We’ve had a spate of unordered crap showing up on our doorstep over the past few weeks. Some of the most random shit too. And not all of it absolute garbage. There was the hair curler liners. Supposed to protect your hair from the harsh heat of hot set hair rollers. Then there was a set of silicone stove burner liners; to help keep the metal stove burner liners clean. Plus a lot of other inane shit like that, and all stuff we did not order. If there were a bright spot in this it’s the occasional doable item. We got a set of bluetooth speakers we found on amazon for $80, and the bamboo charcuterie set also on amazon for $120, a $40 pair of leather gloves. We’ve started an emergency gift stash for those gift giving occasions and birthdays we forgot about or snuck up on us, and it’s largely fueled by the shit we didn’t order.
I've just read the history of the battle of Agincourt/Azincourt, and so ... gahhh! *puts on his plate armour, sabotons, and gauntlets* Thou hast wantonly stolen my beautiful-and-precious-family-heirloom leather gloves! *grabs his sword and shield* Prepareth thou for battle during which thou shalt die, knave! Silliness aside, that is weird. Oh, well. Freebies for you. Huzzah!
Realized I made a costly mistake today from months ago. Can't do anything to fix it tonight but wish me luck. The anxiety is eating me up.
Good luck, edamane! *crosses fingers for edamane's mistake to be fixable* *****EDIT; WARNING, NOT-HAPPY-RANT***** So, I had several work adventures today. As soon as I logged into work and started sorting through my emails, I came across two VERY suspicious ones: - One from Zimbabwe, telling me to "LEARN TO SEW IN FIFTY EASY LESSONS!" O...K. That's either a scam or, if real, the world's most bizarre offer. Delete. - One from Slovakia, with the title "Autism and Cookery -- TOGETHER AT LAST! " Riiiight. Delete. Obvious scams are obvious. Later on in the day, we wrote to a client who overpaid over a period of time, resulting in a credit of about $50, and offered him two options: either a credit for future bills, or a refund. His reply, in full (and a HUGE font): REFUND ME! Yay, I won the lottery ... two scams and one rude-and-oblivious client. Not funny, you guys. I wrote back: "Dear sir, We'd be happy to refund you, but I need your bank details in order to do so. Please send us your bank details, and I can take the process forward." I wish I didn't have to tell people obvious shit like this ...
Last Friday at work, I had a spam email from a person who pretended to be from the US Treasury Department, accusing me of "financial irregularities" and "fraud". There were just two things not-quite-kosher here: 1. We don't work in the US; 2. I don't know many people from the Treasury Department who would use a gmail account for official business. I reported this obvious scam, blocked it, and went about my day. Imagine my surprise and delight when, yesterday, this person emailed me again to complain that I ignored his attempt to scam me ...
HAHAHAHAHHAAHAHH!!! Well, thanks for letting me know about this scam as I'm in the US. But yeah, you can always report to the FBI or something. I have reported spam callers to the FCC over here. I donno what the AUS version is of this, but I am sure they would be happy to have a a copy. If it was me, I'd report it for the sake of others.
In the time since the original post we have received a child’s hot/cold bento box lunch box, with the optional utensil set. Meant for children 3-6. We sent that to a woman my wife works with. Her little girl just turned 5. With the exception of the lunchbox being baby blue, I’m told she’s thrilled with it. We also received a value size bottle of a collagen dietary supplement. That went to another of my wife’s coworkers. The leader of the WTF contest was the painted set of 100 chop sticks. They went in the trash after I showed my wife the warning label. It was a very poor Chinese-English translation, but the gist was the paint may contain trace amounts of lead.
It's designed to be obvious, so that most people will realise it's a scam. It's to weed out the people who wouldn't fall for it. Those who DO respond to it have already proved themselves gullible and makes their job easier.
I've been getting another round of the ones who claim to know my... video... search history and will email it to everyone in my contact list if I don't pay up. Most of the people in my contact list would just look at the subject line and delete the mail, the ones who didn't would treat it as a recommendation list. The Venn diagram of people who would want to know just what I watch and be horrified by it is vanishingly small. Plus the scammer provides no details at all, which is a critical miss.
