Nuisance Calls

[poliphilo]

Hello Sir, I'm Kevin. I'm calling from the Department of Minor Car Accidents. According to our records someone in your household had a minor car accident recently....

We had two of those yesterday. I string them along by pretending to be worried or uncomprehending or dim. I feel sorry for the poor saps in India or wherever it is who have to make the calls- so I'm unfailingly polite- but I like the idea of wasting their employer's time and money.

My mother was listening in yesterday. i could hear her chuckling.

Comments

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Seems like a fair strategy. ^_^ After all, whilst it’s a bad job, it’s at least a job. (It would, of course, be tremendously amusing to genuinely be able to point them in the direction of good employment =:) And the longer you're able to string them along, the fewer other people they can pester.

So they don't track whom, as an organisation, they've already contacted? Hm. Maybe they hope you've had a minor accident in the meantime? =:) More likely, of course, it's more the spammer mentality - there's little gain in logging contacts when the cost of placing the calls is so low, plus the overhead in maintaining such a contacts database, versus a simple list of numbers.

I wonder what would happen if you replied in another language, beyond anything normally encountered in India.. how's your French? ^_^

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

there's a thought. My French is a bit rickety but possibly good enough for purpose. Another option would be to talk gobbledygook.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I have actually done that and it completely baffles them. My Welsh isn't all that good, but it's good enough to confuse someone from India. They absolutely have no idea what language it is. :)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Someone told me once that Welsh regiments posted to the North West frontier bumped into a tribe that spoke something so close to Welsh that they could understand one another. I've no idea if this is true or not.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I doubt that it's true, although Sir John Rhys suggests that there are more links between ancient Welsh and Indian myths than you might expect. And there is the intriguing fact that people trying to do a Welsh accent often sound as though they're doing a bad imitation of an Indian accent -- and vice versa. :)