Saturday, August 29, 2009
Spring 2009 Building Department Suggestions
Pulled straight from the pages of the Spring 2009 Midlothian Tartan Tidings, its always good for homeowners and landlords to stay savvy on building department rules and regulations. With the promise of at least a few more months of construction weather (fingers crossed!), here’s what the Midlothian building department wants you to know.
Spring 2009 Tartan Tidings “Chat With the Chief”
Having recently received reports of yet another round of software-driven automated messages causing phones to ring, I though this particular “Chat With the Chief” could help enhance the savvy factor of these types of communication attempts. Just as Schavone points out about cold calls regarding debt consolidation in his article, this most recent wave came in the format of first stating the name of a person and then instructing the listener to hang up if they are not the person. Well…I wasn’t the person they were asking for, but I also didn’t invite them to contact me, so I decided to at least listen to the rest of the message since they already had been rude enough not to validate and verify their database before calling.
Although the recorded storyline runs similiar to what bill collectors have used in the past, there was no true identifier as to the source of the call and the command to call them back at an 800 number if you are the person the recording requested.
Unfortunately, these types of schemes are not used exclusively by bill collectors and there are a lot of other ways your personal information can be compromised when reversing the communication connection from them calling you to you calling into their equipment.
Do not hesitate to contact the Midlothian Police Department if you are being harassed, even with these types of phone calls. Please use judgment when discerning if your reporting an incident demands reaching out via the 911 system or if a simple call to the non-emergency number can accomplish the desired results of at least reporting the event.
And now back to Schavone’s message from the Tartan Tidings! 
