So, Yesterday I Called My Self?

[Boog]

Oh that's good.

[weq92f]

Originally Posted by Dukk

My son (18) the other day asked why we still have a landline.

My daughter (22) replied, "What number would you give the spammers?"

Truly - any time I have to give a number at a retailer or wherever, it is the home number. My wife gives her cellular number. She gets way more spam calls on her cell phone than I do..

Please note...when a retailer asks you for information at the cash register you are not obligated to give them any information at all...or truthful information.

The information they seek is going to be used for their benefit and will likely be sold to others who will seek you out in ways that will annoy you.

Responses to any requests at a cash register for your address for example should be answered with "123 Anywhere Street, Nowhere Texas" usually by the time they have typed in about half of that, they figure it out.

Otherwise you could simply say "I would rather stay out of that database, no thank you"

-klb

[FleetsidePaul]

Originally Posted by weq92f

Please note...when a retailer asks you for information at the cash register you are not obligated to give them any information at all...or truthful information.

The information they seek is going to be used for their benefit and will likely be sold to others who will seek you out in ways that will annoy you.

Responses to any requests at a cash register for your address for example should be answered with "123 Anywhere Street, Nowhere Texas" usually by the time they have typed in about half of that, they figure it out.

Otherwise you could simply say "I would rather stay out of that database, no thank you"

-klb

I just make stuff up. Phony address and phone number. They don't need to know.

But I do feel for the guy in Toledo that gets called because I inadvertently gave them his phone number... Sorry about that.

[weq92f]

That works too!

Once I rented some storage. The crusty woman behind the register noticed I left the SSN field blank on the form. She insisted it was necessary despite my arguments so I just put in a total fake. Guess what my access code to the gate was-- yup the fake social security number. OMFG!

Just last week...I took my elderly Mother to a doctor...same thing happened... the woman behind the counter came to me with the clipboard and insisted I fill in the SSN field on the Patient Information section of the paperwork for new patient. OMFG! I informed her that there was absolutely no reason for this office to know the SSN of the patient.

Never place your SSN on any Doctor office form. There is no reason for them to have it.

-klb

Originally Posted by FleetsidePaul

I just make stuff up. Phony address and phone number. They don't need to know.

But I do feel for the guy in Toledo that gets called because I inadvertently gave them his phone number... Sorry about that.

[Stocker]

I never put my SSN on those forms (neither does my wife) and nobody has ever questioned it. If they press the issue, ask 'em exactly why they need it and exactly what they are gonna do with it. Or write "refused" in that space. There are simply too many ways for your info to be leaked or hacked. Don't make it any easier for them.

[Steeveedee]

I and probably another million sailors had their SSNs stenciled on their sea bags as their enlisted ID. My SSN is all over the place. Many years later, the SSA sent me an ID with another number to use for Medicare. What a joke.

[shifty]

I hate the calls that come to my cell displaying 000-000-0000 as the caller ID.

And for reception, there are a couple places here in ATL where AT&T users can go there, stand 100ft from the base of their tower, have full bars, and get zero data service. The towers are saturated. Calls work fine, nothing else does. It's totally absurd. Any time I go to a concert or other event where you have a bunch of other AT&T users there, data services are non-existent. Don't try to order an Uber or Lyft, you ain't getting through.

For spam, if you get a lot on your cell... if you happen to use Gmail, you can go to https://voice.google.com and they'll let you (or used to let you) setup a new local phone number with them, and they'll link it to your account. Then, you can either use their service to forward all calls to another cell number, or just use this new phone number as a voicemail box, even have it email the voicemails to your inbox with a voice transcription.

Effectively, that's exactly what I did some 10-something years ago. I setup a local phone number with them. I forwarded that to my cell phone number, same number I've had for 20 years now, when I got my first cell phone. Here's the win:

Being Google, they have systems in place to automatically find and weed out robocallers and spammers, so they dump all those calls before they make it to you. Users can also tag bogus calls getting through as "spam" and after a few tags, they are blocked. They o a great job weeding out.

You can setup all calls to "screen" in a bunch of different ways, like ... either immediately dump the call to voicemail, or have it ring you and you can listen to the person talking and press a button to pick up, or just send the call straight through.

So, what I ended up doing is this: I signed up for a Google Voice number. I forwarded it to my long-time cell phone number. Then I started switching all my accounts and services, medical, drivers license and voter registration info, basically EVERYTHING over to my Google Voice number. If anyone ever expects me to put my cell number in for an order or on another document, I give them my Google Voice number. Within 12 months, my spam calls dropped by about 70% below what they were.

That changed when the robo-dialers got better and scammers started dialing entire groups of numbers, and when all the Yahoo! and Bellsouth email account hacks started happening, and those scammers would download their victim's email messages and address books quietly, then sell that information off to spammers and scammers, phone numbers, emails, all of it. But still, the spam calls are half what they used to be.

Anyway, I don't know if you can send a Google Voice number to a land line, but you CAN access everything (and even dial outbound) through your web browser using their service.

It's also possible to block numbers. And if you use a mobile phone, if you store all your contacts in Google Voice, you never need to worry about moving to a new phone or your phone getting stolen, when you get the new device, just link it to your Google Voice contacts and you never lose anything.

