by Neena Strichart
I enjoy the productivity and energizing feeling of working at a job five days a week. Many evenings and weekends are spent attending events or meetings, but heck, I enjoy that too. Nevertheless, when I’m home, I love the feeling of being in a cocoon, surrounded by my pets, loving husband and a basically quiet atmosphere.
So much activity takes place during working hours that when I am home I do the best I can to take advantage of my, as my mother would call it, “down time.”
Steve and I both keep our cell phones on most of the time, and our friends and family have a tendency to use those rather than our landline. So when our home phone rings, we figure there’s about a 50-percent chance that it is a solicitor of some sort.
Yesterday morning, that ratio played out as indeed true when I answered the phone on my nightstand hours before leaving for work. Seeing a 223 area code, not a number that I recognized, I decided to go ahead and answer on the second ring. A slight delay was followed by a voice asking, “Hello, Mrs. Strichart? What kind of home exterior work are you looking to do?” My rather terse reply was, “I’m on a ‘do not call’ list, so how did you get my name and phone number?” The reply I received from the other end was sarcastic but actually kind of humorous. “Just like you get anything else in America, we probably bought it!” I finished off the conversation by telling him that I don’t appreciate the call and want to be taken off his list. I then ceremoniously slammed down the phone, making myself feel very powerful yet, I’m sure, making no impact on the number of unsolicited calls coming my way from unknown parts of the world.
Upon further investigation, I discovered that the 223 area code isn’t even located in the United States; it originates from the Republic of Mali in West Africa. Oy! I bet the Do Not Call Registry has no authority in wherever the heck that is. However, I still stand by my belief in the registry and encourage our readers to add their numbers to that program. Yesterday morning, I visited the website donotcall.gov and found the following information, which included yet something else to concern ourselves with:
Scammers have been making phone calls claiming to represent the National Do Not Call Registry. The calls claim to provide an opportunity to sign up for the Registry. These calls are not coming from the Registry or the Federal Trade Commission, and you should not respond to these calls. To add your number to the Registry you can call 1-888-382-1222 from the phone you wish to register.
For those of you who would rather do your registering online, visit donotcall.gov .
Note: Mom, don’t worry about any of this— I signed you up long ago.
