Today when I answered the phone,the caller asked "Ned?" I assumed it
was an acquaintance who thought he recognized my voice.
He said he wondered if I was interested in voting for candidates with
realistic health-care plans. I said I was interested and would like
to know where to find out more about where the candidates stood. He
said he wasn't allowed to tell me. I said I could try Google but
would appreciate it if he could give me a hint. He said he couldn't.
He gave figures about how many people in my state had trouble
affording health care and asked if he could count on me as a member of
the citizens' group pledged to vote for candidates with realistic
plans. I said sure.
I found it peculiar that he did not ask me to affirm who I was and
would not tell me where to find out what plans were realistic.
Call Return said the number could not be given. It it legal for a
political advocacy group to block its number?
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You *may* have gotten burned by someone
who is seeking your whereabouts. These are purely hypothetical
examples: An investigator or bill collector is looking for you. He
does not want to say why; he just wants to confirm that your working
telephone number is in fact *you*, not someone who knows you or
some new person who took over your number. If he asked for 'Ned?" when
he called, and you answered affirmatively, then he got the answer he
was seeking; the rest of the conversation was just bulljive to keep
you from getting suspicious about his true purpose in calling. I've
had calls like that, unknown females (in most instances) who ask in
a sort of whiny, plaintiff voice "hello Pat ... " or "Pat? ..." before
they say anything else. My response to *any caller whose voice I do
not instantly recognize* is to demand, "who is calling please and the
purpose of your call?" Either they answer, or they stall for time,
and my subsequent conversations with the caller are predicated on
that. As I said, just a hypothetical example. Any unknown voice who
uses my name in their opening line is just like someone who sends me
email with my name (or some variation on my name) in the subject line
of email. They're up to no good, or spammers or telemarketers.
Last time a question like this about 'is it allowed to do this' came
in I told the person (you?) that is what *67 is for. I was promptly
corrected by folks who told me about new laws forbidding telemarketers
from blocking their ID. I do not know where 'political advocacy
groups' fit in the spectrum of telephone pests. PAT]