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Look Out for Scam Callers & Look Them Up
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Now, for philosophical thoughts on the matter:
You get a call, you're expecting a call - do you take the chance and pick up the unknown or chance it on missing the call you've long-waited for? Just don't pick it up is a common consensus that generally keeps us from having to interact with strangers hunting All those reverse phone number sites - many are scam-like in their own right. But when the spam calls start up, so do the emails, text messages, human and AI voice messages, and false leads. These bombardments seem to occur in cycles. They blow up your and my phones and then try to blow up our lives while they're at it. One of many tactics, scammers are in the sort of business that is actually no business of theirs.
These entities are at-large and continue to swear that they have an offer you won't want to refuse. While the reality is that these shady schemers merely hope you won't refuse. Even so, how we so-called 'fall' for these traps is for many reasons. To steer clear of too many obvious observations, of the many reasons, many are iterations of the same core reasons humans choose and/or do almost anything else in life. To help themselves, to help another, to serve a purpose, to make a difference, to make progress, to be productive, to simplify difficulties, to magnify our chances at success, to reduce our chances at failing.
We are only humans and humans only come in one variety - imperfect. When a spam and/or scam call finds you on the other end - you may be the pick up and flip out type; the too polite and gentile type of call recipient; the it's-not-necessarily-too-good-to-be-true gambler; or someone else altogether - 'falling for it' is often the acceptable phrasing used on the occasion that one of us gets taken. Now to be 'taken' by a scheme - this I find a more accurate description of what takes place when another takes an unfair advantage of someone else, more so than 'falling for it'. To fall is not really the action at play here, after all; the act of being tripped is more indicative of what happens. For example, I do not fall every time I am tripped or trip over something or someone somewhere; yet with scams, the victim plays a reciprocally engaging role in the perpetrator's offense. This engagement seems to societally permit onlookers and commentators to frame the instance as a preventable action. I will now move on from this point, but will first remind my fellow humans of our human nature - imperfect; not "i'm perfect".
Our common humanity screams a whisper into the face of rudeness, rude behavior, and the plain unapologetically rude beings. Why is this scream a whisper? Well, you see, I believe there is a fear of becoming one of the rude variety of humans available out there preying on the open market as if 'open' equated to open season.
I will not veer into the territory of addressing difficulties faced in attempting to build a legitimate business in any country, because that is a lot of work, and many times that volume of work requires resources many do not have and renders many as outsiders in their own dreams. My single rebuttal to finding this reasoning as a suitable excuse for scamming - "when one door closes, many would rather focus on prying that door open than on turning to spend time looking for another suitable avenue". Many see no other choice - I hear this, I empathize with struggle, yet my eyes see, and choices are made every day and not all resort to any one path; i.e. not all justified anger turns into atrocities committed.
So how do we move on? As if these rotten layers weren't enough to cry foul at, perpetuators of scams and scam culture downgrade their ambitious potential for moving into legitimate business schemes by harvesting the marketing (and therefore, public) contact information of businesses attempting a legitimate operation. Not only does this poo-poo in the face of human decency, but it very well manages to damage the reputations and public relations of legitimate companies compromise via spoofing their scamming identity under the cover of a legitimate business's phone numbers. Call the number back - many, myself included would not wish to waste any more time on their foolishness, but that business may be wholly unaware of this scam. After all, once the call is uncovered, they've already ducked under the cover of another company's public details, set up similar email addresses to spoof, and poof. Just like that - the technology used for good continues to be used for bad. Why is this I have asked myself but only rhetorically now, because if a human is involved - remember how little so many fail to evolve beyond evil spindles. Layer after layer of this rotting onion continues to disgust my sensibilities, but coping is discovering a point where I can claim my own responsibilities given their rudimentary understanding of accountability, re-route my offended liberties, search out a way to uncover this commonly experienced vulnerability with practicality plus sensitivity, and introduce calming actionable capability vitality, actionable reliability accountability.
In a culture of consumerism and capitalism, scammers are today's technologically-equipped charlatans, illegal hackers, unscrupulous data miners preying on minors, professional magical potion pushers, and ruthless sales evangelists. The roots of the rotten can be found in the seed of a fruit long ago devoured, yet its fruitful disguise is part of the surprise and there is always an 'actual' rainbow with an actual pot of gold, another lie to unfold, another deception that never seems to grow cold. The fire burning on the other side of passionate drive is the age-old pride that says, 'Their life, their well-being, your life, your well-being - those are the prices to be paid'. Far from the truth, there will never come a time, place, or day when we can find no one else left to cry out another piece of cray-cray. That said, these sleeping dogs do not lay, and together, we must take turns watching the helm, keeping watch over one another and ringing the bell before we grow overwhelmed, staying mindful that our human bond is not up for debate, the beast to be slain is never singular, and the cries for supply-and-demand economics are not the only drives we humans have to offer one another - no matter the day.
That said - let us not forget how vital a role the Consumer has in society period. And now zoom in to the American consumer - there is power in that function. Where there is power to be exercised, it will be - for good, for evil, and everything in between and beyond. Each individual will be conned out of something at some point, whether known, noticed, neither, or both. Vigilance and resilience is the best medicine
Trust the government? The centralized agency historically tasked as the U.S.A.'s national consumer protection force is the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). You may find officially published FCC notices, information, and resources on the office's official government website. A consumer help center exists and features a Scam Glossary, which can be a useful source to gain a preliminary overview of common scams and their tactics. View a You may leave this website altogether and navigate to https://www.fcc.gov/scam-glossary.
