Telemarketers now going straight to voicemail

New York

FRANK Kemp was working on his computer when his cellphone let out the sound of Mario - from Super Mario Bros - collecting a coin. That signalled he had a new voicemail message, yet his phone had never rung.

"At first, I thought I was crazy," said Mr Kemp, a video editor in Dover, Delaware. "When I checked my voicemail, it made me really angry. It was literally a telemarketing voicemail to try to sell telemarketing systems." Mr Kemp had just experienced a technology gaining traction called ringless voicemail, the latest attempt by telemarketers and debt collectors to reach the masses. The calls are quietly deposited through a back door, directly into a voicemail box - to the surprise and (presumably) irritation of the recipient, who cannot do anything to block them.