hagerman@friday.DEC (12/20/85)
A few weeks ago my wife got an interesting phone call during the
day. It was a pre-recorded "film usage survey" that asked questions
like:
how many rolls of film do you shoot per year?
what kind of film do you use?
what kind of camera do you have?
what is your phone number again so we can send you 10 free rolls
of Kodak film?
I thought it was kind of strange that anybody would send me free film,
especially 10 rolls, but I just kind of ignored it. We never got
any free rolls of film...
Two days ago our house was broken into and all my camera equipment and one
jewelry box that was near it in the bedroom closet were stolen.
The value of the stolen equipment was about $2000. (My Leica and
5 lenses).
So is there a connection? And how did they get my name? Well, I usually
buy Plus-X at the grocery store and develop it myself, or color print film
and send it to them. So the grocery store knows my name and address,
along with about 100,000 other families in Colorado Springs.
*But* about two months ago I bought, on a special occasion, one single
roll of Ektachrome 1600 film (for $8) and had it processed by
a lab (for $12). Maybe, just maybe, they took my address from the
list of "oddball" processing requests (for example, "push this roll
two stops"), typed my phone number into their computer dialer,
and voila, instant list of addresses of cameras.
Not that there is much I can do about it now...
Doug Hagermanhofbauer@utcsri.UUCP (John Hofbauer) (12/22/85)
> A few weeks ago my wife got an interesting phone call during the > day. It was a pre-recorded "film usage survey" that asked questions > like: > how many rolls of film do you shoot per year? > what kind of film do you use? > what kind of camera do you have? > what is your phone number again so we can send you 10 free rolls > of Kodak film? > > I thought it was kind of strange that anybody would send me free film, > especially 10 rolls, but I just kind of ignored it. We never got > any free rolls of film... > > Two days ago our house was broken into and all my camera equipment and one > jewelry box that was near it in the bedroom closet were stolen. > The value of the stolen equipment was about $2000. (My Leica and > 5 lenses). > > So is there a connection? And how did they get my name? Well, I usually The phone number is the connection. There exist business directories which give much more information than the standard phone directory. One's that I've seen are organized like the phone directory but also give a person's occupation as well as address and phone number, and have sections which divide the city into lots of tiny sectors and give useful statistical info like average house price and income. Lastly they have an inverted phone number list so that given the phone number you can find a person's name and address. These directories cost several hundred dollars and are generally sold to businesses for obvious, legitimate purposes. Invariably the local public library also has a copy. I have often used those to find out basic info on people... An interesting aside... I have had an unlisted phone number for many years. When I checked my entry in such a business directory I didn't find one. Furthermore, once every so often a card is dropped into my mail slot from an organization which publishes these directories asking for info. Again, their activity is legitimate and above board but I have never replied. Consequently I don't exist as far as they are concerned. We are seldom bothered by telephone solicitation... I like to think there is a connection. Scams like this have all sorts of variations. A favourite is to send people "free tickets" and then rip them off while they are enjoying their prize. In reverse, this has become popular with law enforcement agencies as a sting for capturing wanted criminals.