hard to trust anyone you don't know

sdkitty

sdkitty

O.G.
Jan 16, 2006
39,879
92,548
#1
I get so many emails and phone calls trying to suck me in to steal from me.....the one where they say your social security number is being used by someone else and you better call them or you could be arrested, the ones taking surveys, etc, etc.

the other day I got a phone call - someone (who had my name which irks me) wanted to to talk about current affairs in our state. I wouldn't mind talking about this type of thing but I don't trust some unknown caller

I used to feel bad when someone (always with a very masculine voice sounding like a middle aged white man) called wanting money for the police or sheriff. Now I just figure they're another sales person and hang up on them. Most of the calls that come in on the landline are sales.

Another "benefit" from the Internet age

Guess this is more a rant than a question
Except maybe - do you answer your phone if it's an unknown number?
 
#2
I only answer the phone for:
My parents
My husband
The doctors office
My daughters school
My friends (if we have an agreed upon appointment to talk)

I keep in touch with my friends through other means. It’s just too hard to try to catch them at a time when both of us are free for a nice long chat, and vice versa. So we have an understanding to set up a time to talk when both of us are free.

I never answer any unknown number. 100% of the time it’s a waste of time. If it is something truly important I’ll get a voicemail. If there’s no voicemail I’ll block the number.
 
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#3
I think many of them need the word 'Hello' to trigger them. At work I answer the phone, 'Company Name, this is Jennifer. How can I help you?' A lot of the automated/spam calls just stay silent, and I hang up. I've started answering my own phone, 'This is Jen,' and the same thing happens - silence, then I hang up.
 
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#6
We have an incredible long "blocked" list and a short white list ... We never pick up with unknown numbers or on calls with hidden caller ID. We have voice mail, so in case it would be important/urgent they can leave a message with a clear outspoken name, company & position or agency and a # to call back.

It felt strange during the first days of "enforcing" this for ourselves, questioning if it might be an important call. But now, years into this, it's just common practice. We don't ask ourselves any more questions about "callers".

And if it was any "official" matter, it would be either in the mail, or a bailiff/law clerk would hand it over personally.

I had exactly one legitimate call from the actual police, and that was an immediate call back on my cell, from which I previously had called our equivalent of 911, because we nearly drove into a guy that had a broken down car right in the middle of an highway exit and couldn't be seen at all - he had not put up the required warning sign, probably because he couldn't get safely back to the "start" of that exit on foot, where the warning would have made sense. That was incredible dangerous, and in such cases the police will assist with warning/safety measures until the car is towed. But of course, people are hesitant to make that call ... The operator called back seconds after we hung up, because he had one more question about the location.

Not loosing any sleep over missed calls. And these days, with Voice Mail, E-Mails, iMessage, (...) most calls are absolutely unwanted and totally unnecessary.

We've already debated wether to cancel the landline/phone subscription completely or not. At this time, it's just there, we basically don't need it anymore. I could always get an alias to connect directly to our cells if the need should arise ... And blocking on our cells is even more convenient/easier. ;)

Kind regards,
Oliver
 
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#8
For some unknown reason, when my nurse calls me from my Drs. office, it says "No Caller ID."
I've had this happen to me many times and I'll answer that one.
But if it is an unknown number, Heck No...let it go to voicemail.
 
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#10
On rare occasion I will answer an unknown number. Sometimes you get a feeling when you see the number come up, maybe it's similar to a number you do know or maybe you are expecting a call from a doctor's office or someplace like that.

When I do answer it is usually a telemarketer but maybe 1 out of 10 times it is an actual call for me. That is almost a shocker these days. :biggrin:
 
#11
i always answer unknown numbers, bc i run a small bakery out of my house and my cell is listed as my business number. at this point its normally spam but there have been instances where it is a customer. i have considered removing my number and having email or messages as the only contact but i feel like that's not great business.
 
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#12
I am in agreement with most people on here about not answering unknown emails and phone calls.

I thought the title of this thread implied people you run into or meet on the street. For example I get tested for COVID-19 3X a week with different Medical staff each time, and the Q/A that happens, I automatically trust them.

With people in "authority" I automatically think that they are trust-worthy, so I open up.

Haven't thought about this 'till just now, but working in smaller crewed film departments (Make-up as one example), I work with day player actors and principle cast members as their personal MuA, and seeing me for the "first" time, they too, seem to automatically open up and trust me.

Now due to societal mask wearing, we are engaging in more eye-to-eye contact when we communicate. Does that makes us more trusting of others? or less because we can't see all of their face? I mean this would be a great topic for a grad student in some field.
 
#14
coachlover1000 said:
If I don’t know the number, I don’t answer. If it’s important, they’ll leave a message.
Click to expand...

Ditto. The robocalls (and random texts) for elections stuff has been crazy lately!!! Although for work, we're running into a problem when we try to call people back and they don't accept calls from private numbers. I'm still WFH for the time being and don't have a work issued cell phone, so we use the Skype business app which shows up as a private number. No way in hell I'm unblocking my personal number to call anyone back. I usually leave a message and tell them I'll try calling again in half an hour or something just in case they ignored my call because it was a private number.
 
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