I’m not an ‘inactive’ guy. I’m just getting on a wee bit, and after a lifetime infatuation with sports, I’m starting to wind down a wee bit. However, if there’s one thing I don’t need just now it’s a gym membership!
Yet someone at a gymnasium in the capital city, which is just over the horizon from us here in the heartland of Al Dakhiliyah, thinks I need one? They are optimists too, because they have been sending messages for at least a year. I’ve put up with it, as a minor
irritation during that time, however recent events caused me to decide, “No more!”
So, following their instructions on how to stop the messages, I messaged STOP to the number identified at the bottom of the message. My message was ‘not delivered,’ according to a little green message box and a red exclamation mark on my phone. Multiple further attempts were also unsuccessful. So, I found their website and sent them a message asking them to please desist, with no response or result. Phone calls to their landline, and mobile number have, to date, still not elicited any response at all, and still those irritating, pesky, annoying, messages come every day!
I’m now more frustrated because I am now getting unwanted messages from 919XX numbers that offer Hindi movies, jokes, and the like. How do these people get our numbers? The question was put to the same service provider who explained that at some time, I must have agreed to accept offers from the marketers. Really? I doubt it!
Now, I had tolerated all these messages for a long time, but I was stretched beyond ‘redemption,’ I guess when what started as a trickle of unsolicited messages, and phone calls, began to affect me. For some time, I have also been getting phone calls from all over the globe. These calls, initially came from Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, and then the origins became more exotic, like Tonga, Turks and Caicos, and Lesotho, to name just a few. The calls ring only once, so why? It must be a scam, must it not?
Seeking a remedy, I went to my local service provider’s agency to complain and ask if they had a solution. “Yes, it’s easy sir, just block the number!” I had tried that and showed the young mobile communications expert that when I blocked one number, the ‘caller’ altered one of their last two numbers and simply called me again!
“Surely you can source these calls and stop them?” I asked, but he countered that they could not decide which calls are legitimate, and which are not. I nodded my understanding, but really didn’t. The same technology that is
apparently allowing computers
to call me, on their network, cannot be used to stop them?
“Or,” said the young man cheerfully, as if it would never have occurred to me, “You can make your phone mute at night.” But why should I have to alter my habits, behaviour and lifestyle because of some malicious hacker? This is not some little guy in each of these countries calling. It is a sophisticated operation with malevolent objectives. I shook my head and thinking, “Low tech solutions are the best they can do in a high-tech environment, their environment, these hackers are playing with
THEIR high-tech communications network, and they can’t do anything about it?” I slunk away with my tail between my legs.
Is this really the best our service providers can do? How about more service, more support, and making sure ‘opt out’ options do? Otherwise their website statements that they, “aim to enrich our customer’s digital lives,” that they “combine extensive global expertise,” and “cutting edge products and services,” don’t really ring true, do they?
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