The phone calls were relentless. Some were legal but exploitive: home warranties, medicare advantage, life insurance, magazine subscriptions, political donations, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up buttons. Others were phishing: there’s a problem with your bank account, you’ve won a prize, correct the information for your credit card. Still more were straight-up theft: pay this overdue bill, you owe taxes, your grandchild needs bail money.
What they all had in common was they did not stop. The phone rang multiple times an hour. Clearly, my mom’s number had been added to a list somewhere of Seniors Who Answer Their Phones and are Easy Marks.