Friday, February 4, 2011

Anybody have this happen before?

RING RING

I fumble for my cell phone. Opening it, I see a telephone number I don't recognize. Against my normal inclination I answer the phone.

“Yes?”

A voice with a pronounced foreign accent, sounding for all the world as if it's reading a script, says “Good day, sir, how are you today?”

“All right. Who is this, please?”

“This is the UPS, we have a package for you from the UPS.”

I'm not expecting anything from the UPS, or from anybody else.

“What do you want?”

“We have a package to deliver to you. Can you tell me where you are?”

“What's the name on the package, please?”

“The package only tells us your telephone number. It is a registered mail envelope, and it contains a certified check for two hundred thousand US dollars.”

You don't know the name or address of the intended recipient, you don't know that UPS doesn't deliver registered mail, but you do know the contents. Hmm. What could conceivably be wrong with this picture?

“Have a nice day,” I say, and hang up. Oddly enough, the phone doesn't ring again.

I was born at night, but not last night. Still, that's a new one on me.

ETA: If anybody out there is actually trying to send me large amounts of money, please do keep trying.

5 comments:

Kevin Wilmeth said...

Yeah, it was probably good you didn't invite them over. You'd later be accused of hunting over bait. :-)

John Venlet said...

If anybody out there is actually trying to send me large amounts of money, please do keep trying.

That's the spirit Joel.

MamaLiberty said...

The weirdest calls I ever got was a series of them where the phone would ring and when I answered I'd hear a recording saying that my call could not be completed as dialed and to please try again later.

HUH? I just hung up.

No more of them for about year. Did make me wonder what kind of games someone was playing. And especially WHY.

Ken Hagler said...

I wonder if that's what Nigerian scammers did before email?

MamaLiberty said...

Ever hear of "Publisher's Clearing House" you are an instant millionaire scam?

They used the US mail. :)

I've gotten a couple of letters (many years ago) informing me that I'd been selected to help out a "prince" who needed to move a large amount of money from Nigeria... or wherever... it's been going on a long time.