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greazeball
Feb 4, 2003



Or just take half the money up front and then gently caress off instead of doing any real work at all

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Red Oktober
May 24, 2006

wiggly eyes!



Sydin posted:

:same: Sorry if it came off like I was giving them poo poo, if anything it's loving sad that they have to jump through so many hoops just for the system to pay them something approaching a workable wage.


So that it looks like they are close to the pickup location and idle. You hang a bunch of phones in trees, go do an order, come back and pick up all the phones and hope you have multiple orders, do all of those in bulk, rinse repeat.

You don’t even have to do that - the phones are set up to forward the order to your actual phones (through cloning usually) so they can just stay in the tree until they need charged.

gninjagnome
Apr 17, 2003

I like when the roofers come by and tell me I still have my original roof and should get it replaced. My roof is a 100 year old slate roof, and will probably last for a decades more. I'm not replacing it with your lovely asphalt tiles.

therobit
Aug 19, 2008

I've been tryin' to speak with you for a long time

His Divine Shadow posted:

My SO just donated 100€ to some charity via FB using debit straight to our family account.

Found out about just now when I found an unknown transaction while going over the account transactions. I am now super paranoid that she has used her debit card, to our account where we pool our money. I've heard of people getting debited via FB and I bet they did the misstake of exposing their card info via facebook somehow. I have told her I want her to cancel the card to the account and get a new one and never ever use facebook for anything money related, if she wants to donate money to something get their IBAN/BIC number for direkt bank transfer or use paypal.

Am I overreacting? I don't think I am. I absolutely don't trust facebook to handle our money or having our biggest account info exposed via a debit card. I mean gently caress if she'd used the credit card then you'd have some buyer protection against possible scams but exposing the debit card linked to the account.

As a banker I'm not sure you are overreacting. I would never use a debit card online, only a credit card, and I would never expose my credit card to anything on Facebook. If she wants to donate to charity she should do that through said charity's website. If it's not a gigantic organization, she should use privacy.com or another single-use card number mask. Some credit cards have those built in and you can just sign in to their web portal to get a single use number to use online. Even legitimate online retailers can be infected with malware and you can become part of a mass comp.

JacquelineDempsey
Aug 6, 2008

Women's Circuit Bender Union Local 34



The Lone Badger posted:

Isn't a common scam to do half the job, so everything's hosed, then demand payment to finish it?

Ahh, that kinda makes sense. especially on a roofing or payment job, where they tore up your roof/driveway, then swanned off. Still, if a contractor did that me, I'd tell them to pound sand and find someone who will actually finish the job before demanding payment.

greazeball posted:

Or just take half the money up front and then gently caress off instead of doing any real work at all

This, less sense. Why would you even give a contractor half money up front? If I take my car to a mechanic, I don't pay them $100 up front and then the other $100 when it's done.

The only business I can think of where I pay up front for a service without seeing the final product/work is fast food.

Fake edit: Well, and I guess utilities; I gotta pay Cox/Dominion/cell phone to connect my services before I see how much they suck. And in the case of Cox and Dominion, they've got a monopoly in my area anyways. :(

Fake edit 2: and buying weed.

therobit
Aug 19, 2008

I've been tryin' to speak with you for a long time

JacquelineDempsey posted:

Ahh, that kinda makes sense. especially on a roofing or payment job, where they tore up your roof/driveway, then swanned off. Still, if a contractor did that me, I'd tell them to pound sand and find someone who will actually finish the job before demanding payment.


This, less sense. Why would you even give a contractor half money up front? If I take my car to a mechanic, I don't pay them $100 up front and then the other $100 when it's done.

The only business I can think of where I pay up front for a service without seeing the final product/work is fast food.

Fake edit: Well, and I guess utilities; I gotta pay Cox/Dominion/cell phone to connect my services before I see how much they suck. And in the case of Cox and Dominion, they've got a monopoly in my area anyways. :(

Fake edit 2: and buying weed.

The normal payment structure for contractors working on you home where I am is 1/3 upfront, 1/3 at half completion, and 1/3 after you have done the walkthrough, given them the list of all the shot they need to fix, and they have fixed said poo poo.

