Day 75: A bit of information to save you some aggravation

Between You, Me and the Lamp Post

Day 75: A bit of information to save you some aggravation

   

If you’re planning on selling something on Facebook, beware, danger is lurking. Scammers are on the loose and this time you might not even know that you’re being scammed.

It goes somewhat like this …

You list an item for sale on Facebook and sooner or later you’ll get the response “Is this item still available?” If you say that it is, the person will show a great interest. He or she might respond with “I really love this”, “I’m really interested in buying this”, or “Please hold the item for me.”

Next there might be a price negotiation and eventually the person will make arrangements for pick up or if you’re planning on mailing the item your email address to pay via PayPal. This is where it gets dangerous.

If you never had dealings with this person, DO NOT give out your address. Rather arrange a meeting in a coffee shop, park, street corner or even the lobby of your apartment/condo building.

If the person asks for your email address to pay via PayPal, be VERY CAREFUL divulging this information.

The dangers of giving out your address are obvious … the person now knows where you live and can use this information for all kinds of mischief.

If you think that giving out your email address can’t do much harm, think again … this is how identify theft starts and other nonsense.

Usually I’m good with spotting scammers, but in this case I fell for it. Not once, not twice, but three times.

I listed two rugs, a set of curtains and a set of rings for sale and it didn’t take long for the scammers to notice this. I received comments such as 

“Oh how gorgeous, I want this”

“I’m at work right now but I’ll pay you as soon as I get home”, or 

“This is exactly what I’m looking for”.

Of course, once they had my email address, I never heard from them again. If it happens to you, they will sell your email address a be paid handsomely for it. How will you know that your email address has been sold … you’ll get lots and lots of junk mail in your inbox.

You’ll get emails for all kinds of insurance, foot care, laser surgery, gutter cleaning, mattresses, pest control, etc.

I fell for their scam not once, not twice but three times, but the third time is definitely the last time. I thought I’d pass on this bit of information to save you some aggravation.   

Day 3: Snail mail vs. email

Between You, Me and the Lamp Post

Day 3: Snail mail vs. email

Back in the day when I was young (gosh that’s ancient history) people talked about the good old days and I wondered what was so good about them. These days I find myself thinking the same thing ... ah, the good old days.

Take mail for instance. With the arrival of email and chat regular mail has somewhat become obsolete.

Who remembers waiting for the mailman? On the street where I grew up the mailman usually arrived around 11:00 a.m. Through snow, wind, rain or shine, he pushed his bicycle from house to house with a sack full of mail. When he approached our house, I waited if he would stop by our mailbox and when he did I would rush to the box to see what we’d received.

Envelopes with window were for my parents, but occasionally there would be a letter for me. Oh, the excitement of it.

Nowadays I rarely receive a real letter anymore, instead, I receive emails. And while it’s nice that mail is instant with no chance of anything getting lost, I somehow miss the old-fashioned way. 

I remember getting a block of paper and a pen, sitting down at the dining room table and starting a letter to one of my friends. The smell of the paper, the pen gliding across its smooth surface ... it was a relaxing and satisfying task. Then it was waiting for a reply, which could take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.

Another thing of the past is the excitement of the phone. Back in the day, businesses and shops had phones, but regular people ... no, hardly anyone had one. When phones became popular our neighbors started applying for such an apparatus and had to wait months for a phone line to be installed. We got our phone within a matter of weeks, but only because my brother was diagnosed with diabetes. Medical reasons pushed an applicant to the top of the waiting list. That and my boyfriend at the time worked for the phone company.

Once the phone was installed, heaven help us when it rang. It was such a momentous occasion that we quite literally fell over ourselves to answer it. The phone rang … my goodness, everyone stopped what they were doing and rushed to be the first one to get to it. Nobody ever called for me, because my friends didn’t have a phone, but that didn’t stop me from joining the race.

These days just about everyone has a cellphone, often ignores a call and prefers to let it go to voicemail. How times have changed.

Ending a call has also changed. Who remembers slamming the phone down when displeased with a certain caller? I have slammed the phone down more than once. These days, I merely jab at the ‘End’ button.

Then there is the car. These days just about all cars have an automatic transmission, but in my day cars were manual. Part of the fun of driving is shifting gears, pushing it into first, throwing it into fourth. What fun is there is merely pushing a pedal?

Then again, with modern cars parking certainly has improved. From what I understand, some cars park themselves.  Oh, how I struggled with reversed parking when I first learned how to drive! I failed my drivers' exam twice because during the reversed parking segment I kept knocking down the pylons.

