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Stressing about Relaxing ... and Nichole
I've been having weird project-stress flashbacks. Yesterday morning when I got to work, I could have sworn that I was all relaxed and rested and ready to get back to normal. Then mid-day I realized just how close to a repetitive-motion cliff my typing/mousing muscles were and was glad to get told to knock off early. This evening I was running around doing shopping preparatory to my vacation and then feeling all stressed out about dealing with last week's CSA box (which I'd hardly touched) since I get this week's box tomorrow and then have to figure out what I'm doing with everything before leaving town. (Fortunately, some of it will travel nicely.) Today at work was ... weird. Trying to get back into normal rhythms, plus figuring out what reservations to set up for the trip (more on which later). And then there's the issue of "Nichole".
My apologies to any Nicholes or Nicoles or the like that I know -- this isn't about you. Starting about 2 months ago, I started receiving phone calls for "Nichole". The first one that I remember claimed to be about some health insurance offer that she had wanted information about. I assured them that they had a wrong number and that was that. Two minutes later, an entirely different person phones, asking for Nichole. I explain that I've already informed their co-worker that they have the wrong number for Nichole and suggest that they make a comment in their phone list. And I figure that was that.
In the past 2 months, I have received somewhere above 20 phone calls from about 15 different phone numbers asking for Nichole. When I let them get that far, the purpose seems to be some nebulous "home business opportunity" that Nichole had expressed interest in, leaving my number. This is my cell number, by the way. If it were my land line, they'd just be getting my answering machine and I'd be less annoyed.
So repeatedly I've assured them that no Nichole has ever lived at the number they're calling, and that I am not interested in their offer, and would they remove my number from all of their records and stop calling me. I have been repeatedly assured, "This is the first time we've ever called you -- we aren't responsible if someone entirely unrelated to us has been calling you. And we're only calling because you asked us to call." (They seem unable to grasp that they have been given a bogus phone number.
At various times I've plugged the calling numbers into web sites for checking out annoying repeat callers and determined that this isn't something personal aimed at me -- my number (along with Nichole's name) has been caught up in the web of a highly annoying and extremely legally questionable phone solicitation organization. Looking at the overall pattern of interactions that people report, the actual callers are highly unprofessional and downright rude (see my response below), including berating the subjects of their unsolicited calls for "wasting their [the caller's] time" and other nonsense. The "home business opportunity" (based on the reports of people who actually listened to the spiel) appears at best to be a pyramid scheme, and at worst a simple harvesting of the marks' financial data. For some calls, it seems within the realm of possibility that each individual caller is unaware of the larger scheme and has simply purchased a list of phone numbers of "potential business partners". But that's not the way I'd bet. For one thing, the patter and dynamic of the interaction is too similar for all calls. For another, in some cases the caller is clearly operating from a multi-person call center with multiple voices in the background and ... and here we get to today's little adventure ... a supervisor on call.
So I've been gradually getting more and more rude to these people. Back before the days of the Do Not Call Registry (which, by the way, both my phone numbers are on) I always figured that the nicest way to deal with a phone soliciter is to same them time (and thus money) by simply saying, "Not interested" and hanging up before a conversation ensued. But not these people. You say, "Not interested" and hang up and THEY CALL BACK AGAIN IMMEDIATELY. Sometimes the same person. Sometimes a different person. But the calls always come in clusters. (And, by the way, clusters of related phone numbers. The latest batch was all from area code 602 with numbers starting 635-77xx.)
Two calls yesterday afternoon. And then one this morning. When my residual need to rip flesh from annoying bones was still running high from the weekend. *ring* "Hello." "Hi, could I speak to Nichole?" "Nichole has a message for you: F.O.A.D" [except the full version, not the initials] *click*
*ring* "Yes." "You don't have to be so rude! I'm just calling for Nichole." At this point, I lost it. The rant started with the invalidity of the normal social contract when dealing with repeated unsolicited phone calls. It moved on to the complete incompetence of any business model that had sales people re-calling a clearly hostile recipient. I enlarged upon the point that any claim that this call was completely independent from all the previous calls (and requests for non-contact) involved either irredeemable mendacity or terminal stupidity. I went on non-stop for several minutes and then hung up.
*ring* "Yes." (Ok, at this point I could have simply turned the ringer off, but it's my phone dammit! I shouldn't have to hide from it.) "[different voice] I'd like to speak to Nichole." "Yeah? You can F.O.A.D too." *click*
By the way, at this point my co-worker is staring at me in a mixture of awe, amusement, and terror.
[You know it's coming.] *ring* "What." "Why are you being so rude to my people?" This time I think I went on for 5 minutes. The idiot kept saying things like "Now, now, you need to calm down," and "I need to explain to you why we're calling you." Or at least he tried. I don't think I let him get more than half a sentence out at any one time. I kept hammering away at the whole angle of, "What kind of lame-ass business model are you implementing here that makes it worth your time to repeatedly phone someone -- and attempt to engage in a prolonged discussion -- who has clearly and unambiguously expressed a significant level of hostility not merely to the purpose of the call, but to your continued existence on the planet?"
See, that's what I don't get. It's one thing if a bunch of clueless dupes keep buying the same useless phone list from some profiteering mastermind, with the vain dream that they've been handed a Make Money Fast at Home ticket. And I suppose that somewhere on that phone list they might run into someone who is naive and stupid enough to fall for the scheme (although they're unlikely to fall for it the 20th time they get called). But how can so many people be so idiotic about knowing when to cut their losses and move on to the next name on the list? I ask this not even in self-interest, but in simple bewilderment.
And then I went on-line and found the web form for making a formal complaint to the FCC.
