Technology

How To Sign Up Phone Number For Spam Calls In 2024? Ultimate Guide

Have you ever given a telephone number to telemarketers without understanding the repercussions of doing so? If not, then this is an ideal occasion for learning about how one could make use of such an arrangement.

When you give out your phone number, it’s like giving access to your home – or at least someplace where you can be found. The minute it is divulged to an unsavory caller, they will have free rein over your life!

So what if you don’t want these people making calls and leaving messages on your answering machine?

Or perhaps you’re sick of getting spam texts or voicemails from telemarketing operations – how about taking matters into your own hands by issuing a ‘no calls’ edict?

If you need to silence telemarketers in order to safeguard yourself from their incessant calls, there are several methods available for you to take action against them.

What Is the Purpose of Giving a Telemarketer My Phone Number?

If you’ve been giving out your phone number to telemarketers and solicitors for a long time, it may be time for a change in strategy.

Check out the methods below for removing your contact information from lists or regaining control over who gets in touch with you!

There are three possible reasons why someone might request your telephone number:

They need it to complete a transaction on their website, so they’re contacting you directly to obtain it. They want to invite you to join their mailing list or offer you something – this is how they’ll reach out to you in future if you choose to participate.

Their goal is simply to make an impression; by having access to your phone, they can then easily find out who you are and arrange further communication.

Why Would I Want to Give a Telemarketer My Phone Number?

Indeed, the very notion of giving out your telephone numbers can seem baffling – especially if you’re averse to answering calls from telemarketers and other unsavory callers. However, there are instances when divulging this information could prove advantageous!

Here are a few potential benefits to be realized if you provide your phone number:

For instance, granting an enterprise access to one’s calling list could prove advantageous if you anticipate either making a purchase or signing up for services.

In addition, providing them access to your contact information will allow them expedite any communication between themselves and their clientele in an efficient manner – not only reducing costs but also maximizing profitability!

Lastly – offering up those digits should ensure all future communications with such parties are expedited and swiftly resolved; without fail!

How to Give a Phone Number to Telemarketers

The most straightforward way to give a telemarketer a phone number is by dialing it yourself. However, if you do not wish to divulge your confidential information – such as your home address or bank account digits – then don’t hesitate to feast upon this article’s solution: simply provide them with an alternative one!

It can be rather satisfying to gain revenge on the sleazy telemarketing operators who persistently harass you by providing them with outdated contact details at random; for example, giving out a pager number instead of a landline phone number or even employing old-fashioned fax numbers and email addresses.

1. Call the Federal Trade Commission at 1-877-FTC-HELP (382-4357)

Consumers who are experiencing harassment from telemarketers may be eligible for a refund. If you deem their behavior as fraudulent, report it to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) immediately; however – before making any claims – consider the following:

The FTC does not proactively verify that the phone number provided by consumers is legitimate or even associated with the company in question.

Rather than simply wait for an individual complaint regarding a given phone number to arise, one must file a claim for redress related to such matters; after which further investigation and assessment of evidence could occur prior to rendering any final decision on the matter.

Indeed, those individuals who have experienced difficulties obtaining an appropriate response from industry members might find it expedient to contact the Federal Trade Commission’s Help Center–an expert resource where they can obtain assistance regarding issues pertaining to telephone scams–or alternatively deliver their grievance over the phone or online.

2. Click File and Make a New Report

If you’re unsatisfied with the resolution of your grievance, don’t fret – there is an effective way to take action! At Lifesize, we provide consumers with a platform that enables them to file complaints and lodge grievances online.

Grievances are filed in real-time and then resolved by authorities; this means that if your issue isn’t addressed promptly, you can appeal directly to our Customer Service team at any time.

3. Click the Call Trace link in the left navigation panel of the page

If you’d like to see which numbers have been dialed from this caller’s number, click the Call Trace link. This will provide you with a list of calls that have been made from this particular device number within the past few days.

Don’t despair if your phone number is listed here; it may be due to an oversight on their part or possibly because they didn’t hear correctly over the telephone call.

If your number has been erroneously included in the list, simply contact the customer support team of the company in question and let them know about it so that it can be corrected promptly.

