No-good Benny

[DonaldSmith]

Ring, ring (Caller ID says Cleveland 216-539-etc.)

 

Wife:  "Hello?"

 

Person calling: "Grandma? ...  Some of us boys were out drinking ... I didn't have that much, but . . . . . . .etc, bond money,  etc, etc."

 

Wife:  "I'll let you talk to your grampa." 

 

Me:  "Hello?"

 

Disembodied voice:  "Grampa, can you write down my case number?  etc, etc, etc." 

 

Me:  "Is that you, Benny?"

 

Voice:  "Yes, Grampa".

 

Me:  "You rotten kid!  You deserve to rot in jail!  You've caused nothing but grief to your parents!"  (Hang up)  

 

(I don't have a grandson named Benny.)  

[T120]

"No-Good Benny" incident had me laughing . I've heard of some of the scams that are out there and personally between "phishing'" emails I've received as well as unsolicited telephone calls ,telemarketing ,etc., it sometimes makes me suspicious  that perhaps with me being a senior, (the info is out there),  they will keep checking back to see if I've lost my mind yet....

Edited May 15, 2018 by T120

[greg g]

At our house it goes something like this;  Caller We have noticed you have recently stayed at one of our resorts.  As a result you have won a free Cruise...Me, Warum hast du hier angerufen? Was hast du gesagt? Sie müssen eine Ozeanreise machen. Nein, ich werde seekrank. Bringt mich zum Erbrechen! Usually followed by dead air...

Edited May 15, 2018 by greg g

[TodFitch]

One nice thing about having ported our home number to voice over internet (VoIP) a while ago: Our provider has "call treatments" where I can eally customize how incoming calls are handled.

 

We moved since we got our home number and since most of these scammers try to look local by using your phone's area code they are easy to identify (unknown caller from old area code). I simply send all those calls directly to voice mail. Our phone never rings when those scammers try to call and they almost never leave a message. In fact, I can't recall any of them ever leaving a message.

 

I wish I could deal with the scammers who call my cell phone the same way but the cell phone company is brain dead with regards to advanced call handling.

[JBNeal]

I had been getting intermittent missed calls to my mbl# for a few weeks, then one evening the phone rang as I was sitting down to dinner...after a few questions, I realized that I was talking to a computer...so when I was asked if I had a home security system, my answer was "I got two big dogs and a rattlesnake"...the computer did not understand that and asked again, to which I stated "I don't know how much clearer I can make myself"...the computer tried a different tack and asked if I owned my own home, I responded " sorta, somebody dragged it off last week but we're still a-lookin' for it"...there was a pause on the other end of the line, then the voice said that I was not eligible for a home security system discount [sad trombooooone] ?

[Dan Hiebert]

3/4 of what they're selling either isn't available, can't ship to, or won't work in our little corner of the US of A.  My wife rather enjoys messing with their minds for 20-30 minutes to waste their time, if she doesn't have something else to do.  I just emphasize "no" and hang up on them.  I used to think I was rude doing that, but it's most often the only way to get rid of them.

[Brent B3B]

I overheard a co-worker received a solicitation call at work once. he played along for awhile, then he had an opportunity to ask a question. he asked "how do I get rid of my hemorrhoids?"

they hung up on him............ guess it worked