Is there a device out there to block everyone's number except for yours when calling into a contest?

Question

I've heard alot of people complaining about other's out there having a computer system or program or something that can let them be the first one calling in to win phone contests. Is this possible? I never thought it was, but who knows with advances in technology today. Plus there have people out there doing the mass computer voting for like American Idol and stuff. Are people just paranoid or is it going on?

Answer 1

There was a story some years back of telephone company employees at a local CO busying out a radio station's contest line so that they could ring in and win it themselves. They were found out and that was the end of that. Besides that (having inside connections or convincing someone who does to do it), you can't really block out everyone else's number. You can mass vote with your computer using programs like the one at http://www.dialidol.com but all it really does is call the number, hang up and redial automatically which is something that people with flash and redial buttons on their phones do anyway except the computer does it for you. It gets a little more serious when you have VoIP PBX's at businesses that can be commanded via computer to fully utilize their thousands of telephone lines to dial like that at once. The voting system of at least American Idol is set up to detect mass autodialing like that and will throw out the votes, however this could be effective at making it harder for others to dial in and vote for a person since although the votes supposedly get thrown out, those who were really trying to vote for that person might not have been able to get through at least partially due to those mass votes/calls. A PBX with access to 10,000 lines isn't exactly a device you'd have in your house or be able to afford the service for but since programs like American Idol come on at night when most offices are closed, sly network administrators can log into their work system from home and utilize the PBX for these purposes and since its a toll free number and after hours, it is harmless and cost free to the company running the PBX. That's what's going on.

Answer 2

I guess they use an automatic dialer...