When there’s something strange in your neighborhood, you call Ghostbusters. When there’s someone dangerous lurking, like a criminal who escaped from the van that was transporting him to prison, authorities use One Call Now to get the word out and recapture him. That’s what happened on Friday in Massachusetts.
According to Boston.com, a man escaped police custody while being transported to a medium-security facility in Bridgewater. He managed to evade the unit for two hours, during which officers used One Call Now’s group notification service to coordinate dog units and helicopters to bring him back into custody.
You may know One Call Now as a helpful communications tool for your local sports team or church, or you may be using it to communicate with customers or staff, but to your local police department, it’s a life saver. Police departments all over the US utilize One Call Now every day not only for staffing needs, but also in the search for and apprehension of criminals.
During Police Week, we honor those officers who lost their lives protecting our communities. We thank the peace officers who put their lives at risk every day in order to protect ours. Keeping communities safe is no easy task for authorities, but One Call Now helps to protect, inform and engage officers and their units using a single call, text, or e-mail, keeping them— and you—out of harm’s way.
Is that call dangerous?
We’ve all received that phone call from an “unknown” number. At first, you think it might be important; maybe you’re job-hunting and think it could be an employer calling to set up an interview. What if it’s that guy you met on Saturday? He was cute, maybe he’s calling to ask you out.
Then you answer the phone. It’s not the job, it’s not the guy – it’s a bank, and they say there’s been an error in their system, and they just need your account number so that they can make sure your money is available to you. Better yet, it’s a representative from a major cruise line claiming that you’ve won a free cruise, and they’ll just need to ask you a few questions before they send your tickets.
By this point, I sincerely hope you’ve hung up the phone and reported their number to Scambusters, 800notes, or a similar organization, as someone has just tried to cheat you out of your money, and possibly your identity. How did they get your number? They have ways. Some companies will sell your number purely for profit, and you end up on a list as a potential victim for identity theft. Someone will call you in hopes of convincing you to give out private information over the phone. They’re clever, too: they will do their absolute best to convince you that you need to give them the information they seek. They are manipulative and they prey on ignorance – they want to make you believe that it’s normal to give out your credit card number, your bank account number, or even your social security number over the phone to a total stranger. Please, understand that you never, ever need to give that sort of information out over the phone to anyone, not even if the person is actually from your bank or your credit card company. The people who need to know that information about you already have it and do not need complete numbers over the phone. Keep that in mind when you get a phone call, text message, or even an e-mail that claims to need your personal and private information. That, and let’s face it: as hard as we wish, cruise lines are not going to randomly call and say you’ve won a free cruise.
So, how can you tell when you’re being scammed? Pay attention to the following things to protect yourself:
- Is there a good reason for this company to call you? At One Call Now, we call to give you urgent and informative messages regarding your business, church, sports team, club, or other organization. Companies should not be calling you to gather private, personal information. If they say you’ve won a prize, they should already have all the personal information they need from you if you actually entered/were entered into any contest.
- Does the person calling you claim to be from your bank or other financial institution? Your bank or financial institution already has the numbers they need from you. You should never need to give complete numbers to them over the phone, text, or e-mail. If you have any concerns regarding your bank account or finances, hang up and call your bank or financial institution. They are the people who can tell you if there is a problem with your account.
- Are they insisting upon getting private information from you? You have the right to ask questions and get informative answers. If the caller is insisting upon getting private information, even when you know they shouldn’t need it, they are trying to manipulate. Hang up and report the number to Scambusters.org or 800notes.com.
The next time you get a call from an unknown number, listen carefully to what the person is saying. If a situation seems fraudulent or too good to be true, it probably is. Remember to think twice about giving away any personal information, don’t be afraid to ask questions, and don’t let anyone intimidate you into giving away private information over the phone.
As a leader among message notification providers, we are frustrated by those who use the phone for fraudulent purposes. At One Call Now, we specialize in protecting, informing and engaging groups by sending their messages with a single call, text or email. We have multiple security measures to protect your private information and will not divulge your personal data to outside parties. Additionally, we never SPAM— our recipients are all members of the organizations from which they receive messages. We hope that you find this information helpful. Please pass it along to anyone you feel it would benefit.
The Supreme Court spent three days listening to arguments on whether or not the Family Health Protection Act I (actual name vs Obama Care!) is constitutional.
