My policy toward telemarketers:
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File a Complaint (Score:3)
If you have 5 minutes, file a complaint with the FCC [donotcall.gov] for violating the do-not-call laws.
Re:File a Complaint (Score:4, Informative)
If you have 5 minutes, file a complaint with the FCC [donotcall.gov] for violating the do-not-call laws.
Yep. The option the poll didn't have was "Put me on your do-not-call list" then hang up.
Re:File a Complaint (Score:4, Insightful)
The do-not-call list is a joke to:
(1) "This is Heather from Credit Card Services" scammers
(2) "This is Microsoft calling about your computer that has viruses" scammers
(3) "This is the IRS and we will arrest you if you don't send us money" scammers
(4) "You're just won a free vacation cruise" scammers
(5) "We can make your business #1 in Google search results" scammers
(6) Every bogus charity that hires a call center to shill for money
(7) Every political robocaller (exempted by law from the do-not-call list)
Unfortunately, that makes up 99.9% of the calls I get on my landline. The real missing option should be "Buy an Obihai voice service bridge, program it to screen all incoming calls, and never have another robocaller ring my landline again."
Re: File a Complaint (Score:1)
Re: File a Complaint (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
The problem with phone number based filtering at least in the UK is that many large buisnesses and institutions have their phone systems set up to withold numbers for all outgoing calls. So you have no way to tell the difference between a call from someone at work, a call from your kids school, a call from the hospital and a telemarketer.
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This happens in Argentina too. Even my car mechanic calls me with caller ID blocked, so I have to pick up calls with no caller ID.
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Well, you can always tell anyone that you give your phone number to: "Don't call me with 'number withheld'. If you call me to tell me my son/daughter has been taken to hospital, and you choose 'number withheld', then I will sue you for withholding information vital to my family's safety/wellbeing."
If you have information vital to the safety or health of me or my family, then withholding the source number is tantamount to compromise of that. If my child dies or is otherwise compromised because you chose to w
Re: File a Complaint (Score:2)
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You'll have to leave a message to talk to me. It's the only way to get me if you aren't in my whitelist or have your number hidden. I did accidentally answer a telemarketer a while back and I was beyond rude to him. I was so hostile I actually felt bad about it for a few minutes. I soon recovered though.
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I don't have a landline anymore, just a cell phone. If I don't recognize the number calling me, I let it go to voicemail. And since I use Google's Voicemail service, I get texted a transcript of the voicemail pretty quickly. That's a pretty good filter for telemarketers v someone I might want to talk to.
If it's a telemarketer, I then add the number to a "Do not answer" contact in my cell phone. That contact is set up to not ring, just send to voicemail. Sometimes, telemarketers try again from the same numbe
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The problem with phone number based filtering at least in the UK is that many large buisnesses and institutions have their phone systems set up to withold numbers for all outgoing calls. So you have no way to tell the difference between a call from someone at work, a call from your kids school, a call from the hospital and a telemarketer.
The bigger problem is that even if the number is there, it's usually a fake number or a different number every time. Blacklist doesn't work when telemarketers and scammers have phone banks with thousands of outgoing lines. The only real solution would be whitelists but then any unknown caller (like a school line you didn't know about) can't call you.
Hard to File a Complaint if CallerID's Fake (Score:2)
.... and the callerid's often fake or blocked, unless it's from some callcenter-heavy small telco or the gateway from some VOIP or conferencing system (e.g. I got a call from a Bluejeans Conferencing gateway that was probably being used by scammers.) My office phone just switched from being on an old Centrex system to a Microsoft Lync VOIP system, and since my real work phone calls are usually on the work cellphone, calls to my office number are usually either from vendors or from spammers that either neve
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Unfortunately, that makes up 99.9% of the calls I get on my landline.
It may be time to re-evaluate whether you really need to be paying money for something that serves no purpose other than to act as means for beggars to arrest your attention at their leisure.
At the very least the cash flow should be in the opposite direction.
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So, because it "serves no purpose" to you, then the same must be true for him, huh?
That I can't say, but he said only 1 in 1000 of the calls he receives is not one of those listed. (The other 1 is probably a wrong number.) He must make a lot of outgoing calls, or be in a cell null spot. And he probably spends a mere $400/year for the privilege.
Which is it, Tim? B-)
My missing option? (Score:4, Interesting)
I'll talk to them if they PAY me to listen. Seriously, I'll offer 5 minutes a day to talk to advertisers on the phone, and they can bid for my time. The auctioneer will be allowed to know a bit of my personal information (including what I'm thinking about buying) to attract bigger bids, but the auctioneer will have strong motivation to protect my privacy because that is how they protect their own profits--split with me, of course. My option to give out any personal information, but only after I decide they are selling something I'm interested in, and in that case I may even decide to go past the 5-minute limit.
