Who called from 2013386162

Called my cell 5x, weekend and early am! No messages.

Between 6:36 am and 7:30 am, received 5 calls on my cell.  I put it on my reject list. I know it doesn't stop the calls, but I don't have to answer them.

These people are nuts. They called me on Sunday night and told me they were sending me a $100.00 gift certifcate for Target, all I had to do was give them my credit card number. I told them to drop dead and hung up. Within two minutes they called back and demanded why I had hung up on them, I will not put in this message what I told them, then I hung up again. They called this morning, I saw the number and did not answer. They are also hard to understand, like from India. I wonder if the place started in  India and they branched into the states. All this because I did a survey on Facebook.

Received 2 calls today with no message left. Probably in for more by the sound of things-glad I checked this, know not to answer.

Calls from 201-338-6162...... This number came up on the caller ID about 9 times today.  It came up a number of times over the past week, as well.  These calls come from automated calling software that can dial several numbers at the same time.  Which ever call gets picked up first will then get switched to their telemarketer.  The telemarketer then picks up while the other calls get dropped.  

Each time it rings I head for the phone, say hello, then listen for the dead background sounds as their software either drops the call or switches to me.  Even then there is a delay until eventually an Indian accented voice says hello a few times.  I then lay the phone on the table, go back to what I was doing, and after a while go back and hang up the phone.  Usually by this time there's a disconnect sound pulsating from the receiver.  But it kept them on the line for a while waiting for me to say something.  If they can waste my time, I can waste theirs.  

Well, I got a bit curious today, so I decided to have a chat with these people the next time they called.  And right on schedule, they called again.   When I picked up the phone I heard the usual delay and clicks, but eventually I heard the pleasant accented voice of a young Indian man roughly in his early twenties...... "Hello.............. hello............. hello.................... hello................ "  

Finally, I said hello a few times myself, paying no attention to his attempts to start a conversation...... "Hello.......... hello...............hello..........."  This went back and forth a few times till I sensed he was just about to give up....... then I said..... "Yes..... I hear you......... Who is this?..... "      

I then let him go into his spiel for a few minutes..... "Hello... dis es Mike.... I'm cooliing frum Verriity cod holder serveeces an mardkitting (or something like that)...... an yoo haf qvalivied furd vun hundred doller givt sertiviqit fur chopping at Vallmart super sturs....... an dyou onlee hav doo qvaleevi by paying fife dollers an niyntee sens by crrredeet cod....... "

I then interrupted him with a number of questions.  "What did you say your name was?  Where are you calling from?  Are you calling from the United States?   What did you say was the name of your company?  Etc.... etc....  I asked for a contact telephone number..... the name and location of their headquarters.... How long he had been doing this sort of work..... Where he was born...... How he learned to speak such good English........  What his parents did in India that allowed him to get such a good education...... I started to feel like Leno and kept the guy talking for about twenty minutes repetitively diverting him from his scripted spiel.  

I then asked how I had qualified for this generous gift of $100, which had something to do with not being able to complete a recent on-line survey.  After spending another ten minutes verbalizing the last survey I remembered and the ridiculous offer of a free lap top computer that I somehow qualified for by being the 10,000th YouTube user today, I gave him a rundown on how catchy these advertising scams are.....  that first have you entering all kinds of information about yourself, followed by even more information through a gimmick survey, after which you get an offer for big savings on car insurance through quotes which collect even more personal information about yourself and your vehicles before you finally have to enter a special identifying number that gets texted to your cell phone.  

Well, well, well....... In the end you give them so much personal information that they know you are stupid enough to fall for their next level of the scam, which is get your credit card number..... or even your debit card number.  All this and he went right back to explaining that there definitely are a lot of scams out there, but that this was a real offer and I only had to give them my credit card number and they would send me the $100 certificate for Walmart.  

I then spent some time explaining how we have been trying to avoid buying all that cheap stuff from Walmart which just ends up sending our money to China and to Sam Walton's family which is already so filthy rich that my mind gets dirty just thinking about it.  I explained that we needed to support our own people here in the United States, by purchasing products made right here in this country, even if they cost more.  How else would we ever get people back to work.

I told him that he should get involved in India making some sort of product or some sort of real tangible service to help his people over there.  I told him that I felt badly that he was involved with making all these long distance calls which must be awfully frustrating with people swearing at him and then slamming the phone down on him all the time.  

I even asked him if he ever had any mathematics training in school.  If he had ever considered the math of giving away $100 Walmart certificates at a cost of $5.95..... who in there right mind would do such a thing.  At that point he corrected me and said that it was actually $5.90.  He seemed so sincere and polite.... but unbelievably persistent.  

After expounding on several related subjects for another 10 minutes, I eventually got somewhat upset and told him I just couldn't take advantage of their offer because it was so unfair to him and his company, or whoever was giving out all these $100 gifts...... So, I asked him to just keep them, because I would feel terribly guilty about taking advantage of them this way.

But he continued to give his absolute best effort to convince me to take this offer.  I finally asked that if he had any sort of technical ability, to remove my telephone number from their calling list, because I didn't want them to have to take so much time away from them talking to me again.  It just wouldn't be fair to them considering all the calls they are making all the time.

He made one last protest..... and then in a sort of surrendering tone.... said "I vill tak yor telleefone number frum off dat coller leest" and then he hung up.

As I slowly placed the phone back into it's place on the wall, I felt a bit of sadness for this poor fellow who had been able to stay on the phone with me throughout this lengthy conversation that lasted well over 30 minutes.  And I really only mentioned some of the highlights of our relatively one-sided conversation above.  

In the end, I realized that I had collected a lot of information about this young foreigner, and I had given him some considerable lectures on various topics involving philosophy, sociology, economics, and even ethics and the difficulties we face in the struggle for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

I guess I don't mind talking to strangers.  

I hope that helps.

PS: Although it's not a Non-profit Organization, this call probably came from a Difficult-to-Make-a-Profit Organization.