PCH for whom?

[H]

My cell rings and the caller identifies himself as a representative for Publisher's Clearing House.
I'm informed that my number was chosen and I'm a second place winner of a few million and a new BMW.
Now, I'm not the most excitable type and the information keeps getting repeated.
Finally I'm told that I need to be properly registered.

However, my hesitance now seems to have caused a need for this fellow to converse with his manager...
_____"Could [I] call [him] back in five minutes?"
_____"Me, call you -- how about you call me?"
_____"Oh, OK," and we both end call. I go relieve myself, then return to get my telephone area code source book.
_____-I find the number of record: 876-825-5860

Believe it or not, he actually calls back, repeating the information.
At this point I've wasted enough phone time and I tell him he should already have my name and address.
He says something about GPS...
"I still haven't heard you give me my name and address."
Again he mumbles something about GPS...
GPS nothing (he's trying to GPS locate me? Lotsa luck -- go jump in the lake; yes, I'm next to one), I tell him, "Publisher's Clearing House selects from its subscribers and I've had nothing to do with them for about 25 years. This seems quite out of place for me to be receiving a call on their behalf out of Jamaica..."

He hung up.

Of course, entrants needn't subscribe when they send in the sweepstakes entry but they've got your name and address -- I never remember giving them a phone number (and had no cell phone way back when). It's actually true that I stopped ordering subscriptions and submitting contest entries to Publisher's Clearing House sometime near the end of the previous century. Their modis operendi was to get your subscription request, then bill you later. I refused to do it that way and sent my full subscription payment along with my subscription request form. That worked a few years until they finally billed me for one for which I'd, as usual, already sent in the payment. I've never ordered nor entered their sweepstakes again. Now I suppose I need be on the lookout for some Jamaicans swimming about the lake looking for my door...

[Apex]

I've often wondered how PCH can give away huge, huge amounts and where exactly do those huge amounts come from. I guess from subscribers. But the give-aways are just so big. Whatever. I don't think PCH would be calling winners, if indeed there are any winners, on the phone. So far, maybe, the scammers have not resorted to actually showing up on your doorstep. So if you win, PCH is supposed to pay you a face to face visit, hey, it's promo for them, and of course, you can't win if you don't enter, so if you've entered and they show up, maybe it's all legit and you've hit the J-pot..

Ya gotta be careful on the phone. You don't know who or what, and you don't know if what you say is being recorded. I never talk to anyone who doesn't know me and whom I don't know. Heck, I never answer my phone anyway, and a lot of robo calls cut themselves short without leaving some stupid message. Be wise, let your phone protect you.

[H]

I opened this post up and at the bottom of my screen is the link to enter the PCH sweepstakes...
Anyway, Apex, you are quite correct and things are on the line; this might not be over for me although I didn't give out any personal information; I've had video/audio editing equipment of my own in years past; these types of calls may be recorded, your words extracted and edited into new sentences and responses. I provided way too much dialogue. If there's anything positive about it, I don't believe I uttered a 'yes', 'OK' or the like.

[Fozzer]

If the person on the other end of the phone doesn't sound like me, then it's a scam....

...I immediately put the phone down without replying.

It drastically limits my telephone conversations.

Paul.... ...!

[Hawkeye07]

Recently they have been using a new trick. My caller ID on my land line will show a local name, area code and number. Answer the phone and it's some scammer from who knows where. Now I don't even bother to answer the phone if I don't recognize the name on Caller ID as someone I've dealt with.
And the U.S. federal governments "Do Not Call List"? That's become useless. The bastards call you anyway.

"The older I get the less I like my own species." - Hawkeye

[Fozzer]

"The older I get the less I like my own species." - Hawkeye

..... ... ... ...!

...I made friends with a furry Caterpillar yesterday....

He/She fell off a leaf of my potted Parsley plant on my windowsill.

I was greeted with a Happy Caterpillar.... and perfect silence this morning!

Paul .... ...!

[Apex]

Most of us are smarter than the crooks, but we need to be smart all the time, not just some of the time.

Here's a case for ya: Saw this video on the local news a few days ago: This guy's going from place A to place B with $30,000 worth of jewels and diamonds on his passenger seat.
He stops for gas with the pass door unlocked. Gets out, leaves the driver door wide open, and while filling up, some crook, who had probably been following him from Place A, sleathly opens the pass door and gets away with the loot. All caught on camera. So wassa matter here? No trunk? No pass door lock? No planning ahead "Don't stop for anything, just get the loot to where it's supposed to go."

Paranoia pays. Learn to use it wisely. Take the Clouseau approach. "Suspect everyone, and suspect no one". Just don't act like Clouseau.