Author: wwducat

We all get them.

You know, those calls that you answer only to hear dead air.

Since most of us have cell phones instead of hardwired land lines. These calls come in at all hours of the day & night and we, the owners of the cell phones are available to spam or scams 24/7.

Normally, I don’t answer unknown calls, they go straight to voicemail. Then the caller doesn’t leave a message and I block them.

Sometimes I do answer them, especially since my job now days is to look for a job. I hate that I can’t simply direct any call not in my contacts list directly to voice mail and never be troubled by the phone ringing at all.

The trouble is, no HR department from any company ever calls from the company’s published main number. If they did, I could maintain my defenses and any company I was actively applying to would be in my contacts list.

So I have to run with my defenses down. Equally frustrating is that no HR representative ever leaves a message.

That means that if I get a weird call from a number in some state that I remember a company has corporate offices in, I’ll answer. Usually on the first or second ring. Hoping, against all reason and experience, that it’s going to be the golden ticket to a job interview.

But if I answer to dead air, I’ll say “Hello” a few times waiting for the inevitable hiss and clicks saying that the call is being routed either through a slow corporate phone system or that the person is momentarily distracted, I understand that sometimes you’re at your desk and a person walks in to ask a “Quick” question.

If however, all I hear is… nothing.

I’ll hang up and my next move is to hit block and report spam.

This results in a “Blocked” list that is crazy long.

I’ve wondered sometimes if I’m too quick hitting the “Block” button.

Since my “Blocked” list is obscenely long, and spammers eventually move on to a new set of phone numbers, I’ve also wondered if maybe I should occasionally clear my blocked caller list. If I don’t, at some point, at least in theory, I’ll have blocked every single phone number on the planet and then… What reason would there be to have a cell phone at all?

I’ve also noticed that the majority of actual phone calls I receive are complete BS, even if there is a person on the other end. Lately, I’ve wondered how many of those “persons” are actually AI chat bots. It’s getting more difficult to tell all the time.

With changes in our cultural norms most of the time my phone is “dinging” with text messages, a surprisingly high number of those are “Junk” of various forms. I tend to block the junk text messages too.

This reality has made me question the value of having a $1000 phone and phone plan altogether.

In my insane world, the reason to have a phone is to communicate with people I actually have some kind of business or relationship with. If the phone is no longer serving that function, then what’s the point?

I find myself thinking along the lines of getting a land line with an answering machine. If said land line was cheaper than cellular service. It would be simpler. No texts. No expectation to be available 24/7. It might not change the number of spam/scam calls but if it was half the cost of cellular service and I wasn’t having to incur $1000 expenses every few years it might be worth it.

I remembered back to the days when each and every cell phone call cost you. .45 / min during the day, and .20 / min after 7 pm. People were much less likely to be yakking on their cell phones for hours on end. They’d call, say what they had to say, and hang up. That was a time when people had some decorum and brevity was appreciated.

That led me to think maybe a way to curb the spam/scam calls would be to charge the unknown caller .20 / call or text.

If you think about it, since many of these call centers are using automated dialing / texting systems, the expense could rack up very quickly. Once they were spending more to make the calls than they got in payouts, spam/scam texts & phone calls would rapidly become a thing of the past. You can be sure that everyone who was not a scammer would carefully maintain their contacts list. You wouldn’t want your friends to get stuck with a charge just because they weren’t in your contacts.

Getting .20 a call deposited instantly towards my cellphone bill wouldn’t do much to offset the cost, but I’d smile at the monthly bill, if having a cellphone was earning me a couple bucks. I’d smile even more knowing the scammers were being bankrupted.

Before you ask, I’ve been on the national “Do not call” list for at least a decade. I renew my listing every couple of years. It’s made no difference whatsoever.

Since government has failed to control the problem, (big surprise), Maybe a private sector solution is the way to go.

Until someone comes up with a viable solution, I’ll keep up with my philosophy of, “You only get one shot” then you’re blocked.

Maybe I’m not too harsh in my blocking after all.