Scam Calls

Originally published September 12, 2019

As someone who answers the phone, not knowing who is on the other line, I'd say about half the calls I get are not even for legitimate business purposes.  

I have gotten a few calls where there is no one on the other end.  I stay on the line, but after 5-10 seconds they hang up.  My thought is even those are attempted scams.  They dial some kind of random phone number and whenever they get a place of business, they hang up.  They are out to scam individuals, not businesses.  It's much harder to scam not only a business but someone who is currently working and has to only deal with business matters.

What perplexes me are the calls I get from the same numbers over and over.  I'm talking about 4, 5 days in a row getting a call from the same number.  Each time there's no one on the other end.  Somehow someway a phone is set up to dial our number once a day, like it's on some sort of system.  Why?  I don't know.  

I have also gotten calls that are automated messages, and go into some spiel trying to scam you.  Those are so clearly and obviously scams, I'm surprised they even attempt those anymore.  I think it's because unfortunately there are people out there gullible enough to fall for it.  I once got an automated call on my cell phone from the "social security administration".  It's those kinds of calls that really make me wish no one ever fell for them.

Honestly I don't mind the scam calls, they break up the monotony of the work day.  I can choose to ignore them if need be because I've pretty much got the hang of which numbers are for sure going to not be worth answering.