Marketing consumer products over the phone is called telemarketing. A recent study indicated that products and services sold via telemarketing amount to hundreds of billions of dollar each year. Political bodies, charity organizations, and various other organizations to raise funds and invite donations also use telemarketing. Public opinion polls are also conducted with the help of telemarketing.

Tip! Congress actually got into the act in 1991. What they did was pass an act that granted consumers certain rights to defend themselves against these annoying telemarketing calls, no offense to those in the industry.

Just a few minutes ago I was debating what to write about this week — something interesting, perhaps, or maybe it was about time to give some credit to snails, I thought. Then, by some random stroke of luck, fate or writer’s lightning (a term I created just now), I received a phone call from a credit card company…