[pmwiki-users] OT: Annoying Phone Call claiming to be from Google Adware

[Patrick R. Michaud]

On Wed, Oct 17, 2007 at 12:35:56PM -0400, Sandy wrote:
> This might be a bit of a rant, so be warned.
> 
> I just got a call from someone in a noisy phone-farm, with a definite 
> accent, asking to talk to "the person who manages my company website".
> ...
> Does anyone know if Google really has stooped this low? Cold-calling 
> everyone with a domain name? The least they could do is give their 
> caller more information. Like, check their own records about whether I 
> already have an account with them? For all they know, I'm already paying 
> them big bucks for platinum-titanium service.
> 
> My gut feeling is that it's someone fudging their intro spiel, trying to 
> make me pay them money to give me advice that Google gives on their site 
> for free, but my gut's been wrong before.
> 
> Anyone else get a similar call? Maybe someone who had more patience or 
> curiosity?

Yesterday I received a call from Network Solutions (at least that's 
what the caller claimed) asking a similar sorts of questions --
primarily if I wanted help driving more traffic to my sites, and
if I was aware of some of their new features.

I basically said I was happy with my current traffic, and that I
already knew about the good features.  But yes, it was a bit odd
to be receiving the cold call from them.

In your specific case I'd guess that your gut feeling is correct--
that someone is trying to ride on Google's trademarks and coattails.

Pm