Being in business is interesting; you get a lot of cold-calls from salespeople trying to find ways to suck away a portion of whatever’s left over after you pay rent, taxes, health care, freight, industry fees, advertising, charitable contributions… the list goes on.

20 minutes ago I’m told someone’s calling from “Money Man 4Cash“, telling one of my staff that they called yesterday and I told them to call back today.

Nobody called yesterday. It was a cold-call tactic to try and get past normal screening procedures to speak to someone in charge of the money. I don’t fault my staff for letting the call through; they told me it sounded funny, but as tactics go, telling someone that you’re returning a call from so-and-so is probably the best shot at getting past the iron gate to the owner. So I took the call, knowing full well that it was a fraud (since I didn’t speak to any such person yesterday), let her speak her pitch briefly before interrupting her and asking why she lied to my staff and told her I asked they call back today. She said I did, at which point I told her that’s a poor way to do business, thanked her for calling and hung up. Continue reading The evil, deceptive telephone solicitor →