That’s OK, it’s not like I actually NEED sleep or anything…

Right, time for a rant!  We have a page on the site that gives my contact details, including both UK and USA numbers so that law enforcement or the media can contact me.  On the page it clearly states that it is ONLY for those purposes, explains that all the the calls are transferred to my mobile phone if I’m not at the PC and are answered in the UK, says to only call between certain times and even has a clock showing the time in the UK.  Most nights I’m lucky if I get to bed before 2am.  Guess what happened this morning.

Check out the time shown.  Half past five in the morning!  The sad thing is, it’s not a one off.  Many people see it as fine to call me up at ungodly hours of the night because they can’t be bothered actually reading.  In almost every case it’s happened, the person calling as been a victim of webcam blackmail.  There are links to where to go if you’re the victim of webcam blackmail all over the site.  On some pages there are 5 different links to blackmailscams.com, one of which even flashes!  We clearly state that if you call the number for any reason other than a media or police request, the call will be ignored.  And yet, with alarming regularity, I get calls from people who apparently see the rules as not applying to them.  How do you think your car mechanic would react if you decided to drag him out of bed at 3am because your car wouldn’t start?  Exactly!  We do all we can to help, but there are limits.  On the occasions I have spoken to these people (and these include while walking around the supermarket, while driving – on a hands free system of course, and even in a hospital waiting room) the questions they ask have already been answered on the site numerous times before if they’d actually taken the time to read.   Let me ask you this question.  If someone can’t follow one simple instruction, what are the odds they can follow the series of steps they need to deal with their scam?