Hillary: That Debate Wasn't My Best »
Source: Fletcher Telemarketing Company Not Involved with Bogus Robocall
An 800 number that has been identified as the source of the bogus anti-gay robocall in the Kentucky governor's race is one of the 800 numbers used by the same telemarketing company that does robocalls for the campaign of Gov. Ernie Fletcher and the Kentucky Republican Party. However, the company denies being responsible for the bogus robocalls that purported to come from a gay rights organization in Kentucky, praising Democratic nominee Steve Beshear for his support from the "homosexual lobby."
A source involved with the telemarketing end of the campaign, who spoke on condition that neither they nor the company be identified, confirmed to Election Central that the number, 800-611-0244, was indeed used by the company, and that the company has made robocalls for the state GOP and the Fletcher campaign — including another anti-gay call featuring Pat Boone — but the source denied that the company was in any way responsible for this new robocall. All of the calls that the company handled, we were told, clearly identified themselves as being paid for by the Fletcher campaign or the Kentucky GOP. The bogus call did not do so.
The source asserted that the originating phone numbers for robocalls can be easily faked, and that the company has previously run into trouble with other calls in at least two other states in which they say calls were faked as originating from some of the same 800 numbers that the company uses.
I'd think that faking a phone number on calls like this would get attention from legal authorities in the jurisdictions involved, not excluding the FCC or whoever is in charge of telecom these days. Of course, since the call was in favor of the GOP candidate, it may take a while ....
November 6, 2007 6:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sure. Right. Just a coincedence.
November 6, 2007 6:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes? - chico marx
November 6, 2007 7:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, I think with these political operatives they are guilty until proven innocent. They're phones should be tapped, and guys like that should be rendered before each election, in the most extraordinary way possible.
November 6, 2007 7:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Damn, did somebody declare this National Whopper Day?
November 6, 2007 7:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
So we have agencies that can and do get access to our emails/text msgs/phone calls and the like, just incase one of us might be a "terrorist", but they can't figure out who made a bunch of political robo-calls?
I sure as hell hope "the terrorists" aren't paying attention to this...or they'll just start using robo-calls to communicate and lauch all those nefarious operations of theirs!
Warning, if your caller ID shows the number 888-KUH-BOOM do not pick it up. XP
November 6, 2007 8:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
DHS knows who made the robocall. But they can't tell because it would undermine the position of the value party.
November 6, 2007 8:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
why on earth would someone make calls favoring the GOP candidate fake a GOP telemarketing co's phone number? wouldn't any random 800 number do for this sort of thing? perhaps it was some sort of black op done by the democrats to frame this telemarketing company and the local GOP, even though the calls themselves hurt the dem candidate. yeah, that's it
November 6, 2007 8:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Certainly the 'just a coincidence' argument is garbage but what about the claim that a phone number can be "spoofed"...I dont think so folks......
November 6, 2007 8:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Man these guys are so dumb and then so inventive when confronted with evidence....
Recalls the recent flap in New York, where a GOP slimeball was accused of making an "anonymous" call to the answering machine of NY Governor Elliot Spitzer's father, claiming that the father's 'corruption" was going to lead to his destruction.
Trouble was, the father had caller ID and the call was traced back to the slimeball...who then said someone probably broke into his apartment and used his phone. BWAAAAAAAAHHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
November 6, 2007 9:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
The company may well be lying with regard to their involvement, but the assertion that the number displayed as Caller ID can be faked is quite correct, eg:
http://www.securityfocus.com/news/9822
"the service functions much like the Star38.com site that struggled with an abortive launch last month: a user types in their phone number, the number they wish to call, and the number they'd like to wear as a disguise. The system instantly dials back and patches the call through with the properly-forged caller I.D."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID_spoofing
"Caller ID is spoofed through a variety of methods and different technology. The most popular ways of spoofing Caller ID are through the use of Voice over IP or PRI lines." "Caller ID spoofing has been available for years to people with a specialized digital connection to the telephone company, called an ISDN PRI circuit."
"There are legitimate reasons for modifying the caller ID sent with a call, such as commercial answering service bureaus which forward calls back out to a subscriber's cell phone, when both parties would prefer the CNID to display the original caller's information. Also, business owners have been known the use Caller ID spoofing to display their business number on the Caller ID display when calling from outside the office, on a mobile phone for example."
November 6, 2007 10:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Robocalls like this are starting to fit a pattern. Shouldn't they be a cause for criminal prosecution?
November 6, 2007 11:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
This made me snigger.
November 6, 2007 11:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
I guess a search warrant could probably settle the question one way or the other.
November 7, 2007 8:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
Anyway, here's how much good it did them.
November 7, 2007 8:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
We reported two days ago that the toll-free number in question was not where the calls came from.
http://pageonekentucky.com/2007/11/05/breaking-fletchers-illegal-anti-gay-robocalls/
Subpoenaed records today. Will have the culprit soon.
November 7, 2007 11:58 AM | Reply | Permalink