Oh yeah. One more thing. There should be a minimum bid price, and if no bidder wants to pay that much, then I don't talk to anyone. However, I'm also betting that there are a lot of legitimate companies that would prefer to talk with potential customers who are both qualified and interested.
Not sure if the business model could work that well, but maybe the auctioneer could screen ALL my calls? Certainly would be an attractive selling point when trying to sign up new people, but to do it efficiently they would need to be partnering with the phone company, and I'm not sure I trust ANYONE who is partnering with a phone company.
(Anyone got any advice about the mobile phone situation in Japan? My contract is up in a couple of months, and I really want to leave my current company...)
Re: My missing option? (Score:2)
Re:File a Complaint (Score:4, Interesting)
The last time I got a call from supposed Microsoft because my computer had issues I let them do their script and then told them "Yes, you have reached tech support, how can I help you?". Then after they stammered a while trying to explain the problem with my computer I told them "I have reset your password but it will take 15 minutes before the change takes effect, if you have any other issues, please call us back."
Re: (Score:2)
Try speaking back to them in a drawn Indian accent, and then tell them it sounds like they may have a virus and you'll need to check their Internet History Report. Then start talking about how their computer appears to be distributing large amounts of child pornography, including child bestiality, and that you think they've been receiving bitcoins from a source infected with the Win32-dot-Zika computer virus.
Re: (Score:2)
I only keep the land line because I've had the number forever I've thought about getting rid of it since 95% or more of the calls are telemarketers, charities, or scams.
You would think they might get the message after the first 3 or 4 times when I said "but I don't own a computer" to just stop wasting their time but they still call.
Next I may try to convince them I've been waiting for them to call and then make then make them troubleshoot a busted internet connection for as long as I can keep them on the ph
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Yes, I strung them along for only 5 minutes and they never called back.
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The last time I got a call from supposed Microsoft because my computer had issues I let them do their script and then told them "Yes, you have reached tech support, how can I help you?". Then after they stammered a while trying to explain the problem with my computer I told them "I have reset your password but it will take 15 minutes before the change takes effect, if you have any other issues, please call us back."
I want to get one of those so I can say something along the lines of 'Yes that virus is mine, I've been testing it can you tell me how and when you detected it?'
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Re:File a Complaint, or generate revenue (Score:2)
Purely for personal phones, another option that might work is to get a premium rate telephone number linked to your landline, and use that number on your correspondence/website/profile details (I assume that friends and people you actually want to call you have your mobile number, and never call the landline). After a month or two, the telemarketers will get an updated phone list from whatever source they use, and unless their systems are setup to prevent calls to premium rate numbers, they will start calli
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Yep. The option the poll didn't have was "Put me on your do-not-call list" then hang up.
I keep telling that to the creditors, but the bastards keep calling anyways.
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Yep. The option the poll didn't have was "Put me on your do-not-call list" then hang up.
You forgot the other one: "I'm on the Federal do-not call list. This call is illegal. Call again and it could cost you $2500."
That usually shuts them up. If they're American, anyway.
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The do not call list is kind of a joke (like the other guy said) it only applies to marketing people and not charities, people looking to offer financial capital for your business or my favorite of all people trying to sell my business a list of available government IT contracts. (As if even the smartest people could untangle that mess and deal with the bureaucracy)
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That doesn't work with the current crop (Account Services!) that spoof random phone numbers.
I use Truecaller for the Android (Score:2)
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We need an opt-out if this ever becomes widespread - and being the default dialler in CyanogenOS it may just start to become widespread - akin to the _nomap georeferencing opt-out for WiFi. IMHO this is nothing more than a trojan horse to collect information on telephone numbers. The opportunities for "monetisation" are clear.
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Not a problem anymore (Score:2)
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I can understand people engaging in telemarketing (because they're evil), but I don't get the point of making a call that you know ahead of time with absolute certainty is not going to end in a sale.
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I can understand people engaging in telemarketing (because they're evil), but I don't get the point of making a call that you know ahead of time with absolute certainty is not going to end in a sale.
Fucked up incentives. Presumably because calls statistically leads to sales, someone was ordered to increase call volume. Presumably cold calling random people could get them in more trouble with the FTC or is against corporate policy, so to deliver on that they're making pointless calls. That the sell-through rate drops in proportion is muddled by competition, random variance, pricing policy etc. so the executives probably don't know it's happening. That kind of corporate dysfunction is quite common when e
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Only 14 votes for CowboyNeal option? (Score:2)
C'mon Slashdot, you can do better!
