S/O Beggars, Moochers and Scammers

[PastryGoddess]

Just got an email entitled "SAVE BIG ON CARS IN <CITY>!"

Yeah, they couldn't even bother to stick my city name in the spam header?  No thanks 

I mean what if you wanted to save big in <TOWN> or <VILLAGE>.  How rude

[Figgie]

The thread about insulin needles reminded me of the time the pharmacist thought I was trying to scam the pharmacy.

Background:  We had a big, orange male cat who although he had been fixed, decided to start spraying.  After trying multiple techniques and medications (this was years before Feliway), the vet finally figured out that a very, very small dose of Valium once a day, stopped the spraying.

So, I went to the pharmacy with a prescription for our cat Edgar.  The pharmacist took the prescription and said he needed more information and I told him okay.

He asked for his full name.  I remember thinking that was kind of silly, but assumed their system needed a middle name.  The cat had been named after Edgar Allan Poe, so I told him that his first name was Edgar and his middle name Allan (with the last name being my last name).

Next I was asked for a date of birth.  I told him that I had no idea.  The pharmacist was puzzled and asked me again for the date of birth or for at least his age.  I said that I thought he was around 11 years old.

The pharmacist then said:  "What kind of a mother doesn't know the date of birth and age of her OWN KID???

I started laughing and said:  "He's a cat and I have no idea what his birthday or age is because he was a stray who walked into our garage 10 plus years ago.

Pharmacist was confused and I told him to look at the written prescription, because it was from our vet, not from a physician.  He (pharmacist) did and then apologized, because he had been sure I'd been trying to scam them for Valium.

I told him, no, we were just trying to keep the cat from spraying.

[Lorelei_Evil]

HAHAHAHA.  My cat was on Prozac, so I can identify.

Now I'm getting robocalls from a super chipper broad from "Kohl's".  uh-huh.

[Twik]

File under "good try, buddy - or maybe not":

IT-Help Service.

Your mailbox has exceeded the storage limit which is 20GB as set by your administrator,you are currently running on 20.9GB, you may not be able to send or receive new mail until you re-validate your mailbox.
To re-validate your mailbox please CLICK HERE.
Thanks
System Administrator.

Gee, if I can't receive new mail, how did I get one from you, him?

[LazyDaisy]

File under "good try, buddy - or maybe not":

IT-Help Service.

Your mailbox has exceeded the storage limit which is 20GB as set by your administrator,you are currently running on 20.9GB, you may not be able to send or receive new mail until you re-validate your mailbox.
To re-validate your mailbox please CLICK HERE.
Thanks
System Administrator.

Gee, if I can't receive new mail, how did I get one from you, him?

I get these about every other month at work. The scammers don't even have the sense to try and hide their email address -- which would have to be [firstinitiallastname]@[university].edu to even be close to legitimate and nothing around here is signed "System Administrator," there is always a name. The crazy thing is that there are people that fall for this.

[lilfox]

Years ago when we did have stricter size limits on our email accounts at work, we did get automated messages if the quota was exceeded, but the solution was (is) always to delete old messages, not click on mysterious links for "revalidation."

Another one from work that turned out to be legit but was a Bad Idea - the IT department rolled out some new security alert features and didn't issue any widespread news about them.  Instead, people found out when malware-looking popups appeared in the lower right corner asking the user to confirm they read the test message by, you guessed it, clicking a mysterious link.  I don't know what the compliance rate was but it was days before IT let the general user population know it was a real thing.  We take annual training on information security and phishing and get regular reminders throughout the year, and yet IT doesn't have the foresight to think hey, our process looks exactly like what we tell people to ignore/avoid??

[magicdomino]

Not sure if this was a scam or a Really Bad Idea.  I got an ad in the mail for something or another -- call it insurance.  Attached was a postcard that you can send for More Information About Our Product.  It asked for the name and DOB for me and my spouse, as well as a contact phone number.  On a postcard.  Yeah, I don't think so.

[Yarnspinner]

I don't know if this is mooching exactly, but this seems like the right place for this:

A patron (who, I have to say, is a very, very handsome young man...this has absolutely no bearing on the story, but he really is charming and gorgeous and kind of gets away with murder even around the male members of my team) is holding a "gathering of friends" at one of the local inns.  No more information than that.  "A gathering of friends."

