I’m sure everyone gets frustrated by the occasional junk caller, be it PPI related calls or those for that accident you had last week. Most can be annoying but are generally harmless. However some can be more than that.

I was contacted by my mum last week who was frustrated by a caller who would not stop calling and was continuously requesting payment details for services and products she simply did not want. This got to the point where it was causing real stress and making her feel unwell. The person was calling 10-15 times a day time and time again… However once she called me we have stopped the calls reaching her (she is lucky as her calls are routed via our VoIP platform – so a very easy change).

I decided however that simply dropping the call means that the caller could simply redial and cause stress to someone else… And looking around I found just the solution … let me introduce Lenny

There are numerous VoIP platforms out there using different technologies – many of ours are on a very customised Asterisk platform. Under asterisk with a few lines of code and a couple of sound files you can work wonders (see http://www.crosstalksolutions.com/howto-pwn-telemarketers-with-lenny/ ). So as an experiment I set this up here and diverted the calls from this company to Lenny. In this case it was easy – the company in question seems to use a standard phone number – however there are similar ways for other calls.

I them waited .. and waited… To begin with I thought the company had given up on us, as I waited over a day – far longer than normal… BUT then this afternoon they started calling again…  However now of course Lenny was ready and waiting … Somehow with just 16 stock phrases and a script Lenny kept the caller talking for 10 minutes.

For your entertainment the call is below – take a listen and let me know what you think… If I catch any more I will share them …