There seems to be no end of them, those truly irritating, intrusive, maddening telephone calls that come in at all times of the day, and mostly at the most inconvenient of times. These intrusions are not only by way of telephone, but also through email communications and by posted mail as well, although the most frequent are made through telephone contact.

We can always tell when it's one of those calls, because there's a pause of some duration from the time we respond to the time the other end does, and it's at that point that we should hang up, but we don't, just in case it's a call from someone we know, needing to make contact. Which is likely what these nuisance callers depend on; the uncertainty factor.

Invariably, it's a marketing call of one sort or another, extolling the virtues of some service we have absolutely no interest in. Occasionally it's a polling call, and generally revolving around marketing as well. We hate to be impolite to these perfect strangers attempting to probe our defences, but sometimes do resort to a brusque "not interested", feeling somewhat badly afterward about some poor soul just trying to earn a living.

Many, the great preponderence of those calls are from offshore sources, whose verbal English is distinguished by accents making them almost intelligible. They always, remarkably, introduce themselves with distinctly and presumably, comforting North American common given names.

On the other hand, a remarkable proportion of those calls purport to represent some well-known entity upon whom we depend for service, offering to solve truly vexing problems for us. For example: Under the guise of calling from Microsoft, some unscrupulous hordes of callers try to convince those they prey upon that it has been brought to their attention that there are outstanding performance problems with one's computer, and they have been tasked with solving the problem. Just divulge vital information, inviting the caller into your computer, and to complete the process whereby all their problems will be solved, send funding. Which can end up being substantial.

And to which some people evidently trustingly respond. Mostly, it would seem, the elderly who are, it seems, the most likely target falling victim to these schemes to bilk them out of their bank savings. These numerous daily calls become irritating to the point of utter frustration. My husband responded to the last one of the day yesterday evening by speaking gibberish to the confused caller who quickly hung up the line.

They're not called fraud artists for nothing; their creative genius revolves around relieving people of money, and they're amazing successful at it.