Finally, I use it for Craigslist and OfferUp, because you can text using the mobile app, or send text messages through the Google Voice website. that way if stuff gets weird, I can just block the number and never worry about it. The person can't easily trace you back through Google whereas if they have a friend working at the company providing your mobile service, they can look up your number and pull your address etc.

[Stocker]

Originally Posted by Steeveedee

I and probably another million sailors had their SSNs stenciled on their sea bags as their enlisted ID. My SSN is all over the place. Many years later, the SSA sent me an ID with another number to use for Medicare. What a joke.

Several years ago I inherited a bunch of hand tools from my dad when he crossed over. Many were stamped or etched with his SSN. That number positively identified the tools as his, and back then you didn't have a problem with identity theft like there is today. Still makes me smile when I see his number and think back to how things used to be.

[a1vintage69]

Short story here for all you youngins. It was about 1986-7 my friend got this huge box that looked like a suitcase with a phone in it that he hauled around in his truck on his seat to do business on. he called it a mobile phone; I said are you nuts if I want to call someone I will stop at a phone booth and put 20 cents in it and make my call. some years later I got my first flip phone and found it to be very convenient to carry in my pocket. well, fast forward around 1995 to 2000 and bam now smartphones are launched. wow, then this happens as it is now I can carry my own secretary in my pocket all in one my cell phone mobile device, computer, camera, calculator, weather station,GPS any address, ebay, paypal, search real estate anywhere in the world,factbook, facechat , 67-72 truck forum, conference calls, store zillens of images, we used to call them pictures and so much more on the interweb. Now with all that said why pay $2k or 3k a year for a couple of cell phones with contracts service when you can go to Walmart and get a non contract with Verizon pay as you go unlimited calls and text for $70 a month for two phones total= $840 for a year. you never have to dispute your bill and there is no add ons , no fees added it comes right out of my checking automatically. If you are hating on Verizon it's because you have a contract with them and they are nickel and diming you. IT is not needed. end of story, I hope you liked it! great memories of how very far we have come in a short period of time and I got to live it.

[Stocker]

Great story and insight, Steve! I started working telecom in 1967 (retired in 2009) and the changes are mind-boggling.

I have an old flip phone that I rarely use but it does the basics for me. I am grandfathered into a Verizon plan that's no longer available but it's good as long I renew it on time. $100 annually, deduct $1 per day that it's used, 10 cents a minute for non-Verizon calls. Calls to or from Verizon phones have no per-minute charges. If I deplete the $100 prior to renewal, I can add $$ to the account. No complaints here about Verizon.

[a1vintage69]

Originally Posted by Stocker

Great story and insight, Steve! I started working telecom in 1967 (retired in 2009) and the changes are mind-boggling.

I have an old flip phone that I rarely use but it does the basics for me. I am grandfathered into a Verizon plan that's no longer available but it's good as long I renew it on time. $100 annually, deduct $1 per day that it's used, 10 cents a minute for non-Verizon calls. Calls to or from Verizon phones have no per-minute charges. If I deplete the $100 prior to renewal, I can add $$ to the account. No complaints here about Verizon.

Yeah Mike, I was grandfathered in on my flip phone and it was $15 a month but I had to give it up for the smartphone.

[1976gmc20]

Originally Posted by a1vintage69

Short story here for all you youngins. It was about 1986-7 my friend got this huge box that looked like a suitcase with a phone in it that he hauled around in his truck on his seat to do business on. he called it a mobile phone; I said are you nuts if I want to call someone I will stop at a phone booth and put 20 cents in it and make my call. some years later I got my first flip phone and found it to be very convenient to carry in my pocket. well, fast forward around 1995 to 2000 and bam now smartphones are launched. wow, then this happens as it is now I can carry my own secretary in my pocket all in one my cell phone mobile device, computer, camera, calculator, weather station,GPS any address, ebay, paypal, search real estate anywhere in the world,factbook, facechat , 67-72 truck forum, conference calls, store zillens of images, we used to call them pictures and so much more on the interweb. Now with all that said why pay $2k or 3k a year for a couple of cell phones with contracts service when you can go to Walmart and get a non contract with Verizon pay as you go unlimited calls and text for $70 a month for two phones total= $840 for a year. you never have to dispute your bill and there is no add ons , no fees added it comes right out of my checking automatically. If you are hating on Verizon it's because you have a contract with them and they are nickel and diming you. IT is not needed. end of story, I hope you liked it! great memories of how very far we have come in a short period of time and I got to live it.

Back in the 1980s we didn't have a phone period. There were no phone lines where we lived/worked. There were something like 4 or 5 phones at businesses (cabin rentals, store, boat house) in the entire valley and they were all on the same party line believe it or not. There was one pay phone at the store. So if someone wanted to get a hold of us then they would have to call the store and leave a message, and we would either call back on the pay phone or borrow our friends' phone at the store. Of course most places were long distance from there also. You couldn't get a long distance card back then unless you had a landline phone already

I finally got a couple of my regular customers in two different towns opposite directions to take calls for us on commission per load, discounted from the wood that they bought from us.

Now they have phone lines and cell service and paved roads into that valley from two directions. People haul in semi-loads of motorcycles and ATVs and they scream up and down the valley all day long.

Progress ….