Something's seriously wrong with this...

[saifai]

A company just called looking for my neighbor.  *boggles* She gave me her name and company, and mentioned I had a neighbor she was looking for.  I asked, "Okay, you're seriously calling me looking for my neighbor?  Why?" 

How did she respond?  *rolls eyes*  "Well, because I'm Anna.  I told you that."  I waited for her to continue, as there's no way that could possibly be it.  She sighed and said, "Because I want to send her a business letter, and I'm really sorry to bother you, but their phone isn't working or answering or something. "  Right, which means they probably don't want to talk to you.  Let's remember folks that my neighbor works for the phone company.

I just told the woman, "So send her the letter, but I don't think you need to call me to get permission to do that do you?  I can't help you more than that."

I tell you, that is the strangest call I've ever gotten.  Now I'm wondering, how in the hell did they get my number as a person that's their neighbor?  *hears the x-files theme*  I don't even think we're listed.

Oh, and before I forget... the job update.  I've had to wait an extra day or two to gather new references *hugs all the special folks out there*.  I got just one more to go, so I'll probably be applying this afternoon.  *gr*  I'm rather pleased about the reaction in their office so far.  Some of the folks are excited I'm applying and are getting anxious.  Also, the lady who will be interviewing and training me one of hubby's friends.  *crosses fingers*

ETA: My VCR ate my Star Wars episode I tape, and won't give it back. *shakes VCR* Give it back, damn you!!! Give it back!!! *pouts* And I was really looking forward to giving into my urge to watch all the episodes in one sitting.

Comments

[elsaf]

She found your phone number in the Bresser's Cross Index, most likely. It gives the phone numbers for every address that doesn't have a specifically unlisted number.

She looks up your neighbor's address, then gets the addresses on either side and calls those phone numbers.

[saifai.livejournal.com]

Huh. Didn't know about the existence of that. How odd. I still can't figure out why she would need to call me to send a letter though. o.0

[girlnovember.livejournal.com]

Ok, Saifai-- I HAD A SIMILAR THING HAPPEN about a week ago. Some guy, sounded in his 50's, called up on a Sunday evening asking about a neighbor 2 houses down from me. I knew that the people that used to live at that address- didn't know their names though -- had moved two months ago, but I didn't know them personally since they were rather reclusive (um, like me). He gave me some strange story about how his organization (the name of which I'd forgotten by this point because paranoia had set in-- Who is this freak? How did he get my number?) liked to check up on their neighbors from time to time when they hadn't heard from them. Um, ok. Still don't know these people, so I can't help you, Sir. He started getting irritated! "They lived at 657..." Yes, yes, yes, and what part of "I didn't know them, sorry." did he not understand? I reiterated that they had moved out. He went on: Where did they move to? Paranoia notched up another level. What was his deal? If I didn't know them when they lived here, what were the chances they would have told me where they were moving to? Finally, getting rather curt, mainly because this guy was freaking me out, had my phone number, and wouldn't let up, he agreed with an irritated tone that maybe he could find out where they had gone via the post office and a forwarding address. Wished him luck and silently bid him good riddance.

Now you have me wondering what this was, in light of hearing someone else with a similar story.

[saifai.livejournal.com]

Phew. So glad to hear someone else has had that experience. elsaf suggested they got the number from something called the "Bresser's Cross Index". Apparently they list the surrounding numbers for any listed person, so long as it's not specifically unlisted.

I've never heard of it before, but there you go. Completely freaks me out though. I just guess I can't figure out why they'd bother calling to send a letter. Obviously something else was up.

[girlnovember.livejournal.com]

I know there are lists out there like that. But the fact that this man became irritated... what did he expect me to say once I indicated that I didn't know these people? The suspicion and the irritation of the call stayed with me for a few hours, because I kept wrestling with it in my mind. If this guy was checking up on a neighbor as he said he was doing-- presumably someone he'd talked to before since he said he hadn't heard from them in a while, then it would stand to reason that if they wanted to talk to him they'd have told him/them that they were moving and left a forwarding number/address.

List or not, the call was unusual and left me really unsettled. -- great story plot though! :O)

[suki-blue.livejournal.com]

Re: VCR. That happened to me once, i never got the tape back :o(

Your're clever arn't you? What is hotlinking and what's all this stuff about bandwidth???

[saifai.livejournal.com]

Hotlinking is when you link to an image on someone's site for your own use. It implies without permission, but that's not necessarily true for the term.

Any time something is accessed on a site, it takes up visitor space called "bandwidth". Everyone's got limits on how much visitor space they can use. If people are hotlinking to your images without permission, it uses their bandwidth and doesn't leave any space left for visitors to their site. Also? It costs a money to purchase additional bandwidth.

Generally speaking, if you want to link to images without hotlinking to someone else's account or site, then setup up what an online photo account that allows hotlinking. Photobucket is the one I use. Yes, I have my own site, but my bandwidth use every month is extremely high. I try not to use it for personal stuff.

[suki-blue.livejournal.com]

Oh i get it. So is it the same when i downloaded one of your icons by right clicking, getting the URL address from properties and then chose download from URL address in my icon user page? Did that hotlink it? or just download it?? Sorry, i must sound like a complete idiot!!

[saifai.livejournal.com]

Actually, if you past the URL from properties in an icon box, it should be just a download. It's when you access the file from it's directly from it's location on the server that it becomes hotlinking (ie you type past the URL for the image in your browser and hit go).

Same thing with online videos. If you choose to play it rather than download it first, it's hotlinking the file. That's why people always say to right-click and download first, as playing the file from their site takes up bandwidth.