Warning-Warning!

[FrozenInTime]

Just had to cancel a Debit card and get a new one today
Someone made a $20 purchase at a Shell station with mine about a 4 hour drive from where I had used it 30 minutes earlier
But the bank said it was listed as a "card presented" purchase
Got my $20 back, but Im sure if ?I hadn't caught that one the next one would have been a LOT more

I've had 3 attacks on credit cards the last year... I think Visa must think I'm passing my numbers around. I don't even use these cards on the net so I have no idea how they get my number.

When I was in the military, I was stationed for a time in Saudi. When I got back, my wife asked me what the hell was going on, why I was charging so much on my card. She showed me the bill... holly mackeral, it was maxed out. It only took me 2 days to find out who the idiot was... and they would do nothing about it. Really pissed me off, the company felt it was easier to write it off/clear my card than spend time/money to prosecute the ass. He had ran my card up calling a 1-900 sex number... eff'n idiot. I called the guy and he said so what, what u gonna do about it. VERY wrong answer! I called back the next day, hoping for and found him at work, his wife at home. She and I had a long talk, man, she was very pissed off at him to say the least. If she did half the things to him she said she was going to do... I kinda felt sorry for him... but only for a second or 2! Turns out this guy was also military... I made a call to his first sergeant and told him about it. He was also pretty unhappy about it. Really, in the end I felt sorry for the guy.. I knew what the military would do to him. (this was in ~1994)

Since then I have been really careful about card use, but the jerks seem to always find card numbers when they want too. Take a look at what happened at Target recently, among many other companies. I really look forward to the day I can cut up/cancel all cards and never use one again.

[RickBeer]

A couple of points I think need to be made.

1) When you receive a spamming email, one of the worst things you can do is respond to it at all, including a smart ass response. Why? Because this tells the send "This is an active email address. You should sell it with your other email addresses to those who want to spam people". Same as pushing the button on a telemarketing call to tell them to go to hell. Bad idea.

2) Responding isn't the only thing. Opening any email allows the sender, if they embedded a pixel in it, to see that it was opened. Most major companies send emails with a pixel embedded because they measure send, open, click, and purchase. So, if you get an email from an unknown source and open it because you're curious, BINGO - you've sent the pixel. One way to stop this is to turn off the display of images in all your emails, then selectively turn them on in any email that you need to see an image. Nearly all companies send their emails with images, and text, and the images are what make the email nice to read.

3) Consider setting up an email address for buying stuff on the internet, and another for signing up for newsletters, that is different from your personal email address. This allows you to segregate your stuff better. If, for example, you have Comcast, you can setup 7 total email addresses. So setup "newsletter@comcast.net", "buying@comcast.net" and "personal@comcast.net".

4) If you have your own website, you can usually setup a huge amount of email addresses. While it would be laborious to setup an email address for every site you use, check into the ability to have a "catchall" email address. What this is is an email address that is designed to catch all the emails to that domain (@beerborg.com for example). So if Louie had email1@beerborg.com and email2@beerborg.com, he would then setup catchall@beerborg.com. Then, whenever he signed up for something he would make up an address on the fly, but not have to set it up. So, if he went to LLBean and bought a shirt, he could tell LL Bean that his email was llbean@beerborg.com, and the email would end up in the catchall account. I do this and have literally hundreds of email addresses, and I know EXACTLY who is sending me email or who sold me out. I can also then go into my email setup and either block emails to llbean@beerborg.com or forward that to something like crap@crap.com and let them enjoy their undeliverable messages.

5) As mentioned above, you should never push any buttons on the phone in response to a spam call. Just hang up. Don't waste your time explaining to someone that they should not call you. If they are not legit, they don't care if they break the law. If you want to cut legitimate telemarketing calls, go to https://www.donotcall.gov/ and put your number on the list. While charities and politicians can still call you (they exempted themselves), others are breaking the law if they do call you. Also, note that it is illegal to make robocalls to consumers without prior written consent. But remember, those trying to clean your heating ducts or sell you credit card reports aren't following the law...

