The humor is in the paradox. If what he’s telling her is true (which it is), she shouldn’t have answered. But if she didn’t answer, she wouldn’t have gotten this useful suggestion. It might have been better if he told her not to believe people calling her from unfamiliar numbers.
I think I just read a comment in another CIDU thread, maybe by Meryl, about police opening doors of unlocked cars at a mall parking lot to leave warning / advice notes.
If the number doesn’t come up as having been put into my phone’s list, I don’t answer. I often leave my phone on silent all day (especially during pre-election weeks), then check once in a while to see if anyone ‘important’ called. Well, I did miss FIVE calls from my dogs’ groomer the other day, but that was their fault. not mine (they had the wrong day for my seven to come in for a spa day). What annoys me is places that have 3-4-5 numbers and I don’t have ’em all in my phone list. First-world problems, aren’t they a b*(ch! (oh, and I don’t have voicemail – that’s a real waste of time).
I recall a single-panel cartoon from fifty or so years back (from MR. BREGER, I think) depicting a couple in a rowboar in the middle of a lake looking at a sign sticking up out of the water reading DO NOT MOOR BOATS TO THIS SIGN and wondering “but then why did they put the sign there at all?” Same sort of pretzel logic, I think.
We don’t have caller I.D., but we do have an answering machine, and (unless we are expecting a specific call at a specific time) we don’t pick up until the caller starts to leave a message. About nine out of ten they do not, probably even higher ratios during run-up to election days or to things like the recent ‘deadline to change medical plans’ days.
We do still now and then get two robo-call messages: one is the “we are the IRS and we will sic the police on you if you do not pay X dollars immediately” scam and the other an more common is the “we are offering this free medical device; press 1 to accept our offer or press 3 to have us never call you again” honey trap. Obviously we just let the robocall wind to its end and then delete the whole thing, without having pressed anything while it was active.
“Robots (robo calls) don’t ‘talk’ to answering machines. I kind of miss mine ’cause we never got calls we didn’t want.”
Last year, I sold my house and thus finally abandoned the landline and phone number associated with it. Right up until last year, I was amazed at the stupidity of robo-dialers, because they’d start their spiel as soon as the machine picked up, and so the recording would pick up partway through. I’d had that number for nearly 30 years, so I was somewhat hesitant to let it go… but I got about 10 spam calls for every call I actually wanted to take.
Out of that, I get only two stories that I still tell from time to time… the phone spammer with the really, really out-of-date database who tried the warrant scam on me… naming my ex-wife of ten years or so as the person who was to be arrested and carted off if payment wasn’t made immediately. I don’t think the phone spammer had a script that covered what to do when I started asking if I could be there when the arrest was made.
The other was the time I let the “Microsoft” tech try to talk me through allowing him remote access to a Linux computer that had apparently “alerted” them it was having problems.
In a work environment, this kind of thing is not uncommon, part of a whole phishing test and education methodology. Like IT calling employees the day after sending out an email saying DON’T GIVE YOUR PASSWORD TO ANYONE, EVEN IT and asking for their login/password to test whether it has been read/understood or sending an email saying DON’T CLICK ON LINKS IN EMAILS and then sending emails from outside the company that leads to a web site saying “If you can see this, you are an idiot. We just told you not to do this,”.
The effectiveness is limited, because the first couple of people who get stung by the sting quickly spread the word that THIS PARTICULAR email is a sting, and the exact same people who fall for phishing and spear-phishing attacks then fall for the bad guys’ attacks, because nobody told them to avoid THAT email.
Husband and I are entitled to a discount on our real estate taxes from the county due to our age and income (plus a senior discount on our school tax from NYS) and the papers for both are filed with the county together. This is not a fill in the form and send it in, copies of all paperwork showing our income (1099s, W2s, etc) and of proof of what we paid for medical expenses (a list from each place we paid it to listing the payments made individually, something medical insurance companies do not understand the concept of – canceled checks not acceptable proof). I finished the paperwork on Nov 27 and mailed it to them by certified mail, and they received it on Nov 29. It was due by 12/31.
