“Holy shit,” I said to no one at all. “That HURTS.” I was referring to my back and left hip (aka “the good one”). It was early. Although morning often is accompanied by stiffness and pain, I don’t normally wake up with quite such a jolt.
Rolling slowly out of bed, I tried to remember what I’d been dreaming about. Something about cats made of smoke and a clothesline that was part of a computer game. A shrink who offered to scratch my back, but couldn’t find the right spot. I took a couple of Tylenol and a muscle relaxant. Rearranged the bed and tucked myself in for a few more hours of sleep.
The phone rang.
I looked at the caller ID. It showed a local number but I knew it was not a local call. I’d been getting a spate of these “local” calls and all of them feature a guy with a heavy Pakistani accent informing me that social security is closing my account. The scammer’s technology picks up your local number and displays it. I bought a new “landline” phone that has a “blocking” feature. Except each scammer uses a different number. They use auto-dialers, so rarely do they use the same number so the blocking is more a matter of making you feel better than solving a problem. Often, the number it shows is my number. I’m reasonably sure I wasn’t calling myself.
I answered the phone in what has become my surly morning greeting: “Who are you and what do you want?” There was no response. A bit of crackle on the line, but no voice. Not even a recording. I hung up. More accurately, pressed the OFF key
It has been a long time since I expected a ringing telephone to herald a call from a friend. I don’t even expect it to be a return call from someone with whom I do business. I expect all calls to be scams, surveys, or sales pitches.
At least 70% of all the calls I get are recorded. That takes away the one thing you used to do to feel better: insulting the dialer. Yes, I know he’s just the bottom rung of a ring of scammers, but he’s not a good guy and this isn’t a job that anyone who isn’t a thief will take. I can’t even insult the caller or his or her fellow thieves. Insulting the person on the phone used to be the only positive side to these endless calls from anonymous people who are trying to steal your money. Even that small pleasure is gone.
I have abandoned good telephone manners. Telephones are no longer a way to communicate unless I’m making the call. Otherwise, telephones are annoying and intrusive. Just one more attempt to steal personal data so someone can hack us, steal our identity, or scam us in some other way.
I can’t make them stop calling because the number on the Caller ID is a ripoff too. There’s nothing to report. Nothing makes these calls disappear, but I have to admit that their being recorded makes it easy to hang up. If I ask how they got it — assuming there’s someone to ask — they tell me they got my telephone number from a form I filled out “online.”
I do not fill out forms online. Never. Ever. Fill out one form, get hundreds of calls in mere seconds.
I do not fill in forms online or anything which requires I include a phone number.
As part of the day’s epiphanies, I realized how technology steals pieces of our lives. There’s nothing wrong with the technology. It’s neither good nor bad. It’s what people do with it that’s threatening. Those people have ruined telephones for me, probably permanently.
Unwanted telephone calls may seem a minor detail in view of the many terrible things going on in our world, but I can remember waiting with pleasant anticipation for the phone to ring. It wasn’t so long ago.
Or was it?
Categories: Communications, Humor, manners & civility, Photography, Technology
So true. We have caller ID on our landline and of course on the cell phones.
I never fill out those stupid surveys on FB either.
You are just giving them more ammunition to scam you with.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think they did some research and those “little quizzes” are part of the Russian scamming orgs. So it isn’t just a rumor. It’s actually true.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sorry, wrong number.
LikeLike
We also get the same scam phone calls.
LikeLiked by 1 person
EVERYBODY gets them in the U.S. and all over Europe. These guys work out of the Soviet Union or one of it’s subdivisions and they have impressive technical skills. If they have missed you, wait. They will get there.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hey, Bawb – from Texas here…
LikeLike
it was TOO long ago!!!! In France it was impossible too – and somehow the ‘callers’ knew exactly if I was in or not, because ‘they’ (their computers) called many, many times in a row, always from diff. numbers when ONE CALL GOT THROUGH. One wonders….
LikeLiked by 1 person
They are thieves. If they were a real company, they would have a real phone number, but their phone number are scammed or just made up. This is not just the U.S. They actually try out most of these scamming events in Europe and if they work there, they come here next. It has totally ruined telephones for just about everyone.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I got the same phone call yesterday, Marilyn. Between Social Security, Revenue Canada, the air duct cleaners and yesterday some recorded message wanted to know who I’d vote for if there was an election. It just never ends.
Leslie
LikeLiked by 1 person
Even though I determinedly unsubscribe to everything, I often am SURE that they are using that information to double down on the number of messages they send. And we can’t make them stop. It really has ruined phone calls for everyone. I’m always SHOCKED when the person on the other end is someone I know and/or actually want to talk to!
LikeLiked by 2 people
On answering the phone, my decorum has become hostile…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Me too. I snarl into the phone. Then I have to apologize when it’s a friend or the guy from the Pharmacy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We decided to screen our calls and have a voice answer asking the caller to leave name and number and we will call back. We have a lot of hangups, so maybe it’s doing its job. Either that, or people are just ticked off. Once in a while, a scammer will sneak through,but we can ignore them. If we didn’t have this service, our lives would consist of constant answering the phone.
LikeLike
That’s not a bad idea, at least for the landline. I don’t think it’ll work on the cell, though. Does ANYONE actually fall for these scams? I suppose someone must or they wouldn’t keep doing it.
LikeLike
Unless I recognize the caller’s number or am expecting a call, I don’t answer the phone. If it’s a legit call, I figure they’ll leave a message and then I can call them back. Rarely does the caller with the unrecognized number leave a message.
LikeLike
I just hate the sound of ringing phones, but since Garry won’t answer the phone pretty much ever, if I’m not able to grab the call, I never get any callback messages either.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So many people invest all their energy and the working hours of their life trying to steal the treasures of others, squeezing joy out of the world and leaving only humiliation. It seems like such a sad and meaningless existence.
LikeLike
I know. But they are all a bunch of sociopaths and they simply don’t care. They aren’t sad. They are HAPPY every time they rip one of us off for money we don’t have. They really have no souls.
LikeLike
I enjoyed reading this…..(especially how imaginative your mind gets with dreams). There’s a lot of bad going around with technology, and while the tech itself is susceptible to human control, it’s how we use it that’s going to take away our humanity.
LikeLike
I completely agree.
LikeLiked by 1 person