Hope this helps.

[Dawg LB Steve]

The last six months or so I have been getting Emails telling me that I need to vacate my premises immediately that if I don,t respond to the link to make arrangements I will be forced out by such a date. Another one is from "Hubbel Funeral Homes" in Fla. that I've gotten about a dozen times already, telling me that I have a relative that have passed away down there and need to click on the link to get that info. Only have a sister in Fla. and sure my mother would let me know before an out of state funeral home would!!! So many scams out there, the ones I get at work for purchases, if I don't answer knowing it is a scam purchase, they keep hammering me then I respond with "these fraudulent emails have been forwarded to local and federal authorities for interstate fraud investigation" They stop immediately.

[RickBeer]

They may stop, but then they sell your email address to other companies as a live body. You're best not opening them.

Also, if you get any email with an attachment from anyone you don't know, or from someone you do know that you aren't expecting an attachment from, DON'T OPEN IT and definitely DON'T OPEN THE ATTACHMENT.

[DaYooper]

I have a whole lot of fun with these things. In college I did a brief stint as a telemarketer (please dont hate me, I was running out of plasma). They teach you all the objections the sucker, err, potential customer will have and how to counter them. Now that I know the tricks, I can lead the people who call my DO NOT CALL LIST number on a complete wild goose chase. About halfway through I tell them someone is at the door and put them on hold. It is funny how many people will actually sit there and wait for 15 minutes since they got a "live one."

Ive made appointments for air duct services, etc, to come to my house with the appointment being to tell them to stop robo calling me. When they drive for 45 minutes and it costs them money it is amazing how willing they are to remove you. That was when I was laid off and had nothing better to do, and as I couldnt afford cable, had to get my entertainment somehow.

I also love those Nigerian 419 scams. It is fun to see how many forms you can make them fill out. I had one guy on the hook for close to a year and a half before he gave up. It gives me something to do during those long conference calls when I am simply a warm body calling in to show our department cares enough to participate (and if you dont call in people end up assigning you assignments).

[T8rSalad]

FIT: watch what you say about those sweet T8r fries...I will have to bring my whole borg army with me to norf kota and do some hunting.

I have the time to puck with them so I give them all kinds of bad info and then blow my whistle into the phone. I have a feeling they might not call me again sorry to say.

[FrozenInTime]

FIT: watch what you say about those sweet T8r fries...I will have to bring my whole borg army with me to norf kota and do some hunting.

Bring them on tater boy! Don't look here desert rat...LOL

[mtsoxfan]

on the news yesterday in CT... Man called elderly person saying they were with the IRS and if they didn't pay their taxes to the tune of $xxx they would be arrested. They said no and the scammer called the police and made a phoney 911 call. They played it on the news... it was a home invasion call...The police showed up, most likely scared the hell out of the older folks, thinking they would be arrested for not paying taxes...
I know we've had these discussions before about crime and punishment... I still believe in thinning of the herd...

[Yankeedag]

Here's one for you...
ID thieves.. there can only be one... so, anyone who snarfs another's ID should be shot on the spot. There can only be one.

[swenocha]

I'm with Rick here... Any answer of the emails or phone calls simply tells them that my email address/phone number is "live." My spam filter works pretty darn well on my email accounts, so I rarely see these emails unless I peruse the spam folder, but the occasional cell calls are irritating.

[Inkleg]

but the occasional cell calls are irritating.

This is one reason I still have a land line. Family and friends have my cell number, all others get the home phone that I never answer.

[Chuck N]

As far as cell phone calls go...I have a pretty extensive contact list on my phone. It's pretty much any one I know and would be willing to talk to. So when I get a call that a number comes up on I automatically let it go to voice mail and let the caller decide weather what he/she has to say is important enough for me to hear.