Following up on a series of previous BoingBoing posts (one, two) about what would appear to be rather unorthodox recruiting tactics from the US Army in Austin, Texas, BoingBoing reader Mark Miller writes,
After going into the Dobie Mall (a private dorm here at UT Austin), where the Army Recruitment Office is, and politely giving my name an e-mail, and requesting that they never contact me again, I just received *another* call from the US Army, the same pre-recorded message.
But this time I had a pencil and a pen handy, and caught the number that was stated in the message, +1 (512) 326-2828. After a quick Google, I discovered the Austin Army Recruiting Company. Their address being 2101 I-35, South Suite 414, Austin, TX 78741. Apparently, there exist the San Antonio U.S. Army Recruiting Battalion, with the mission statement of, “The San Antonio U.S. Army Recruiting Battalion’s mission is to recruit qualified men and women from south and central Texas, in order to provide the strength needed to uphold and defend Freedom and Democracy.”
The US Army Recruitment Office in Dobie is located at 2025 Guadalupe, Suite 258, Dobie Mall-UT Campus, Austin, TX 78705.
This leads me to believe that the Dobie Mall recruitment office is responsible for sending the spams, while the San Antonio U.S. Army Recruiting Battalion is responsible for the phone calls, by contracting out someone in Las Vegas to send automated pre-recorded messages to college students. (The message specifically states if you’re 18 to 22, and enrolled in college) [+1 702-671-0040 is the number they’re calling from]
I’ve been advised after noting the TCPA legislation making illegal such an act (pre-recorded messages to any service where the recipient pays for the phone call [id est, my cell phone]), the Army may claim sovereign immunity (An interesting legal concept where, if the US Government does not specifically have in legislation when you can sue them, you can’t.) Instead, I will proceed with filing a FOIA to garner more info about who is ultimately responsible in the Chain of Command for these proceedings. If any other readers of BoingBoing wish to help with this, (having the recording still on voice mail, the number they called you at in order to specifically request how that number got on the list, et cetera), contact me at mirell@gmail.com.