华尔街日报报道：
数百万的美国人都曾接到过这样的电话。
“第二次提醒你的车险将要到期了，”电话那端的录音说。大部分人都挂断了。过一会儿，机器又打进电话。
Michael Silveira决定反击。这个22岁的实验室技术人员，他并没有车，但他手机经常被动接到推销电话，多达一天两次。
数百万都接到过车险推销的电话。诉讼未决，但一家社区网站已经已经将事情掌握在自己手中了，杰弗里福勒Geoffrey Fowler报道。
因此上周，Silveira先生开始给成为网络讨伐焦点的车险公司回电。他留下一个语音邮件，除了克阿斯特利Rick Astley1987年的打击乐“从来没有要去给你”的录音之外不含其它任何内容。
使用那些使用者传到一个叫做Reddit.com网站的汽车保修专家的电话号码，Silveira先生加入到很多积极分子行列中，他们通过含有电梯音乐、恐吓和提供粗鲁服务的信息来反击保险公司。
“我认为，如果你组织一群人，你可以毁掉他们的语音邮箱，”Silveira先生说。
他们努力的接受者是大卫?泰伯David Tabb， Auto One公司42岁的总裁，一家总部位于加利福尼亚州Irvine，拥有60名雇员的保险公司。他说，Reddit使用者通过电脑电话使他的电话线过载，在他们公司系统上改变了语音邮件问候，甚至扬言要纵火。人们已经很明显地在他们家外面摁喇叭，他表示。为了应对，他重定向一些积极分子一直呼叫的号码。
这一切的发生，他表示，没有任何证据表明他们公司做了什么错事。“90%抱怨我们公司的人从来没有被我们公司联系过，”他表示。他雇佣了第三方的营销公司来电话消费者，但是他支付了额外的费用以确保他们只给有意愿接受电话的人。许多保险电话来自所谓的“幽灵”电话号码，就几乎不可能确定他们的来源。Silveira先生不能确定Auto One是否是给他打过电话的公司之一，但是他表示阅读了Reddit的张贴之后，他认为该公司对他们中的一些人要负责任。
和大部分自发组织的成员一样，消费者决定自己处理车险销售的事情是处于法律的阴暗水域。留下骚扰信息可以被认为是恐吓，在部分州当局可以公诉。
康涅狄格州的总检察长，理查德布卢门撒尔 Richard Blumenthal，由于投诉已经着手调查Auto One和其他保险销售者的销售行为已经一年之久，他警告消费者应该“避免仅仅为了报复而破坏法律”。
但是，布卢门撒尔先生，自己接到了几次保险满期的电话之后，对那些自发组织者表示同情。“电话销售者处于非常尴尬的境界，消费者以其人之道还其人之身，将电话销售的行为所产生的抱怨直接回击到他们自己身上，”
集体攻击
很多开始改变了，自从愤怒的消费者通过将邮资已付的信封中装砖头邮回放在信箱中，对大量的经销商实施报复。新的一代使用在线暴徒发射群式攻击，目标在于完全关闭网络或者阻扰生意，这些方法是个人永远不可能做到的。像whocalled.us的网站搜集特定的提醒消费者的经销商。
被汽车保险公司雇佣的经销商使用电脑自动给美国手机号码清单发送录音信息，有时候包括手机。如果有人听完这个电话并有计划购买汽车保险，将会转给保险公司。据Tabb先生表示。
美国联邦贸易委员会和许多州都收集“拒绝电话清单”，电话销售者在联系消费者前应该参考一下。根据1991年的电话消费者保护法，在任何条件下，自动拨号、自动信息或者电脑信息都不得用于联系手机用户。
周四，联邦贸易委员会起诉了三家公司，不包括Auto One，他们已经打了超过十亿所谓的“机器人电话”来销售延期保单。他们寻求法院对这些公司的临时禁令，并要求对已经购买延期保险的消费者进行赔偿。
Auto One的Tabb先生表示，一些肆无忌惮的销售公司会秘密购买手机号码清单，他们会联系消费者甚至他们在拒绝电话清单。“如果这些机器人电话或者购买的数据带来了问题，他们攻击的对象应该是销售公司，而不是我。”
Tabb表示，2007年他们公司支付8000美元的佣金给与他合作的销售公司，该公司违反拒绝电话清单。但当他雇佣这个公司时并没有意识到这个公司犯法了。在一件不相关的事情上，Tabb，为2000年邮件欺诈和逃税漏税阴谋中分配假冒的好莱坞和运动纪念品而服罪，并被判为缓刑。他拒绝讨论那个案件。
汽车运动扎根于一个康德纳斯特出版社所拥有的一个家名为Reddit的社会媒体网站，使用者在上面发布内容的链接。5月5日，Reddit的一个使用者只对“语法错误”发起了讨论。
“希望得到‘汽车保险将到期’的人们的电话？”经过一个电话，Reddit使用者呆在网上并从一名销售员成功获得姓名和名字， Auto One公司的，他表示。
Reddit使用者张贴了Auto One的两个电话号码。“请一天呼叫他们20，30，地狱，50次。”这个人写道。“这是我做的，最后这个人说了，‘看，我们将把你的号码撤下这个清单，只要停止致电这里。’”Reddit使用者对采访要求没有回应。
在几个小时之内，好几百的信息张贴，响应上诉。其中一个参与者，要求只称呼贾斯丁，表示Reddit社区从来没有伤害过任何人，“如果我们有机会，至少可以烦死他们，然而为什么我们没有，”他表示。
“目前，我们正在调查问题的流程，在我们认为合适的地方采取行动。”Reddit的产品经理Alexis Ohanian表示。
通过张贴在网上的评论，运动者们最终解决了如何获得进入Auto One语音信箱系统的
司的更多信息——一个法律可疑行为。
道德窘境
他们还来到 Auto One的位于加利福尼亚州的实际地址，该地址张贴在Reddit上面。这在社区成员中关于接下来做什么有道德的困惑。一个住在附近的运动者自告奋勇说去办公室给工作在那儿的人拍照。
Silveira先生考虑他们应该就对他们收集的该公司的信息编辑目录，或许它能够帮助其他人。“互联网事发展的，它允许人群可以做他们的公正社会。”Silveira先生表示。“它就好像我们生活在一个古代西方电影中的小城市里，一旦你的照片因为某些可悲的犯罪而被上到公告栏进行通缉，没有人会忘记。”
