Gotta love those dumb indian phone scammers.
Most of the time, I wont even answer a ringing phone. My opinion is that if you can't be bothered to leave a message, then your not worth talking to, and they never leave messages. But, sometimes I'll answer the phone when I'm bored and 'kinda' play along, but not give them *any* personal info and if they ask questions I'll either lie or just not give specific/direct answers.
I got maybe 5 calls from one yesterday before noon, then I answered the phone to chat with them. he claimed he wanted to 'promote me as a good driver'. I forget the company he claimed to work for. He started talking about safe driving and what he could do to lower our insurance rates. He knew we had Progressive and knew what vehicles we have. I asked him how he knew we didn't have any accidents or DUIs in the past 6 months (which is a lie, had 2 accidents in a semi during the past 4 months, but Progressive doesn't know since it was a different insurance company). Said that since we got Progressive, we agreed to let them give our information to partners. I asked him what he meant by 'promoting us as safe drivers' and gave me a phone number, but I couldn't tell what it was for because I couldn't understand half of what he was saying due to his accent. He asked me to verify the make and model of our SUV and Pickup, which I was fine with.
Then the fun stuff started. Although it was a bit short lived.
"What is your date of birth?" - "You don't need to know it"
"Can I at least get your age?" - " I'm 35"
"Well, what month were you born in?" - "Doesn't matter"
"I need to know your date of birth" - "No you don't"
"Where you born in June?" - "No"
"Where you born in January?" - "No"
"Can you just tell me your date of birth?" - "No"
"Where you born in September?" - "Nope"
"Please tell me your date of birth" - "No"
"I'm going to transfer you to my supervisor" - "ok"
I hung up the phone and he didn't call back until 3 hours later, but hung up when I answered.
If they call back again today I will probably chat with them some more.
Maybe when I get bored I'll tell them my personal rule:
I *never* do business with companies that call me on the phone, unless it's a call I am expecting to get.
Even if I get a call from a company that currently or have done business with (like godaddy or my webhost), I ask them not to call me because I micromanage my own stuff via their website.
