On Sun, Oct 8, 2023 at 9:37 AM George N. White III <gnwiii(a)gmail.com> wrote:
When I retired and moved to a different town I had to get a new landline
number. It gets a constant stream of debt collector calls, so clearly the
previous person assigned the number was a deadbeat..
Nah, the previous person was not necessarily a deadbeat. That's just
the nature of the scam. Everybody gets the calls. When I was tracking
them in detail, they were dominated by car warranties and fake debts.
With the occasional Microsoft virus call.
We usually get 6 to 9 of them a day. In fact, I wrote a program to
monitor the modem with CallerId, and automatically file UCC, FCC and
FTC complaints in response to an unsolicited call. It is like Nomorobo
on steroids.
Some financial organizations
insist that you use a landline with an address they can verify. My mail goes to a
PO Box -- possibly they are more careful when you don't have a street address
for mail.
I used to use PO Boxes, but I found something better - General
Delivery. I started using General Delivery when I realized that
communicating with me was a privilege, not a right. Nothing requires
us to share accurate information with others, accept their junk
mailings, accept their junk phone calls, or accept their junk email.
General Delivery sends mail to the Post Office. If you don't claim the
mail within 30 days, it gets sent back. If you do claim the mail, then
you need picture identification. It's a very strong form of
authentication for mail, and avoids people intercepting your mail.
If you start using General Delivery, then consider using a Post Office
in the next city over so folks don't even get an accurate ZIP code for
you.
Jeff