Speechless

So it was a quiet Thursday evening and i was sat at home with my feet up watching the latest episode of Smallville on TV when my phone rang. Keen, as ever, to use up the last of my prepaid credit so i can get a contract phone (and hopefully save a bit of money), I grabbed my mobile (sorry, cell) and saw it was a "private" number (I guess that's American for number withheld?). Imagine my surprise, then, to be left somewhat lost for words when i answered. After barely saying 'Hello', i was greeted by what can only be described as a torrent of words. Somewhat bemused i listened (when what i should really have done is said 'sorry, not interested' and hung up) and after about five minutes, the call was over.

Trouble is, i have no real idea what it was about. The person at the other end had an incredibly strong accent and was speaking so fast (obviously read off a computer screen or someting) that it was very difficult to get the gist of things. From what i could gather, i;m going to receive some free vouchers of some kind (of course, this is cold-calling 'free') that will arrive at some point in the near future. And this means that i have subscribed to something or other that I have to go out of my way to cancel within a certain amount of time or they'll start charging me. Or something. All I can remember is sitting there thinking 'Are they EVER gonna pause for breath?' whilst simultaneously trying not to laugh my head off. So, cold calling seems to exist in the US too. What's the bets they call it something weird?