I can’t even begin to tell you the number of calls that Janet and I get every day that are spam calls. Yes, there are those calls that want us to extend the warranty on our cars, but for the most part, people are trying to sell us insurance to pay for our funeral expenses. Then again, many folks are also concerned about our Medicare coverage and are trying to get us to give up our supplement plan n favor of an Advantage plan. We are also promised nearly $200 per month in additional money given to us, food vouchers and a host of other “benefits” that we are supposedly entitled to.
Of course, all of these are spam calls. And we get them, for the most part, on our home phone number. Yes, we have call blocking but these spammers are able to proliferate more quickly than we can block them all. And the number of calls to our cell phones is escalating almost as rapidly.
Then there are the older scams. The ones where the “police” call and accuse you of missing jury duty, requesting money to avoid them coming to your home and arresting you. In fact, once I was in the position of having to call in nightly for jury duty and the spam call was timed perfectly. I almost believed that I had missed a call. Statistically, these scammers are bound to get lucky once in a while but, thankfully, I didn’t fall for it that day.
More often these days, we are confronted with people who try to blackmail us in one form or another. It used to be that money was the motivation but today, more people are mean just for the sake of hurting one another. Two of these more recent forms of intimidation are “doxing” and “swatting…” And most people aren’t familiar with the terms.
Doxing is defined as “gathering an individual’s personally identifiable information and releasing it publicly for malicious purposes, such as public humiliation, stalking, identity theft, or targeting for harassment.” Sounds ominous, doesn’t it? It really is. Why are people so malicious? Why do they try to hurt each other? What goes through someone’s mind that they want to exact some sort of pain from their victims?
Another current form of disruption that costs the taxpayers large sums of money is the practice of “swatting.” That involves calling 9-1-1 and faking an emergency that draws a response from law enforcement—usually a SWAT team.” Clearly, aside from the astronomical costs associated with false runs, answering these fake calls keeps our police and fire departments from being able to address real threats when victims are in dire need of assistance.
The obvious question here is what drives people to this sort of behavior. In any event, it would do us well to follow the example of Jesus and find out what He has to say about scamming or lying to others. Kind Solomon, David’s son and the author of Proverbs tells us, in Proverbs 6:16-20, “ There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers. My son, keep your father’s commands and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.” That’s quite a list, isn’t it? Jesus expects more of His followers.
My encouragement this evening is that Jesus knows that we can’t be perfect. But he has given us a number of commands and affirmations that are meant to put us on the right track and help us commit to better behavior. My prayer is that we will hold ourselves to a higher standard and not be discouraged or swayed to do things that are anti-biblical. After all, we are better than that – we belong to God. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…