Remember a couple weeks ago, when an old lady sat down by me in a casino, and asked if I was MARY? Now I'm starting to doubt my own identity! I was accused of being Mary AGAIN, on Saturday afternoon.
I was in my lair, cell phone at my left shoulder on the elevated counter, when it RANG!
NOBODY has my cell phone number who doesn't need it. Nobody. I don't answer numbers I don't recognize. It's an efficient way of not becoming infested with spammers. I let it ring, do a quick check on the number, and then BLOCK IT.
In this case, it was a different area code. The one for St. Louis. Yet when I looked up the number, the free reverse phone lookup gave me the name of a 91-year-old lady in Lesterville. Which is a different area code. I figured some ne'er-do-well was using that number to make shenaniganny calls. I didn't block it right then. I was doing some conspiracying on New Delly.
I'll be darned if my cell phone didn't ring AGAIN. Same number. I answered. Usually, a scammer spammer doesn't make multiple calls to my cell, one after another.
"Mary?"
"No. I'm sorry. You must have the wrong number."
"Hello? Hello? Are you there?"
I stayed silent. This almost sounded like one of those recorded scripts where they talk to you like it's a real call, leaving intervals for you to respond, then continuing, regardless of your answer. Dang it! Now I'd let them know this was a working number!
"All I could hear was, you're in line at the Dollar Store, and the lady behind you--"
"I don't know what you're talking about. This is NOT Mary!"
"Oh. Well. I'm sorry--"
HANG UP. BLOCK NUMBER.
I was in no mood for a lengthy explanation, or who she was trying to call, or a possible sales pitch. I still remember the last unknown number I answered on my cell phone, which was the lady asking me for MANGE MEDICATION for a kennel in Jamaica. It charged me an international fee on my phone bill, too!!!
Doesn't this seem strange? That calling lady did not sound 91 years old! Why wouldn't she wrap up her call when I said I wasn't Mary? How in the world could she not hear me, but get a story of me being at Dollar Store in line? Something fishy here...
I wonder what would happen if I actually pretend to BE Mary, next time I'm mis-identified?
Good question! Be the MARY and strike up a conversation?
ReplyDeleteNot on a random phone call, and not in a casino! But if somebody in the Gas Station Chicken Store calls me Mary, I'll play along.
DeleteI think if you stayed on long enough it would have turned out to some kind of scam designed to relieve you of some of your hard found pennies.
ReplyDeleteI bloc all calls as well, lately I do not get too many and the few I do show "Telemarketer" not the phone number. I think AT+T is taking steps to stop the problem...I suspect the crap callers will figure a way around their checks soon and the calls will start again.
Yeah, like the international charge for the Jamaican dogs call!
DeleteI got another one on my cell today from Tennessee. BLOCKED! I'm trying to think of anywhere my data could have gotten out recently. I never give my cell number. Last place was at the doctor's office a couple months ago.
I don't know how to block numbers on my phone, but I do know the area code used by certain callers is someone trying to get me to change my electricity provider to their company, so I just tap "answer" then hang up. I've also memorised the number of a certain someone I really don't want to talk to so just don't answer that one at all.
ReplyDeleteI go to my call history, and tap that call, and I think it gives me the option to save or REPORT AS SPAM. If I hit REPORT, it gives me a choice to block it. I only learned that within the last year!
DeleteI get such a range of area codes, I figure they're all SPAM. Except for the two Missouri ones I know. And then they're probably STILL spam.
Umm not that I have any real knowledge of this, but in high school I remember that Mary(Jane) was a reference for something that is now legal to purchase in Illinois. Maybe you have a code name. LOL
ReplyDeleteI guess it's better than "Bud."
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