Seems to be an active year for church harassment. Since January of this year, my house has been "visited" 4 times already. (I was not home for any of them, thankfully.)

Twice now the RS president has dropped by and left written messages for me.

Both times, she has requested *my* personal info (all they have is my maiden name, my birthdate, and, frustratingly, my home address), and both times the only info she has given me in return is her name and telephone number, with firm requests to call her.

I wouldn't call her anyway, but I used the opportunity to alert my kids to scam and fraud tactics. Scammers will use whatever info they have on a person to get more info they can use out of them.

So I asked my kids to think about what would happen if I used my personal phone to call her back, even just to tell her to stop bothering me? Boom. TSCC would then have my phone number. Based on what they have done over the years with the limited info they DO have, I can only imagine the fresh hell it would be if they had access to my phone number too.

I suppose I could enable caller id blocking (for a fee? I don't know.) I wouldn't want it enabled for all my calls though, because I actually want my name/number to pop up on calls to friends and family. But the point to my kids was to think about actions that others want you to take, and think about the possible consequences.

Dealing with TSCC has been a great education for my never-mo, non-religious kids: Don't join anything without researching it first, don't give out personal information unless it's your idea, don't believe something just because someone else tells you to. And don't trust anyone who doesn't respect you and won't stop when you tell them "no".



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/2015 03:10PM by fortheloveofhops.

Yep, Calling her from your ohone would be a bad idea. Ignore her, but she will just keep coming. Or go across town and call her from a pay phone (if you can find one) and tell her to back off!

Yep! I thought about using a pay phone… and then it struck me that I haven't even seen one for a really long time!

Maybe one of those prepaid go phones would be worth looking into. Hmm.

Or, I could just wait 'til she comes again, and have a talk with her about how inappropriate her church has been and send her off with a copy of the CES letter. Heh.

I just hate feeling jumpy when my own doorbell rings, you know? And I hate confrontations. Ugh. I can hold my own, usually, it's just when I'm very upset I get all flustered and inarticulate.

They still have pay phones where you live?

Go to your health clinic, especially if it's a HMO. There're always courtesy phones, and call from there.

Best if it's from the Free clinic.

Awesome idea! Thanks tumwater.

I bought myself a call blocker for the home phone as my Christmas present to me. I love this thing. My house is so much quieter. You can input numbers or press a button on the device when someone you want to block calls you.

This isn't an advertisement. I won't mention which one I bought. There are several on the market. Look at the reviews. I think a product like this would have a definite appeal for ex-mormons. I use it for the telemarketers and other non-mormon scammers.