This past Saturday afternoon, my home telephone rang. When I looked at the caller id, it read that the call was from Mercy Hospital. Mercy is the name of a hospital in Rockville Center, about ten minutes away from where we live. Fearing that something had happened to my mother in law, who lives close by, I gave the telephone to my husband to answer. He listened to what the caller had to say and quickly replied, “Do not call this house again.”

Although the caller id registered as Mercy Hospital, the call was really a solicitation for the installation of solar panels. Our relief that there was nothing wrong with my mother in law quickly turned to anger when we realized that the caller had used a hospital ruse to get us to answer the phone.

I have had sales calls cloned as phone numbers located near my home and office. But I have never had a caller id disguised as a hospital. Have you?