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Weird call from HSLDA (update)


*Lulu*
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DH had a voice mail on his phone at work this morning from someone at HSLDA saying our membership was running out in a few days. DH looked up the number and it was really HSLDA. This is beyond bizarre for a few reasons:

 

1) We have not ever been members of HSLDA.

2) We have nothing homeschool related that would include DH's personal extension or even his place of employment as far as I know.

 

 

Has anyone else had something like this happen? How on earth did they get his work information and extension? Is this like some sort of cold call on crack?

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No idea -- I've never received a call like that from them. We have lapsed in our membership (because we no longer have homeschoolers at our house), and no one has ever phoned us.

 

If I were you, I'd call the people who work in the membership department and ask them how they got your husband's work information. Could you have filled out a form at some point, at a conference or something, with his work number on it?

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That is really weird. I'd send them an email asking how they got your info. Are you in a homeschool group that might have given its members contact info the HSLDA?

 

I know, right! We are not in any organized group that is homeschool related. I am on a local yahoo e-mail loop, but there is nothing about DH connected to that. Heck, they do not even have my telephone number.

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Well that is frickin' creepy. Honestly, I'd call them back and want to know how they had your information.

No idea -- I've never received a call like that from them. We have lapsed in our membership (because we no longer have homeschoolers at our house), and no one has ever phoned us.

If I were you, I'd call the people who work in the membership department and ask them how they got your husband's work information. Could you have filled out a form at some point, at a conference or something, with his work number on it?

 

Okay, I feel less crazy for wanting to call them and know how they got our information.

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I know, right! We are not in any organized group that is homeschool related. I am on a local yahoo e-mail loop, but there is nothing about DH connected to that. Heck, they do not even have my telephone number.

 

I would be curious if they were buying phone lists from somewhere. I know a few homeschool businesses that obviously do buy address lists. I requested a catalog or newsletter from someplace (can't remember exactly which so I won't name them). A few weeks later I'm getting lots of homeschool mail specifically targeted at certain segment of homeschooling. We had just moved, so I knew no other homeschool business had our address.

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Just called them and they cannot find us anywhere in the system. The operator I spoke to was very sweet and as confused about the call as I was. She said maybe it was a wrongly dialed number and since DH's voicemail picked up the caller never realized the mistake. What are the odds of a homeschool group calling a homeschooler, getting the number wrong and still having a homeschooler answer the phone?

 

This is too weird for a Tuesday.

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I received that same phone call last week. We have, indeed, been HSLDA members for years but skipped renewing this year because our boys are now almost finished and are taking college classes. I simply told her we were no longer homeschooling and she was very nice and thanked us for our past membership.

 

It is understandable how she got our contact information. Are you a member of a local support group that might have given out information to HSLDA? Or could you have listed information at a homeschool curriculum fair that was then transmitted to HSLDA? It does seem weird that they cannot find you in the system now - I didn't suspect anything weird when she called me, but maybe ???

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They somehow bought your name. They are claiming your membership is expiring in the hopes that you will 'renew' and give them $$.

 

See that was my initial thought but I have never attended a curriculum fair or convention. Besides HSBC, Currclick, and ordering from Rainbow Resource no homeschool entity has ANY information about us. Even if they did it would not include DH's office extension since anytime I need to give info for DH I give his cell phone.

 

If it were a cold call though I would have expected them to at least pretend they knew they had called when I called them back.

 

Curiouser and curiouser.

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Was your DH named in the phone message as "Dear Mr. Bla5"? Or was it generic as "This is the HSLDA calling"

 

Good question. I'll have to ask him tonight because if I call once more about this he is going to wonder what *I* am up to today!

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They somehow bought your name. They are claiming your membership is expiring in the hopes that you will 'renew' and give them $$.

 

 

 

This. Pretty much. :glare:

 

OP, you probably bought something somewhere a long time ago... Maybe when you first got interested in homeschooling and now you're on this contact list. Eeek.

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Okay DH says that our name was never used in the message. Since I have never given out his private extension except at the doctor's office and the private extensions of his company are not publicly listed I am choosing to believe it was an EXTREMELY odd coincidence.

 

I guess this will make Wednesday look normal for once.

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Just called them and they cannot find us anywhere in the system. The operator I spoke to was very sweet and as confused about the call as I was. She said maybe it was a wrongly dialed number and since DH's voicemail picked up the caller never realized the mistake. What are the odds of a homeschool group calling a homeschooler, getting the number wrong and still having a homeschooler answer the phone?

 

This is too weird for a Tuesday.

 

The odds may seem long but coincidences like that happen all the time. It would, mathematically, be weird if they didn't. I have no doubt it was just a wrong number and would pwrobably discuss this with the kids in math.

 

The book, Innumeracy has dome great stuff on exactly this kind of thing.

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Most large, national nonprofits and lobbying orgs buy or trade names when they can. I wouldn't considered trading lists or buying lists to be a low practice. Some orgs resort to renew now sort of solicits even when you are not a member. That is a low practice. They are quite likely doing that. That is more likely than a totally wrong number. And whoever said you weren't in their system? That person just can't navigate the data or find the source codes or just couldn't be bothered to look.

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Well they just called DH at work again. They were looking for Dominique and were apologetic when DH told them they had a wrong number. So break out the abaci because we have some long odds to calculate!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And if you are reading this Dominique, HSLDA says you need to renew your membership.

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