I just received a phone call from someone soliciting money on behalf of firemen. Their pitch was for me to donate money so the firemen could replace old, broken, and obsolete equipment. I couldn't help but feel like they were talking about me.
How can I get in on this gig?
My Pitch: Hello kind sir or madam, I am calling on behalf of surveyors who are forced to use old, tired and obsolete equipment, and could I count on you for a generous donation this holiday season so these old, tired and obsolete surveyors don't have to suffer any longer.
I have three different "Highway Patrol officers" that contact me frequently wanting money for their Fraternal Order of cops.
I always ask if they are a for profit charity, when they say Yes,?ÿ I tell them I don't donate to for profit charities. Seems I get the Texas State Troopers always calling me.?ÿ
I sure like that Do Not Call list!
I'm real fond of messing with the guy on the other end of a most definitely VOIP connection.?ÿ He has a thick Hindi accent and tells me his name is "Frank Wright"....(really?)
He's either worried about the error code he received on my 'Windows' and needs me to log on?ÿto some unholy website...or he's with the "Administration of Social Security Benefits" and has wonderful news about a possible increase in my benefits...but needs me to verify my DOB & SSN.
I usually rag on them for a few seconds until they hang up.?ÿ?ÿ I think I might have given them my ex-wife's SSN and DOB once...;)
Even on the do-not-call list, I get spam on my cell phone. Yesterday a call showed up with a name of "Likely Spam". I went ahead and answered, just to see..."Your house has been selected..." I hung up and blocked the number.?ÿ
(I get calls from the school district from random numbers so I tend to answer the phone rather than let everything unidentified go to voice mail.)
I don't know how many times I've passed up the "LAST chance to lower my credit card interest rates."
The Do Not Call list actually doesn't help much. It might even make it worse. By putting yourself on the Do Not Call list, you are literally adding your phone number to a list that is provided to telemarketers and potential spammers. How else will they know who they aren't allowed to call? However, not everyone with access to that list (read: most of them) is honest, so the government is basically giving your phone number to people with nefarious ideas about what to do with that list.
When I added my numbers to that list several years ago, the telemarketing and scam calls got worse. After I realized it was BECAUSE of the list, I let my listings expire (couldn't remove them) and the funny thing is, I started getting a lot less calls....
If the caller ID on my house phone doesn't indicate who is calling they get the "Red Button".?ÿ ??ÿ
Some years ago I got a call from a guy telling me that my car warranty was about to expire, and I should buy the extended warranty before it's too late. I got real excited "The warranty on my Studebaker is about to expire?!?! How much will the extended warranty cost?" He said he didn't think that was the right car. I said "that's the only one I have, and you said you were looking at my file, and it was about to expire, so that must be the right one. If I get the extended warranty, can I take it to a genuine Studebaker dealership and get genuine Studebaker parts?" He hung up on me, I couldn't figure out why.
If the caller ID on my house phone doesn't indicate who is calling they get the "Red Button".?ÿ ??ÿ
I have been getting lots of spam calls and the caller id shows a "real name" but when?ÿI answer it is just silence and then the call ends. I have tried calling back thinking it was a legit dropped call and it is always busy so the caller id is being spoofed and is not a reliable indicator.
"caller id shows a "real name"
So does mine but if the real name isn't someone I know it gets the red button.?ÿ
"The Do Not Call list actually doesn't help much."
?ÿ
Interesting -I've used it for years on a number of different lines and it has reduced these calls markedly - I'd guess 90% or more.
"The Do Not Call list actually doesn't help much."
?ÿ
Interesting -I've used it for years on a number of different lines and it has reduced these calls markedly - I'd guess 90% or more.
That is good to hear. You are the first person I've ever heard praising the list. Most complain that it either gets worse or there's no change.
Years ago, when we still had a land line in the house, the telemarketing calls to it where getting out of hand. So we signed up for the Do Not Call list and the number of calls did seem to drop off quite a bit.?ÿ Then we realized that we never used that land line for anything, so we just got rid of it altogether.
Lately I've started getting these calls to my cell phone. When I do - it takes about 3 seconds to recognize them for what they are - I simply terminate the call and, later, when convenient, block the number.?ÿ Also, I usually just let calls from 800 or 888 area codes that are not in my contact list go to voice mail.?ÿ
I use google voice as my primary number. GV does a very admiral job of blocking the junk calls. The few that do slip through are easy to block.
The harder calls to block are the ones that come through to my cell phone. I don't give my cell number to anybody. At all. No one. My calls are forwarded to my cell from my GV number.
Unknown callers are welcome here. ?ÿWhy? ?ÿBecause a significant fraction of my income comes from clients who started out as unknown callers.
Tom Mabe is still the best.
Back in the mid high school days when there were only landlines and public phone books, we were at a mate??s place after school, sipping nonchalantly on soda stream drinks, when the phone rang and matey answered it, politely giving his first and second names.?ÿ He listened for a few seconds, then we heard him say ??Let me stop you there, you can stick your f questions up your a..e.?, then he listened to the silence on the other end for a few more seconds, then hung up. This was quite out of character for this guy, but I guess he wanted us to all know who was boss in his home. ?ÿNaturally we were impressed and asked what that was all about. He said it was some old crow called X X saying she was running in the upcoming local body elections and was calling to ask questions on what citizens really valued in our city community. As he finished his explanation his speech slowed down and his chin started to quiver as it dawned on him and us that X X was actually Mrs X our current headmistress.
I ask what percentage of the donations actually get to the officers, etc., and if the caller is related to the chairman of the fund and what salary the chairman and the callers make.
I usually get the run around indicating that the charity is not what it seems to be.
There are many groups like this with real official sounding names that are all about their profits only.
