"But I'm offering you a 25% discount!"

the voice at the other end of the phone tells me, "I'm not selling anything, just offering you the discount."

Er, sorry but you are trying to sell me something. In doing so you are also breaking the law. 

A plus side to Covid - if there was a plus side at all - was that there were not nearly as many of those infuriating telemarketing calls. This household went on to the "DNC" (Do Not Call) register as soon as possible. 

Of course we would still get calls. There were businesses that tried to tell us we were on their registers and that they could call because of that. There were others who claimed to be "charities" - and genuine charities are exempt. Political parties are exempt too. 

The Senior Cat, generally a most patient and polite individual, would give the non-legitimate callers very short shrift. He hated being interrupted by something like that when he was in the middle of doing something else. I would tell him, "Don't hurry to the phone. If they know you they will wait. If they don't know you then it doesn't matter."

And still they would ring. Some of them would persist. I have lost count of the times we have been told that our internet connection is going to be lost. The Senior Cat's response to that would be a puzzled, "But there is no computer in here." (Perfectly true - there was no computer in that room.) He never bought anything from Amazon or ever gave out his credit card number over the phone. 

So the "discount" people? They wanted to talk to "Mr or Mrs..." The voice sounded well educated Chinese. The voice even gave the name of the firm for whom they were supposedly working. I recognised it. My parents actually went on a short tour to a remote area with the same company - about thirty years ago. They had never had any contact since. 

Something about all this did not feel right. It wasn't just that I thought it had to be a scam. I looked the company up on line. Yes, they were still in business. I emailed them and told them we had been contacted. I said I found it unlikely they were contacting anyone from so far back but perhaps they should be aware that, as they would have known, both the recipients of their "offer" would be centenarians. 

There was panic at the other end. They contacted me. There might have been contact details because they kept records for "about ten years" but this was far longer than that. . Someone else had just contacted them wanting to take up the discount offer - an offer which of course does not exist. Fortunately the other person had been cautious enough to check by calling them back on another phone. I was thanked. If I ever wanted to book a trip with them they would give me a small discount in appreciation.

I left it at that. I have no desire to go on any holiday they offer but the short trip my parents took was well run and they still get good reviews on line. 

But, as I have just said, something didn't feel right. I knew it was a scam but they were not just scamming me, they were scamming a legitimate business. Someone had somehow managed to get hold of old business records and were using them for their own illegal purposes. 

Telemarketing can be a vicious criminal activity.