It appears that the telephone spammers at Metroland Media are up to their old tricks again. I had an automated call a couple of days ago from 613-221-6247 saying that Metroland Media are looking for carriers to deliver their spam community newspapers.

They first came on to my radar in September when their automated system called me several times saying they were looking for carriers. At the time, I informed them that I was on the National Do Not Call List and that because they were not soliciting subscriptions they were not exempt. The person I spoke to, Matt, told me that in his opinion they were allowed to call because they were a) a newspaper and b) not trying to sell anything – which is wrong on both counts: newspapers are only exempt from the NDNCL if they are soliciting subscriptions and then only if the person they’re calling isn’t on their own do not call list. He assured me that I would be put on their do not call list.

And the calls stopped. At least for a couple of months.

Well, apparently that assurance was worth exactly what I paid for it because I had an automated phone call from them a couple of days ago, though this time they called themselves Metroland Media rather than Ottawa This Week. I’ve left a voice mail for the regional manager of Metroland Media asking him to call me, so we’ll see what he has to say about this.

And it doesn’t appear that I’m the only person to receive one of these automated calls because I can tell by my blog statistics that a lot of people are googling their phone number (613-221-6247) and ending up with my previous entry about them.