America can put a man on the moon.*
We can send a rocket the size of a Mini Cooper to a rock only a few inches larger, then send signals back to earth across 4.1 billion miles of space.
But we can’t stop Kevin the Power Washer from leaving dozens of messages, day after day, on my phone.
He’s not the only one.
A “police group” — definitely not affiliated with the Westport Police Department — calls often, pleading for money.
So does some guy in India, breathlessly informing me that my computer has a deadly virus and if I don’t act now I could loss all my data — and worse!!!!!!
I signed up for the National Do Not Call Registry when it was first introduced, in 2003. I might as well have signed up for the National Suckers Registry.
Today there are 230 million numbers on it. Yet the Federal Trade Commission gets 19,000 complaints from people who have been called.
That’s 19,000 complaints a day.
Calls come in on my landline. On my cellphone — a whole other level of illegality. If I got messages through the fillings in my teeth, they’d probably come that way too.
Several “06880” readers have asked for advice about this scourge. Unfortunately, that’s out of my lane.
I can alert you to upcoming 81-unit apartment complexes. I can provide a forum to discuss everything from beach bathrooms to medical marijuana dispensaries. But I can’t do jack about Kevin the Power Washer.
However, maybe you can.
Our “06880” online community contains some very smart folks. Collectively, our wisdom is broad and wide.
So here’s my request:
If you know how to stop the epidemic of telemarketers, click “Comments” below.
You’ll earn the eternal gratitude of all of us.
Except Kevin the Power Washer, that fraudulent police fundraiser, and some dude in India who says my computer will dkaidfu&dks@bkzk#%ksa …. aaaaaaargh!
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*Okay, that was 50 years ago. But still…