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Not a good Cowboy Neal option. Perhaps it could have been "Let Cowboy Neal yodel at them" or "Play a tape of Cowboy Neal yodels over the phone"?
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The rustier the yodel, the better.
Asterisk (Score:2)
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I have the "VOIPO" home phone system, and it's pretty quick to login and set phone numbers to "direct to voicemail". I find that works better than "block", because when I block a number they figure out and switch numbers more quickly.
What I really want to do is auto-block every caller ID that matches certain regular expression patterns in the name. But VOIPO's service isn't that sophisticated.
spam filtering (Score:1)
Option 9: Revenge (Score:4, Interesting)
A long time ago I worked for one of the larger telecom companies and there was a big problem with robodialling telemarketers. Things were so bad that the company in question would not allow dealers to use unsolicited calls at all. One day I get a call on the way home, and I had some time to kill so I thought I'd have a little fun with the unfortunate person on the other end of the line (I know they're just working to get by like the rest of us but still).
Caller: "Hello I'm calling from $dealer on behalf of $company to tell you that you're eligible for a free handset upgrade etc. etc."
Me: "No, you're not calling on behalf of $company."
Caller: "I assure you this is genuine, $company have given us your phone number because your contract is up. Do you have a few minutes to go over some of the details?"
Me: OK, but I'd like to mention a couple of things first.
*Silence*
Me: First, I work for $company and you've called my company phone. I don't have a contract and I got a new handset last month. Second, $company doesn't share their customers' information with dealers under any circumstances. Third, $company explicitly forbids the use of automated diallers and unsolicited calling in their dealer agreements. I'm also bound to tell you that I happen to work in dealer relations and this is the fourth time $dealer's name has been mentioned this week, so please go and find your manager when I hang up and tell them they'll be hearing from me on Monday.
Long story short, $dealer gets their contract cancelled and folds a few months later. Do I feel bad for the people working there just doing what they're told and trying to make a living? Of course, but hopefully the next job they get won't require them to pester strangers and flat out lie to them just to make money for some sleazy middle man. In fact, you just don't see dealers of that sort any more; I suppose the phone companies have realised there's more money to be made if they sell online, open a few stores on the high street and cut out the intermediaries entirely.
Pick up, hear silence, hang up (Score:2)
If I don't recognize the number, I pick up the phone and count to three out loud. If no one answers by then, I hang up. That screens out most of them.
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Troll them! (Score:1)
The worst thing you can do to a telemarketer is waste their time. They have a script which they must follow. Ask them pointless questions and return to earlier parts of their script. Ask them to remind you of their name every now and again. Which company do they work for. Do they work for the company for which they are selling products for. Could you speak clearly please? I'm having trouble with your accent. And what was your name again?
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This is probably a sure way of getting off their list. Telemarketing is only done because it generates a profit. If you can manage to tie up enough of their time to make it unprofitable then you can ensure that it's not worth it for them to be in that business. I think it would be a great AI project. Create a program who's job it is to keep the telemarketer on the line for as long as possible. They are really down to the line on how long a call can be. Most of the calls that I get you have to wait 5-10
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This [slashdot.org] made the rounds recently.
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The easy way to do this is very simply to ask them to hold on for a second so you can get something to write with, and then put the phone on mute, and go do something else and wait for them to disconnect themselves. If you give them any hope that you're going to listen to them, they will try and wait it out, which ensures that you waste a maximum amount of their time.
Unfortunately, they do seem to be moving to voice activated menus that they actually seem to have gotten some reasonably good voice actors fo
Re:Does anybody press 1 (Score:2)
I much prefer the ones that aren't pretending. And yes, I almost always press 1, because putting a human on the line costs them a lot more per minute than the robocaller bot. If I feel like taking the time, I'll stay on the line; otherwise I'll put the phone down and wait for the telco's hangup tones. (Now that we've got VOIP at work, sometimes it takes me a minute to answer the Lync popup, unmute the speakers, and put on my headset, so sometimes they're gone before I can press 1.)
Re: (Score:2)
I wish Lenny had more to say before he starts repeating himself. I bet he could keep most of them on the line a lot longer ;)
The ducks are priceless, I love the diversion strategy. A lot of Lenny's stuff works because it can be interpreted as appropriate answers to a wide variety of questions. Like his "Good, yes yes..." can be seen as responding to a question about how he's doing, agreeing to a yes/no question, or simply being polite.
