There’s another local number calling my cell.
“Hello this is Vince….”
Brief recorded message…“This is NOT a solicitation. This is the credit card bureau calling on behalf of Credit Card Services and your Visa Mastercard….” BLAH BLAH BLAH.
Then an unintelligible East Indian man named Steve or Jason takes the call in a go-live direction with a predictable breathless machine gun speech about offering a zero percent interest rate on my Visa card because of my “history of payment.” You know the drill, then “Steve” or “Jason” asks for the expiration date of my card so they can magically tell me the first couple of numbers on the account to add legitimacy to the scam. Then they ask me to repeat the entire card number for verification…to compare with what they have on their screen.
I’ve tried everything to stop the calls.
I’ve blocked hundreds of numbers.
I’ve hung up. They call back.
I put all of my family’s phone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry. (It’s simply a joke. Don’t waste your time. It would appear the Registry sells our information to offshore interests.)
I’ve asked to be removed from their call list. They hang up… and call back.
I’ve come on to my new foreign friends – male or female – asking what they’re wearing, telling them how attractive they sound and how I’d like to meet them. It doesn’t work. They hang up… and call back.
I’ve been abusive, learning just enough of their native language to get punched if I used it at a 7 Eleven or conference of anesthesiologists. Their predictable response to my blue Rosetta Stone approach is, “PFUK YOU ASSHOLER!” Then lonely silence…and they call back.
I’ve even engaged them, speaking like a rambling old man, keeping them on the phone for several minutes thinking that wasting their time would eventually make them redline my number. It doesn’t work. They’re patient….hang up… and call back.
I’ve called the FCC to complain. They’re sympathetic but state that the calls originate off shore and there’s nothing they can do.
So I’m stuck answering the dozen or so calls I get every day. The simple solution is to not answer my phone. That’s not an option. All of my customers have my cell number listed on their “Vendor Emergency Contact List” and seem to prefer to call my mobile rather than office number. And having kids, it just seems like a good idea to answer all incoming calls.
I have the answer to this persistent nonsense. It all skates back to the familiar theme of accountability. Our geniuses know where the “spoofing” calls originate. Instead of the typical lazy hands-in-their-pockets, shoulder-shrugging approach that Washington insists on taking with most things obvious, spank the violators. Stop the pipeline of US dollars in the form of “foreign aid” (dollars and food) to host countries until they intervene and end the problem. We must stop treating foreign nation misfits like our adopted problem children that just need more love in the form of a higher allowance.
We, the taxpayers of the United States, generously gift over $35 billion dollars in foreign aid annually. Many of the recipient nations prey on our vulnerabilities through organized spoofing and hacking that comes at an enormous cost in time, dollars, and aggravation. Their management turns a blind eye to these illegal international activities.
BUT THEY’LL STARVE! THE CHILDREN WILL STARVE!
No, but they might get hungry. And there’s no better motivator than a little hunger. A hungry population may be just the mechanism needed to point out perpetrators and have them dragged from their lairs by the scruff of the neck.
BUT THEY’LL HATE AMERICA!
Hate us more? On the continuum of “hate” I think they’re already past “envy” and “resentment,” sliding the needle into a generational burning red zone.
As a nation we have to get past the grade school desire to be “liked.” In reality, the world outside of the United States is like a shelter for feral cats. If you know cats you’ll understand that they only “like” you when they need something.
Respect is earned. You can’t buy it…but it comes at a cost. It’s past time we demand it.