Tag: robo-calls

A Law That Doesn’t Work

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

BT customers can now shove nuisance calls into junk voicemail box | Ars Technica

How many unwanted nuisance phone calls do you get per day? We get at least half a dozen and often many more.

Did you know there’s a law against most of those calls? The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 forbids, among other things, most robo-calls (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_Consumer_Protection_Act_of_1991). That would be about 90% of the calls we get every single day.

Amazingly, consumers have sued over being harassed by unwanted phone calls–and won! But of course you have to know who’s making the calls before you know who to sue. A number of hefty lawsuits have gone against political fund-raisers who just won’t stop pestering you.

How many times have you said, “There oughta be a law”? Well, there is a law! You could look it up. It’s just that in most cases the law seems to have no effect at all. Those boiler rooms in India aren’t the least bit afraid of it.

Gotta love world leaders! The “climate” of the freakin’ planet, they’re going to control it! Nuisance phone calls, they can’t even slow them down.

Maybe if they shot a few of worst offenders, the rest would get the message.

Uh-Oh… It’s Getting Cold

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

A Jack-o-lantern Carved Pumpkin during a Snow Fall during ...

Before it started raining all last week, it was up there in the low 80s. It felt hot.

But this morning–holy moly, it was 31 degrees this morning!

Just once in my youth it snowed on Halloween. I think it snowed a lot that year. That was before they learned to call variations in the weather “Climate Change” and use them as excuses to plot against our liberties.

All along–and remember, I sit outside every day, to write–something was telling me we were going to have a cold and early Fall this year. *Sigh* I want to finish Ozias, Prince in Peril, but it’s gonna be hard to do when the ink’s too cold to come out of the pen. Probably even harder to do indoors, with the phone ringing a dozen times a day with robots named “Jake” and “Sarah” and “Alexa” trying to sell us solar paneling and musical hookah pipes. Makes it hard to concentrate.

And Europe has had much of its oil supply cut off, thanks to the war in Urkaine. Gonna be a chilly time for them: following the Green Party’s little plans will do that to you.

Why do I have the notion that a lot of procks in government would laugh themselves dizzy if they could see regular people sitting around with their teeth chattering because there’s no fossil fuel to heat their homes? “Look, we’re Saving The Planet!” But they’ll be warm enough. The evils they impose on the rest of us never come anywhere near touching them.

Thirty-one degrees, and October still in single digits–not a good sign.

‘The Newest Phone Scam’ (2017)

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Frustrated Businesswoman Taking An Annoying Phone Call Stock Photo - Download Image Now - iStock

One of the reasons I have to work on my novels outdoors is because indoors the &^%$@ phone keeps ringing and it’s practically always garbage.

They came up with a couple of new wrinkles a few years ago.

The Newest Phone Scam

We get this affable-sounding robot which practically chortles when it says “Hello! Is Pat there?” Like we would actually mistake this for a human being. Maybe some poor old folks on the brink of dementia might.

It really saps your concentration when you’re trying to write.

“Hello! This is Rachel from Discover!”

Get lost.

‘Nothing Works,’ Part II

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6,862 Store Closing Stock Photos, Pictures & Royalty-Free Images - iStock

Patty’s prescription must be refilled.

The brand-new CVS store, where we were to get it… closed. Just like that.

The pharmacists at the other CVS store don’t know what we’re talking about.

Robo-call: “Hello. This is The Legal Department.” They must think everyone’s retarded. “This is amazon.” “Hi!” Thick Indian accent; you could cut it with a knife. “This is Bryan O’Shaughnessy…” No it isn’t.

OK, now the other CVS pharmacist has found the medicine, after all. I’ve got to get there before they lose it again.

Why does a sparkling new store go belly-up? Could it be because nobody knows what they’re doing? Has business become some kind of birthday party game?

Honk if you think competent people are in charge. Anywhere.

A Difficult Writing Environment

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Human Hand Writing Word 'Cold' On The Foggy Window. Water Droplets Condensation Background Of Dew On Glass, Humidity And Foggy Close Up View. Outside The House, Bad Raining Weather. Stock Photo, Picture

I don’t want to say it’s a hostile environment, because, after all, the robo-calls can’t get to me out there. But it’s gettin’ cold outside, and I estimate I’ll need at least another month to finish writing The Witch Box. I’ll need another legal pad, too.

This weekend I went back over the last 35 or 40 pages that I’ve written. I caught one howling inconsistency, but I can easily fix that when I type the manuscript.