It seems that usually Lenny fails when people start trying to get numbe
Press 1 to talk to an agent (Score:2)
Many of the robots give you a choice of pressing 1 to talk to an agent or 2/etc. to be on their do not call list (which is worthless, since if you were on the national do not call list and they didn't check it, they also won't check their own.) Always press 1, so they have to connect a more expensive human to the call, and if you don't feel like wasting your own time, just put the phone down.
And I've got no sympathy for the "telemarketers are just people who need jobs" position - Heather From Account Servi
All of the above (Score:2)
Talk softly when picking up the phone (Score:1)
Not in contact list? No ringtone. (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Not all robocalls are spam. I've had robocalls where missing them was bad. Robocalls don't leave messages.
I tried to whitelist that company, but they robocall from like a million numbers.
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My approach (Score:5, Interesting)
Whatever happened to following the script? (Score:3)
https://egbg.home.xs4all.nl/co... [xs4all.nl]
Ask them to put you on "Do Not Call" list first! (Score:1)
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That employee you want me to sympathize with is usually working for a scammer like "Heather From Account Services" or "Microsoft Technical Support" or "The IRS", or at best for "Maybe they really are selling solar panels for your roof but they didn't check the Do Not Call list or their own Don't Call Me Back list or even figure out if they're calling a home or business", so if they aren't thieves themselves they're working for shoddy businesses that waste their time and the time of the people they're callin
Not only do I not answer ... (Score:2)
... I put the number on "block" so they never get through again.
Sometimes I do answer, for example if I am expecting a call but do not know the number that will be calling, but in any case, answered or not, unwanted calling numbers go on the block list.
What telemarketers? (Score:2)
Cold calls are illegal where I live. So if someone from a business calls that you don't know calls, I would ask: Where did you get my number?
So far it hasn't happened with marketeers. Only charities does it, it is still illegal for them, but they usually pretend you have given them their numbers at some point, which is what promps me to ask: Where did you get my number? At which point they usually hang up.
Let the machine pick up... (Score:3)
I let my old-fashioned answering machine pick up the call. (Yes, I still have a "Land-Line").
My outgoing message is: "(Bee boop BEEP) We're sorry, the number you have called has been disconnected, or is no longer in service... BEEP"
My friends all know to leave a message after the tone. Telespammers drop it to the dead-line list.
Can't use that - some robocalls are my pharmacy (Score:2)
I do get a fair number of legitimate robocalls, e.g. from the pharmacy or my dentist's appointment reminder system or whatever. An extra-fancy answering system could probably identify the most common good robocallers and only play that for evil ones, but especially since they keep faking caller id, it's hard to do well enough.
Missing an option (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I was going to post something similar. I just tell them "This is a cell phone number." Of course they know that already, but what you're really telling them is that you know the law. This tells them two things: that you might possibly take legal action and, more importantly, that you're not an idiot and therefore probably won't buy their bullshit product/service. The response is always something like "I see. Sorry for the trouble. Have a nice day. (click)"
This is assuming that you are using a cell phone of
Re: (Score:2)
Except the National Do Not Call Registry is only about interstate commerce. If they are calling from within your home state then state and local laws apply. Check it out.
Infuriating to no end (Score:1)
Luckily for me, we never signed up for a landline phone even though we have DSL.
That part is great, yet somehow they still call my cell phone and my block'd number list is getting quite long.
To make matters worse, it seems as though most of the calls I have been getting lately look like local numbers, only to be a machine on the other end.
Lenny! (Score:1)
Nobody else transfers to Lenny?
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r28520567-Another-Place-to-Send-Spam-Callers [dslreports.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u2GYebEGTw (Score:1)
Don't answer any phone, ever. (Score:2)
In the past 20 years I have never had a positive interaction on the phone after just answering a random ring, I see no reason to do it.
My most common voicemail message: "This is a very important message, please hold"
fuck voice communication.
Give them a Tammy (Score:3)
"Yes, Tammy is here but she can't speak right now, my dick is in her mouth."
I always press "1" (Score:2)
I always press "1" to talk to a customer service representative.
I always talk to their robots.
I do whatever it takes to get through to a human.
Then I put down the phone and wait for them to hang up.
(I don't want to talk to them.)
My goal is to cost them something.
If I hang up on their machine, then they win.
They've gotten me to spend my time pre-qualifying their leads, and it hasn't cost them anything.
If I get them to come on the line, then I've imposed some cost on them, as well.
