generation service specialized in the technology industry. Started in 1993, CCI is proud to have served companies such as Hughes, Oracle, Autodesk, Mentor Graphics, EMC, and many more top technology firms.