Tubgoat
Jun 30, 2013

by sebmojo

therobit posted:

The normal payment structure for contractors working on you home where I am is 1/3 upfront, 1/3 at half completion, and 1/3 after you have done the walkthrough, given them the list of all the shot they need to fix, and they have fixed said poo poo.

That would have been extremely helpful for my father when he hired licensed contractors for work on the house and they ended up ignoring the specifics he gave them and had to undo and redo a bunch of the more time-consuming work himself.

Blue Footed Booby
Oct 4, 2006

got those happy feet

There's a lady in England with the same first and middle initial and the same last name. Her email address is mine with a number after it. Apparently, she sometimes forgets that number, so I sometimes get her emails. Normally it's stuff from online stores or notices that her car insurance is about to expire. I just got an email from her to me. It has no subject or body, but there's an attached mp4 file with a hexadecimal filename. There's no way I'm gonna open that file, but curiosity is kiiilllling meeeee.

bamhand
Apr 15, 2010
Open it on a library computer. Create a burner email and forward it to that first if you really want to be safe.

HerStuddMuffin
Aug 10, 2014

YOSPOS
The hexadecimal file name as you say is probably because the movie was taken by a phone camera. Phones suck at naming movies and pictures. If you open it please let us know, now the curiosity is killing me too.

Blue Footed Booby
Oct 4, 2006

got those happy feet

HerStuddMuffin posted:

The hexadecimal file name as you say is probably because the movie was taken by a phone camera. Phones suck at naming movies and pictures. If you open it please let us know, now the curiosity is killing me too.

gently caress it, I'll do it as soon as this dumb Teams meeting is over.

Edit:
It's a one second video of the left side of an elderly woman's face. Video appears to be accidental. Why it was emailed is unclear.

Blue Footed Booby fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Nov 6, 2020

wizzardstaff
Apr 6, 2018

Zorch! Splat! Pow!
I choose to believe it's the start of an ARG.

EL BROMANCE
Jun 10, 2006

COWABUNGA DUDES!
🥷🐢😬



Email her pretending to be her from the future.

Volmarias
Dec 31, 2002

EMAIL... THE INTERNET... SEARCH ENGINES...
The phone is becoming aware

Blue Footed Booby
Oct 4, 2006

got those happy feet

This lady is the reason my father received a Nigerian prince type scam via the Royal Mail. It basically feels like a slow burn ARG.

peanut
Sep 9, 2007


My father-in-law almost fell for an ATM scam. He got a txt to his phone from "NTT" (phone, mobile, and internet provider) about his contract, and he clicked on the link. An authentic-looking page said his payments were overdue and service was about to be canceled. He called the phone number and the voice told him to STAY ON THE LINE and go to the ATM today, right now, immediately!!! But to use a convenience store ATM, not his own bank's ATM.

And he was almost out the door when my mother-in-law intervened. But he didn't want to believe her. So she said to call their daughter and ask her opinion, and he complied. The daughter of course said IT'S A SCAM and you should go file a police report. The police agreed it was 99.99% percent a scam.

The "unpaid" fees were exactly $2,996 (but in yen). Transfer fees are usually $3.15. Banks automatically flag any transfers over $3000 to an account without previous history as suspicious.

If the caller had called at a different time of day when he was home alone, he would have completed it. Ugh

Midjack
Dec 24, 2007



Sometimes I wonder what I’d fall for. It has to be out there somewhere.

hyperhazard
Dec 4, 2011

I am the one lascivious
With magic potion niveous
It'll happen when you're tired or sick or your mind is on something else. I've probably mentioned it before in this thread, but back when AIM was a thing, I got a random IM from a friend with a link, and without thinking I just clicked on it. It was late at night, I had a billion tabs open, and it didn't register until a second too late that I probably shouldn't click on a random tiny urls sent from someone's old account. I felt stupid as hell and told my husband, and it turns out he'd gotten it and clicked on it too. We shared a moment of shame.

Tubgoat
Jun 30, 2013

by sebmojo

hyperhazard posted:

I felt stupid as hell and told my husband, and it turns out he'd gotten it and clicked on it too. We shared a moment of shame.
Unexpectedly :3: post.