Doing this gives me some fee
The over/under on Rachel (Score:2)
We moved last year.
We considered not getting a land line in our new location, but my wife wouldn't go for it.
The phone guy comes; installs the line; we have dial tone and a new phone number.
I asked my wife for an over/under on how long until Rachel from card member services calls.
It was two hours.
Prank (Score:2)
I prank them.
Sometimes I just ask them to hold on for a second and put the phone down while I make fun of them to whoever is in the room.
Sometimes I ask them what they're wearing and sound really excited about it.
Usually just I try to sell them something:
"Is telemarketing your primary means of reaching your target audience? Perhaps I can interest you in my web services."
"How do you keep track of your calls? I happen to have a great database product that would be a great fit for your organization."
Let your teenage kids string them along (Score:2)
A computer virus, let me log into mums computer - waiting for it to boot up.... oh it has a password.
Lets try dads. gee this takes a long time to boot up. delay.. delay
Lets try this computer.. start button? hang on can you explain that
also thought of creating a special VM and reduce resources to make it super slow
bonus points for how angry the operator is by the time they realize they have been ta
A feature that all android phones are missing... (Score:3)
Let me block a number with wildcards
1800*
1801*
1305*
Those three will block a bulk of worthless calls to my phone. I already have an app that kind of works but I would rather hav ethe phone do a connect and then instant hangup, or better yet play the universal "disconnect" tones that phone companies use for a phone number that is not in service to knock my number off a computer list.
There is no reason at all for the base OS telephone functionality to have built in blocking with wildcard support.
Re: (Score:2)
My Galaxy S4 is running android 5 (stock, I haven't rooted it or anything) and allows call blocking with wild cards. My previous Galaxy (S2, I think?) also supported this. I use it to block ranges of numbers, primarily to stop telemarketers. If I remember right, if you call my phone while your number is on my reject list, it plays a message that says something generic about the number not being available right now and then hangs up.
So, not *all* android phones are missing this feature.
I hear all the long intro and... (Score:2)
I hear all the long intro, usually like "My name is Joe, this call is being recorded, and I'm talking in name of Company Acme, bla bla bla". Then, when they ask me "sir, can you give me your address to pick this offer?", I answer with:
"If this call is recorded, then listen: NO, I DON'T WANT! Thank you, have a good day!" and then I press the button to finish the call.
It's better than just turn off the call: they'll return another day.
I'd pay money to shut down "Cardholder Services" (Score:2)
Seriously.. I get one or two calls PER DAY on my CELL PHONE from these scammers. "This is Bridget from Cardholder Services." I've also gotten calls from Rachel, and a few others from the same scam. I have tried EVERYTHING. One month I decided to answer the call every day and harass and threaten them. That didn't work. They just kept calling back. I tried nearly a year of just not answering the phone and blocking the number. Of course, a few days later they use a new number. I decided to start answer
My favorite are the window spear phishers (Score:2)
I had a guy going for almost 10 mins on the promise that I had a whole network of computers to infect.
Them: Sir we have found a problem with your computer and we need to fix it
Me: Which computer do you want me to log, I have 10 of them
Them: The one with windows 7
Me: They all have windows 7 please just tell me which one it is and we can move forward with fixing the problem
Repeat variations of the last two sentences for 10 mins and it too the guy about that long to realize he was being messed with and start s
My dad's solution...he's 91. (Score:3)
When the indian-sounding person calls asking if dad is sitting in front of the computer, he says "no, it's in the other room, would you like me to turn it on?".
Scammer: Yes.
Dad: Ok give me a few moments....
Then after going to make a cup of tea and finally returning to the phone...
Dad: Who are you?
Scammer: I was phoning about your computer...
Dad: It's in the other room....should I go and turn it on?
etc..etc..
Asterisk on Raspberry Pi (Score:2)
I have a nice array of filters that simply allow these guys to leave a message which is then carefully sent to /dev/null
My phones in my house don't even ring.
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Is this a US thing because I had a telemarketer call me about a decade ago. And this is my total experience with it.
Isn't there a privacy commission or economic institution in the US where you can complain and they take care of it for free? It doesn't always work over here but it takes 5 minutes and with some luck they get sued and have to pay a fine.
I thought there were laws in the US that does the same and give fines to telemarketers?-
Nope, Americans love being harassed on the phone by sociopaths, it is part of their culture I guess.
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It's a tradition around Christmastime for we Americans to roast chestnuts by the fire, sing carols, and allow ourselves to be harassed by sociopaths. Egg nog follows after a good scam call. Jollity ensues.