Monday night Dec 10 at 6 pm we received a robocall from the county executive’s office saying that we were one of those who had the discount last year, but have not filed it yet this year and we should do so. Panic. The next day I was taking my mom to the doctor. I called the assessment dept 10:30 am before I went and received a message telling me to leave my contact info and they would call me back. I did so, even thought I knew that they would not. (Better message than last year when it was basically – we don’t have time to talk to anyone on the phone – a month in – and don’t come here as there is no parking – was added to the message.) I then telephone again while mom was in with the doctor. The message then said that people had been called in error as more people had been called than should have been. Apparently they had over 800 people in line waiting to talk to them with a 2 hour plus wait. As the day went along it became the big news story in the area. Apparently instead of the call going out to 3500 household who had not yet renewed, it went out to all 400,000 households in the county! What they were saying that if one had filed and had a receipt from them, one was fine.
We had no receipt from them. So Tuesday night we recopied the attachments and signed a new copy of the forms. added the proof from USPS of delivery to “mail room, counter, front desk” and made notations on the envelope of what had been done. We drove there. No parking of course. Robert dropped me off and then went to park in a lot in a retail are about 1/4 mile away. I was surprised that there were only about 20 people waiting ahead of me. The paperwork had been received as per USPS and they could not give me a receipt as it had been mailed in – why not mention that.
In addition to upsetting a bunch of us “old folks” apparently they had been inundated with people who did not qualify for the deduction due to the call, who thought they were being told that they did qualify.
Next year I am walking the paperwork in and getting a receipt from them.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Run by the Department of Justice as a public anti-scam service?
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The humor is in the paradox. If what he’s telling her is true (which it is), she shouldn’t have answered. But if she didn’t answer, she wouldn’t have gotten this useful suggestion. It might have been better if he told her not to believe people calling her from unfamiliar numbers.
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Treesong: Probably a division of the Department of Redundancy Department.
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That’s the absolute best F- I’ve ever seen.
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I think I just read a comment in another CIDU thread, maybe by Meryl, about police opening doors of unlocked cars at a mall parking lot to leave warning / advice notes.
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If the number doesn’t come up as having been put into my phone’s list, I don’t answer. I often leave my phone on silent all day (especially during pre-election weeks), then check once in a while to see if anyone ‘important’ called. Well, I did miss FIVE calls from my dogs’ groomer the other day, but that was their fault. not mine (they had the wrong day for my seven to come in for a spa day). What annoys me is places that have 3-4-5 numbers and I don’t have ’em all in my phone list. First-world problems, aren’t they a b*(ch! (oh, and I don’t have voicemail – that’s a real waste of time).
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Just wond’rin’ – if this is 12/12/2018, it’s different than what I get. If this is 12/14/2018, how’d you get a comic two days ahead of publication?
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@ Andréa – Where did you get the 12/12 or 12/14 from? This comic was published on Nov. 18th.
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I assumed the title of the comic was the date it was published, but now I know – thanks to you – that it was published in November. Thanks!
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I recall a single-panel cartoon from fifty or so years back (from MR. BREGER, I think) depicting a couple in a rowboar in the middle of a lake looking at a sign sticking up out of the water reading DO NOT MOOR BOATS TO THIS SIGN and wondering “but then why did they put the sign there at all?” Same sort of pretzel logic, I think.
We don’t have caller I.D., but we do have an answering machine, and (unless we are expecting a specific call at a specific time) we don’t pick up until the caller starts to leave a message. About nine out of ten they do not, probably even higher ratios during run-up to election days or to things like the recent ‘deadline to change medical plans’ days.
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Robots (robo calls) don’t ‘talk’ to answering machines. I kind of miss mine ’cause we never got calls we didn’t want.
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Oh thank you, Shrug. I was beginning to think I was the last person on earth who didn’t have caller ID.
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We do still now and then get two robo-call messages: one is the “we are the IRS and we will sic the police on you if you do not pay X dollars immediately” scam and the other an more common is the “we are offering this free medical device; press 1 to accept our offer or press 3 to have us never call you again” honey trap. Obviously we just let the robocall wind to its end and then delete the whole thing, without having pressed anything while it was active.
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We have NoMoRobo which gets rid of 90% of junk calls on one ring. Caller ID is pretty useless now, since the spammers spoof it with a local number.
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Andréa, I’m still confused: what about this comic said “December 14” to you?
