This is a long-story-short/warning post.
You know how you’re never going to get caught by scammers? Too wise for that, etc.? On Thursday of last week (early May 23) I did get caught in a perfect storm.
A group of scammers have been targeting our area with calls saying they can reduce your mobile phone bill by half.
Normally I wouldn’t have fallen for it, but I was expecting a call from our (shockingly bad) mobile phone provider to do exactly that, as I’m not receiving the service I paid for. They must have thought that either I was very stupid, or it was their lucky day, or both. However, it did start to feel wrong so I went straight to the local shop (they can hold your line for a while in case you call your provider for help), and they secured my account for me.
The Complication
Normally I wouldn’t have fallen for it but I have a small problem that just got a bit bigger, I don’t have good hearing. Neither of my parents did and apparently that makes you a slam dunk for age related hearing problems.
The caller had a very strong foreign accent, and I was struggling to hear what they were saying, this was becoming more and more frustrating, and eventually worrying, and that’s when I dropped my guard for a moment, because I had bigger problems going on.
I wanted to share this to offer what I’ve come up with to future proof myself against these kinds of ‘people’. Please note the politeness and correctness, this is real effort!
- In future I will only deal with companies by chat or email, preferably chat.
- If I must speak on the phone I will get someone who can hear clearly to take the call and I will give them the answers.
- I will not speak to anyone who calls whose call I’m not expecting even though I was expecting this one and it’s what they call a perfect storm where two pieces of something come together and create an unexpected picture. Even so, I’m going to have to be a lot more careful than those with good hearing.
Take care of your family and friends guys
If you have someone with even a slight hearing problem, be willing to accompany them or be present if they have something big to deal with. Life is challenging especially on phones.
Take care of yourselves too, these people are becoming much more sophisticated and have a level of cunning that most of us will thank God we can’t measure up to.
My husband received constant calls in one week, and said that he knew because they were literally badgering and bullying him, trying to make him feel stupid for not wanting to save money. It turns out an incredible number of people in our small close have also had the call. So they’re really drenching the phone systems with their repulsive behaviour. They only need to catch someone when they’re busy and not quite concentrating.
Also, I do have all calls that aren’t in my contacts list blocked, but I had to switch that off so that my mobile phone provider could call me as they don’t always call from the same number. As I said, a perfect storm. Dealing with them by email in future will avoid all that.
Anyway, not an exciting blog, but if we don’t get the word out there about these people we won’t be able to curtail their garbage!
To your financial security and mental health
Deb xx
Deb Hawken 