Spammer: First we need to verify your information
Me: First we need to verify that you got my number from a
legimate source.
Spammer: That is not the case
On 6/19/25 3:36 PM, Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
In article <[email protected]>,
Joy Beeson <[email protected]d> wrote:
Spammer: First we need to verify your information
Me: First we need to verify that you got my number from a
legimate source.
Spammer: That is not the case
[Hal Heydt]
not quite the same thing, but one of my latest tactics on cold
calls is the ask who they are trying to contact. Amazing how
often that is followed by a few seconds of silence and a <click>.
I still get calls asking for my late wife--who died at the end of
June 2022. My standard answer is that she is no longer at this
number. It's mildly surprising that no caller ever asks if I have
a new number for her (it's been suggested that I supply the
number of Dial-a-Prayer) and no one ever asks why she is not
longer available.
A real irritation is the kind of call I got this morning asking
for her. When told that she was no longer at this number, the
guy launched into his fund raising spiel at me.
I got a spam call two days after Mark died. When the spammer asked how
I was, I said "My husband died two days ago; what do you think?" and he >immediately launched into his spiel.
(I normally don't answer the landline, but while Mark was in the >hospital/nursing home, and then afterwards for a while, I did, because
it could have been important.)
[Hal Heydt]
I still get calls asking for my late wife--who died at the end of
June 2022.
begin fnord
[email protected] (Dorothy J Heydt) writes:
[Hal Heydt]
I still get calls asking for my late wife--who died at the end of
June 2022.
My mother died in 2016 and the AARP is still sending her letters trying
to get her to join. Their money to waste.
(We haven't had a landline since the Noughties. Her cell phone number
has long since gone back into the pool. I suppose I have access to her
email and social media - I've got her little black book - but I never
once checked them. No doubt someone wants to tut tut at me over that;
they should save their electrons.)
On 6/19/25 10:29 PM, Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
In article <10329ko$7gl9$[email protected]>,
Evelyn C. Leeper <[email protected]> wrote:
I got a spam call two days after Mark died. When the spammer asked how
I was, I said "My husband died two days ago; what do you think?" and he
immediately launched into his spiel.
[Hal Heydt]
Typically crass behavior. I don't confirm or deny data,
particularly medical data. Often, I will ask where they got what
they claim is medical data about me (which is either so common to
be pure guesswork or flat out wrong). I will push for them to
tell me what doctor supplied it, with the implication that
*somebody* is going to be in trouble over HIPAA violations.
One call actually named a doctor...but not one of mine (I think
he pulled a name out of his posterior because I was pushing for
one).
I never tell them Dorothy has died. Only that she is no longer
at this number. It's none of their f'ing business.
Given that his obituary was posted on the Internet, and in File 770, and
who knows where else, it wasn't exactly a secret. And spammers who
would use that information already have ways to get it. (The number of >calls/mails offering to buy my house has risen dramatically since Mark
died.)
It's like my email address--it's all over the place already.
A real irritation is the kind of call I got this morning asking
for her. When told that she was no longer at this number, the
guy launched into his fund raising spiel at me.
On 6/19/2025 2:36 PM, Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
A real irritation is the kind of call I got this morning asking
for her. When told that she was no longer at this number, the
guy launched into his fund raising spiel at me.
I get...
Caller: Speak to Judy Whois please.
Me: Sorry, no one here by that name.
Caller: Well, I was calling about the opportunity to [click]
Used to anyway. My cell service has gotten very good at identifying spam
or telemarketers.
[Hal Heydt]
I can tell when someone has run a "make money by flipping houses"
seminar in the area where the house is that I inherited when my
mother died. I get a rash of mail, and one or two phone calls,
wanting to buy it. The callers get a firm "not for sale" and the
snail mail goes straight to the recycling bin.
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