[gojomo]

The 'big boys' might avoid it by policy, but perhaps a rogue affiliate/commissioned-salesperson benefits.

Or, it could be competitors doing a denial-of-service attack on inbound calls, or a marketing-budget-depletion-attack on a pay-per-call campaign.

One way to deduce more: were the numbers he called the most commonly-advertised numbers for the target businesses, or other numbers through some tracked dispatch?

[jfruh]

Can't tell if the numbers were the most commonly advertised ones, but he does note that "Aaron" told him this:

"...all you are doing is calling a company that we provide the number for, pressing the correct (1) or (2) – which we specify..."

If I'm interpreting that right, they're using inside information to get him up the phone tree to the right person (whatever their definition of "right" is).