Hundreds vied for a seat to watch the spectacle. As the last time the court ruled on powers of congress that mandated purchase of specific items was 70 years ago when the court ruled unanimously that Congress did have this power.
Today our managers met to discuss our company’s health care renewal plans.
The bad news from our agent? Our plan rates are going up by 13%, but we decided to absorb 100% of the increase for all employees. We also decided to triple life insurance— and pay for it all as a company enhanced benefit. We pay 100% of health care for all employees, and 80-100 100% for family plan based on tenure.
Having spent time in an Emergency Room recently, it’s disheartening to see those with no choice, no family doctor, no coverage and no prescription plan who beg and plead for help. As an executive, it’s frustrating to know that their unpaid bills are the major cause of our insurance plan increases…
Many will argue that no one should be forced to pay for health care if they don’t want it. Some compare it to being forced to eat broccoli. That analogy is wrong. People choose their vegetables, but they do not choose their genes, viruses, bacterial infections, cardiovascular disease, or accidental injuries.
We provide company paid health care for everyone because it helps our people, their families, our community (and yes, our barely perceptible turnover). Given time, The new mandate will lower our overall costs, while eliminating the threat of uncovered catastrophic illness for all.
How much more justification is necessary?
1974 Xenia, Ohio Tornado
Xenia, Ohio is very well known for its dances with tornadoes over the years. In 1974 it experienced a devastating hit that leveled the town, and again took a massive blow in April of 2000. So, when this week, during an unusually active storm season, Xenia Schools sent out an urgent parent broadcast message using our system… we thought the worst. It turns out they’d only had a power outage at the school and needed to let parents and staff know that school would be cancelled until the repairs were made.
That’s the beauty of One Call Now’s message notification service. Whether it’s the emergency you expect, or the one you don’t, you’re always prepared. We breathed a sigh of relief for the City of Xenia, and they did, too. They’re prepared. Are you?
Even though introduced in 1886 by Alexander Graham Bell; fewer than 50% of homes had a phone 50 years later in 1946. When I was a kid, our home still had ‘party line’ service, where 5 families shared a single line running down the street; until 1976. If you wanted to know what your neighbors were doing? No need to ‘friend’ them; just pick up your phone, and listen in on their conversation! The telephone was a great device to bring us closer, and connect us with friends and family and I was always fascinated by the technology behind it.
As early as the 1950′s, Ma Bell, as we lovingly called AT&T, tried to get away from operator dialed calls; and found ways to use a variety of clicks, tones and whistles to connect and route calls. A fascinating NPR story on Radio Lab on the sounds that drove Telco is here… The story speaks of a blind boy Joe Engressia, Jr. who could mimic these sounds to control phones with his perfect pitch voice.
The right sounds could cause a pay phone to connect calls to California without inserting money (and a trans-continental call was about $10.00 a MINUTE in today’s dollars. The clicks and whistles could connect a call in about a minute. Although most long distance calls were connected by an Operator, because without perfect pitch; you needed a perfect substitute– a helpful, American based Operator; who typically worked in the local phone company office down the street. What a great time when your voice could be heard thousands of miles away, after waiting just a few minutes to reach the Operator and have your call connected.
In 1964, AT&T (The nation’s only phone company at the time) introduced touch tone dialing at the 1964 NY World’s Fair. I was amazed by the ability to press keys and ‘dial’ a number compared to needing to call an Operator or slowly spin a rotary dial. It was ten years before the phone system nationwide (and in our home in New Jersey) was upgraded sufficiently to allow anyone to order touch tone service.
The now familiar DTMF (Dual Tone Multi-Frequency) tones you hear on virtually every phone, and replicated on many cell phones, were interpreted by telephone company circuitry as the numbers you dialed to connect the call. This was really cool leading-edge technology in 1964 and is still used as-is in every land-line phone.
Now I get impatient when the iPhone display says ‘connecting’ for more than a second or two; and technology introductions are seen as failures if they are not universally adopted by 80% of Americans within five years. Rotary phones, party lines and local operators have been replaced, several times over, as we seek ever more sophisticated and faster ways to connect with people, but the principle hasn’t changed. Information must be sent to others frequently, efficiently and smoothly. Messages are sent to Protect people, Inform them, and Engage them. We have so many new ways to send them, and to block, parry and avoid them.
I’m excited about the ever growing ways we have to make sure critical messages DO get through.
