Thursday
Mar012012
Brief encounter
Thursday, March 1, 2012 at 13:44 Mobile phone rings:
"Hello."
"Is that Simon Clark of the smokers' group Forest?"
"It is."
"I've been trying to get hold of you. I'm a smoker. Where is your office?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Where is your office?"
"Who are you?"
"I'm a journalist."
"Who do you work for?"
"I'm a freelance journalist."
"Are you calling as a smoker or as a journalist?"
"I'm asking the questions. So you won't tell me where your office is? Is it in London?"
Freelance journalist? My arse!
Reader Comments (6)
Did you consider Simon that the "journalist" might have been from Nigeria and the purpose of the proposed interview could have been to inform you that he wanted to put £7,000,000 in yourbank account?
Where's the first place to look if you wanted Forest's contact details (including address)?
There's a link (Contact Us) on the home page of the Forest website. Or you can Google 'Forest' and 'Contact Us' is one of four featured pages.
How on earth did he get hold of your mobile number? That's not something that one generally puts in the public arena, particularly when holding a position like yours, Simon.
To be fair, the number he rang is not my private mobile number – it's a number we publicise quite openly so people can contact us – or leave messages – at all hours.
I'm afraid I don't have a devious enough mind to keep up with these people, so can someone more devious than me on here (you devious lot, you!) explain to me: if this person wasn't a journalist (which I realise they probably weren't), when who on earth were they, and what did they want?
Just too naive, me - it's always been my problem ...