Dear All,

I had received a telephone call from a lady saying she is calling from my DSL ISP company. She told my last name and first name (I did not doubt that she would be fake).

What she told me that there is a new regulation among that company that they should not provide my personal data to a third party so I have to listen a statement in German from her and say I agree. So I trusted and said "I agree" after she has read the paragraph. And she told me that she will send me a Letter but till now I did not receive any mail from them. Today I just called the the company and they informed they don't have any service branch that will call customer and do some oath taking things!
One of colleague informed that it might be a fake call and may be that lady has recorder my voice and use it for other purposes using the voice modulation (devices). I am just becoming scared and panicked. Can anyone help and advise?

And what was said in this statement she read you?

D.

So some stranger tells you to say something on the phone and you do it? what is wrong with you. I would say the lady to f.. off .

same thing happened with me few months back, but I believe it was from DSL company.
Since my Germany was really bad at that time, I ask them each time , if it mean any contract or cost and they said no...I do not see what advantage some one can take of voice modulation...

Naresh

I don't know what the German regulations are concerning recorded conversations and contracts, but they are so easy to forge they should have no legal value at all.

Did you change service providers, or just made a contract in a house/apartment that had a different provider?

It sounds a bit like something you have to do in Mexico when you change service providers: In order to keep telephone companies from switching users to their service without their knowledge, there is a government agency in charge of verifying user's consent, so they make a phone call to your number and ask you to say that you voluntarily switched providers. It is not the phone company itself.

In any case, if you run into trouble, you can always claim either it wasn't you voice, or (maybe more convenient) that it was your voice but that conversation never happened. It will be hard to prove otherwise beyond any reasonable doubt.

In many countries recorded conversations have no legal value at all, and in some others they have to be certified by an expert, but if they wanted to implicate you in something dirty, I would have expected a much more convoluted conversation than a simple "I agree".

A recorded voice is not like a fingerprint, or even like a signature, and even less when it goes through bit reduction and extreme compression, which is hat happens in a phone line, so if I were you, I wouldn't worry about it and would learn my lesson.

Next time ask for their extension number in the alleged company's head office, and if they tell you they are an independent branch or whatever, ask fort their number and check with the real company. If they are bogus, then file a police report. This is of particular importance if someone calls you on behalf of your bank. Anyone can get confidential information from you by stealing your mail or going through your garbage, so don't trust anyone calling you, even if they have personal information, but usually if you start asking questions back and they are not legit, they start stuttering and eventually say something stupid that exhibits them. In Mexico it is a very serious problem, but there is not much they can do with your recorded voice.

If you're still nervous about it, talk to a lawyer and ask what could be done here with your recorded voice in a telephone conversation, but I'm pretty sure the answer you'll get will be very similar to mine.

Sleep tight!

Disclaimer: This is my personal opinion as an audio professional, and not legal advice.