[Due to Google Blogger's COMPLETE and UTTER FAILURE to stop the COMMENT SPAMMING BY REGISTERED GOOGLE BLOGGERS (Yeah, I'm talking to the primordial slime that goes by Kevin and variations), all postings from now on will start with this preface. Do NOT click on ANY LINK found in the comment section of this blog. No matter how innocuous the link MIGHT appear to be, it is MOST LIKELY SPAM or a link to MALWARE. I am disheartened by the need to do this, which accounts for the sparsity of posts this year.]
I know SOME of you need to put food on your table. But before resorting to telemarketing try everything else. EVERYTHING else. And, if you are telemarketing an actual scam rather than something with some semblance of value, then don't. DO NOT DO IT. If you believe in Karma and re-incarnation (and some of the people who do this probably do), then you are coming back as a cockroach or a flea on a Republican's backside. And soon.
There's a new scam out there that started, by my quick research, just before Christmas and is apparently still going strong. YOU get a phone call from somebody, usually with an accent from someplace other than this continent, and the caller informs you your computer is sending his/her company information. AND you most certainly don't want that. The helpful person will walk you through verifying the info-leaky computer. In fact, he'll PROVE it's communicating them by telling you a specific UNIQUE IDENTIFIER that you will be able to find once he/she gets you to type CMD ASSOC into your computer. Like the card trick with the picked card in the middle of the second column, it's a TRICK.
Do it with another computer and you'll see the same UNIQUE ID. If you aren't running a Windows PC computer, of course, the scammer will have struck out. But that's why they have rapid re-dial on their phones. Time to move on to the next potential victim.
I don't know what happens after that. In fact, I only know about the Unique ID part of the script because when I checked out 425-998-1533 at WhoCallsMe.com, one of the zillion or so reports about this bunch of Karma-begotten sub-humans, I found one guy who strung the slimy scammer along long enough to get the script.
The reason I went digging for this was, of course, because the simpletons called my Dad, who handled the situation perfectly. He refused to do anything with them and asked for their phone number to call them back when he had the time, laughing as he asked. The sap at the other end of the line hung up, knowing the jig was up. Then Dad called me to make sure.
Here's what I told him. "Software companies DO NOT CARE about you. They will NOT SPEND THE MONEY pro-actively phoning you to help you out. That COSTS MONEY and companies have limited charity budgets as is. EVEN when there is some sort of recall, the company will advertise it and hope YOU DON'T GET IN TOUCH. It's like warranties that they hope you won't convert or gift certificates they hope you lose before cashing in. At best, they'll send you a letter or an email, something mass producible and cheap. Paying for one-on-one help. NOT. GOING. TO. HAPPEN."
"Now, if you want to have some fun and keep them talking on their dime, go ahead. Want to shout and holler obscenities, go for it. Want to just hang up on them, go ahead. That's what I do. But for this PARTICULAR scam, I wait beside my phone with my VERY LOUD, PIERCING referee's whistle. Cruel? Yeah. Overkill? Maybe. Taking advantage of living by myself? Oh, yeah!"
Oh, and I'm not all that sanguine about hardware companies calling either.
Just in case you decide you need money sooooo badly that you take it for trying to scam me with some story about software or hardware. Better hope the random dialer doesn't pop out my name and number. 'Cuz you know what's coming...
TWEEEETTTTTT!!!!