PhazonLink
Jul 17, 2010
my caller ID had IRS as the name and i picked it up, did nothing because it asked for the wrong person. only after it i remembered the 0th rule of "yo we never call you."


is there any tech solution to making spoofing numbers/IDs impossible?

Blue Moonlight
Apr 28, 2005
Bitter and Sarcastic

PhazonLink posted:

is there any tech solution to making spoofing numbers/IDs impossible?

STIR/SHAKEN is intended to address this, but it’s somewhat slow going as I believe carriers not only have to implement it internally, but individually with other carriers as well (I recall AT&T and Comcast, for example, getting things wired up with watch other).

Not sure how it looks on Android, but if you check the recents list on an iPhone, any call with a check mark has cleared this protocol.

TheParadigm
Dec 10, 2009

PhazonLink posted:

is there any tech solution to making spoofing numbers/IDs impossible?

yes, actually, there's a guaranteed legal way to do so. I researched this in-depth a this a while ago. A family member had to use it to deal with a stalker, I'll pull my links/research up from history.

Basically, Due to usa federal regulations involving who pays for what phone wise, 1800 numbers can't be call # spoofed: as they are paying for the call/line, the 800/toll free owner has right to know who's calling, and thus it doesn't work period.

Trapcall is an app that's basically a forwarding services taking advantage of this.
IIRC its paid with a free trial, may be it changed in recent years, not sure.


Some details.
https://askbobrankin.com/trapcall_reveals_blocked_caller_id.html
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/caller-id-how-unmask-blocked-unknown-calls-mike-carthy
https://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Thir-Val/Toll-Free-Telephone-Calls-800-Numbers.html
http://www.oldskoolphreak.com/tfiles/voip/voipani.txt

This was a few years back. (i want ot say 2017?) not sure if still current. Another review ( https://appreview360.com/trapcall-review/ says the google store reviews have issues https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teltechcorp.trapcall&hl=en_US&showAllReviews=true)

Its probably fairly easy to roll your own solution, maybe?

Edit: Potentially interesting update for coloradans?
https://puc.colorado.gov/coloradonocall
https://askbobrankin.com/fed_up_with_robocalls_and_telemarketers_choose_your_weapon.html

I appreciate the legal angle link.


Double edit: Is anyone interested in physical snail mail spam reduction? Its another hastle

TheParadigm fucked around with this message at 10:36 on Nov 9, 2020

Volmarias
Dec 31, 2002

EMAIL... THE INTERNET... SEARCH ENGINES...

TheParadigm posted:

Double edit: Is anyone interested in physical snail mail spam reduction? Its another hastle

I would pay $5/m or however much it would cost to pay their revenue to pay for the USPS to not give me junk mail. Other countries have "Yes, give me garbage / No, gently caress off with your junk mail" signs for mailboxes which feels especially enlightened but here we are.

Eric the Mauve
May 8, 2012

Making you happy for a buck since 199X
The only mail that ever goes to residential mailboxes anymore is spam, like 90%+ of it. I suppose old people are still set in their habits of doing stuff by snail mail, but I'm almost 40 and I open my mailbox once a week: while taking trash out, I stop to grab the 45* pieces of spam stuffed into my mailbox and put them right into a trash bag. Even official stuff like vehicle registration notices doesn't travel by snail mail anymore. It's just spam all the way down. I would estimate that in calendar year 2020 I have received about 10 pieces of mail that I actually opened/looked at, and 6 or 7 of them were birthday cards from old relatives.

*This is a presidential election year in the U.S., in other years it's more like 20 spams a week.

Point is, you'll never get the option to not receive junk mail, because at this point junk mail is the reason the USPS exists in the first place.

Volmarias
Dec 31, 2002

EMAIL... THE INTERNET... SEARCH ENGINES...
Checks from my health insurance still come in the mail, government correspondence (tax bills etc), the folks who can't use internet, it sucks but there's still some stuff in the mail.

Pocket Billiards
Aug 29, 2007
.

Bioshuffle posted:

What's the deal with those door to door electric provider services? It's got to be done kind of scam, right?

From what I understand, they are legitimate providers and they aren't doing anything outright illegal. The model is that particular rates/fees are genuinely discounted compared to the market to entice people to sign up. The catch is that you don't really save money on your overall bill as they have other fees/rate increases built into them to make up for the advertised discounts.

doctorfrog
Mar 14, 2007

Great.