4. Look for a phone number in your spam/phantom call history as you did when reporting it

If you’ve attempted to register a domain registration, opened an account with a social media platform, made a purchase from an online store – the chances are that you may have encountered one or more telemarketers’ phone numbers in the past.

If you’re experiencing issues with spam calls and text messages, there is still hope! Here’s how you can report this information for evaluation and potentially prevent future instances:

5. Write down that phone number

Recipients of unsolicited texts messages or calls might not even realize that they have been the victim of a marketing call. Even if they are acquainted with your name, it is possible that they may still fail to remember which number belongs to them before replying – thus giving you an opportunity for retribution against their tormentors!

To prove that you were subjected to unsubtle aggressive solicitation tactics as a means of punishment, simply compose a text message or provide an email address in response to this call.

This can serve as proof to those who subsequently contact you about what transpired during their initial efforts at obtaining additional details about your company’s products and services!

Conclusion

Don’t fret about granting telemarketing representatives your telephone number! With the assistance of our informative guide, you’ll be able to craft an effective sales pitch and close more deals.

Technology

Pintarnya raises $16.7M to power jobs and financial services in Indonesia

Pintarnya, an Indonesian employment platform that goes beyond job matching by offering financial services along with full-time and side-gig opportunities, said it has raised a $16.7 million Series A round.

The funding was led by Square Peg with participation from existing investors Vertex Venture Southeast Asia & India and East Ventures.

Ghirish Pokardas, Nelly Nurmalasari, and Henry Hendrawan founded Pintarnya in 2022 to tackle two of the biggest challenges Indonesians face daily: earning enough and borrowing responsibly.

“Traditionally, mass workers in Indonesia find jobs offline through job fairs or word of mouth, with employers buried in paper applications and candidates rarely hearing back. For borrowing, their options are often limited to family/friend or predatory lenders with harsh collection practices,” Henry Hendrawan, co-founder of Pintarnya, told TechCrunch. “We digitize job matching with AI to make hiring faster and we provide workers with safer, healthier lending options — designed around what they can reasonably afford, rather than pushing them deeper into debt.”

Around 59% of Indonesia’s 150 million workforce is employed in the informal sector, highlighting the difficulties these workers encounter in accessing formal financial services because they lack verifiable income and official employment documentation.

Pintarnya tackles this challenge by partnering with asset-backed lenders to offer secured loans, using collateral such as gold, electronics, or vehicles, Hendrawan added.

Since its seed funding in 2022, the platform currently serves over 10 million job seeker users and 40,000 employers nationwide. Its revenue has increased almost fivefold year-over-year and expects to reach break-even by the end of the year, Hendrawn noted. Pintarnya primarily serves users aged 21 to 40, most of whom have a high school education or a diploma below university level. The startup aims to focus on this underserved segment, given the large population of blue-collar and informal workers in Indonesia.

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“Through the journey of building employment services, we discovered that our users needed more than just jobs — they needed access to financial services that traditional banks couldn’t provide,” said Hendrawan. “We digitize job matching with AI to make hiring faster and we provide workers with safer, healthier lending options — designed around what they can reasonably afford, rather than pushing them deeper into debt.”

Pintarnya Founders Press Kit — image credits: Pintarnya (Founders of Pintarnya Ghirish Pokardas, Nelly Nurmalasari, and Henry Hendrawan)

While Indonesia already has job platforms like JobStreet, Kalibrr, and Glints, these primarily cater to white-collar roles, which represent only a small portion of the workforce, according to Hendrawan. Pintarnya’s platform is designed specifically for blue-collar workers, offering tailored experiences such as quick-apply options for walk-in interviews, affordable e-learning on relevant skills, in-app opportunities for supplemental income, and seamless connections to financial services like loans.

The same trend is evident in Indonesia’s fintech sector, which similarly caters to white-collar or upper-middle-class consumers. Conventional credit scoring models for loans, which rely on steady monthly income and bank account activity, often leave blue-collar workers overlooked by existing fintech providers, Hendrawan explained.

When asked about which fintech services are most in demand, Hendrawan mentioned, “Given their employment status, lending is the most in-demand financial service for Pintarnya’s users today. We are planning to ‘graduate’ them to micro-savings and investments down the road through innovative products with our partners.”

