I'm Not Even a Mall Rat

This is the second (and I really hope it's the last) in the series of suspicious rip-off phone calls.

This time, it's a woman.

As soon as you answer the phone, she will confirm if you are the owner and if you say no, she'll ask to speak with the owner. The first time, I said no because our number is listed under my sister's name. My sister was out at that time and the lady asked what time my sister will be back. I said, "Can you just call again later."

I can't remember what happened in between but she ended up saying that we just won a gift certificate and all we have to do is go to this mall [a mall somewhere in Los Baños] to pick up our price.

"Can you just please call again later?"

"At around what time?" the lady asked.

"After the Miss Universe pageant."

She said, "Ok, thank you," and hang up. She didn't call again that day. Good!

But then...

The next time I pretended to be the owner of the number. Again, the lady [but I am sure that the voice did not come from the same person] said that we won a gift certificate and that all we have to do is go to the same mall to pick it up. Okay, okay... it's the Olivarez Mall in Los Baños, Laguna.

This time I said, "Mam, sorry, but we don't even go to that mall."

She said, "It doesn't matter. All you have to do is…"

I cut her out saying, "Mam, sorry but we're not interested and I don't want to waste your time." (Yeah, I know… that was polite and I'm not supposed to be.)

She said, "Ok," and hang up without even saying thank you.

Well, I never did find out if this one is indeed a rip-off but from the looks of it, they are really on to something. We don't recall taking part in anything that will make us win something. Come on, people, it's not easy to win something these days. Who are you fooling? I haven't been to the mall since October last year except at the Sunstar.

I'm not even a mall rat!