Tim Dowling, a columnist, recounts a peculiar scam call that left him more bewildered than threatened. When his phone rang with an unknown number, he answered, hoping it was a contact for an interview. Instead, a male voice greeted him with, “Hello, is that Tim, yeah?” followed by urgent questions about his account.
The caller struggled to maintain composure, audibly giggling and snorting before Dowling hung up. “It still hurts to be randomly rung up and laughed at,” Dowling writes. He later shared the incident with his son, who also found it amusing, leading Dowling to question the professionalism of modern scammers.
Dowling reflects on the blurring line between fraud and incompetence. He recalls a previous incident where a text claimed a parcel was delivered to a man named Dave, with a photo of a stranger holding his package. The parcel arrived later, leaving him puzzled. “Every example of either feels like a deliberate attempt to confuse me,” he says.
In the past, Dowling used a fictional PA named Ron to fend off cold callers, a persona he describes as his “truest self.” After the scam call, he briefly adopted Ron’s tone for a subsequent unknown call, only to realize it was the interview contact he had been expecting. “Thank you so much for doing this!” he said, switching to a bright tone.
