PRETTY LOW...

“But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:2)

There was a news story recently out of Lynn, Massachusetts about vandalism at a local cemetery. A number of gravestones were toppled over. Sadly, such stories are reported several times a year. I believe the Lynn incident involved a Catholic cemetery. Possibly the worst such stories involve vandalism at Jewish cemeteries where not only are gravestones knocked over, but anti-Semitic graffiti is sprayed.

I think such vandalism at a cemetery is one of the worst things a person can do, but telemarketing in the middle of the night may qualify for second place. Many years ago when a loved one was in the hospital and near death the phone rang during the night. I answered the call, fully expecting to hear that my loved one had passed away. Instead it was some inappropriate and annoying sales call! No kidding! Last night, I had a similar experience.

At this time, one of my wife Mary Ann’s closest relatives is in the hospital. We were told by a family member that if emergency surgery or anything like that had to be done during the night, we’d get a call. Mary Ann has a hearing loss which becomes much more profound when she removes her hearing aid to go to sleep. She had cautioned me to be sure to hear the phone and answer it if there was call during the night. I went to bed around 10:30, but tossed and turned and had a terrible time falling asleep. Just as I was drifting off around Midnight, the phone rang. I awoke and grabbed the phone receiver, fully expecting to hear news of our loved one.

Instead, there was a man on the line with the professional sales voice and tone of a slippery used car salesman. “We’ve been trying to reach you to tell you that you’ve won a prize for the contest you entered...” it began. I immediately hung up. I hardly ever enter any contests or even fill out entry slips at shopping malls, because they usually just lead to annoying sales calls and tricks.

“Who was that?” asked Mary Ann.

“You won’t believe this but it was a stupid sales call,” I replied.

Yes, we’ve signed up for “Do Not Call lists” and all that sort of thing, but the call still came. In the morning, I noted from the Caller ID that the call had come in at 12:05 a.m. There was the name of a communications company, and there was a ten digit phone number. I entered the ten digit phone number as a Search on the internet, and it came up as belonging to a private residence in Illinois. I suspect this slick outfit steals people’s phone numbers and has them appear on the Caller ID, rather than their own numbers. I’m no high tech expert, but it’s like when unscrupulous spammers on-line steal YOUR e-mail address and then send out semi-pornographic solicitations for sexual enhancement products using YOUR e-mail address! (I’ve had that happen, and I’d guess at least one fourth of those reading this have had that happen!)

Is it LEGAL to call somebody at 12:05 a.m. with such a stupid and annoying and invasive call? I don’t know, but I doubt that it is. I thought such calls were not supposed to be made after 9 p.m. If somebody needs to call people in the middle of the night in order to con them into thinking they’ve won a prize, THEN in order to con them out of some money or sell them something they don’t need, well that’s pretty sleazy! Some of you know I currently work for a telephone answering service. We provide a valuable service for the businesses for which we answer the phone and their customers. Unfortunately, unscrupulous telemarketers and scammers give the whole “call center” industry a very bad name.