There are various nasty people on and off the Net. A few hopefully useful warnings are listed here.
"This is Steve. I'm calling from CBCS." Have you heard that on your answering machine? Don't return that call!
I've been getting hang-up calls from 800-927-2291, identified on caller ID only as "TOLL FREE NUMBER." I have an unlisted number and am on the Do Not Call list. A little research discloses that this number belongs to Sears. I'm no longer doing business with Sears.
Do you use Second Life? Don't deal with Virtuatrade, or its subsidiary SL Exchange. I bought some Lindens from them through PayPal. Nothing ever showed up in my account. The "Contact" button on the website has no link. I think it's become a black hole.
Orbitz runs third-party pop-up ads that can result in charges to your credit card without telling you. Think twice about using Orbitz. At least don't keep credit card information on file between purchases.
Eyada.com and the "Dan and Scott Show." Now defunct, but I'm not forgetting their ten-year campaign of harassing phone calls and email and threats falsely delivered to strangers in my name. If Bob Meyrowitz (who blew away millions of dollars in investors' money in a single year on that website, with offices in the most expensive part of Manhattan) has a business proposition for you, throw the bastard down the stairs.
CarSafe is an extended car warranty scam operation. If you get a form claiming your
car warranty is about to expire, or that a "service contract" which you don't have
is about to expire, and asking you to call 866-364-3336, the sender
is out to fleece you. Read their
BBB
review, which gives CarSafe an "F" rating, and gives information of an ongoing
legal action against the outfit. In general, beware of any mailing claiming to offer
an extended automobile warranty.
Barnes and Noble has been bombarding my GMail account with more spam than all other spammers combined for months. "Opting out" merely gets you onto a special spam list for people who don't want their mail. Based on my previous buying patterns before they turned me into a non-customer with their spam, they've lost a couple of hundred dollars in business. So Barnes and Noble regards the privilege of dumping mail into my spam filters as worth at least that much.
The Independent Institute spams people who comment on its blog and then claims that "by definition" what they send isn't spam. By definition, the Independent Institute will never see another cent from me. Spamming people who have sent contributions in the past is the height of idiocy.
A spam comment caught by my Wordpress filter tried to promote Tanasbourne Family Dental in Beaverton, OR, in one of my blogs. Anyone who resorts to comment spamming can be assumed dishonest.
Speaking of Wordpress spammers, seoplugins.org is one of the worst. It's extremely unwise to touch any software a spammer might try to foist on you, unless you like having a "zombie" computer. SEO (search engine optimization) is a favorite field for crooks.
If you send me spam, I will report it to your ISP and won't ever deal with you. If it's bulk e-mail and I haven't explicitly requested it, it's spam. There is no "except you" clause.
Copyright 2009-2012 by Gary McGath
Last updated January 28, 2012
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