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One of the more interesting things that I have had the opportunity to see as a blogger these last 5 years is the reaction of insurance agents, particularly those who are "true believers" in cash value life insurance to the 10-15 blog posts I have written about whole life insurance. The comments threads run hundreds of comments (even before most posts started going dozens like they do now) for literally years afterward. Most of these threads are only followed by 10 or so WCI readers so this is almost completely an interaction between the agents and myself. It usually goes about like this. They put in a comment, with a reasonably nice tone, trying to "correct" my errors. I'm not sure why. Probably because they really believe the stuff their company taught them and think they have a duty to make sure everyone else on the internet believes like they do. I respond explaining why I disagree. Then they start posting comments that are literally longer than the post itself. 3 or 4 of those go by over a week becoming more and more "ad hominem" as they realize I'm not going to agree with them. Then eventually, I ban them and block their IP addresses from further comments. At that point, they start sending me hate emails until I block those too.
I wonder if many of them come on the site after a client fires them after reading the site, or starts asking them questions after reading the site. They're frequently so mad I figure they must have lost thousands from something I wrote. They just can't quite grasp that not only are they not the target audience, but they are actually the people that I am warning my readers about! The whole point of my blog is for them to lose business. So naturally, I don't really care what they think and I'm not writing articles in the hopes that an insurance agent will come by and teach me about whole life insurance.
The best part is that many of them are well-established in their career, often in their 50s or 60s, and aren't quite so internet-savvy. Usually, if you're going to go troll someone on the internet, you don't use your real name nor your real email address. These guys aren't that smart (obviously since they think whole life is the solution to all financial issues.) So from the first comment, I know exactly who these guys are, who they work for, and if I bother to look up their IP address, pretty much where they are at within a few miles. You see, with their first comment they rarely disclose the fact that they're an agent. I usually have to call them out on it.
Why do I bother interacting with them at all? Well, I've had a lot of readers tell me they enjoy reading the back and forth and that they learned a lot about the sales tactics these guys use and how to combat them (hint, stand up and walk out) from the interaction. But I do it a lot less now than I used to. I'm just a lot faster to ban them. Where I might have used to go back and forth 10 times, now maybe only 3 or 4.
At any rate, I had a particularly funny comment in the most recent one that I just had to share:
I thought regular readers would get a kick out of that.
I wonder if many of them come on the site after a client fires them after reading the site, or starts asking them questions after reading the site. They're frequently so mad I figure they must have lost thousands from something I wrote. They just can't quite grasp that not only are they not the target audience, but they are actually the people that I am warning my readers about! The whole point of my blog is for them to lose business. So naturally, I don't really care what they think and I'm not writing articles in the hopes that an insurance agent will come by and teach me about whole life insurance.
The best part is that many of them are well-established in their career, often in their 50s or 60s, and aren't quite so internet-savvy. Usually, if you're going to go troll someone on the internet, you don't use your real name nor your real email address. These guys aren't that smart (obviously since they think whole life is the solution to all financial issues.) So from the first comment, I know exactly who these guys are, who they work for, and if I bother to look up their IP address, pretty much where they are at within a few miles. You see, with their first comment they rarely disclose the fact that they're an agent. I usually have to call them out on it.
Why do I bother interacting with them at all? Well, I've had a lot of readers tell me they enjoy reading the back and forth and that they learned a lot about the sales tactics these guys use and how to combat them (hint, stand up and walk out) from the interaction. But I do it a lot less now than I used to. I'm just a lot faster to ban them. Where I might have used to go back and forth 10 times, now maybe only 3 or 4.
At any rate, I had a particularly funny comment in the most recent one that I just had to share:
So, yes I really want folks to load up only on whole life. Whatever you know everything and I’m an idiot. Your hubris is appalling and off putting. I read your comments about investing $150,000 a year and I call total b.s. on that.
You are a typical hand to mouth doctor who has all of his money tied up in qualified accounts and bounces checks at the country club.
I thought regular readers would get a kick out of that.
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