My apologies to any Nicholes or Nicoles or the like that I know -- this isn't about you. Starting about 2 months ago, I started receiving phone calls for "Nichole". The first one that I remember claimed to be about some health insurance offer that she had wanted information about. I assured them that they had a wrong number and that was that. Two minutes later, an entirely different person phones, asking for Nichole. I explain that I've already informed their co-worker that they have the wrong number for Nichole and suggest that they make a comment in their phone list. And I figure that was that.
In the past 2 months, I have received somewhere above 20 phone calls from about 15 different phone numbers asking for Nichole. When I let them get that far, the purpose seems to be some nebulous "home business opportunity" that Nichole had expressed interest in, leaving my number. This is my cell number, by the way. If it were my land line, they'd just be getting my answering machine and I'd be less annoyed.
So repeatedly I've assured them that no Nichole has ever lived at the number they're calling, and that I am not interested in their offer, and would they remove my number from all of their records and stop calling me. I have been repeatedly assured, "This is the first time we've ever called you -- we aren't responsible if someone entirely unrelated to us has been calling you. And we're only calling because you asked us to call." (They seem unable to grasp that they have been given a bogus phone number.
At various times I've plugged the calling numbers into web sites for checking out annoying repeat callers and determined that this isn't something personal aimed at me -- my number (along with Nichole's name) has been caught up in the web of a highly annoying and extremely legally questionable phone solicitation organization. Looking at the overall pattern of interactions that people report, the actual callers are highly unprofessional and downright rude (see my response below), including berating the subjects of their unsolicited calls for "wasting their [the caller's] time" and other nonsense. The "home business opportunity" (based on the reports of people who actually listened to the spiel) appears at best to be a pyramid scheme, and at worst a simple harvesting of the marks' financial data. For some calls, it seems within the realm of possibility that each individual caller is unaware of the larger scheme and has simply purchased a list of phone numbers of "potential business partners". But that's not the way I'd bet. For one thing, the patter and dynamic of the interaction is too similar for all calls. For another, in some cases the caller is clearly operating from a multi-person call center with multiple voices in the background and ... and here we get to today's little adventure ... a supervisor on call.
So I've been gradually getting more and more rude to these people. Back before the days of the Do Not Call Registry (which, by the way, both my phone numbers are on) I always figured that the nicest way to deal with a phone soliciter is to same them time (and thus money) by simply saying, "Not interested" and hanging up before a conversation ensued. But not these people. You say, "Not interested" and hang up and THEY CALL BACK AGAIN IMMEDIATELY. Sometimes the same person. Sometimes a different person. But the calls always come in clusters. (And, by the way, clusters of related phone numbers. The latest batch was all from area code 602 with numbers starting 635-77xx.)
Two calls yesterday afternoon. And then one this morning. When my residual need to rip flesh from annoying bones was still running high from the weekend. *ring* "Hello." "Hi, could I speak to Nichole?" "Nichole has a message for you: F.O.A.D" [except the full version, not the initials] *click*
*ring* "Yes." "You don't have to be so rude! I'm just calling for Nichole." At this point, I lost it. The rant started with the invalidity of the normal social contract when dealing with repeated unsolicited phone calls. It moved on to the complete incompetence of any business model that had sales people re-calling a clearly hostile recipient. I enlarged upon the point that any claim that this call was completely independent from all the previous calls (and requests for non-contact) involved either irredeemable mendacity or terminal stupidity. I went on non-stop for several minutes and then hung up.
*ring* "Yes." (Ok, at this point I could have simply turned the ringer off, but it's my phone dammit! I shouldn't have to hide from it.) "[different voice] I'd like to speak to Nichole." "Yeah? You can F.O.A.D too." *click*
By the way, at this point my co-worker is staring at me in a mixture of awe, amusement, and terror.
[You know it's coming.] *ring* "What." "Why are you being so rude to my people?" This time I think I went on for 5 minutes. The idiot kept saying things like "Now, now, you need to calm down," and "I need to explain to you why we're calling you." Or at least he tried. I don't think I let him get more than half a sentence out at any one time. I kept hammering away at the whole angle of, "What kind of lame-ass business model are you implementing here that makes it worth your time to repeatedly phone someone -- and attempt to engage in a prolonged discussion -- who has clearly and unambiguously expressed a significant level of hostility not merely to the purpose of the call, but to your continued existence on the planet?"
See, that's what I don't get. It's one thing if a bunch of clueless dupes keep buying the same useless phone list from some profiteering mastermind, with the vain dream that they've been handed a Make Money Fast at Home ticket. And I suppose that somewhere on that phone list they might run into someone who is naive and stupid enough to fall for the scheme (although they're unlikely to fall for it the 20th time they get called). But how can so many people be so idiotic about knowing when to cut their losses and move on to the next name on the list? I ask this not even in self-interest, but in simple bewilderment.
And then I went on-line and found the web form for making a formal complaint to the FCC.
no subject
Also consider an elderly recipient of the call. They might be more easily bullied. I'm guessing their playbook assumes women in general are bullyable.
You might contact your local police also - I think you have actionable misbehavior there on a couple of levels.
no subject
If they think that, they've certainly got the wrong woman in
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The fact that the calls are so similar is not conclusive in itself - people could be getting a canned script along with their phone list. Put that together with the consecutive-call coordination, however, and it looks very much like a deliberate campaign of harassment. As you note, it's no longer explainable by mere stupidity.
What you have could be a tort lawyer's wet dream, except that the perpetrators have likely covered their assets too well.
no subject
I have a very hard time imagining that there are any assets involved.
no subject