The closest we have to the FBI is ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation), which is the the domestic intelligence and national security agency of the Commonwealth of Australia, responsible for the protection of the country and its citizens. I immediately thought of reporting this to ASIO, or maybe the police? Last I checked, impersonating a tax official is a felony, which is extremely serious. (Of course, they'll have to catch this person ... but they have his/her IP address, MAC address, etc... which can be masked, yes, but I'm sure the police/ASIO have tools that I don't). Oh, no! Your friends will be aware that you're looking at adult material, such as as the Tokyo Stock Exchange! Or the Nikkei Shimbun! The sky is falling! Ahhhhh
Gee, I don't think any coworker deserves that kind of fate. But it gave me the idea for a song. When you find yourself with lead-paint chopsticks, Don't give them away for free; Throw them in the rubbish -- Lead it be ... (Sorry, Lennon/McCartney)
Oh there are loads of people I can think of to give those to. I just thought we had laws in the books to keep that kind of stuff out of the marketplace.
No US Government or State or County agency will initiate anything like those allegations via email. So many people fall needlessly for that. These spam messages always amuse me when I get them. Working from home with a company laptop, i keep it closed and have a much larger monitor - without a camera - plugged in.
I'd have done something similar the other week, had it not resolved itself. I got home after work to find a pile of fencing, concrete, and other building materials stacked up on the drive, blocking access. Somebody clearly got a wrong address - we're not having any fencing done. Next door might be, though, so we pop round to let them know. Plot twist: it isn't theirs either. No notes on these building materials, no nothing. The cars are parked on the road as we have no access to our drive, much to the chagrin of my insurance company. Anyway, to cut a short story somewhat shorter, when I came home the following day, all the materials were gone. Free access returned. No sign of whose the fence was, nor why it was dumped on our drive. Again, no note, no nothing. It's probably lucky we have a distinctive house. Any photo could easily identify it, so if the delivery note to this person contained a photo on our drive, everyone for miles around would know where it was. A small mercy for them, but no closure to the mystery for us.
True. It's always best to remember that if you receive an email from someone you don't know, be cautious. (As for the company I work for ... we don't do business in America, so I wonder where they got my work email from?) But yes, it's the same with any agencies belonging to the Australian Government (whether Federal, State or local). If you break the law in a sufficiently egregious way, they will not contact you by phone, email or post. They will come and break your door down. (Sleep tight). Of course, if you do something minor (like speeding etc.) and get caught, you'll get a ticket by post here. But the police won't normally bother you. The tax office, now ... they'll email you when it's time to lodge your taxes, and will help you if you need it. (And yes, you'll get the usual party pamphlets etc. when it's voting time). But other than that, government will more or less leave you alone. (Yay!) What's it like in the States? Now I'm curious.
You will get an in-person visit like a city cop, or county sheriff's deputy or, at least in most Texas counties, by a county constable. In some cases, you may get surprised at a store or somewhere by a process server (a type of private detective) like for a subpoena or civil lawsuit notice.
Thank you, KiraAnn. But I was thinking of something more general: how much does government (federal, state or local) interfere with most people's daily life? I'm not thinking criminal etc., but just people who are simply going about their day. From time to time, I've seen tragic stories about people being arrested or even shot because of a policeman mistaking them for someone else. (I'm sure it happens here in Australia too, but thankfully, people being killed by mistake is very rare here). So, I'm simply curious.
I came up with a brilliant idea yesterday, that the Big Bang could have emerged from a de Sitter universe, meaning that time didn't begin with it, but previously existed in an "empty" universe. Then I found out that some "astrophysicists" had got there before me.
Alas, Naomasa. Hypotheses like those are bread and butter (or rather, grant money) for some (many?) astrophysicists.
unfortunately, it happens more often than it should. I have not heard of anything around here in about 10 years. Back then, there was an issue with an informant and a couple of cops that faked drug evidence in a small city south of us but no shootings. Those 3 went to prison and the 40-50 arestees were let go.