The new funding will enable Pintarnya to strengthen its platform technology and broaden its financial service offerings through strategic partnerships. With most Indonesian workers employed in blue-collar and informal sectors, the co-founders see substantial growth opportunities in the local market. Leveraging their extensive experience in managing businesses across Southeast Asia, they are also open to exploring regional expansion when the timing is right.

“Our vision is for Pintarnya to be the everyday companion that empowers Indonesians to not only make ends meet today, but also plan, grow, and upgrade their lives tomorrow … In five years, we see Pintarnya as the go-to super app for Indonesia’s workers, not just for earning income, but as a trusted partner throughout their life journey,” Hendrawan said. “We want to be the first stop when someone is looking for work, a place that helps them upgrade their skills, and a reliable guide as they make financial decisions.”

Technology

OpenAI warns against SPVs and other ‘unauthorized’ investments

In a new blog post, OpenAI warns against “unauthorized opportunities to gain exposure to OpenAI through a variety of means,” including special purpose vehicles, known as SPVs.

“We urge you to be careful if you are contacted by a firm that purports to have access to OpenAI, including through the sale of an SPV interest with exposure to OpenAI equity,” the company writes. The blog post acknowledges that “not every offer of OpenAI equity […] is problematic” but says firms may be “attempting to circumvent our transfer restrictions.”

“If so, the sale will not be recognized and carry no economic value to you,” OpenAI says.

Investors have increasingly used SPVs (which pool money for one-off investments) as a way to buy into hot AI startups, prompting other VCs to criticize them as a vehicle for “tourist chumps.”

Business Insider reports that OpenAI isn’t the only major AI company looking to crack down on SPVs, with Anthropic reportedly telling Menlo Ventures it must use its own capital, not an SPV, to invest in an upcoming round.

Technology

Meta partners with Midjourney on AI image and video models

Meta is partnering with Midjourney to license the startup’s AI image and video generation technology, Meta Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang announced Friday in a post on Threads. Wang says Meta’s research teams will collaborate with Midjourney to bring its technology into future AI models and products.

“To ensure Meta is able to deliver the best possible products for people it will require taking an all-of-the-above approach,” Wang said. “This means world-class talent, ambitious compute roadmap, and working with the best players across the industry.”

The Midjourney partnership could help Meta develop products that compete with industry-leading AI image and video models, such as OpenAI’s Sora, Black Forest Lab’s Flux, and Google’s Veo. Last year, Meta rolled out its own AI image generation tool, Imagine, into several of its products, including Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. Meta also has an AI video generation tool, Movie Gen, that allows users to create videos from prompts.

The licensing agreement with Midjourney marks Meta’s latest deal to get ahead in the AI race. Earlier this year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg went on a hiring spree for AI talent, offering some researchers compensation packages worth upwards of $100 million. The social media giant also invested $14 billion in Scale AI, and acquired the AI voice startup Play AI.

Meta has held talks with several other leading AI labs about other acquisitions, and Zuckerberg even spoke with Elon Musk about joining his $97 billion takeover bid of OpenAI (Meta ultimately did not join the offer, and OpenAI denied Musk’s bid).

While the terms of Meta’s deal with Midjourney remain unknown, the startup’s CEO, David Holz, said in a post on X that his company remains independent with no investors; Midjourney is one of the few leading AI model developers that has never taken on outside funding. At one point, Meta talked with Midjourney about acquiring the startup, according to Upstarts Media.

Midjourney was founded in 2022 and quickly became a leader in the AI image generation space for its realistic, unique style. By 2023, the startup was reportedly on pace to generate $200 million in revenue. The startup sells subscriptions starting at $10 per month. It offers pricier tiers, which offer more AI image generations, that cost as much as $120 per month. In June, the startup released its first AI video model, V1.

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Meta’s partnership with Midjourney comes just two months after the startup was sued by Disney and Universal, alleging that it trained AI image models on copyrighted works. Several AI model developers — including Meta — face similar allegations from copyright holders, however, recent court cases pertaining to AI training data have sided with tech companies.

Got a sensitive tip or confidential documents? We’re reporting on the inner workings of the AI industry — from the companies shaping its future to the people impacted by their decisions. Reach out to Rebecca Bellan at [email protected] and Maxwell Zeff at [email protected]. For secure communication, you can contact us via Signal at @rebeccabellan.491 and @mzeff.88.

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