what do you mean i can't use your phone??

[Mr Hero]

The phone I used to call the police was a cell phone, not a landline.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

The phone I used to call the police was a cell phone, not a landline.

Weird. Guess a lot of people just have a cell phone rather than both a landline and a cell phone. I suppose I would just feel weird with only a cell phone.

[kpzra]

I had only a cell for years, it made more sense considering how expensive they both were. If you wanted to call the police, I'd do it for you and once they were on the line I'd pass it over or put it on speaker phone.

[earl colby pottinger]

Mom is a wuss

Was your Mom able to collect any money from them to cover the charges?

She did not even try. Claiming she can not demand such from close relatives. And yes this sort thing has happen before.

While not looking forward to the event, I know my relatives are in for a big shock when my mom dies and they try to hit me up for items/money from her estate. My mom is a soft-touch, I am a hammer hand!

[Andara Bledin]

I keep my land line for emergencies (different 911 set-up), and as a number to give people I don't actually want to talk to.

I once loaned my cell phone (just after I got my shiny $500 smart phone, too) to a woman at a bus stop. She made the call she said she wanted to make, handed it back while thanking me, and we both went on our merry ways.

^-.-^

[Merriweather]

You see, if you had come to my house and asked to use my house phone I would be much more okay with that than someone walking up to me on the street and asking me to use my cell phone. One is much more liable to be stolen, and much more expensive to replace.. and has personal information, etc.

Though if you had walked up to me on the street and asked me to use my phone to call the police, I probably would've said, "I'll call the police, you tell me what happened and I'll relate it to them."

Being mugged a few times (well, ATTEMPTED muggings, they never worked bwahaha) has made me a bit more suspicious.

When out, though I would not give my phone to a stranger, I would offer to call police or other services if they said they needed them. If a person seems to be distressed (such as having been stranded or something), I'd even offer to call a friend or cab for them.

If someone came to my door, actually, I'd do exactly the same thing. Sure, you might not have to worry about having your phone stolen, but letting a stranger into your house could end up with an even worse problem than a stolen phone.

I hate to be distrusting, but I'm not going to put myself or my family into danger (I will, however, bend over backwards to help anyone in a way that won't put us in danger).

[MoonCat]

What Merriweather said.

It's one thing if it's an emergency. Getting mugged, being stranded somewhere without money to get home, something like, that's one thing. "Calling my hubby to say I'm going to be late" is not an emergency.

[VenomX]

People get mad at me when I tell them they can not use the phone where I work or use my cell phone.
Boss has said NO ONE uses the phone except to call 911.
And I am not handing over my iPhone. I cringed when I let my mom use it one day to talk to my brother.

If they ask to use the hone where I work I ask if it is an emergency. If they say no then I let them know the boss does not allow it. If yes I call 911 and hand the phone over.

[Pagan]

Weird. Guess a lot of people just have a cell phone rather than both a landline and a cell phone. I suppose I would just feel weird with only a cell phone.

Not weird at all. A lot of people don't have landlines anymore. That being said....

I keep my land line for emergencies (different 911 set-up), and as a number to give people I don't actually want to talk to.

Which is exactly why I do still have a landline. Telemarketers are starting to ignore the DNC list, political calls are starting to ramp up.

What Merriweather said.

It's one thing if it's an emergency. Getting mugged, being stranded somewhere without money to get home, something like, that's one thing. "Calling my hubby to say I'm going to be late" is not an emergency.

Yeah, an emergency is a completely different animal. Kitten's situation was just your run-of-the-mill EW being their asshole selves.

[shopgirl15]

Hm. Once a woman at a metro stop asked if she could use my phone and I let her. Lucky me nothing happened...from the sound of this thread I should have had my phone stolen

[earl colby pottinger]

The key words are

Hm. Once a woman at a metro stop asked if she could use my phone and I let her. Lucky me nothing happened...from the sound of this thread I should have had my phone stolen

The key words here are expensive or Iphone.

My cell phone costed $16 and at present has only about $10 in call time on it, I have no problem lending it out. On the other hand when it had almost $80 in call time on it and the cousin talked out almost $60 in minutes I would never lend it out again if I had so much call time on it. Likewise, my old netbook cost me about $350 and my newer one about $215, but in both cases the Intel SSDs I placed inside them set me back an additional $399 - do the math, I am not lending either to a stranger off the street.

An Iphone or an advance Android phone not only costs a lot of money but also includes a lot of personal info - this is not something to just give into the hands a stranger.

A cheap Trac-phone for example holds little personal info and if you have not put a lot of minutes on it, it does not represent a lot of money either.

The OP was talking about someone demanding to use their phone just because it was a "cool and expensive" phone. Others were pointing out their other reasons to just not blindly hand over your cell phone to someone you don't know.

Chance of getting stolen/damaged - low. Cost is stolen/damage - high.

Your mileage may vary depending of what model phone you have and how much you have invested into it.

[EricKei]

Telemarketers are starting to ignore the DNC list, political calls are starting to ramp up.

Political calls (sadly) are not blocked by DNC. As for telemarketers, if they call me in violation of DNC I just take it as a "the gloves are off" situation, as there's a 99% chance that they're a scammer (like the "Cardholder services with very important information about your account" guys who don't know what credit cards I have (none whatsoever, intentionally)...). Note that this particular company seems to change their phone # every 3-4 days or so, calls me at least twice a month for the last YEAR, and they invariably hang up the instant i begin speaking the phrase "remove me from your list".

[Andara Bledin]

Note that this particular company seems to change their phone # every 3-4 days or so, calls me at least twice a month for the last YEAR, and they invariably hang up the instant i begin speaking the phrase "remove me from your list".

They don't change their number; the number it shows on the ID is spoofed; it belongs to someone else. They're scammers who operate from outside the US, so they're really hard to go after.

I continue to press the 9 every time one comes in, and I rarely have a second instance of the same scam come back around. Along with the card services people, you have the car service ones, and there's another one that's in Spanish so I have no idea what they're pitching.

As for the OP; I've loaned my phone to a stranger again this week. This one was a fellow dismissal from jury duty, however, so it's not quite the same as some random person noting that my phone is something fancy and then asking to use it.

^-.-^

[KatherineB]

I continue to press the 9 every time one comes in, and I rarely have a second instance of the same scam come back around.

Not being from the US, I'm not sure what this does. Can someone please explain it to an ignorant Aussie?

[Brojekk]

Not being from the US, I'm not sure what this does. Can someone please explain it to an ignorant Aussie?

Don't feel ignorant...I'm in the US and I never heard of that either. Can anyone clear that up for us?