A few years back, a phenomenon began called “poetry slams,” which I never quite understood, especially since I do love poetry. The kind of poetry I enjoy would not be subject to slams or free-verse interpretation. If I were still living in Greenwich Village, I imagine poetry slams – or worse – are still happening.
More recently, years of non-human contact dancing by young people evolved into slam-dancing, but the point of this semi-violence eluded me, and I’m sure there’s another “style” that has made its way to the fore.
That short little word – slam – which has been around since the 1600s, is now being used in the 21st century to describe taking advantage of people like you and I, senior citizens.
Slamming seniors is big business. According to AT&T, phone slamming, or telemarketing fraud, is a $40 billion business – annually. So while we older, more conservative folks are fretting about the new budget and where all the money is going , we might spend some of our smarts and hang up on these rude calls.
Sometimes it seems our lives, along with our phone numbers, must be programmed so that call centers in far away, exotic lands can tell when we’re about to sit down to watch the news or eat dinner, and they can make that call offering us subscriptions, trips and lots of free prizes.
I know we all get the phone calls promising free vacations – actually telling us we’ve been specially selected for this special gift. One way I’ve found to get rid of these callers (the live ones, that is) is to interrupt them and ask what the age limit is. That’s when they tell you it’s free to anyone up to 70 years old. I guess after that, there are no free gifts.
I don’t think telling a nameless, unsolicited caller that you are 75 or 80 even if you’re not, is much of a lie – and it’s amazing how they lose interest when they find out your age. Of course, today one persistent Polly, when told my age, asked if I had a significant other and what his age was. They never give up.
Many telemarketers who are unfamiliar with the language have a tough time with names. Perhaps it is just me, but it seems difficult for them to confirm who I am. So when they ask for Mrs. Solider or Whirlwing (instead of Soldier or Whirlwind-Soldier), I do as Nancy Reagan advised and just say no – Mrs. Solider isn’t at this number.
We all need to be more careful about giving out our phone number, as well as our Social Security number. If we don’t, we may be the targets of the next slam.
For seniors with Internet access, there’s a whole crop of scams and slams popping up each week. If you don’t recognize the name of the sender, your safest bet is to delete the message.
And not a day goes by that I don’t receive some “important” message about a conspiracy to change out American coins, or a chance to join thousands of others in sending a message to our elected leaders. When these come to your e-mailbox, before you forward them to all your acquaintances, check the message at snopes.com or urbanlegends.com, which will give you a great long list of hoaxes being circulated – most of them for more than several years.
As they used to say on “Hill Street Blues,” be careful out there.
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