Cafe hounded by calls
Not happy: Lucy Mertens of Lucy May’s Cafe has been inundated by harassing phone calls.
AN OVERSEAS call centre is believed to be responsible for hounding a Korumburra business with up to 50 unsolicited phone calls a day.
Lucy May’s Cafe staff have been disrupted by the calls for several months, often while in the middle of serving customers.
Managers have reported the harassment to the Australian Government’s SCAMwatch Infocentre Line but are not confident the bombardment will stop.
The cafe’s Gillian Mertens wants other businesses to be aware of the problem.
“Telstra has been trying to trace it for months and believes it is computer generated from a call centre,” she said.
“Our only option appears to disconnect the line but Telstra said it may happen again.”
Telstra has suggested cafe staff log every call. Now they have accumulated pages of notes.
“The Australian Government can’t do anything about it if it is coming from overseas. It can be happening to anybody,” Gillian said.
“Our only option is to disconnect the landline and just have a mobile, but we’ve done so much printing.”
Gillian’s daughter Lucy operates the cafe and has answered the calls.
“She (Lucy) could not really hear that anyone was there so thought it was a prank call, but you can hear a call centre in the background,” Gillian said.
“We hang up and two seconds later it will ring again. You can talk as long as you like but there is no one there.”
The irritation began a year ago, starting with two calls a day and the frequency has increased.
“It takes up a lot of staff time when they ring. It happens at random times during the day and on the weekend too,” Gillian said.
“It seems to be getting worse and worse.”
A spokesperson for the Australian Communications and Media Authority said businesses affected by such harassment should contact their service provider.
“Under the telco industry code of practice, Handling of Life Threatening and Unwelcome Communications Code C525:2010, sets out the processes communication service providers must follow in response to a report of life threatening and unwelcome communications,” the spokesperson said.
“The business should also list its number(s) on the Do Not Call Register. It takes a minute and is free.”
People affected by scams can contact the SCAMwatch Infocentre Line on 1300 795 995.
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Posted by Simone Short on Jan 2 2013. Filed under Featured, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
