That annoying b---, Dorothy

“Hi guys, this is Dorothy, from The Mortgage Broker.”

When my cell phone rings, it takes me about 3 syllables to recognize this junk call. This time I listened for an extra 10 seconds because I always hang up before the identification of the “company.” I seem to get these calls about once a week, and it’s the only scammer who’s called my cell phone more than once.

Normally I try to avoid off-topic postings, but this is something that affects just about anyone in the US who owns a cell phone. A simple Google search shows that columnists and bloggers have been writing about this for months. It’s been logged on the wonderful WhoCalled.US site under the number I saw, plus a least two other numbers.

People who have looked into this — particularly those on the alleged do not call list — claim it’s illegal. Certainly those stupid enough to buy the “1 percent” mortgage (with an APR including fees likely upwards of 7%) are being misled if not defrauded. And there’s the waste of time and airtime charges, multiplied by millions of victims. The impact of each infraction is fairly small, but the scope of the abuse is huge.

Politicians always like to grandstand about fighting fraud and crime. Why haven’t the NAAGs gone after this scam?

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