Telemarketers and phone scams (long)

[Beth]

I really did try and write something at the time this thread was 
current, but it got "lost" and I moved on -- until my phone call 
today.

A man called today asking for my husband at about 11:15 a.m. My 
husband is an editor at the local paper and since the man sounded a 
little brusque, I figured he wanted to complain about something. He 
gave his name as John Higgins and listed some 800 number I was to 
tell my husband to call, asking when he would be home. 

"I have no idea. Sometimes he comes home for lunch," I answered, 
slow to realize that I shouldn't have. "May I tell him what this is 
regarding?" 

"Yes. To whom am I speaking?" He actually sounded a tiny bit 
friendlier.

"This is his wife."

"Well, then I can talk to you. You have an outstanding balance on 
your [company x] card and there's been no payment on it for over a 
year. We are about to turn it over for refusal to pay. What are you 
going to do about it?"

"That is /so/ interesting, because we haven't had a [company x] card 
for years and I just read an article about calls like these."

Really surly now, "So you are refusing to pay?"

"No, what I'm going to do is investigate this."

And on it went, as he got angrier and more threatening, interrupting 
me, asking me when my husband's birthday is (I didn't tell him), and 
finally telling me to hang up. I said that I wouldn't because I 
loved that this was costing him money. He said that it wasn't 
costing him anything, threatened more and then said to hang up 
again. I just covered the mouthpiece and listened until I got a busy 
tone.

It wasn't until after I hung up that I realized that I hadn't read 
an article, but a friend from my book club had related a similar 
experience in which the man claimed she had an outstanding phone 
bill. Unfortunately, she did correct him on her middle initial and 
supplied him with her birthdate before she started resisting. But I 
was glad to have had the knowledge of her experience when I was 
faced with this guy.

I'm guessing that, since I am probably one of three people left in 
the U.S. without a cell phone, all of you are much more savvy to 
these things than I am, but just in case, I wanted to pass on this 
warning reminding everyone to /not/ give out personal information 
over the phone. Remind older people, too, as I can easily see my 
grandmother being totally cowed by this jerk.

I called the police department, since I couldn't reach the credit 
bureau, because I felt like I should be reporting it to someone. The 
kind, bored duty officer explained that there wasn't anything they 
could do anyway, since these numbers were often fake.

As far as true telemarketers are concerned, I've always tried to be 
polite, but my brother tries to get them talking as long as 
possible, especially about their personal lives, and a friend said a 
sympathetic telemarketer once confessed to her that he was trained 
to keep talking until she hung up, so she said "Thanks!" and did. 

Beth, who had to work really hard not to use "he growled" "I 
laughed" or adverbs, but will leave in the "answered"