my goodness, y’all wisen this senior person up! thanks a bunch! as for that right hand thing mirjam_465, didn’t know that one, so I will also check that out too. I have changed my picture on facebook, ,
haven’t gotten anything from Microsoft well not yet, and I also have blocked those numbers too, as for those calls you don’t know, I liked this one, a whistle!! yeah, or just lay the phone down and not say anything, another which is my idea, learn a foreign language, and speak it, or does that not work?
anyway, I really appreciate your feedback on this.
You mean like they start talking to you in English and you answer in Dutch, pretending not to understand them? That would be hilarious!
Still, I think you’d better hang up as soon as you can.
I once saw a Korean-American girl doing that (maybe on FaceBook or YT). She pretended she couldn’t speak English and led him on for a while by speaking random Korean sentences until finally she let out and let him have it in English! I wish I could find that again. It was hilarious!
They definitely do target the elderly population, so please listen to the advices that are given here. Do not click on any link and do not send money to anybody and do not give your personal info to anyone. I personally never answer a call unless if I know who it is. I let the rest go to my voice mail, and if it’s important enough, they will leave a message. 9 out of 10, it’s a spam call so they don’t leave any msg.
I used to get daily calls from “FBI” saying that I have broken some law and that unless if I call them back within 24 hours, I will get arrested. Knowing that I had nothing to fear, I ignored those those voice messages. It’s been a couple years, and no one ever came knowing on my door to “arrest me”!
Oh, here’s another scam that happened to another neighbor. An elderly grandmother received a call saying her grandson in another state (they even knew the name of the grandson) was in jail and needs a bail money. She was about to wire some money but luckily for her, her son intervened, and stopped her. So the scammer had enough information on the grandson to be convincing and fooling the grandmother.
@frustratedwriter Also be aware of parcel fraud. A postman might ring your doorbell and ask you to take a package for your neighbour cause he was not at home. Or it’s sent to your address but with another name on it.
Either way, it can be someone trying to purchase something on your costs. So if you didn’t order anything or you don’t clearly read the neighbor’s correct name and address on the package, then don’t accept it.
I already did it in the street!
I spoke English, it worked like wonders.
You can also tell gibberish, no need to know any language!
Once, I got a call from a religious sect.
It was really well-done.
First, they don’t present themselves as such, so you don’t know who is calling you.
They just say, “I discovered a website that talks about family and such, it is really interesting. I thought maybe you would visit it for your family and you. The website is called…”
The name of the website doesn’t have the name of the sect.
Then I ask, “Do you work for the website?”
He tells me: “No. I just thought it would be nice if people knew of this website. I am from the … sect.”
I went on the internet to tap the number and the website without going on the website.
People were saying:
you can tell you’re from another religion (muslim, atheist…)
you can tell you believe in evil
Or if it’s a spam call, you can quote the Bible or sing a lullaby.
People are really imaginative!!
Another scam is:
they call at your house every day to see if you answer and there’s someone here.
if you are not here, they might come to see your house to rob the house
Or the famous toothpick between the frontdoor and the doorframe. Once you open your door the toothpick falls, so when it’s still there after a while, it’s a good indication that noone’s home.
Btw, I did it on the streets too, twice, both in Helsinki. There were these Gypsie women selling things. Newspapers, roses, whatever. In poor Finnish and with the help of pictures they were telling sad stories about why they needed money, so please buy this rose/newspaper/etc.
So I bought the item for the said price (not much), but then they asked if I’d want to pay a little more. Okay, I was kind enough to do that. But then they asked for even more … and by then I snapped at them in English and they ran away.
Why English? It happened automatically, cause I was pissed and I guess my brain just switched back to regular mode, instead of making the effort of talking Finnish. It might have been more logical if Dutch words had come out, but I was living among other international students, so my home language at the time was English.
wow more info!! thanks! yes I will heed all these that are here, and as for that grandma and grandson in jail, that was terrible… y’all have made my day!!
This one time, some widower from California, as if, told me he fancied me and wanted to marry me.
Another time, a Nubian princess told me that her father, an African king, had left her a large inheritance, but somehow she needed my signature to gain possession of it. I was to get 10% or something.
Just last week some guy told me the U.S. public infrastructure or whatever was handing free cash to people who wanted to repair their house or something.
Anyway, no harm done. I just talked with them, keeping them busy and away from others. But Yeah, if any of this scares you, avoid, avoid, avoid.
Was waiting for the train.
Saw a man with a crutch in his hand, but walking normally. I thought maybe he was going to give it to a friend who needed it.
Train’s here. He enters and asks for money while walking with the crutch as if his leg was crippled.
○Eunuchs in past China (don’t read if castration bothers you or might be sensitive):
To find eunuchs:
volontary: men castrate themselves (at this time, no anesthesia)
forced:
1.Some criminals were given the possibility between dying or castrating to become an eunuch.
2.Child trafficking:
-Rare parents castrate their own child. Other parents sold their child at a young age for a hundred taels to chief eunuchs and they were castrated by official people in charge of castrating with a low risk of dying from it (seems like it was a job at this time).
For a hundred of taels, this sum would allow these parents to live only a few months (scam).
These sold children had to sign an acknowledgement of debt to pay back eunuchs who bought them with money because they were provided with food during their convalescence after emasculation, eunuch uniform, admission fee. In general, it takes them 10 years to pay back everything + interests fees (scam).
-Children were disillusioned with traffickers telling them that they’d find a job that would pay them and directed them towards people in charge of castration (scam).
-Kidnapped and bought by eunuchs, especially young and clever ones because they could gain the favor of a concubine or empress and so be paid and gifted more. The eunuchs who bought them would take everything for them until the retirement of the abducted person (scam).
In dramas, it is not the same feeling LOL (dramas are biggest scams ever? LOL)
I found something on youtube about this, now this is the federal trade commission, not sure if this is for other countries, BUT wouldn’t hurt to watch it anyway".explore data with FTC" ( that was on Google) but it directed me to youtube. a lot of this info is some that y’all already mentioned some time ago. but so good!
still, y’all have made my day, I have gotten so much inf, I now know what to look for, again thanks!!!
This was/is a big thing in Greece right now. They have called my elderly mother two or three times. A voice pretending to be me and shouting “Mom, mom, please do something” at the top of her voice. Supposedly I was in a car accident and killed a child. There was someone who was willing to take the blame so that I wouldn’t go to jail.
My mother didn’t have any money and she was frantically blabbering “I could sell the house” when my daughter (a teenager at the time) stopped her saying “Let’s just call Mom at work from your cellphone”. She called me, I answered, and then everything was okay. The poor thing was agitated for days, though. What if she had a heart attack or something?
The next time she was more cool about it, but still it upset her and she only calmed down after she heard my voice. The third time she hung up on them after insulting them. In a ladylike way, of course, as she’s incapable of cursing.
I told the police and was told “There have been more than 50 such cases and we’re looking into it”.
way I understand it, someone contacts someone about donating a kidney, they arent of a reputable type company, they convince person that if they do donate, they will get x amount of money
