# Rude Publishers Clearing House Guy. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 27, 2017, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rude-publishers-clearing-house-guy/778326 "2017-01-27T17:51:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Brodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Brodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brodi)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2017, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rude-publishers-clearing-house-guy/778326/1 "2017-01-27T17:51:27Z")
My 61 year old dad is semi retired and works from home. He has a standard phone line and a fax line. He got a call on the fax line while I was in the room. The guy identified himself as being with Publishers Clearinghouse and my dad told him politely that the number he’d called was a dedicated work fax line. The guy, loud enough for me to hear, responded FUCK YOU! My dad hung up, then tried to call the number back to speat to a supervisor. No one answered. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2017, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rude-publishers-clearing-house-guy/778326/2 "2017-01-27T17:56:26Z")
Highly unlikely it was actually Publishers Clearing House. [AARP Scam Alert](http://blog.aarp.org/2016/01/08/dont-lose-in-winning-publishers-clearing-house-prizes/) > [@](#): > > With Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes envelopes in the mail and television commercials on the air, Sweepstakes Scam Season is now in full throttle. Although there are other Prize Lies, the biggest jackpot for scammers continues to be in pretending to be from PCH — and they’re currently offering nefarious notifications of winning the advertised “$5,000-a-week-forever” prize. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2017, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rude-publishers-clearing-house-guy/778326/3 "2017-01-27T18:08:23Z")
Yeah, this screams “scam” to me. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2017, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rude-publishers-clearing-house-guy/778326/4 "2017-01-27T18:57:55Z")
I’m confused… I would assume a dedicated fax line would have a fax machine connected to it. Why did your dad answer instead of letting the fax machine pick it up? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2017, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rude-publishers-clearing-house-guy/778326/5 "2017-01-27T19:37:39Z")
The obvious response to people selling something is to simply hang up. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2017, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rude-publishers-clearing-house-guy/778326/6 "2017-01-27T20:21:34Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > I’m confused… I would assume a dedicated fax line would have a fax machine connected to it. Why did your dad answer instead of letting the fax machine pick it up? 😕 If the dedicated fax line is getting call after call from the same number and not interfacing with the fax machine, I’d pick up out of simple curiosity. If someone’s innocently dialing a wrong number, it does no harm to let them know that Kenny isn’t here, and this is a fax machine phone number so no one will take a message for Kenny.