The Consumerist: Need to Dodge Collection Calls? Just Use the Googles

Ben Popken, managing editor of the online blog, The Consumerist, celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by passing along a futuristic parable that – based on the reckless nature of its advice – could lead one to think it may have inspired by a pint or two of Guinness.

Tech-savvy consumer, John, tells The Consumerist that he simply deploys the block caller feature in Google Voice and through the magic of the Interwebs “scammy” debt collector calls don’t even ring on his phone. Amazing!

Sometime down the road, John says, the calls start up again (presumably because, you know, John bought a bunch of space-age technologies like computer and/or time machines on his MasterCard and decided he didn’t have to pay for all that cool stuff), but in the mean time John enjoys several carefree months of blissfully shirking his financial obligations.

While Popken doesn’t explicitly advocate John’s stratagem, he does mention that this Jedi Mind Trick is a far easier way to thwart “fraudulent callers” than the old-timey advice The Consumerist had given at the beginning of March (“Trick Fraudulent Debt Collectors With Google Voice”).

If technology continues to advance at this meteoric pace, humankind’s long awaited dream of jetpacks for everyone will soon be realized. Better start hiring robot collectors now.

Collectors: To Infinity, and beyond! Photo credit - Lazurite