S/O Beggars, Moochers and Scammers

[Kaora]

We got a piece of mail quoting life insurance for a MrAndy LastName.

1) That is the email we use on occasion.

2) MrAndy was the nickname for our cat that passed away over a year ago.  It's morbidly funny, selling life insurance for an ex-cat.  Makes me think of the Dead Parrot sketch, actually.

[RingTailedLemur]

We got a piece of mail quoting life insurance for a MrAndy LastName.

1) That is the email we use on occasion.

2) MrAndy was the nickname for our cat that passed away over a year ago.  It's morbidly funny, selling life insurance for an ex-cat. Makes me think of the Dead Parrot sketch, actually.

I'm glad you said you find it funny, because I did let out a little giggle!

[Jones]

Here is the news article on the glass diamonds lady.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=24131698

Glass Diamonds Lady struck again!
And this time she had an accomplice, and they got $5k
http://www.ksl.com/?sid=24228879&nid=960&title=woman-loses-thousands-of-dollars-in-fake-diamond-scam&fm=home_page&s_cid=featured-4

Very lucrative "job" I guess....$12,000 US in two weeks.

[staceym]

and here is sort of one; I can't remember the whole conversation or exact wording; but this happened about two weeks ago.

first of all, I went on line and ordered an "As Seen on TV Item"  - yeah I know; but I figured it wasn't that expensive and if it doesn't work oh well.  So, anyway about two weeks ago I started getting calls on my cell phone from an 866 number; for two days I didn't answer (and they called 7 times per day  ) so I figured the next day if they call I will answer, but answer angrily like "yeah, what do you want".  So, they do call and that is how I answered; and it is someone from that company thanking me for ordering the thingamajig and to thank you we want to send you a $50 (I think) gift card and some other things..  Now, I don't know why if they want to send it to me; they didn't just send it to me instead of calling, so it sounded off to me; so I told her no thanks and she said oh, but its blah, blah blah..and I said no thanks I don't want it, I only want what I ordered..she got silent and then said "okay, I'll put you down as a no" and I said right and hung up. 

kinda funny, that last week I got an email from the company that my item is on backorder

kinda update on this..
I was talking to a coworker this morning and a subject was brought up that made me mention the above..he said the same thing happened to him; and he spouted off the number and I showed him my number in the missed calls log on my phone and he said yup same number..it was a gas card they were giving out along with this product that if you weren't happy with you can return in 14 days.

apparently the "as seen on TV" people (he ordered something too) sell off the phone numbers they get to another company who then try to sell you their product 

=============

my parents had their driveway asphalted when a guy came knocking on the door and said they just finished off neighbors driveway and had extra asphalt and wondered if they wanted their drive done too - my dad/mom agreed (since they wanted to have it done anyway) and they did it right then and a pretty good job too

[rose red]

Here is the news article on the glass diamonds lady.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=24131698

Glass Diamonds Lady struck again!
And this time she had an accomplice, and they got $5k
http://www.ksl.com/?sid=24228879&nid=960&title=woman-loses-thousands-of-dollars-in-fake-diamond-scam&fm=home_page&s_cid=featured-4

Very lucrative "job" I guess....$12,000 US in two weeks.

I don't get it.  Why would you buy a diamond off the street?  At least go with the seller to a jewelry store to verity that the diamond is real before forking over thousands of money.

[Jones]

Here is the news article on the glass diamonds lady.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=24131698

Glass Diamonds Lady struck again!
And this time she had an accomplice, and they got $5k
http://www.ksl.com/?sid=24228879&nid=960&title=woman-loses-thousands-of-dollars-in-fake-diamond-scam&fm=home_page&s_cid=featured-4

Very lucrative "job" I guess....$12,000 US in two weeks.

I don't get it.  Why would you buy a diamond off the street?  At least go with the seller to a jewelry store to verity that the diamond is real before forking over thousands of money.

That's why so many people accused the first scammed lady of being "in on it," not really scammed but made it look like she was, to prey on the public's goodwill.

Now that a second lady has fallen for the scam, I have to wonder if people are going to accuse this victim of being "in on it" too.

[ladyknight1]

my parents had their driveway asphalted when a guy came knocking on the door and said they just finished off neighbors driveway and had extra asphalt and wondered if they wanted their drive done too - my dad/mom agreed (since they wanted to have it done anyway) and they did it right then and a pretty good job too

My in-laws had the same thing happen when their road got re-paved. Only, my in-laws didn't have a permit to have the new driveway installed, and had to scuff it up so it didn't look new.

[Kaora]

We got a piece of mail quoting life insurance for a MrAndy LastName.

1) That is the email we use on occasion.

2) MrAndy was the nickname for our cat that passed away over a year ago.  It's morbidly funny, selling life insurance for an ex-cat. Makes me think of the Dead Parrot sketch, actually.

I'm glad you said you find it funny, because I did let out a little giggle!

It's been a year, so I don't mind.  Besides, the kitty just wanted people to be happy, I can't imagine he wouldn't find it funny, either.  It sounds weird personifying a cat, but he sure had a lot of personality. 

On the diamond scam...

