Personal Security.

Most people are annoyed when they receive a phone call that interrupts the evening meal and the caller is a telemarketer trying to deliver a high pressure sales spiel.   At the same time, the daily mail usually contains appeals from various charities asking for a donation.  Many people wonder how they managed to get on the call listing of an overseas call centre.

One complainant tells a curious story that tends to explain this phenomenon.   He became self employed and registered a trading name.  When he opened a bank account in that name there was a clerical error on the banks part and that trading name was spelt incorrectly.  The moment he realised that the cheque book issued contained the spelling error he had the bank correct it - and gave the matter no further thought.

Just days later he began receiving incoming mail addressed to that incorrect company name and each was an appeal from a charity for a donation.   The only time that incorrect name had been recorded was when the bank made the error and so it was perfectly obvious that was where the security leakage had occurred.

In todays world your name and address are valuable, even more so if that information includes your phone number.   Every time you encounter a situation which requires you to give that information, there is a high chance that the details will put money in someones pocket when they are leaked to a specialised company compiling mailing lists.

The " bait " to get you to hand over that information is cleverly presented.  A flood of email spam offers entrance into competitions with marvellous prizes.  All that is required is for you to fill in an entry form so they know where to send the prize.

You regularly make a small donate to your favourite charity - and they always mail you a receipt because such donations are tax deductible.  Many charities make extra money by selling their mailing list on the open market, to the highest bidder.

For a long time gleaning names and addresses were the main requirement of the direct marketing trade.  They could lookup the phone number in the phone book and telemarketers only called on fixed line calls because mobile phone calling charges were considered too expensive.  Today, that has changed and your mobile number has become a valuable item.

Australian industry has adopted the cost saving of having their product servicing enquiries handled in low wage overseas countries.   When you need help with a computer network access problem or your phone service is interrupted you are probably talking to a highly trained operative in India or the Philippines - and obviously they need to know your details to help with your problem.

The chances are that whenever you need to identify yourself, there is a very good chance that this information will find its way onto a telemarketer listing.   You can also be sure that your information is being sliced and diced to add further input.   Each time your name comes up a little more information is added.    Where you shop ?   What you buy ?   What interests you have that can be gleaned from the type of enquiries you make ?   All this allows the telemarketer to zoom in with an offer that is carefully constructed to be of interest and to fit your lifestyle.

If you consider this an invasion of privacy the commercial world will beg to differ.   It is merely an extension of the door to door salesmen who used to knock on your door nearly a century ago !