The new spam: interactive robo-calls from the cloud as cheap as e-mail

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/04/the-new-spam-interactive-robo-calls-from-the-cloud-as-cheap-as-e-mail/

Cloud-based "outbound interactive voice response" is being embraced by telemarketers

ARS Technica, April 15, 2015

Sean Gallagher - 4/15/2015, 5:21 PM ____________________________________________________________________________________

It was the middle of the day, and my cell phone rang with a local number I didn't recognize. Figuring it was one of my kids calling from a friend's phone to tell me that they had forgotten their cell phone and needed a ride, I answered—and found myself rapidly descending into the uncanny valley.

"Hi?" asked a voice on the other end of line. I replied with a hello. "This is Amy!" the voice said ebulliently. "I'm a senior account representative for American Direct Services!" Amy paused for several beats.

I asked, "Is this a computer?"

Another several beats. "No," Amy replied. She then went on to inform me that I had been selected as a possible winner in a million dollar sweepstakes!

"Amy" was, in fact, an outbound interactive voice response program running on a server, likely somewhere in a cloud data center. The company behind the call was the latest incarnation of a sweepstakes and magazine subscription scam operation currently known as North American Direct Services, Inc., as I found after finally being connected to a human and asking some probing questions. In the meantime, I entertained myself trying to find the bugs in "Amy's" programming:

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So...this article explains exactly how those robo calls work, that kind of interact with you...and as cheap as emails...very interesting and informative article..