Ring, ring. I answer the phone. A man's voice with an accent so thick that when I say, "I can't understand you," I'm not even playing with him.
However, I do play with him. He tells me that he is calling for a company. I tell him that I can't understand him and ask why he is calling.
He repeats the name again and tells me that I filled out a paper at a mall, Wal-Mart or someplace else . . .
I break him off and say, "No, I did not fill out a paper asking you to call me."
He says, "You don't understand, ma'am; it was a long time ago."
I say, "No, you don't understand: it wasn't a long time ago or anytime. I would not have filled out a form giving you or anyone else permission to call me about something stupid."
The phone beeps as he hangs up on me.
Gee, was I too harsh?
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10 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Yes. He was only doing his job of annoying you and trying to steal your money. My God, woman, cut the man some slack!
MajesticHero
Level 4
Oct 24, 2022
0
Gwen, IMO you are playing a keep this discussion going game, much like the Why don’t you…, Yes, but…. game Eric Berne described.
I once played it, until I read Berne’s description.
yvilletom
Level 8
Oct 22, 2022
0
@Gwendolyn2018 I said it’s LIKE the Berne game. I did not say IT’S THE SAME AS….. Period.
No they have many other lies to confuse you. Only you can verify your actions without a readily available record of the event.
Mcflewster
Level 8
Oct 22, 2022
0
@Gwendolyn2018 It is the SALES TECHNIQUES which are wrong. They start by making NO assumptions at all . Only by people working together to spread scamming warnings will we defeat them .
I got these emails Friday
How are you? Just checking in.
I am wondering if you are free, I need a little favor. Let me know if you are not too busy.
I need to get a Google Play Gift Card for my Friend's daughter, It's her birthday but I can't do this now because I'm currently away and I tried purchasing online but unfortunately I had no luck with that. Can you get it for me at any store around you? I'll pay back as soon as I am back. Kindly let me know if you can handle this.
ADKSparky
Level 8
Oct 22, 2022
0
@Gwendolyn2018 Nope. The other person was hacked or the running club was hacked. The name on the email was a running club member
No, he would not have minded that, don't forget, that he gets fifty or sixty people every day, who are far ruder than you were.
Other amusing methods include.
Pretend to be a robot answering machine.
Pretend that you do not speak English yourself.
Start telling him about your complex and invented mental problems.
Start making sexual remarks of an extreme form.
Tell him you only work here and the owner is out, and you are not really allowed to answer the phone.
But do remember that. He is probably very poor, may well live in some third world hell hole, and that he is only doing the dismal phone work to feed his family, or buy very expensive medications for his sick relatives from the same people who, overcharge him for the one room, that six or eight of his family (four generations ) live in, who also make large deductions from the tiny wages they also pay him, for a twelve hour day, even before he then pays the same people the rent.
Fernapple
Level 9
Oct 22, 2022
0
@Gwendolyn2018 Well done.
@Gwendolyn2018 And selfishness for strength.
@Gwendolyn2018 You have to be very wary, there are of course some borderline scams out there, which are almost legal. There used to be one here where people phoned you pretending to offer help with your computer, they then talked you through a few simple basics, like deleting cookies and defraging, then they sent you a huge bill. Claiming of course that they had given you a real service, which to a degree they had, and which made it difficult for the international authorities to stop it.
The one which almost got me, was one which offered to put my business on an online database. How they caught me was, that they used the details of another real business, which I did trade with, as their id.. It was of course the last company they had scammed, but it looked like a friend asking for real details for her company and rep's customers list. Then they started sending bills for inclusion in a business database, claiming that filling in my details was equivalent to agreeing a contract, and I got demands and threats to take me to court etc. for the dept. ( The database did not exist anyway, nor did the dept collection company which supposedly sent the letters.) I took advice and it seems that a lot of businesses got caught, but nobody paid, and nobody actually got taken to court or anything like it. Eventually the originators of the scam who claimed to be in Europe, but were actually in South America, gave up and sold the scam, and everyones details, to a gang in Africa, but by then it was all but dead, and they gave up after a short time.
There are also several fake invoice scams which send false bills to companies. It is easy for me as a one man band to avoid these things, since I generally know all that happens in my business, and also the big corporations probably have security, but they could be very dangerous to medium sized firms, with say ten to fifty employees. Where several people order goods and services, and someone else pays the bills. A bill lands on the desk, and looks like it was something ordered by J. D. in, say, personal or dispatch , and it gets paid without a thought.
No. You were too kind. He moved on to the next fish.
Bigwavedave
Level 8
Oct 21, 2022
0
Perfect, though you wasted much more of your time than I would have.
Barnie2years
Level 8
Oct 21, 2022
0
Say "Do not call me again," and they are required to never call again in WA State.
"Take me off your list," I add and hang up. It works.
LiterateHiker
Level 9
Oct 21, 2022
0
Were you too harsh? Depending on my mood and what was going on at the time I may have played him on for a bit longer. Or I would have run him around in circles until he hung up. Most of the time I'd just hang up and block the number. I usually operate from the "life is just too short" frame of mind.
HippieChick58
Level 9
Oct 21, 2022
2
You were too nice. I hang up and block.
In three letters, IDK. I would have hung up as soon as I didn’t understand what he said.
yvilletom
Level 8
Oct 21, 2022
1
@Gwendolyn2018 `it is not about your joy. The line I take is to help him/her look for a better non time wasting, honest job.
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