It's clearly bleak out there.  

The economy must be turning down faster than I had realised - and some people are trying it on in the hope of making money out of it.

At home today having lunch when the phone rang and teenage daughter (home revising for A levels) picked it up. 

It was a recording along the lines of:

"Are you in debt?  Struggling to pay your bills.  Creditors chasing you?  Looking for a loan?  We can help you out."

Who on earth are these people?  Presume this is randomly generated phone numbers being rung. Cold calling of the worst order.  But what a nerve. How dare they?  I wonder how many desperate and vulnerable people take up their generous offer.  I have no idea what interest rate they are charging, but I doubt very much it's competitive. 

This is not good.  Teenage daughter, shocked at the effrontery of these loan sharks, put the phone down at the end of the message.  

The Virtual Husband, home to help clear out the house before the shippers arrive, immediately pointed out that this sort of thing already happens in the USA but there's something called the National Do Not Call Registry (which he has registered with) which allows consumers to remove their telephone number from the list which such telemarketers can try calling.

Well, if we were going to stay on in this country and be bombarded with this sort of thing, I would sign up with the UK equivalent, the Call Prevention Registry.  Click on the link and you can avoid any of this sort of hassle yourself in future! But they charge £35.75 for a 12 month subscription.