So my dad's mom's younger sister died Saturday at 98 years young, the last of her generation. She is from a small agrarian town in central eastern Pennsylvania. Today, Labor Day, for the first time in my LIFE, I get a call from this town. Since I never answer my phone if the number is not in my contacts, I expect to get a message from a barely-known second-cousin thrice-removed. Looking for my dad's number.

Nope, no message, no nothing. Internet search of the number, nothing. *67 call back, "Vehicle Warranty . . . "

I surmise their computers scan recent deaths, access "possible relations", and auto-called my number. Certainly I'd not put it past them; their inventiveness has bloomed since many independent health insurance salespeople lost their jobs overnight when Obamacare enacted.

Your phone ratted you out.

My phone did that more than once after going to a small town where the department executive director lives for the first and only time for a Christmas party in 2019. A few days later I got robo calls from that town. I thought at first it must be the exec director for some reason, but nope.

The implication is that somehow they are using information about your location to spoof numbers that are in the same area. I have no idea how, unless it's just the area code and the actual town was just a coincidence.