TO: ALL WOOD COUNTY ARES MEMBERS (OFFICIAL)
ALL ARES AND NON-ARES AMATEURS ANYWHERE (INFORMATION)
FROM: KEN HARRIS WA8LLM ARRL DISTRICT 3 EMERGENCY COORDINATOR
WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS INC.
WOOD COUNTY BULLETIN NR 17.06 DATE: February 5, 2017
SUBJECT: JUST HANG UP
With all of the scams that are going on now, you don't know how to answer your telephone. The latest one is the person on the other end asking "Can you hear me". If you say "yes" they have your voice recorded and can use it to say you authorized some kind of purchase. The best thing to do is just hang up.
If it is a legitimate telephone call, the person on the other end should call you by name and also identify themselves. They should be discussing things that are common to both of you. They should not be asking personal information questions. If you don't like what you are hearing, just hang up.
There are plenty of annoying, or nuisance, telephone calls. By going on the "Do Not Call" list you only stops the people and organizations that are in a profitable business, and abide by the rules. There are people or groups of people that just randomly pick a number and dial it. They don't like to talk to Answering Machines, Fax Machines, or other auto answering device. So they just hang up.
There are several ways to discourage scam calls. You can have an answering machine that will answer calls for you, but you can still hear who in on the line. Or you can make up some kind of device that will answer the telephone and put out tones like a fax machine, but you should be able to hear who is on the line so you can pick it up if you want to talk to them. If the person on the other end of the line knows that you have such a screening device, they should stay on the line long enough to let you answer the phone. Other wise they will just hang up.
There are a lot of telephone calls where the person on the other end just starts talking about a subject you're both interested in, and you may not recognize their voice but it is something you're interested in. If you can't figure who is on the other end just polity ask who they are. If they don't want you to know who they are, just hang up.
You should never be upset with someone who might hang up on you. It's possible there may be come kind of connection problem, they didn't recognize you, or the phone just died. If that does happen and you want to communicate with them, make sure they know who you are and what you want to talk about, or they will just hang up.
Ken Harris WA8LLM
WCEC
Wood County WV