Do not answer the telephone

Yesterday I checked the voice message service on my home landline telephone. The phone is only upstairs and it is rarely answered. There were 8 messages for the day. One from Karen, one from Denise, one in Spanish and the rest hang-ups. I do not know Karen and Denise or the Spanish speaker. Last week I had 44 unheard messages. My sister was the only one I knew and she apologized saying that she meant to call the mobile number.

Who are these callers? Why are they calling? Do they think I am stupid? That I would give to the policeman’s fund, pay my taxes to them, give them my credit card? How about my address and social security number? What do they want?

My mobile phone is also being bombarded with unwanted calls. Even though the mobile number is also my business number I rarely answered it if I do not recognize the number. The caller, if legitimate, can leave a voice message for me to call back. So, I have become a non-answerer of the telephone.

In the event I do answer-like the call has an adjacent area code or local prefix- I never say hello, or yes, or my name. I answer with sounds like mrogskrejki or sogogrgiroe. If there is a voice on the other end that reacts and says something identifiable, then there can be a conversation.

The unwanted phone call is a real irritant and some people fall into the trap of making unfortunate decisions—like sending their 401K to a bank in Angola. Being a non-answerer means not having to race to the phone to get it, not having meals, entertainment, conversations interrupted.

Oh, and do not rely on the "Do Not Call" service, it is useless. The only way to beat this and make life less irritating is to become a non-answerer.