Private Name, Private Number

I have a friend with whom I used to be close about ten years ago. Closer that we are now, anyway. She has an unlisted phone number. Those times when she used to call me the Caller ID would indicate "PRIVATE NAME, PRIVATE NUMBER."

We've kept in touch off and on through the years. Mostly this consists of me leaving a message on her phone, and her returning a message to my phone some time later. We've actually talked directly a time or two recently, mostly in the context of my job situation. (From her recent messages, I gather that her job situation isn't all that different.)

The phone at my house is very nice. It's one of those where you have a single base station and up to eight cordless receivers. Very convenient for when you have a house with a limited number of modular outlets and you don't feel like rewiring everything.

The big drawback of this phone is a fluke in the caller ID system: it only maintains the record of the most recent call from any given number. So a crazy person could be calling your house morning and night every 7.42 minutes, and you wouldn't know about it if you weren't there to get the calls - all the caller ID would indicate would be the most recent call.

My most recent call from my friend was shortly after I got my job at the plant. At least, that's the last time she left a message. There have been a few other "PRIVATE NAME, PRIVATE NUMBER" calls since then - which I noticed one at a time, of course - but no additional messages. Assuming these were from her, I've returned calls and left messages on her phone, trying to find out what the calls were about. No luck yet.

The other day I was at the house and the phone rang. I checked the caller ID and saw the message "PRIVATE NAME, PRIVATE NUMBER". I quickly picked up, hoping it was her.

There was a pause at the other end. Then a click, a whirr, and a voice spoke out: "This is an important message for Senior Citizens. If you are age 65 or older, you may be eligible for insurance at reduced rates..."

I hung up.

I signed up for both the state and national "DO NOT CALL" lists over a month ago. While I am not supposed to see the registry take full effect until sometime in November, I have noticed a dropoff in solicitor calls, both in terms of messages left and calls indicated on the caller ID. I know there are certain exceptions, but I don't think this call fell under these categories. So can phone solicitors do an end-run around the DO NOT CALL list by making their calls from unlisted numbers?

I don't know. I hope not. Because if they do, I might just assume that every one of those calls is a call from my friend, my friend with a Private Name, Private Number.