Should diamonds have a natural IOR anyways?  I'd think it'd be pretty easy to compare glass to real diamonds on the basis of light refraction alone.

[Wulfie]

The landlord for my studio had the parking lot entrance to his resturant widened and paved by giving the guys working on the road free lunch for a week.  Too bad my tax money paid for it   but at least my studio rent didn't go up

[ladyknight1]

In my in-law's case, they had to pay for the road improvement by amount of frontage, so it didn't faze them.

[Elfmama]

my parents had their driveway asphalted when a guy came knocking on the door and said they just finished off neighbors driveway and had extra asphalt and wondered if they wanted their drive done too - my dad/mom agreed (since they wanted to have it done anyway) and they did it right then and a pretty good job too

Might work if it was true AND they had a really short driveway.  But when someone showed up at my door with that scam, I said "If you have enough asphalt left over to properly do a 60-foot driveway, then you don't know what you're doing.  Go away."

Staceym, how thick is your parents' driveway?  We did get ours done later, and it's 4-5 inches thick.  If your parents' is much thinner, then they got scammed.

[stargazer]

Here's one I am wondering about:

My Mom once got a spam that had been spoofed to look like it came from one of my e-mail addys - a rather old one on Yahoo!, actually, that I recently revived for wedding planning. I changed my password and didn't think too much on it.

However, she keeps occasionally getting spam/scam e-mails that say they're from my first & last name (say, Jedi Kaiti), but with a wholly different e-mail address - usually Yahoo! it seems, but I'm not 100% certain on that. The thing is, she is the ONLY person getting these (or at least to have mentioned it to me), and come to find out today, she's gotten some similar ones purporting to be from one of my cousins, as well!

I'm a little baffled - it can't be that someone got my contacts from that account, there are only 2 in there, neither of whom are Mom. Maybe they scraped info out of the sent mail folder, but then why haven't my DF, MOH, or officiant gotten these emails - to say nothing of photographers and other service providers I've been corresponding with.

I'm a little confoosled.

My mom's gotten two emails recently - one labeled to look like it came from my brother, and one labeled to look like it came from me. Thankfully mom noticed that the emails are different from the ones we use (and why on earth would we email her when we're both in the house with her?).

I've gotten a couple of these recently.  It does worry me a bit - they will be coming "from" my aunt or friend but with the wrong email address.  They ALSO use my first name in the email title.  And this has been to my work email no less.

[jedikaiti]

Here's one I am wondering about:

My Mom once got a spam that had been spoofed to look like it came from one of my e-mail addys - a rather old one on Yahoo!, actually, that I recently revived for wedding planning. I changed my password and didn't think too much on it.

However, she keeps occasionally getting spam/scam e-mails that say they're from my first & last name (say, Jedi Kaiti), but with a wholly different e-mail address - usually Yahoo! it seems, but I'm not 100% certain on that. The thing is, she is the ONLY person getting these (or at least to have mentioned it to me), and come to find out today, she's gotten some similar ones purporting to be from one of my cousins, as well!

I'm a little baffled - it can't be that someone got my contacts from that account, there are only 2 in there, neither of whom are Mom. Maybe they scraped info out of the sent mail folder, but then why haven't my DF, MOH, or officiant gotten these emails - to say nothing of photographers and other service providers I've been corresponding with.

I'm a little confoosled.

My mom's gotten two emails recently - one labeled to look like it came from my brother, and one labeled to look like it came from me. Thankfully mom noticed that the emails are different from the ones we use (and why on earth would we email her when we're both in the house with her?).

I've gotten a couple of these recently.  It does worry me a bit - they will be coming "from" my aunt or friend but with the wrong email address.  They ALSO use my first name in the email title.  And this has been to my work email no less.

They're even getting the SPELLING of my name right - and it's an odd one!

[rashea]

my parents had their driveway asphalted when a guy came knocking on the door and said they just finished off neighbors driveway and had extra asphalt and wondered if they wanted their drive done too - my dad/mom agreed (since they wanted to have it done anyway) and they did it right then and a pretty good job too

Might work if it was true AND they had a really short driveway.  But when someone showed up at my door with that scam, I said "If you have enough asphalt left over to properly do a 60-foot driveway, then you don't know what you're doing.  Go away."

Staceym, how thick is your parents' driveway?  We did get ours done later, and it's 4-5 inches thick.  If your parents' is much thinner, then they got scammed.

Oddly, I've recently been helping a friend who is a paver with his invoices. The cost of the asphalt is really not the primary cost. Usually it's the labor, and the cost of any underlayment that really adds up. So, if they were jsut recoating a drive, that's not too ridiculous.

[magicdomino]

my parents had their driveway asphalted when a guy came knocking on the door and said they just finished off neighbors driveway and had extra asphalt and wondered if they wanted their drive done too - my dad/mom agreed (since they wanted to have it done anyway) and they did it right then and a pretty good job too

Something similar happened to my mother.  Sadly, it was a scam.  She paid at least a thousand dollars to have the driveway repaired and refinished by someone who knocked on the door.  The driveway looked pretty for a while, but it was only coated with oil, not asphalt.