LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY multiclassgeek)

A friend of mine asked for help in attempting to get a handle on the source of a particularly unpleasant cold-call. It seems as if some pollster got hold of their (ex-directory) number, and was looking to do some *very* selective sampling for their survey.


Today I had the most bizarre cold call. It's left me slightly shaken, fairly shocked and wondering who the hell these people were and how they got my phone number as we're not listed in the phonebook.

The call began with 'Kelly' on the end of the line asking me for about a minute of my time. She asked for 'the lady of the house' (a loaded phrase that in itself left me with raised hackles and wondering what 'moral guardian' type group was on the line and I wasn't wrong either!) and then told me this wasn't a sales call and would just take a moment. She started telling me how parents of under-16s are often worried about violence and inappropriate content on TV and asked me how I felt about that. She seemed momentarily floored when I said I had no idea as I was not a parent myself and as an ex-journalist I might have views on censorship that differ from hers. My response prompted a diatribe about statistics on violence on TV and she wasn't listening to a thing I said at that stage, more or less just shouting down the phone.

I ended up saying I was ending the call and putting the phone down, slightly shaken. I'd love to know *who* she called for and I'd be having words. It's a call centre, as there's no traceable number after the call, I already tried.

Whilst I realise this may not be a Dominionist group behind this, it sounds like the sort of thing they might try and pull (especially since the city where she lives has an Assemblies Megachurch in it), but I'm not aware of it having happened in the UK before. I was wondering if there was any precedent for it in other Dominionist groups? Are there any factions which have it as a 'signature tactic'?

Ideally, we'd like to try and get an idea of what (if any) Dominionist group is behind this, so that Action Can Be Taken, but any help that any of you can provide will be welcomed, even if it's just eliminating a Dominionist-friendly group as a probable/possible source of this.