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When I did a ‘VIEW COMIC’, this was included:
https://godaddyandthesquirrelmustbothdie.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dec14-f-calls
the ‘/2018/12/dec14’ I interpreted as this running on 14 December 2018.
(I had put in the entire URL and the pic came up again – oops!)
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“Robots (robo calls) don’t ‘talk’ to answering machines. I kind of miss mine ’cause we never got calls we didn’t want.”
Last year, I sold my house and thus finally abandoned the landline and phone number associated with it. Right up until last year, I was amazed at the stupidity of robo-dialers, because they’d start their spiel as soon as the machine picked up, and so the recording would pick up partway through. I’d had that number for nearly 30 years, so I was somewhat hesitant to let it go… but I got about 10 spam calls for every call I actually wanted to take.
Out of that, I get only two stories that I still tell from time to time… the phone spammer with the really, really out-of-date database who tried the warrant scam on me… naming my ex-wife of ten years or so as the person who was to be arrested and carted off if payment wasn’t made immediately. I don’t think the phone spammer had a script that covered what to do when I started asking if I could be there when the arrest was made.
The other was the time I let the “Microsoft” tech try to talk me through allowing him remote access to a Linux computer that had apparently “alerted” them it was having problems.
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Before I quit answering calls, I would get those, and I knew they were fake ’cause I wouldn’t have a PC in the house on a bet, as the saying goes.
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In a work environment, this kind of thing is not uncommon, part of a whole phishing test and education methodology. Like IT calling employees the day after sending out an email saying DON’T GIVE YOUR PASSWORD TO ANYONE, EVEN IT and asking for their login/password to test whether it has been read/understood or sending an email saying DON’T CLICK ON LINKS IN EMAILS and then sending emails from outside the company that leads to a web site saying “If you can see this, you are an idiot. We just told you not to do this,”.
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Catlover, those are excellent exercises.
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“Catlover, those are excellent exercises.”
The effectiveness is limited, because the first couple of people who get stung by the sting quickly spread the word that THIS PARTICULAR email is a sting, and the exact same people who fall for phishing and spear-phishing attacks then fall for the bad guys’ attacks, because nobody told them to avoid THAT email.
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Mitch 4 – yes, that is correct.
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Ultimate robocall stupidity –
Husband and I are entitled to a discount on our real estate taxes from the county due to our age and income (plus a senior discount on our school tax from NYS) and the papers for both are filed with the county together. This is not a fill in the form and send it in, copies of all paperwork showing our income (1099s, W2s, etc) and of proof of what we paid for medical expenses (a list from each place we paid it to listing the payments made individually, something medical insurance companies do not understand the concept of – canceled checks not acceptable proof). I finished the paperwork on Nov 27 and mailed it to them by certified mail, and they received it on Nov 29. It was due by 12/31.
Monday night Dec 10 at 6 pm we received a robocall from the county executive’s office saying that we were one of those who had the discount last year, but have not filed it yet this year and we should do so. Panic. The next day I was taking my mom to the doctor. I called the assessment dept 10:30 am before I went and received a message telling me to leave my contact info and they would call me back. I did so, even thought I knew that they would not. (Better message than last year when it was basically – we don’t have time to talk to anyone on the phone – a month in – and don’t come here as there is no parking – was added to the message.) I then telephone again while mom was in with the doctor. The message then said that people had been called in error as more people had been called than should have been. Apparently they had over 800 people in line waiting to talk to them with a 2 hour plus wait. As the day went along it became the big news story in the area. Apparently instead of the call going out to 3500 household who had not yet renewed, it went out to all 400,000 households in the county! What they were saying that if one had filed and had a receipt from them, one was fine.
We had no receipt from them. So Tuesday night we recopied the attachments and signed a new copy of the forms. added the proof from USPS of delivery to “mail room, counter, front desk” and made notations on the envelope of what had been done. We drove there. No parking of course. Robert dropped me off and then went to park in a lot in a retail are about 1/4 mile away. I was surprised that there were only about 20 people waiting ahead of me. The paperwork had been received as per USPS and they could not give me a receipt as it had been mailed in – why not mention that.
In addition to upsetting a bunch of us “old folks” apparently they had been inundated with people who did not qualify for the deduction due to the call, who thought they were being told that they did qualify.
Next year I am walking the paperwork in and getting a receipt from them.
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