It's only 11 o'clock in the morning and I've already received several calls from concerned strangers worrying about (a) my car's warranty expiring and I should buy theirs before disaster strikes and leaves us stranded on the side of a busy highway frequented by massive semitrucks, (b) my inability to get in and out of my tub and be destined for a life of dirt if I don't purchase one of their walk-in tubs for ONLY $2,999.99 unless I want the foot massager for an additional $2,999.00 which also includes dual drains (?) and a see-through door (why?), or (c) me being charged $499.99 to my credit card unless I call their toll-free number Right Now! to cancel an order for continuing computer virus protection that I never purchased in the first place.
Also, it is most urgent that I give the caller my social security number, date of birth, and our first-born in order to keep scammers from stealing my information to use for such nefarious purposes as selling walk-in tubs, car warranties, anti-virus protection or retirement homes. Thank goodness the salesmen who are very concerned as to where we'll be spending our golden years (right here at home, God willing) use snail mail. It's so much easier to toss them (the mail, not the scammers, although I wish) where they belong–file 13, a/k/a the trash compactor. Thanks to our trash compactor, we can get as many as 10,000 (it seems like that many) scammer snail mail letters smashed into one small brick.
I have to give these scammers kudos. If not for them, I would never have been made aware of the above issues. Who knew I urgently needed a walk-in tub? Or my nonexistent subscription to a virus program would automatically renew unless I give it my immediate attention?
I may be old but I'm not stupid. Slow, trusting, forgiving, yes. Stupid, no. Don't they know I'd call my credit card company before I'd call them? Some days when I'm bored I am tempted to answer and play with them, pretending to be just that stupid. One of these days I think I will. I hope I remember to record it.
I don't think those dang robo-callers will ever leave us alone. Using the blocking feature on my phone seems to do no good. They continue to call. Blocking their numbers offends them not one whit. They laugh at the thought of a National Do-No-Call list. Ha! Ha! Ha! They take a copy of it and use it to line the bottom of their bird cages.
I wonder if they have a union? Do they have monthly meetings where they decide what day of the week is the best day to get together and ring our phones incessantly? Maybe it goes something like this:
Bob: Hey, Frank, what day this week did you get the most people to answer their phone before they hung up?
Frank: Mondays seem to be good. Everyone's still in a good mood from the weekend. We get a lot of 'em that way.
Bob: Mondays it is.
Unfortunately, I seem to get the rebellious ones who call willy-nilly and refuse to follow 'union' rules.
The most annoying of all is the fact that a lot of these geniuses never leave a message. I've probably been averaging the blocking of no less than a half dozen calls a day but those scoundrels make up a new number to try to fool me into picking up. The jokes on them. I NEVER answer a phone call if I don't recognize the number. The only thing more annoying about the callers who never leave a message are the ones that do but there's no way I can decipher what the heck they're saying since they're speaking with an accent I can't understand.
Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "But, Debi, you have an iPhone, don't you? You can use that new feature where numbers not in your contact list will not ring." I know all that but the problem with this little feature is I tend to get calls from health care providers from numbers that I don't recognize and if there's one thing I hate worse than nuisance calls, it's returning calls.
They usually come from someone who either (a) talks so fast I cannot understand who's calling and what they are calling about, (b) they share the same phone number with a few dozen co-workers, and (c) they fail to leave an extension number.
It's now six o'clock in the evening and I'm waiting for some nice (Ha!) robo-caller to contact me about my car warranty. After all, I haven't heard from them in the last few hours. I'm concerned.