Susan Writes

I answered my mobile phone because I thought I recognized the number that was calling. Wasn’t that the number a friend gave me yesterday and I didn’t put it in my contact list? 

“Hello,” I said.
A soft southern female voice said, “Is this Vicky?”  I was wrong, but the rest of the conversation was one that makes me chuckle, even now, three months later.

Me:  Who are you calling, please?
Caller: Vicky Henderson
Me: I think you have the wrong number.

Caller: Is this Vicky?

Me:  No this isn’t Vicky. I think you called a wrong number. My number is 252- _ _ _ _.
Caller: That’s the number I called. 

Me: But it’s not Vicky s number
Caller: Well, that’s strange.

Strange, indeed.  Bless her heart.  During our next few minutes of conversation, I’m not sure that Caller ever believed that I hadn’t stolen Vicky’s number.  She was sure that she always called Vicky using my phone number. 

This wrong number call, pleasant and entertaining, was worth answering.  But because I don’t want my phone to ring for unwanted calls, now I have those calls silenced. On the iPhone settings, I chose Phone and clicked silence unknown callers.  Calls from unknown numbers are silenced, sent to voice mail, and displayed on the recent list. Incoming calls continue to ring from people in my contacts, recent outgoing calls, and Siri suggestions.

You know what seems strange?  That incoming calls continue to ring based on Siri’s suggestions.  How does Siri determine from whom I receive calls? What’s her criteria?  Who is Siri, anyway?  According to my phone, Siri is a personal assistant.  Imagine that.  A personal assistant that needs no training and knows the unexpected calls that I need to receive.  So, if a friend from long gone-by days calls, will Siri make my phone ring?  But Siri must be doing her job because since she has screened my calls, I haven’t received a signal voice mail from an unknown number, although many appear on my recent list.  

Thinking of strange phone incidents, years ago I received a call from my number.  This happened before I’d knew about spoofing when a someone disguises a number by changing the caller identification. I held my phone in my hand and was shocked that the call was from me.  I wonder is Siri would have accepted that call because, after all, it is a known number.

I don’t understand exactly how phones work.  As I kid I asked how my words could go through a wire all the way to my aunt’s house, and now it seems like magic that cell phones convert voices to electrical signals. And

it’s strange when the words Potential Spam and Spam Risk are displayed for incoming calls.  The word Spam brings on another column.  I’m glad Caller called and we talked.  Otherwise, I wouldn’t have put all these strange random thoughts together, and since I haven’t heard from Caller again, I assume she has Vicky’s number.

Filed under: Everyday Life | Tagged: phone call, wrong number |