Tabb先生，在另一方面，认为Reddit的使用者已经跃升至结论。“他们对于一个他们甚至还没有证明做错任何事情的公司行驶了法官、陪审团和行刑者的角色。”他表示。
但他同情，他表示他理解为何人们对骚扰电话如此烦恼，同时他补充道，他自己从没有接到过汽车保险的电话。
附原文
Peeved at Auto-Warranty Calls, a Web Posse Strikes Back
Millions of Americans have gotten the call.
"This is the second notice that the factory warranty on your vehicle is about to expire," says the recorded voice at the other end of the line. Most people hang up. The machine calls again later.
Michael Silveira decided to strike back. The 22-year-old laboratory technician, who doesnt own a car, says he was getting unsolicited sales pitches as often as twice a day on his cellphone.
Millions of Americans receive calls with pitches for extended auto warranties. Lawsuits are pending but one Internet community already took matters into their own hands, Geoffrey Fowler reports.
So last week, Mr. Silveira began calling back an auto-warranty company that has become the focus of an Internet crusade. He left it voice-mail messages that contained nothing but a recording of Rick Astleys 1987 hit song "Never Gonna Give You Up."
Using phone numbers for Auto One Warranty Specialists Inc. that users posted to a Web site called Reddit.com, Mr. Silveira joined dozens of activists who have peppered the warranty company with messages including elevator music, threats and offers of rude services.
"I thought, if you get a bunch of people together, you could blow up their voice-mail boxes," says Mr. Silveira.
The recipient of their efforts is David Tabb, the 42-year-old president of Auto One, an Irvine, Calif., warranty company with 60 employees. He says Reddit users overloaded his phone lines with computerized calls, changed voice-mail greetings on his companys system, and even threatened arson. People have been conspicuously honking outside his home, he says. To cope, he redirected some of the numbers that activists had been calling.
All of this happened, he says, with no evidence that his company had done anything wrong. "Ninety percent of the people complaining about my company have never been contacted by my company," he says. He hires third-party marketing firms to call consumers -- but says he pays a premium to ensure they call only people who have opted in to receiving solicitations. Many warranty calls come from so-called "ghost" phone numbers that make it nearly impossible to determine their origin. Mr. Silveira cant be certain Auto One is behind the calls he got, but he says he came to believe it was responsible for some of them after reading the Reddit postings.
