Scam Revenge
There are international phone scammers, and there are those who scam the scammers. One of the latter is a YouTube guy. Or is he an influencer? I never have cared for the neologism “influencer.” Sounds too much like “influenza” after being abruptly anglicized from the original Italian.
At any rate, our hero’s pseudonym is Jim Browning, and he knows his way around computers, software, and networks. He uses his skills to monitor and expose the people who spend their days calling strangers in order to steal their money. These are the phone scammers our telephone network operators, the Federal Communications Commission, and other government bodies are unable to block or otherwise defeat. Watching someone show them up is satisfying.
Here is just one of Browning’s videos as an eye-opener for anyone who hasn’t seen how these scammers operate from the inside. Jim generously credits and links to his compatriots in exposing the fraudsters, so you can find further links in the description to his YouTube videos. Watching a few of these gives you a sense of the breadth and scope of the problem.
My guess is that this type of criminal enterprise will never be completely defeated. Con artists have always been with us, after all, since long before there were telephones. As long as there are people who can be duped into giving away their money, there will be hucksters lining up to take it.
In my official capacity as an Old White Guy, I'm sorry to see Biden's announcement. I'm nearly his age and I feel strongly that on age, alone, he should not run.
In 2020, I think the Rs handed Biden the only candidate he could beat. He may be returning the favor. If the Rs nominee is reasonable, not a very high bar, it is easy to imagine Biden handing them the office keys.
Morning community members
Interestingly, today is Nat'l Telephone Day...lol...( and Nat'l DNA Day, and Nat'l Library Workers Day among others...lol). I like the Spam Risk ,message I can get on my work and home landlines, but, it isn't perfect. I don't answer at home numbers I do not know. but, at work sometimes I have to because I don't know , and it could be new client etc. I mostly just hang up on all these people, but, I wish there was a way to just hit a button and bam they are gone...lol...
While I am not anywhere near a perfect person, I am pretty good at detecting scammers if I run across them, and I never give out personal information, especially finances to anyone I am not sure who I am talking to. I got some experience when I was online dating and all the African spammers...learned all the tells. Once in a while I have accidentally clicked the wrong thing and gone somewhere bad, but, I just immediately exit and run my Malware Bytes and Virus program...
That said, how they did it I have no idea, but,. I have had to replace my debit card a couple of times and my work credit card also...I knew right away and didn't lost anything because of it though, plus my bank has caught them also. I once got a call from my bank about someone using my debit card in Turkey...lol...they knew that had to be off, whoever did it did a test of a small amount to see if it would work, but the bank blocked them from doing more damage. And I didn't lose any money.
I have been both armed robbed at work, and my home burglarized, neither if which were good experiences, but, at least I survived and my insurance covered most of what I lost at home, though not the large sum of cash I had at home due to winnings in Seneca...lol...though the insurance company kinda made up some of it by using my deductible( $500) in lieu of reimbursement ( it was about $2500 I lost, so small, but better than nothing.
I have a hair appt tonight after work and am trying to think of something cool and new to do, anybody got any ideas?..lol