This seems to be a golden age of completely legal scams.

RenegadeStyle1
Jun 7, 2005

Baby Come Back
Yeah the electric providers thing is legit insofar as they are providing a real service at a normal price but it uses the sleaziest ways of getting business.

therobit
Aug 19, 2008

I've been tryin' to speak with you for a long time

doctorfrog posted:

This seems to be a golden age of completely legal scams.

Something something US presidency 2016-current.

TheParadigm
Dec 10, 2009

Volmarias posted:

I would pay $5/m or however much it would cost to pay their revenue to pay for the USPS to not give me junk mail. Other countries have "Yes, give me garbage / No, gently caress off with your junk mail" signs for mailboxes which feels especially enlightened but here we are.

Eric the Mauve posted:

Point is, you'll never get the option to not receive junk mail, because at this point junk mail is the reason the USPS exists in the first place.

RIP. Out here we USED to have that as an option direct form the post office, and then presumably the ad providers that do all the physical mail figured out and trashed the program.

Turns out there ARE options to opt out of junk mail! It just kind of obscure and suchlike and takes a bit of time to process the opt out. Good news is, its 2$ for lifetime. (presumably to send opt out letters)

For no more physical spam, The real meat is right here at this ecocyle page:
https://www.ecocycle.org/junkmail
https://dmachoice.thedma.org/
Step 1 and 6, then tip 1, 2 if relevant.

This is the big one after that, though. Heck, put it on your business card.

ecocycle page posted:

Our #1, must-practice tip: Use the magic words “Please do not rent, sell, or trade my name or address”

These are the magic words you’ll want to use when you’re filling out forms such as warranty cards, subscriptions, raffles, customer information cards, credit card applications, memberships for an organization, or pretty much anytime you submit your name and address to anyone. Write them out next to your personal information, and repeat these words when making purchases over the phone or on the internet, and voilà, you’ll stay off mailing lists.


Here's a NY Times article as an icebreaker(more to back up that the DMAchoice is legit): https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/08/smarter-living/how-to-cut-down-on-unwanted-junk-mail.html

https://lifehacker.com/how-to-banish-junk-mail-from-your-real-world-mailbox-1569005690 The tip about direct opt out and the trustedid mail is good supplementary advice.The comment at the bottom there is relevant too.

"lifehacker article comment posted:

So nearly all of these offers have prepaid envelopes enclosed. I've found the easiest way is to write on their offer, "Remove me from your list!" and send it back to them via the prepaid envelope. Since they have to pay extra, and more, to get the prepaid envelope back it usually only takes twice before you get removed from their list.

I've also noticed since I started doing that, the amount of junk mail that I get has dropped to nearly zero.
You need to put in some work to do it. Its like playing whack a mole sometimes - you remove a listing onto to have it pop back up as they buy their lead lists fro someone else. the oldest trick in the book is to go 'oh well we can't make money off you, but we'll sell you as a lead to the next person!' Thats why you have to include the magic phrase.

As an example of this, see: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2014/03/versatile-way-get-around-do-not-call-list It pretty much boils down to 'companies hire other companies to generate leads that get around the DNC list and then feign ignorance, thats not our problem or liability, etc.' lovely, still happens.

IIRC the dma choice takes 90 days to process fully and like, do it now, give yourself the gift of a spam free new year.

I've also had some good luck reaching advertisers/coupon senders directly over email and being promptly removed with a polite but firm words, typically my grocery stores that way to out of line.

TheParadigm fucked around with this message at 21:40 on Nov 9, 2020

namlosh
Feb 11, 2014

I name this haircut "The Sad Rhino".
The US mail is tremendously important and I’m concerned that people seem to be saying that it should just go away. The spam sucks, but geez talk about throwing out the baby with the bath water.

I’m curious, you can do your car registration online and I do, but how do you get your renewal sticker? I guess if your state doesn’t bother then cool, but I’d have to go to an office to get one. Screw that

With all of the lack of safeguards on email, phones, etc. the only way I can be sure something is truly legit is if it’s mailed to me and I can independently verify it.

