eravin@dasys1.UUCP (Ed Ravin) (01/13/89)
A couple of months ago, I came home to find a message on my machine from
an automatic sales call machine. The message went something like this:
"Please answer the following questions and listen carefully to the contest
rules. You may win a vacation trip to sunny FLORIDA!"
Machine asks some dumb questions about my desires to go on vacation.
"Now please listen carefully. If you answer this contest question
correctly, you will WIN an EXPENSES PAID TRIP TO FLORIDA! blah blah blah
blah blah blah...
"Who is the famous Star Personality that turns the letters on the TV hit
'Wheel of Fortune'? Is it:
a) Barbara Streisand
b) Barbara Walters
c) Vanna White
????"
"If you think you know the answer to this question, then call 970-xxxx.
That's 970-xxxx. Yes, call 970-xxxx and if you have the correct answer you
will win the trip to FLORIDA!"
After repeating the number and the exhortation to call a few more times,
the machine says, in a faster and less understandable voice:
"cost is $5.95 per call"
And then repeats the phone number five more times trying to con you into
call. This seems about as on the level as those postcards I've gotten
every now and then telling me I've won a trip to Florida and when you call
them for more information it turns out it actually costs at least $89.95.
What I find most disturbing about this is that it sure is easy to miss
their announcement of the price of the call, and get snookered into calling
back and dropping six bucks into these crook's pockets. If I didn't have
it recorded on my answering machine I very well might have missed hearing
how much the call was and if I was a little dumber than I am I might have
called thinking that I was real smart knowing who Vanna White was and for
my smartness I was getting a trip to Florida.
--
Ed Ravin | cucard!dasys1!eravin | "A mind is a terrible thing
(BigElectricCatPublicUNIX)| eravin@dasys1.UUCP | to waste-- boycott TV!"
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Reader bears responsibility for all opinions expressed in this article.
[Moderator's Question: This was printed the way I got it. Mr. Ravin, do you
mean 970 or 976 as the prefix? What area code is this? PT]
^ ^