I’m committed now to writing my way all the way through to the twin climaxes and the end of the story. Then I’ll go back and fill the hole I created when I jumped a few chapters ahead. Because I’m racing the calendar, other assignments will have to take a back seat for a while.

Time to go back out and work! I guess I’ll wear a sweatshirt under my jacket. “Sean from Discover” can’t possibly bother me outside.

See yiz in a bit.

A New and Slimy Scam

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Monster Ooze Slime, PNG, 3655x1672px, Monster, Amphibian, Animal Figure, Cartoon, Concept Art Download Free

So my wife picks up the phone this morning and hears a solemn, dreary female voice intone, “This call is from Social Security Administration–” Here Patty hung up.

Note the absence of the “the.” Not the Social Security Administration. Like, maybe there’s more than one?

I wonder what the pitch would have been. Were they angling for confidential information–so helpful in any enterprise involving identity theft–or would they try to sell us something? Maybe sign us up for a time share at Chernobyl.

We probably get half a dozen of these calls a day, and sometimes more. Law enforcement seems unable to stem the tide. The telephone has become a burglary tool–or are they just into pure harassment?

Boy, there are a lot of creeps out there.

You Answer the Phone and There’s No One There…

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What to do if you receive one of the 996 million nuisance cold calls and texts | youTalk-insurance.com

We got five of these calls yesterday–answer the phone and there’s no one there. It’s really annoying!

Reading up on it, we find two chief causes of nobody-there phone calls: 1) telemarketing robots mindlessly dialing numbers even when the telemarketer isn’t there to pester the victim; and 2) collecting in-use phone numbers for sale to criminals who want to steal your identity or hack into your bank account.

The advice we get from all sources is, “Just hang up.”

I don’t know why telemarketing is allowed at all. Actually, one of my first jobs after college graduation was as a telemarketer for Time-Life Books. At least I was a real person whom the victim could curse at and call names. I mean, when you’ve just sat down to your dinner, and you’ve got a loved one in the hospital, you’re gonna get up and answer the phone, aren’t you? And when it’s nobody–!

These calls are up there with aiming floodlights at your neighbor’s bedroom window all night, or cutting loose with your leaf-blower at 7 a.m. on a Sunday morning.

Crimes against the quality of life…

‘The Newest Phone Scam’ (2017)

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

See the source image

With much of The Great Quarantine still in force, and many of us stuck at home for more of the day than usual–boy, do we get robo-calls! Every nuisance in the world has our number. And sometimes they come up with something new, like this:

The Newest Phone Scam

It’s brutal. Yesterday we got “This is your final notice” three times, and of course we got “This is an apology call,” too. In 2017 they came up with the Fake Wrong Number Gambit.

Why can’t our all-wise, all-powerful government put a stop of these? Why would we want to give them more power, when they can’t even slow down the scammers?

How to Stymie Robo-Calls

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How to Protect Yourself From Robocalls - Consumer Reports

I’ve just learned something!

We’re getting bombarded with robo-calls today, the same stupid calls we get all the time, every day (“This is an apology call…”, “This is your final notice…”, etc.). It’s pure annoyance for annoyance’s sake: you’re not going to buy their product.

The phone rings again. I answer it. Only instead of saying “Hello,” I say, “This had better be good.” Response: nothing. Silence.

It rings again. This time I say, “Who’s this?” Silence.

A third time. “What’s this, then?” And for the third time, silence.

And then it dawns on me! If you say “Hello,” you engage the robot to go into its spiel. If you don’t say “Hello,” it doesn’t engage.

This way you get the added benefit of a real caller hearing you and responding to your other-than-hello.

That’s how I’m going to answer the phone from now on.

Robo-Harassment

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Terminator Robot Stock Pictures, Royalty-free Photos & Images ...

If your ex-boyfriend phones you every day, long after you’ve told him, many times, that you don’t want to hear from him again, you can take his butt to court–right? I mean, that’s harassment, isn’t it? Like, it’s stalking!

So how come it’s okay for the same fly-by-night businesses to phone you every single day no matter how often you curse them, razz them, hang up on them, or scream? “This is your final notice…” for the ten thousandth time. “This is an apology call…” “This is an important message…” Yeah, right. That’s why it’s being delivered by a robot?

They call you every day. You’d think, after the thousandth time or so, that it’d dawn on them that you don’t want what they’re selling. But it doesn’t, because it’s not possible for anything to dawn on a robot.

The persons responsible for these calls should be prosecuted for harassment. They should be treated like stalkers, because that’s what they are. And I’m dashed if I can see how they get away with it.