Plus postcards rule

Tunicate
May 15, 2012

You can get taken off the spam list for free, you just say it makes you too horny and they have to stop

Silver John
Sep 30, 2014

namlosh posted:

The US mail is tremendously important and I’m concerned that people seem to be saying that it should just go away. The spam sucks, but geez talk about throwing out the baby with the bath water.

I’m curious, you can do your car registration online and I do, but how do you get your renewal sticker? I guess if your state doesn’t bother then cool, but I’d have to go to an office to get one. Screw that

With all of the lack of safeguards on email, phones, etc. the only way I can be sure something is truly legit is if it’s mailed to me and I can independently verify it.

Plus postcards rule

They sent my stickers by mail

Eric the Mauve
May 8, 2012

Making you happy for a buck since 199X

namlosh posted:

The US mail is tremendously important and I’m concerned that people seem to be saying that it should just go away. The spam sucks, but geez talk about throwing out the baby with the bath water.

I’m curious, you can do your car registration online and I do, but how do you get your renewal sticker? I guess if your state doesn’t bother then cool, but I’d have to go to an office to get one. Screw that

With all of the lack of safeguards on email, phones, etc. the only way I can be sure something is truly legit is if it’s mailed to me and I can independently verify it.

Plus postcards rule

None of this is stuff that FedEx/UPS can't handle, at rates that preclude mass spambombings by shysters. The USPS's primary purpose in 2020 is a vehicle for shysters (and political organizations, but I repeat myself) to cheaply mass spambomb.

I have nothing against the USPS. I'd still find it Cool and Good if the absolute minimum charge to mail something was, say, $2, with no way for mass mailings to get around it. High enough to make mass spambombings unprofitable.

Tunicate
May 15, 2012

no, really, that's the law

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibitory_Order

It was originally just 'you can stop any mailers that are sexually suggestive', and the court ruled that due to the first amendment, the USPS cannot legally decide whether or not something SHOULD make you horny, and if you claim it they have to prohibit it.

Inceltown
Aug 6, 2019

Eric the Mauve posted:

None of this is stuff that FedEx/UPS can't handle, at rates that preclude mass spambombings by shysters. The USPS's primary purpose in 2020 is a vehicle for shysters (and political organizations, but I repeat myself) to cheaply mass spambomb.

I have nothing against the USPS. I'd still find it Cool and Good if the absolute minimum charge to mail something was, say, $2, with no way for mass mailings to get around it. High enough to make mass spambombings unprofitable.

Seems like after a fairly prominent election where voting by mail was a deciding factor that this is a pretty stupid take.

Eric the Mauve
May 8, 2012

Making you happy for a buck since 199X
And the USPS has to be a vehicle for spam carpetbombings in order for remote voting to happen because..?

I didn't spell it out because I thought it would be obvious, but the actual federal government could and should be able to use the USPS for whatever purposes are useful to it.

Midjack
Dec 24, 2007



Eric the Mauve posted:

None of this is stuff that FedEx/UPS can't handle, at rates that preclude mass spambombings by shysters. The USPS's primary purpose in 2020 is a vehicle for shysters (and political organizations, but I repeat myself) to cheaply mass spambomb.

I have nothing against the USPS. I'd still find it Cool and Good if the absolute minimum charge to mail something was, say, $2, with no way for mass mailings to get around it. High enough to make mass spambombings unprofitable.

lmao at an unironic “privatize the post office” poster in 2020. Enjoy paying 10 bucks to mail a postcard.

Mr. Maltose
Feb 16, 2011

The Guffless Girlverine

Eric the Mauve posted:

None of this is stuff that FedEx/UPS can't handle, at rates that preclude mass spambombings by shysters. The USPS's primary purpose in 2020 is a vehicle for shysters (and political organizations, but I repeat myself) to cheaply mass spambomb.

How do you think that FedEx and UPS are able to handle things? Here’s a hint, begins with United and ends with Office.

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remigious
May 13, 2009

Destruction comes inevitably :rip:

Hell Gem
Also the USPS is a great job provider (or at least it was, not sure if that has changed). My mom was a mail carrier for like 15 years and never graduated from high school. She would have had a cushy retirement plan too if alcoholism hasn’t ruined everything :(

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