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was super nervous and after another pylon went flying I just about lost it.

“I can do this,” I told the examiner. “I really can but you’re making me nervous.”

“Alright,” he said, “you practice a bit and I’ll go get a cup of coffee.”

While he was gone I did the reverse parking three times and three times it worked like a charm. When the examiner came back, he marked my exam paper as ‘passed’.

“But you don’t know whether I can do it or not?” I told him.

“Oh yes I do,” he said. “I’ve been watching you from the coffee shop. You’re good to go.”

When I think of things in my good old days, I wonder what this generation will look back on when they recall their good old days. Will people in due time learn how to fly?

Day 13: Letters - Make reference to a famous letter

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 13: Letters. Make reference to a famous letter

Because of the internet, people today enjoy instant communication. Someone writes an email and within seconds can expect a reply. Or contact someone via chat and create an instant conversation.

While this is a very convenient way of interaction, very few people today know the pleasure of writing a letter and the joyful anticipation of a reply.

When I was a teenager I had several pen pals and waited for the mailman every morning. Sitting by the window, I saw him push his bike up the street and almost from door slip something in the mailbox. Would he have something for me? When I heard a thud in our mailbox I knew something had arrived.

I used to rush through the house, open the small wooden door of the mailbox and fish out whatever was just delivered.

More sweet anticipation followed as I sifted through the envelopes looking for those addressed to me.

Responding to those letters was just as enjoyable. Sitting at the dining room table, a block of crisp white lined paper in front of me and a fountain pen on the side. I use to love the feel of that silky paper and the sound of the pen scratching as it formed letters and words.

I wonder if Napoleon felt the same when he wrote:

My Dearest Josephine, I wake filled with thoughts of you. Your portrait and the intoxicating evening which we spent yesterday have left my senses in turmoil. Sweet, incomparable Josephine, what a strange effect you have on my heart!

Poor man, who knows how long it took for his letters to be delivered and how long he had to wait for a response. I wonder how Josephine felt. Each time Napoleon went off to battle she must have wondered if she'd ever see him again, and a letter would have been a sign of life.

In due time, I moved on from pen and paper to a typewriter. I admired those machines the way my friends admired shoes, boots, and handbags. From behind the showroom window, they beckoned for me to come closer, enticing me with their shiny black, white, mint green or powder blue cases, detailed with black or white keyboards. Side by side they stood, fighting for my attention.

A whole year I saved up part of my pocket money so I could have one of those machines for my very own. Do kids still do that today, save up for something?

I’ll never forget the day when I brought my ‘baby’ home. Using two fingers I could now hammer out letters to my pen pals at a fraction of the time it used to take me.

Over the years my little typewriter was replaced by a much more sophisticated electric machine, followed by several desktop computers and finally laptops.

Does anyone these days still use typewriters or write letters for that matter?

Feel free to comment, I'd love to hear from you.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

One scam down

It would seem that Carol T. didn’t like yesterday’s blog post.  Nope, she didn’t like it at all and oh dear was she mad.

On her scheming blog site she was polite and informed her members that I was “the worst troll she ever had” (does that mean she had other trolls?), but in the email she sent me later on the gloves came off and she showed her claws.

Boy oh boy did she let fly.  How dare I blog about her … Did I know how much money I cost her … Did I realize that I had damaged her credibility, and blah, blah, blah.  She used some rather colourful language that would make a sailor blush.  With some her profanities I was familiar, others were rather new. 

She was of course mad that I had called her “operation” a scam and tried to convince me that it was quite legit.   Some of her minions joined in and defended her actions.  I guess they couldn’t quite admit that they’d been scammed.  Although some were quite honest, saying that even though they had made a little money, the revenue was not nearly what was promised and the so called seminars rather worthless.

So I did a little digging whether or not Carol T.’s tips were helpful or not.  I came across the following …

“As an entrepreneur you should always advertise your goods with photographs.  A visual is always better than mere words.”

“Create a page on Facebook and make friends to “Like” you.”

“Be active on Twitter and make friends to re-tweet your posts.”

“Involve family and friends to advertise your goods.”

That’s it?  Advertise with photographs, Facebook, Twitter and involving those you know?  People have to pay $25 for that!!!  A five year old could have told them that.

Another of her complaints to me was that I asked too many questions.  Euh da-a, before I fork out $25 I want to know what I’m paying for. 

