Tackling the mobile menace

Stop me if the following situation sounds familiar to you – you are in the middle of an important lecture when your phone starts ringing. If you don't answer it, it keeps ringing, the dull trilling vibration echoing throughout the class, leaving you unable to focus. You rush out, embarrassed, in the middle of the lecture, pick up and find that it's none other than customer care, bombarding you with inane questions. Do you want such and such as your new caller tune? Do you need to activate your new 6G internet service? Would you like to buy a house?

Here is a quick list of tips and tricks to remember when faced with such annoying phone calls.

AUTO-GENERATED CALLS

Auto generated calls are the easiest to tackle. Most of the calls you get are of this type. Pick up these calls and you will suddenly be bombarded by robotic intonations on the other side. These are easy to identify – numbers like 20202, 8080, 788 etc. fall under this category and the best thing you can do is just ignore them.

CALLS FROM CUSTOMER CARE

Sometimes, telemarketing companies call their customers to inquire on whether their network works fine and other such queries. Except for one or two rare cases, these calls remain brief and less bothersome. But if they keep on calling, you can always block the number and save yourself some time.

FRAUD CALLS

Fraud calls occur when people call you impersonating someone else – the creativity on display here can be quite astounding. They will pretend to be agencies and organizations, telling their victims that they have won a lottery and that they will receive the prize after depositing a sum of money. There are numerous methods that they can use against you and the best way to identify them is this – if it is too good to be true, then it probably is.

Sexual harassment: In Bangladesh, the most common type of call is the "phrendship" calls. These are the optimistically inclined and downright creepy guys who will call you at all hours of the day, just to make 'friendship.' What is worse is how incessant these people are – they will harass you for weeks, months, even years, calling you from various numbers to do nothing but waste your time and mood.

In such cases, if blocking the number doesn't help, consider handing over their numbers to the police or RAB. Filing a complaint against these numbers is the first step into addressing this alarming issue. If you recharge on your phone, make sure you do it from a safe and known store. If that's not an option, buy recharge cards as the creeps usually collect these numbers from these stores after they have just witnessed you leaving the store.

The mobile menace is an alarming issue and even if the fraud calls and the annoying customer care services can be stopped easily, the issue of harassment, especially women, over the phone should be addressed more seriously.

Photo: Collected