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Family or Marriage

TV Guide needs to update its subscriber list [I see dead people]

April 15, 2008
By Michael Townsend
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So I got an IM from my mom today that she received a call from TV Guide for my Gram’s second husband (we’ll call him “Bubba”). The agent wanted to know if Bubba wanted to renew his subscription to the TV Guide magazine.

But there’s just one problem…

Bubba’s been dead for over 25 years!

My mom informed the agent of this and the agent didn’t know what to say. After a little stuttering, the agent told my mom she would remove his name from their list. My mom silently cheered that at least one telemarketer would stop calling!

As a note, my family has not received any TV Guide magazines at that address for decades (if they ever did in the first place) so obviously the agent was phishing for a new subscription. She probably noticed the listed age of my deceased grandfather and thought she could trick him. Either that or someone has been getting a free TV Guide every week for the last 25 years!

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About Michael Townsend

Michael Townsend founded CleverDude.com in June 2006 while working as a technical analyst in the Washington, D.C. area. A Penn State graduate, he built the site as a side project alongside a white-collar career that included earning a master’s degree and multiple promotions.

In five years he wrote nearly 1,300 articles on personal finance and life lessons drawn from his own experience. The blog grew from a hobby into a recognized early voice in the personal-finance community and generated meaningful revenue. He sold the site in 2010, continued as a guest contributor through 2015, and returned in 2023 after further career advances, paying off his home, and extensive travel.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Laura says

    April 15, 2008 at 7:20 am

    Wow, that was a strange phone call. I kept getting TV guides for months even after I canceled. Eventually the stopped sending them to me.

    Reply
  2. Fiscal Musings says

    April 15, 2008 at 10:16 am

    I’ve had this type of phishing call too many times. They call and ask for someone I don’t know. I tell them they have the wrong number, but they then proceed to tell me about some product or offer.

    I don’t want the offer to begin with, but do they think I’ll want something that was meant for someone else?

    Reply
  3. Money Blue Book says

    April 15, 2008 at 11:05 pm

    That reminds me of my friend who got the old number of a local Taco Bell branch when she changed to a new cell phone line. For months she’d get regular phone calls from random guys asking about Taco Bell employment…heh

    Reply

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