Extortion Masquerading As Normal Business, Verizon Edition

It is difficult to express how the feel of capitalism has changed over the course of my lifetime. When I was a kid, you didn’t know who was calling you on the telephone, and that was normal. It was a really big deal when *69 was rolled out, and you could call back the person who last called you. For a charge, of course. Not too long after that, caller ID began to roll out. And we willingly, if not enthusiastically, paid monthly for the privilege of seeing what phone number was calling you. Then, if you were fancy, you paid an additional charge to see the name associated with that phone number. Today, “unknown caller” is so unusual it was the title of a thriller over a decade ago. Caller ID is such a default now that spam-detecting software, originally only available through third-party services, is preinstalled on many phones by the carrier. Like mine, Verizon. And that is where the problems start. There are a lot of businesses and private individuals that use voice-over-ip (VOIP)…