We are getting into the Holiday season so be extra careful if anyone contacts you you don't know. It is possible for someone to use a bogus phone number so it looks like someone you know.

Yep, they have systems that allow your caller id to pick up your own name so you think it's a relative.

Emails do that too, I get emails that look almost identical to somebody I know, but maybe one letter changed, not noticing you click on it.

But that's all year not just Christmas

I've been getting 'em from someone on JPF. But the spam's on them because my pc is outfitted with a reverse infection, a form of cyber-clap, if you will. I got the idea a few years back when a photo of L'il Wayne gave my pc Hep C.

And, dammit, spammer, if you're reading this, my password is NOT "SandraSmithisagoddess".

Seriously folks, JPF has a spammer. Don't fall for it...just because Podesta's password was 1-2-3-4 doesn't mean yours should be.

"Scheming demons dressed in kingly guise!"

A woman, 85 years old, got a call, late one night.
"Gramma?" the voice said.
"Yes," she answered. Who but her grandson would call, and address her as 'Gramma'?
"Gramma, I'm in Mexico. I came down here for a a friend's wedding, and I rented a car and wrecked it. I'm in big trouble Gramma. I need $2,300. dollars!"

Now, it so happened that a neighbor let a trailer get away from him and roll down the street, crashing into 'Gramma's' chain link fence and wiping out her carport. The insurance settlement? $2,300. dollars.

Gramma diligently went to the bank and wire $2,300. to the information she had been given in Mexico. Only then did Gramma decide to call her grandson a few counties away, and guess who answered the phone. No, he was not in Mexico for a friend's wedding. No he did not rent a car and wreck it. No, he was not in big trouble. No, he did not need Gramma's $2,300 dollars.

"Please don't tell anyone," Gramma pleaded with me, ashamed at how easily she'd been scammed.

Another woman, 93, tells me, "I'm the luckiest person in the world. I get phone calls and mail every day and every week telling me I've won millions of dollars, and they'll be here with my Mercedes on a flatbed truck, Saturday morning and I need to go to the post office and get a money order for $300 to hand them Saturday to make the deal go through."

The Post Office should be able to stop this by having Citizens bring the mail to them for backtracking to the source. The Phone companies should be able to stop this. The National Security Agency tracks every electronic communication made on planet Earth. Why do scammers succeed, employing phones and mail?

The IRS calls me every once in a while, and their employee whose English is spoken with an accent, threatens to take my ass to jail, meaning I'll have to go with it. We've become very attached. Another calls saying there's a problem with the woman's credit card. She tells them, "I don't have a credit card." They call back, again and again. The scam apparently works often enough that they keep trying, and others work the same scam, not knowing it has failed on this 'target' already. It qualifies as Predatory Capitalism, the illegitimate kind, although a 'legitimate' variety is becoming common, Payday Lenders, Car Title Lenders, the Mortgage 'Crisis', 'legalized' by repeal of Glass-Steagall, the 1933 law that had made it 'illegal'. You're on your own out here folks. En garde! Your only defense is self-defense.

They prey on the old and the greedy. The old because they are the most trusting and generous to help others in need. The greedy because they are most open to get something for nothing, hoping that maybe it is possible that they won a contest they never entered. There are schemes for every situation and from every angle to separate you from your money. They want to help fix a problem with your computer, a problem you don't have, even a computer you don't have. They want to give you a better interest rate on your credit card, all they need is your credit card number. They want to send you free books or magazines, they just need you to pay for shipping, which you can charge to your credit card. There is little in this world for free, and some of these free things can end up costing you a small fortune. I buy nothing or donate nothing over the phone unless I was the one to make the call.

A friend, whose father was an FBI Agent, had the practice of documenting who she talked to, even on calls she initiated to make credit card purchases. When bills for a credit card she didn't have started arriving she was able to contact the County Sheriff in another state and direct them to the person she had dealt with.

Canadian telcos just announced they were working on the issue...probably because the government itself is being used by these scammers...Our CRA (your IRS), Service canada (administers our social insurance numbers, Justice Canada ...they are all being impersonated.

Calls for intervention were largely ignored when it was air duct cleaners, window and door sales people etc...but when they got to impersonating government people, I guess the telcos got nervous

In any event, we'll see what happens


Has a funny call a few weeks back from "the Windows" department...my computer was acting up. When I said I was using an Apple the caller had the nerve to say...yeah, I'm from Apple...that was too funny

As I obviously have too much time on my hands, I will sometimes string them along...or when I don't recognize a number or recognize a spam call I will sometimes answer "Toronto Police Division 23, Desk Sergeant Jones speaking"...which typically causes a quick hangup

For the funniest spam caller response, google "lenny telemarketing calls" and listen in on some of the funniest one sided conversations ever. It has the telemarketer respond to a recorded message ...here's an example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWrkDOt_IfM

That was hilarious. When they call at all hours I know they are likely calling from India or some foreign country, so I will ask them what is the time where they are, which seems to confuse them. If they have a foreign accent, which they often do, I'll ask them do they know Jesus, they will say yes, then I will say you know he is the son of God, this usually will get a rise out of them, and they will say God has no sons, I know they are from a foreign country and have foreign beliefs, which gives me an opening to witness to them that Jesus would not be happy with them trying to steal from people by doing what they are doing. They usually get very upset and sometimes hang up on me. I have not had one of those calls for months now, I use to get one or two a week. Maybe they crossed my name off their call list. I wonder why.