Mr. Watson. Come In Here

   It was last Thursday evening. The grandfather clock struck 4:30 PM. I had settled into a comfortable chair with a glass of wine and the latest magazines that had arrived in the mail that day. Then it began.

   The first call came in around 4:45 PM. The next one rang in about 20 minutes later. That evening there were 5 spam calls in total, the last one shortly after 8 PM. And unfortunately, this has become a regular event on an almost everyday basis. And it’s very annoying.

   I now believe that one of the major businesses that continues to make millions and millions of dollars and has stayed well ahead of most other businesses in making money during the pandemic have been  the spam callers.  

   I recently heard of two cases in our community where senior citizens had been scammed out of several thousand dollars, each in what they assumed were legitimate calls from the IRS.

   I have gotten smart enough to know that unless I recognize the telephone number on my phone, I just don’t answer it, hoping it will go to voice mail. But in most cases the call ends before it kicks in the answering machine.

   I have also tried blocking calls so that it will only ring once, but some of those on the other end of the line are pretty smart and know ways to get around that too.

   A confession here. A few years ago, back in the earlier days of my retirement, I had a job that required phone calling or contacting folks by knocking on doors. Back then people were generally friendly and cooperative and often the calls were quite humorous and funny.

   But that was well before the time where we are now with the constant spam calls and scamming that takes place each and every day.

   Sometimes when I am feeling a bit ornery I will either answer the phone to see what kind of robot is on the other end of the line or I will dial the number as it appeared on the phone only to be greeted by the message that “this is not a working number.” How do they do that? Or, if there is a breathing human being on the other end of the line, what language will I be greeted with. It sure isn’t English in many cases.

   The one I really get a kick out of is when the number that appears on my phone is my own number. Oh my! Am I really calling myself? If I want to talk to myself, I can do that without the help of a telephone, not that I ever really talk to myself. Well, maybe once in a awhile.

   I also recognize the fact that there is no discrimination when it comes to scamming and calls come in either on my house phone or my cell phone.

   So, is there anyone to blame for this?

      Science and technology are very exciting. While new items and inventions are exciting at the time of their creation, it is a challenge to predict what impact these new inventions will have on the future society. The unknown! And then come the fear of the unknown.

   So having said that, I wonder what Alexander Graham Bell back in 1876 would say today about his invention that would lead to today’s telephones and the uncontrolled spam calling. One simple sentence started it all. "Mr. Watson. Come in here." I am not blaming him. He didn’t know what would develop. But I wonder if he knew what was going to happen, might he have invented something else? Maybe a space station or an electric car.