Her answer was “My services”.  Okay, but what involved her services.  Carol T.’s reply “To give you access to my contacts”. 

Call me crazy but I’m a little hesitant when I see the word contacts.  A few months ago I responded to a similar ad and was put in touch with a gentleman from Russia.  He was looking for someone to handle his accounts.  All I needed was a bank account.  I would receive his clients’ money and then transfer it to him via Western Union.  For each transaction I would receive $50.

$50 for simply sending money via Western Union?  Okay, I saw nothing wrong with that.  Turns out, I was wrong.  After only one transaction my bank called me and asked for details.  Turned out I was involved in something illegal.

More digging revealed that advice for entrepreneurs, legitimate advice that is, happens a little differently than how Carol T. goes about it.

Richard M. runs such a business and informed me that his clients join his operation free of charge.  Whenever they land a client, he takes 2, 5, 10 or 12% of their commission.  “When asked for money, prospective investors should proceed with extreme caution,” he said.  “Hardly any legitimate business will charge money up front.  Why do you ask?”

When I told him about Carol T.’s entrepreneur blog he responded with “Oh her”.  Apparently, he is familiar with her scamming blog and calls it a joke.

To protect others, I reporting Carol T. to the BBB (Better Business Bureau).  As it turned out Carol T. is no stranger there either.  Within the hour someone of the BBB sent me an email asking for more details.  Did I perhaps have an email address?  Other complaints have been received about Carol T.’s blog scheme, but what the BBB really needed is an email address.  Did I have that?  No, unfortunately at the time I didn’t.  But I knew how to get it.

I posted yesterday blog post on her blog site for all to see.  Initially nothing happened.  If at first you don’t succeed, try again, which I did.  This time Carol T. sent me the above mentioned email, swearing blue murder and banning me from the site. 

Bingo, I had her, or rather, I had her email address.  Am I good or what :-) 

P.S.  She called my blog “an itty bitty blog that nobody reads”.  I beg to differ.  Since posting yesterday, "Under the Toronto Sun"  received 236 hits.  I consider my work done, those are 236 people who won't fall for her little scheme.  With any luck those 236 (and counting) will share what they learned, forcing Carol T. to rethink her scheme.  That will really make her angry. 

Either that or the BBB will step in and shut her down.  Unfortunately, as quick as one scheme goes down, another pops up.  Be warned.

Do I have moron written on my forehead?

It would seem that with the high unemployment rate, scammers come out of the woodwork left, right and center.

A while back I was contacted by Marek Polonski, a Polish business man who needed someone in Canada to receive and send payments for his business via Western Union. I was to keep a percentage of the fee and on top of that I was to receive a generous salary.

As it turned out, Marek Polonski had a little money laundering scheme going on. I was lucky not to have gone along with this scheme because, if found out, not only would Marek Polonski be prosecuted, I would have to pay back all the money that I received in my account. Roughly about $1,000 per week.

Three weeks later I was contacted by one John DeMoor. He offered me more or less the same ‘employment’. Receiving and sending payments for his business + salary.

Today I received an email from John Mullins. Apparently he saw my resume on Workopolis and offered me employment as a financial adviser. To use his words ...

Most of our top Financial Security Advisors have joined our organization from totally different career backgrounds and they have taken our company's slogan "the freedom to choose, the power to get there" and applied it to their own career goals, to give them a satisfying and rewarding career.


Hmm, people from different career background that become financial advisers ... can’t say that I would trust them with my money or investments. Don’t you need some sort of university degree to give financial advice?

I also found it a little weird that a director of a financial company would contact me at 8:00 p.m. from a private email address. You would think that doing business would take place between business hours from a business email address, not from jmullinsf55financial@rogers.com

Still, never one to just throw away an opportunity, I replied to the email and asked how people from different background qualified as financial advisers.

I received the following response:

I will not reply to your questions because it does not seem that you are really interested in pursuing this career opportunity. Please do not be offended if I do not respond to any further e-mails from you.

Hm, touchy isn't he?

It just ticks me off. The unemployed have it bad enough, they don’t need scammers to take advantage of them.

Irish luck

This morning I received an Irish luck email from a friend in Wicklow, Ireland.

The email stated that the message had to be forwarded to several friends for the luck to work.

I don’t usually forward chain mail, but today I made an exception.
I need some luck and I figured maybe so do others, so I sent the message to ten or fifteen people, can't quite recall how many.

Within minutes I received a call from a company inviting me for an interview.

Luck? Coincidence?