And he is charging everyone thirty dollars for a menu that wouldn't appeal to me if it was only ten dollars.  Happily I am busy that day.

P.S.:  I should have said it reads "a gathering of invited guest (sic)".  Among the menu choices is a "Tukey Buger."  Really do not want to try that.

[rain]

I just got a call that was purportedly from Verizon Wireless.  The recorded message states that I have won a $600+ (I don't remember the exact amount) credit, and that I need to claim my prize by going to www.Idon'trememberverizon65???


   The very first time I got one of these calls ... I was excited  , then it sank in, too good to be true - so I looked on line, then I called Verizon - the rep I spoke with said it was fraud

[Virg]

Yarnspinner wrote:

" I should have said it reads "a gathering of invited guest (sic)".  Among the menu choices is a "Tukey Buger."  Really do not want to try that."

Maybe it's a fundraiser so he can buy a keyboard with an "R" key that works every time.

Virg

[cwm]

Yarnspinner wrote:

" I should have said it reads "a gathering of invited guest (sic)".  Among the menu choices is a "Tukey Buger."  Really do not want to try that."

Maybe it's a fundraiser so he can buy a keyboard with an "R" key that works every time.

Virg

Funny story, I've actually had a keyboard that had a letter that didn't work consistently. It was about a decade or so old at the time, and was on a horribly outdated computer to boot. If I had to do anything with the command prompt or typing something, I'd open a textpad file with that one letter in it that I had saved. I could c/p with a lot less difficulty than having to hold down the key for five minutes and hope it finally read and gave me the letter.

I miss my old piece of junk. I had fun on it. It was an IBM PS/1 that I kept in my bedroom mostly functional until 2001, actually.

[2littlemonkeys]

Not sure if this was an honest to goodness scam but definitely a misrepresentation of the facts.

Dh recently got a letter in the mail with the warning that he hasn't paid his life insurance and if he doesn't pony up ASAP, he's going to be dropped.  He showed it to me very confused and a little concerned.

His insurance is through my work and the premium is deducted directly through my paycheck.

And he's never, ever had insurance with this company.

I googled the name and it is (apparently) a legit company.  After reading the fine print, it was more like one of those things where if you send in money, you are automatically signed up and you'll get monthly charges on your credit card.   

And I didn't like the implication that we're deadbeat losers who don't pay our bills.   

[Sirius]

MR. Sirius got a letter in the mail telling him that if he didn't do as they said he would lose his veteran's status.  He opened it, read it, and promptly dropped it in the shred bin.  Once you're a veteran you can't lose that status. 

[Spring Water on Sundays]

Not sure if this was an honest to goodness scam but definitely a misrepresentation of the facts.

Dh recently got a letter in the mail with the warning that he hasn't paid his life insurance and if he doesn't pony up ASAP, he's going to be dropped.  He showed it to me very confused and a little concerned.

His insurance is through my work and the premium is deducted directly through my paycheck.

And he's never, ever had insurance with this company.

I googled the name and it is (apparently) a legit company.  After reading the fine print, it was more like one of those things where if you send in money, you are automatically signed up and you'll get monthly charges on your credit card.   

And I didn't like the implication that we're deadbeat losers who don't pay our bills.   

Yeah, I got one recently that was a check for like $3.50 that looked like a rebate check. Most people would probably look at it and think, "Hm, I don't remember sending off for a rebate, but those things take so long it probably just slipped my mind," and cash it.

Fortunately I read the fine print along the bottom that said if I cashed it, I was agreeing to pay $$$ monthly for some service/insurance/something or other for an entire year.

[Shalamar]

Speaking of legit e-mails that look like spam, the secretary at my daughter's high school is REALLY bad for those.  The other day I got an e-mail whose subject line was "new york trip" (all lower case).  That's it.  I was about to delete it when I saw the sender and thought "Hmm, think that's (High School's) secretary's name."  Sure enough, it was.  But jeepers, what's wrong with "FYI Parents of (High School's) Grade 11 & Grade 12 Students:  Information about New York Trip"?