How to Get Unlisted Cell Numbers

Try to find out what retail store they bought their phones and plan from. Guess if you have to. If there are multiple retail stores in the area, do some homework, and get the names and addresses of each store. Also, every store should have a store "number". If you can get the store number, it will be very handy down the road.

From a payphone, call Cingular head office. Play around in the circuitry for a while, press this option, that option, but not to the point where you actually talk to someone.

Once you've gone through about a dozen options, start working towards talking to a real person.

Once you've got a real person (probably a CSR, Customer Service Representative), tell them you were trying to reach your local retail outlet, but somehow got tangled up in all the button pressing. Ask them to connect you to your local store. This is VERY important. If they offer to give you the number, say thanks, but you'd really appreciate if they'd just connect you to the store. Tell them you're pressed for time or something. The reason for this is that you want the call to the local store routed through a Cingular office phone number, because the person who answers the phone at the Cingular retail store is going to have caller ID, and this is going to add huge amounts of credibilily to your story. This will make more sense in a moment.

Once you've been routed through to the local retail store, evrything is going to happen very fast. The conversation should go something like this:

Retail Clerk: Hello, Cingular Store, this is Debbie, how may I help you?

You: Hi, Debbie, this is Angela Smith from Head Office, and I'm doing a follow-up on a customer complaint escalation, can I have your store number please?

Retail Clerk: Ummm, sure, it's 31337.

You: Great... (mumble "...337")... Listen, Debbie, I just got transferred to this department from Accounting and Payroll in Oklahoma, and none of my files have shown up yet, so I'm kind of flying blind here, and I need your help, okay?

Retail Clerk: Sure, what do you need?

You: I've got a customer complaint here in front of me that managed to wind up on my supervisors' desk with almost no contact information. Really, sometimes I wonder if the CSR's know how hard we have it, hey?

Retail Clerk: Tell me about it!

You: Okay, listen, I've got a home address, one of the numbers in the family plan, and what I think is the right name for the account. Can you have a look at this account and make sure I've got at least this much right before I go and make a fool of myself with these customers?

Retail Clerk: Sure, what was the number?

You: Area code XXX, phone number is XXX-XXXX. Do you have anything matching that?

Retail Clerk: Yup, I have it right here, the name on the account is John and Jane Doe.

You: Great, that's a good start, that matches what I have here. What were the numbers assigned to their account?

Retail Clerk: XXX-XXXX, XXX-XXXX, XXX-XXXX and XXX-XXXX.

You: Great, that's perfect, Debbie. You've been such a help. Thanks again, and have a great day.

Retail Clerk: No problem. You, too.

You: Bye.

Done and done.

Analysis of the conversation and key points

• Call routed through Cigular office lends credibility.
• Asking for store number signifies position of authority, establishes co-worker relationship frame of mind.
• Transferred to new postion covers lack of information that should normally be easily attainable through other channels.
• Specifically, stating transferred from Accounting & Payroll cements co-worker relationship frame of mind, while at the same time cementing position of authority.
• Stating, "I need your help" plays on basic human nature of wanting to help others, elevated by the fact the person asking for help is, in some way, an authority figure.
• Using customer complaint as a cover, in a service-based industry, when talking to a front-line salesperson, cements the need and/or urgency of transmitting the needed information.
• Using a different department, in this case call centre-based CSR's, as being partially to blame, further cements co-worker relationship frame of mind, as well as relieving burden of blame from the worker being social engineered.
• Raising the possibility of losing face or falling out of good graces with customers provides common ground between figure of authority and salesperson, even further cementing both co-worker frame of mind and the natural instinct to help others.
• Confirming that the information held by the social engineer and the information being given by the salesperson eases the mind of the salesperson, assuring them mentally that they are doing nothing wrong.
• Closing the conversation with comments that make the salesperson feel as though they have helped lessens the possibility of issues being raised in the mind of the salesperson about what has just happened.
• Finishing the conversation with very generic closings helps make the conversation "normal", and thus very "forgettable".

Hope this has been of some help.

Winter_Dawn and Sub-Zero Forever!