Like most vigilantes, consumers who decide to take matters into their own hands with auto-warranty touts are in legally murky waters. Leaving harassing messages could be considered a threat, and might be prosecuted by authorities in some states.
Connecticuts attorney general, Richard Blumenthal, who because of complaints has been looking into the marketing practices of Auto One and other warranty marketers for more than a year, warns that consumers should "avoid breaking the law simply for revenge."
But Mr. Blumenthal, who has received warranty-expiration calls several times himself, is sympathetic to the vigilantes. "The telemarketers would be on very shaky ground making a complaint about the use of practices directed against them that they use on consumers," he says.
Swarm Attack
A lot has changed since angry consumers sought revenge on mass marketers by taping postage-paid return envelopes to bricks and putting them in mailboxes. A new generation uses online mobs to launch swarm-style attacks aimed at shutting down Web sites or at disrupting business in ways that an individual never could. Sites such as whocalled.us collect data about certain marketers to warn other consumers.
Marketers hired by auto-warranty companies use computers to automatically send recorded messages to lists of U.S. phone numbers, sometimes including cellphones. People who listen to the calls and want to buy auto-warranty plans are then forwarded to the warranty firms, according to Mr. Tabb.
The Federal Trade Commission and many states compile "do-not-call lists" that telemarketers are supposed to consult before trying to contact consumers.
Autodialers, automated messages or computerized messages may not be used to contact cellphone users under any circumstances, according to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991.
On Thursday, the FTC filed a complaint against three companies -- not including Auto One -- that have placed more than a billion so-called "robo-calls" to sell extended warranties. They are seeking a temporary restraining order against these companies, and seeking redress for consumers who bought the extended warranties.
Auto Ones Mr. Tabb says some unscrupulous marketing companies will buy underground lists of phone numbers and then call consumers even though they are on do-not-call lists. "If people have problems with these robo-calls or buying data, the focus of attack needs to be on these marketing companies, not on me," he says.
Mr. Tabb says that in 2007 his company paid an $8,000 fine for working with a marketing firm that violated do-not-call lists, but he wasnt aware that company was breaking the law when he hired it. In an unrelated matter, Mr. Tabb pleaded guilty in 2000 to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and tax evasion for his role in distributing counterfeit Hollywood and sports memorabilia and was sentenced to probation. He declined to discuss that case.
The Auto One campaign took root on Reddit, a social media Web site owned by Condé Nast Publications on which users post links to content. On May 5, a Reddit user identified only as "syntax_erorr" launched a discussion titled, "Want the phone number to the Your cars warranty is about to expire people?" After one call, the Reddit user stayed on the line and managed to get a name and number -- for Auto One, he says -- from a salesperson.
The Reddit user posted two phone numbers for Auto One. "Please call them 20, 30, hell, 50 times a day," this person wrote. "Its what I did and finally the guy said, Look, we will take your number off our list just please stop calling here!" The Reddit user didnt respond to an interview request.
Within hours, hundreds of messages had been posted in response to the appeal. One participant, who asks to be identified only as Justin, says that the Reddit community never harmed anyone. "If we have an opportunity to at least annoy the hell out of them, then why not," he says.
"Were currently investigating the thread in question, taking action where we deem appropriate," said Reddit product manager Alexis Ohanian.
According to comments posted on the site, campaigners eventually figured out how to gain access to Auto Ones voice-mail system. They began work on a virtual map to extensions 300 through 490 on the system, and digging through saved messages for more information on the company -- a legally dubious act.
A Moral Quandary
They also came upon Auto Ones physical address in California and posted it on Reddit. That created a moral quandary among members of the community about what to do next. One campaigner, who lived nearby, offered to go to the office and take photos of people who work there. Mr. Silveira reckons they should just catalog information theyve gathered about the company, hoping that it can help others. "The Internet is evolving, and is allowing for groups of people to do their own justice socially," says Mr. Silveira. "Its as if we all live in one small town in an old Western movie, and once your picture goes up on the bulletin board as wanted for some deplorable crime, nobody forgets." Mr. Tabb, on the other hand, says Reddit users have jumped to conclusions. "They played judge, jury and executioner on a company that they havent even proven has done anything wrong," he says. But he empathizes. He says he understands why some people get upset about the unsolicited calls, adding that he himself has never received an auto-warranty call.
