WHAT I’M THINKING is a new, probably infrequent, feature of my blog. In it, I shall feel free (I hope) to share my thinking about any number of topics that matter to me and may matter to my readers, whether they be regular subscribers or those who stop along the way to somewhere else.
In the days of the simple black rotary dialer, you might get a sales call, but it would be someone local, and you’d politely say (unless you were a bit irritated and then you’d be somewhat curt), “I’m not interested, thank you.” Or the party, if they could keep you on the line, might try to engage you further in the interest of their product, service, gewgaw. It was capitalism at its simplest: “I have something to sell, you have nothing to lose by buying it!” In any case, the encounter (hardly a conversation) would end politely, the party calling not wanting to alienate a possible future customer. That was back in the day—the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s—and then in the 1980s with advent of answering machines, we could shut out those people almost entirely. At that point some sort of poison may have begun to seep into the sweet business of capitalism and telemarketing.
My partner and I must receive at least six calls each per day. He has a landline and a cellphone, so it may be more. This is my cellphone-answering protocol. I put everyone with whom I wish to communicate in my address book (as you may do)—family, friends, medical and commercial connections—and when they call, I can speak to the party if I wish. However, the majority of my calls come from fake or spoofed phone numbers. You know what I’m talking about. The caller, if it is a real person and not a computer-generated voice, isn’t from around here. By way of various methods a caller can assign a certain number to their “phone,” using a particular area code, so that it appears to be local. Yet, if you should try to call the party back, there suddenly is no such number. It’s as if a ghost has called you.
I’ve tried so many different ways to deal with these calls. At first, I didn’t answer any unknown party and the party would leave some rambling or sometimes threatening message on my voice mail, the voice mail account THAT I PAY FOR, BTW. Then I decided to answer each and every call and deal with the party directly. This action might result in several different outcomes. One, the party aggressively wished to engage in swindling me out of my money (it’s always that). Two, a computer-generated voice would say something like, “This is Betty. Helloo, are you there? Helloo? (The computer doesn’t always have a great command of English). Three, or NO ONE AT ALL ANSWERS. The other day, I picked up, and a “ringing” signal could be heard as if I were placing the call! It’s all very annoying, and frankly, I don’t know why Americans have come to accept it as normal. It ain’t. And it ain’t a nice way to live your life, neither.
Are spoofed numbers legal? No! Especially if the calling party is intending to defraud you in some way: “sell” you a product or service that doesn’t really exist, or in some manner defraud you of your property or money. But what good does a “law” do you if you can’t identify the defrauding parties or (in the case of the police or FBI) hunt them down? I know one thing that could happen. Without going into great detail (google the question of spoofing) congress could get off its butt and do its job. And to give them credit, they have tried, but “tried” isn’t good enough. All Americans deserve to feel safe in their own homes and on their own phones. But I fear, until the issue irritates most Americans the way it irritates and even frightens me, nothing will be done. A line from the recent film Wonka may express it best: “The greedy beat the needy every time,” and there’s no one greedier than someone out to make a quick buck.
My partner and I must receive at least six calls each per day. He has a landline and a cellphone, so it may be more. This is my cellphone-answering protocol. I put everyone with whom I wish to communicate in my address book (as you may do)—family, friends, medical and commercial connections—and when they call, I can speak to the party if I wish. However, the majority of my calls come from fake or spoofed phone numbers. You know what I’m talking about. The caller, if it is a real person and not a computer-generated voice, isn’t from around here. By way of various methods a caller can assign a certain number to their “phone,” using a particular area code, so that it appears to be local. Yet, if you should try to call the party back, there suddenly is no such number. It’s as if a ghost has called you.
I’ve tried so many different ways to deal with these calls. At first, I didn’t answer any unknown party and the party would leave some rambling or sometimes threatening message on my voice mail, the voice mail account THAT I PAY FOR, BTW. Then I decided to answer each and every call and deal with the party directly. This action might result in several different outcomes. One, the party aggressively wished to engage in swindling me out of my money (it’s always that). Two, a computer-generated voice would say something like, “This is Betty. Helloo, are you there? Helloo? (The computer doesn’t always have a great command of English). Three, or NO ONE AT ALL ANSWERS. The other day, I picked up, and a “ringing” signal could be heard as if I were placing the call! It’s all very annoying, and frankly, I don’t know why Americans have come to accept it as normal. It ain’t. And it ain’t a nice way to live your life, neither.
Are spoofed numbers legal? No! Especially if the calling party is intending to defraud you in some way: “sell” you a product or service that doesn’t really exist, or in some manner defraud you of your property or money. But what good does a “law” do you if you can’t identify the defrauding parties or (in the case of the police or FBI) hunt them down? I know one thing that could happen. Without going into great detail (google the question of spoofing) congress could get off its butt and do its job. And to give them credit, they have tried, but “tried” isn’t good enough. All Americans deserve to feel safe in their own homes and on their own phones. But I fear, until the issue irritates most Americans the way it irritates and even frightens me, nothing will be done. A line from the recent film Wonka may express it best: “The greedy beat the needy every time,” and there’s no one greedier than someone out to make a quick buck.
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