Phishing for Suckers

Is It Just Me, or are more phishing scams showing up in our e-mail boxes? The bulk of those I receive are either offering me the thrill of a better sex life or warning me that one of my financial accounts has been compromised. The latter always ask me to update my account before I lose everything -- using, of course, the link they helpfully provide in the body of the e-mail.

Problem is, I don't even have an account with most of these financial institutions -- although I've heard from a couple of banks at which I do, as well as eBay and PayPal, at both of which I'm a registered user. So bad is the problem that I keep a list of e-mail addresses of legitimate financial institutions near the computer so I can forward the offending messages (they need the entire message, including headers and footers, if they have any hope of tracking them down and shutting them up).

Conversely, it seems we’re getting far fewer telemarketing phone calls -- and I'm happy to credit national and state Do Not Call lists for the decrease; we started to notice a substantial drop-off not long after we signed up. And in our area, attorneys general from both Ohio and Pennsylvania have been pursuing violators aggressively -- kudos to them -- and that's no doubt helped as well.

I must emphasize, though, that of the two forms of deception, I'm far less bothered by the phishing scams than the phone calls. Most of the time, the e-mail phishing schemes are easy to spot and can be deleted with a quick click (and needless to say, I make it a point to never click through on any link that comes in an e-mail message unless I'm absolutely certain from whence it came and to where it leads).

The same is true of snail mail come-ons; with a few notable exceptions -- those envelopes that say something like "account information inside" -- it's easy to tell the sales pitches from the important mail. While it's a bit of a nuisance to carry the junk inside the house and drop it into the trash, I had to go to the mailbox anyway, so there's no real inconvenience.

Not so with a phone call. We have Caller ID, yes, but in order to see who's on the other end of a call, my husband or I have to stop whatever we're doing and go to the phone. Sometimes, we might happen to be sitting close to the phone; other times, we might be doing laundry in the basement or taking a bath. We can, and do, let the answering machine take over at times like this, but not all that infrequently, we're expecting an important call and need to see who the caller is immediately. Discovering that it's an unknown caller or toll-free call -- both virtually guarantees that the person on the other end will be making a sales pitch -- after we've dropped everything is one of the most frustrating, annoying experiences in the world.

Some of our friends have circumvented the problem by adding some kind of "privacy manager" to their phones; they provide family and friends with a numeric code that will allow their calls to go through. Calls from anyone who fails to enter the code are blocked, so the phone never rings. It is, I admit, a workable option.

But it's also one I object to strenuously. Homeowners shouldn't be forced to pay for devices -- and that includes answering machines and Caller ID -- just to keep unwanted salespeople out of their own homes. It's my home and my telephone, both of which I paid for. I didn't buy either one for the purpose of sharing with people I have no interest in seeing or talking to.
Of course, telemarketers will claim they’re offering us an "opportunity" to get a great deal or contribute to a worthy cause. They'll argue that prohibiting their calls deprives them of the right to earn a living.

Bullpucky. I'm the one who gets to decide whether I need or want a product or service and when, and from whom I'll purchase it. As such, I'd be happy as a clam to see tougher laws for telemarketers -- what's in place now has so many loopholes that just about any company intent on getting through can find one (most charities and politicians are exempt, for instance, as is anyone you've ever in your life purchased anything from or signed up for, as in a raffle ticket to win a car -- all of which falls under the "prior relationship" provision).

These back-door callers don't realize (or care) that violating the privacy of my home is an instant guarantee that they'll never make a sale to me -- not over the phone and not in their places of business. Ever.

Hey, that's just my observation. Is It Just Me?