How to deal with strangers

During this season, I receive a lot of phone calls from numbers that are marked private, restricted, 800, or in some way do not let the person receiving the call know who is calling. This is not bad as long as the person calling clearly identifies themselves at the beginning of the conversation. Recently, I received one of these calls and the caller was extremely soft spoken and difficult for me to understand who had called. They wanted me to give them names of people. I hope I was not rude to them when I could not clearly understand who they were or what they wanted.

March 9, 2012 4:42 pm

During this season, I receive a lot of phone calls from numbers that are marked private, restricted, 800, or in some way do not let the person receiving the call know who is calling. This is not bad as long as the person calling clearly identifies themselves at the beginning of the conversation. Recently, I received one of these calls and the caller was extremely soft spoken and difficult for me to understand who had called. They wanted me to give them names of people. I hope I was not rude to them when I could not clearly understand who they were or what they wanted.

Seniors or any other citizen, I want to say please be aware of who has called to contact you. Don not hesitate to ask them to repeat their name and contact information. If it is a valid phone call from a valid person or agency then they will be more than glad to tell you again who they are and they will be glad to speak up at a volume that can be easily understood. This is especially important to people like myself. If you call someone please be sure they have clearly understood who you are, what you are selling or what they need from you.

Seniors, never give information about whether you live alone, your bank accounts or how many cats or dogs you have in your home. If someone knocks on your door, please have a way to verify who the person is before you open the door and allow them to enter your home.

If in doubt as to who a person is, what they want, where they are calling from or how they got to your front door, please error on the side of safety to yourself. If the person has a valid reason for contacting you, they will call you back and they will identify themselves to be sure you know who they are, what they need and how to contact them or the agency they work for.

Safety is very important to any person but especially to a senior who might be living alone, to a female who might be living alone or with small children. Keep yourself and your family safe first! If a person does not identify themself then be rude if you feel it to be necessary, but be sure you feel secure before you give out any information about yourself, your family or your home.

Martha Yount

Oak Harbor