Hey! I won a Myers Gift Voucher today

I was really excited today, I was given a gift voucher for $50.00.  I got a phone call and when I answered the lovely young lady with a funny American accent told me.

"Congratulations Mrs Ford (I am not Mrs Ford, but for a $50 gift voucher I was keeping that quiet) you have won gift voucher for Coles/Myers for $50.00. PLUS (she said in a very upbeat tone) you have gone into draw for $1000 prize!"

My lucky day.  

She started to ramble off what I had to do to go into the prize draw, but I am no gambler, and I thought I would just take the prize I had already won and leave it at that.  Share the luck around, someone else could go into the draw for the chance at $1000.  I told Ms Lovely American Voice

"That's ok, just send me the Myers voucher.  Are you going to post it to me?"

She said 'Excuse Mrs Ford' (it was a American accent with Asian inflection).  I repeated my question about if they were going to post my prize.  

She laughed, nervously.  "Oh No Mrs Ford, you have to take survey first"

"Huh?"  I was crest fallen.  "So I didn't win the voucher?  You are not going to post it to me?"

"Yes, yes.  You win voucher."

"Good" I said relieved, "then you will need my address to post it to?"

"Mrs Ford ..." (I was now getting a little miffed at being called Mrs Ford and as I knew exactly why she used that name I was suspecting this was a scam!  Nooo.  Really?)  Twelve years ago, the phone number we have now, belonged to a Mrs Ford.  So I know that anyone who calls asking for her is using a VERY old data base.

I cut her off mid-sentence and stopped playing with the poor girl.

"Well if you are not going to post the prize I just won, I don't think I want to talk to you anymore." (Yeah, what a sore loser I am)

She tried hard to re-engage me, but my heart was broken.

I hung up, sad and deflated.  Dreams of what I would spend at Myers, or even Coles, flashed before my eyes. $50 of Lindt!!

I know this was a mean way to deal with telemarketers, but we get, on average, 2 or 3 of these calls a DAY!  I should know better than to answer the phone, normally I let it go to voice mail, but I am sick of having to avoid real phone calls because of these scammers.  I swore at one the other day, and it made me feel bad.  I had just hung up from one moments before.  The phone had gone flat so I put it on the charger, which is at the other end of the house.  Plonked in my chair, had a tiny sip of my tea, didn't even have time to say 'ahh' and the phone rang.  Thinking it can't possibly be another sales call so soon, assuming it must be a real phone call, I rushed off to answer it.  

Yep.  You guessed it.

"Hello Mrs Ford?"  

I am sorry, I cant actually repeat what I said next.  It would be bleeped out.