For the longest time, most of the spam calls I received claimed to be coming from towns in South Carolina — Clover, Jackson (which I didn’t realize was a place in SC before that), Camden and so forth.
Lately, they’ve been coming from California. Don’t know why. Maybe the algorithm got confused between the two USCs.
Have y’all noticed that happening?
Anyway, I got one a few minutes ago, while on a work-related call, and of course I ignored it. But I was intrigued. It claimed to come from “Silverado.”
I don’t know about y’all, but I loved that movie. Coming out as it did in 1985, I saw it as a collaboration of young actors (all about my age, or slightly older) who had grown up on Westerns, but had never had a chance to act in one. So they made an oater that was packed with every trope you could think of — the roving gambler, the saloon, the wagon train of sodbusters, the evil rich guy who ran the town, the gunslinger, everything.
I thought, briefly, about calling back. I imagined myself talking to “Emmett” or “Paden,” or if I really got lucky, “Hannah.” (Then I could say, “All I did was talk to the girl.”) But with my luck, it would end up being “Sheriff Cobb.”
So never mind…
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By the way, that clip above wasn’t my favorite scene. This was:
What you see there is medical science as it existed in the classic Western.
Emmett is practically dead after what the bad guys did to him. He’s holed up in this cave, barely able to move a few feet at a time.
When “Mal” tells him the bad guys have possibly killed his brother-in-law, all he can do is lower his injured head with regret.
But when Mal says, “They took the little boy with them,” the magic happens. Emmett strips the bandage off his head, straps on his guns, and is ready for action.
Because when something like that happens, you can’t keep a Hollywood Western hero down…
Almost never get a spam call on my voice mail. If I do, just the number shows up most of the time. If it’s not from my contact list, or a service provider that I told to call me, I always let it go to voice mail.
Everyone I would care to get an actual call from (family) usually texts me on my cell phone before they call me to see if I have time to talk.
I still have a landline but I don’t have caller ID. I have it set up to go to voice mail and it texts me whatever voice message was left – if there was one. I also have it set to block the call if they were to “hide” their caller ID- even though I don’t have caller ID. Since I’ve done that, I don’t get many calls at all. I’ll probably do away with it sometime soon.
Sometimes I will answer the landline to goof off to the scammer. That can be fun but I don’t get many calls on it anymore. I
Is there anything else a landline is used for? I seem to recall that they were once useful, but it’s hard to remember in what way.
Not to complain, Barry, but I occasionally have trouble with folks like you. For work, most of the people I call are people I’ve never called before. Sometimes they’re people that someone else has supposedly told to expect a call from me, but that doesn’t always work. Of course, in my newspaper days — especially more than 40 years ago when I was a reporter — this was an even bigger part of my life. I was frequently calling people I myself had never heard of five minutes earlier. I had to reach those people in order to do my job. Of course, back then there was no caller ID, or even a screen for a number to show up on. But today, there is, and that technology gives me a lot of problems.
So, in keeping with the Golden Rule, I don’t screen calls myself. Oh, I’ve thought about it, especially when my phone TELLS me it’s probably spam. One time I seriously thought about it, but obeyed my rule and went ahead and answered, and it was somebody I really, really needed to talk to, but whose number I did not know.
Of course, MOST numbers that my phone thinks are spam ARE spam, but so what? It only takes a few seconds to answer and find out that, once again, my long-term warranty is about to expire. And I hang up. No biggie…
Just a commentary about the subject that may assist or clarify some information about spam calls. Before researching the issue, I was not aware of a few things about the issue.
When a spam call is made and either the answering machine picks it up or if you pick the phone up and hang up on the caller, the call goes to the call log of the spammer as an answered call and remains on the list. Even though you use the answering machine or hang up, it counts against the number of calls required by the spam centers located primarily in India and the Philippines . There are other offshore locations but the two mentioned are the primary source for spam call centers.
The call lists are sold and resold to the various spam call centers and once your number is on one list, it is spread to several others and resold again and again. The most vulnerable targets are the senior citizens who are most susceptible to falling for the spammers, especially when it comes to Medicare, cell phone companies, and other targeted concerns for seniors.
Trying to get federal regulation against spammers will never happen since there is an issue with freedom of speech and of course, follow the money trail. Every spammer call ends up being another revenue stream for the cell phone or land line carriers. They receive a fraction of a penny for every call made and completed. The earnings are not a major part of their income stream but significant enough to not take action against the spam calls.
After receiving as many as 20 calls in one day, I finally had enough. Turned off my answering machine and if the ID on the phone was not one I recognized, didn’t answer. That reduced the number of spam calls but it took almost 2 years. Since then, most if not all of the people in my life I want to talk to including any business I deal with have my cell number and they have been advised this is now the only way to reach me. Did away with my landline a few weeks ago.
Some security systems are attached to a land line and when mine was removed, the security system in my home has an alternative communication ability through WiFi. Costs extra but worth it.
Just for information purposes only.
I use my landline for a few things
1) I still have 1 in school and the school calls and leaves messages on my landline. They call 2-3 times a week with messages and I don’t want those on my cell phone. Normally they also email the messages out so that has helped. The school has my cell phone number for emergencies.
2) I have one away at college and I my phone is on “DO NOT DISTURB” at night. My college student knows that if I don’t pick up my cell phone at night, call my home number. If it’s at night, I’ll answer the phone. This also applies to my dad and sister. If they need me in the middle of the night, the cell phone likely won’t be noticed by me. My landline will.
For work- 95% of the time I email my customers and less frequently I will text them and we will plan a time to talk on the phone – if needed.
Most of my customer contact is focused on a short time frame. For example, if I call and leave a message, normally I get that call back the same day because if I leave a message, I always tell them I will email them and prefer to communicate by email so to please email me back as opposed to call.
If I am calling them, it’s almost always on their business phone or office phone so they pick up or have someone answering for them. So it’s not really a problem for me.
I never pick up my home phone when it rings unless it’s after 11pm – which might happen 1 time a year.
If I don’t recognize the cell phone number – or notice that it’s a number I called earlier in the day and they are returning my call, I ignore it. Voice mail can answer and I’ll respond.
But almost all my customers- even newer ones- respond via email.
“almost all”… that’s the problem. “Almost all” is not quite “all”…
For instance… one of the things I do for ADCO is write blog posts for clients’ websites. Which often means interviewing someone who works for the client — although not someone I normally deal with — or someone who is a client of the client. The idea is to learn about, and write about, something that is related to what the ADCO client does.
These “blog posts” are different from blog posts as they are known in this particular world. It’s not just Brad blowing off steam about something he’s read or seen or heard or experienced. These posts involve learning about something in someone else’s world, and telling other people about it.
So I’ve really got to talk to the people. Usually the person I normally deal with for that client reaches out to the person I need to talk to so that this person isn’t surprised by my call or email.
But even that doesn’t always work.
Recently, I called one of these folks repeatedly without anyone answering. Finally, a lady answered, and I only got about five words out before she announced, “We don’t take this kind of call,” and hung up.
Anyway, I kept trying, and eventually her husband answered, and he was patient enough to wait and find out I was the guy they had been told would call, and I got my interview.
Bottom line, the whole thing would have been easier if people weren’t so eager to wall themselves off using current technology…
Oh, normally I avoid that particular problem by making sure I get the subject’s email address, and write before calling, in order to set up the call.
But occasionally my intermediary doesn’t have the email address, so I have to do it the hard way…
I usually ask for a cell number and sometimes will text that i will call them in 15 minutes and i state my reason For the call on the text. Usually helps.