I get so many fucking scam calls and texts and emails now, and so many people have lost much money to these fucking scavengers that I wonder if there might be some appetite for applying, shall we say… kinetic solutions to the problem?
I mean, hear me out, I’m not saying we should just straight up start murdering dudes, but would it be so wrong if, say, a small but non-zero number of scammers were, I dunno, to meet up with Ben Roberts-Smith, a Barrett 50 cal and a Go-Pro camera one day?
It might be a way for him to rehab his image, and I’m pretty sure it would be way more effective than this bullshit scamwatch fandango they’ve got running in Canberra now.
I decided the only thing worse than a telemarketer was an evangelical Christian. Now when I get a call I make them say the Lord's Prayer (because I will not deal with heathens and unbelievers) before I engage. Their enthusiasm drops off quickly.
I had Google charge me $130 for an app purchase on my credit card. I complained, the monolith said there was no problem, not a scam, thanks for the money. So I called the bank , who then refunded the money and cancelled my credit card. I switched off my credit card and now send everything through PayPal with second stage approval. I think the problem might be Google is a Monopoly Utility and needs to be regulated like one. It's like Comm bank is scared of Google and the Northern Californian hegemony , and if Comm bank can't stand up to them, I don't think Canberra has a hope in hell of standing up to them. No enforcement means no law.
I have heard, and it has appeared to work on a couple of occasions, that the automated calling doohickey is listening for a “hello”, and then connects “Bob”from Castle Hill to torment one with visions of solar panels or great telecom deals. If one answers the phone but says nothing, the doohickey will disconnect the call, and if the call is from a real person, they will “Hello Hello, are you there?”, etc, and you can respond.
The do not call register cut out a lot of mine, and I do derive a certain satisfaction in blocking the numbers of the ones who slip through. But I can certainly recognise the annoyance such unrelenting intrusion cause, especially with the knowledge of how many $$$ are lost each year in scams that many can not afford.
$3B is such a big sum of money that it is hard to comprehend. I still remember the days when the house phone would ring and it was someone you actually wanted to talk to. On the odd afternoon it might be some bored kids playing a prank, maybe someone trying to sell a trees worth of paper in the form of an encyclopedia that was already out of date by the time of printing, then the scam phone calls started but you could get away from it because we didnt have a computer/phone in our pocket then. I used to have a bit of fun with the scammers but now its short thrift - read that you just ignore any calls that dont go to voice mail and dont actually speak when you have the wherewithal to actually answer the phone on an unknown number. Like social media accounts and bot followers it would be interesting to see what percentage of calls these days are bots/scammers.
These are just poor innocent sub-saharan princes seeking to right their misfortunes with a little bit of assistance from someone they know to be an honest and trustworthy individual such as your most benevolent self, JB. Why you gotta be like this?
But seriously, swing the solution-focused power of the new Scyne Advisory (look it up if you need to, non Canberra people) to identifying suitable targets and I'm seeing a win-win-win (and, to be sure, a small but non-zero number of lose) here.
Terminate with extreme prejudice is a solution that works for me. Mind you, I do like having some fun with callers from certain non-Australian countries. I consider it a massive win to have one of them tell me to ‘GF’ before THEY hang up!
This might be the start of a new novel JB - the secret society of assassins quietly eliminating the world's most pernicious threat - online scammers.
I decided the only thing worse than a telemarketer was an evangelical Christian. Now when I get a call I make them say the Lord's Prayer (because I will not deal with heathens and unbelievers) before I engage. Their enthusiasm drops off quickly.
I had Google charge me $130 for an app purchase on my credit card. I complained, the monolith said there was no problem, not a scam, thanks for the money. So I called the bank , who then refunded the money and cancelled my credit card. I switched off my credit card and now send everything through PayPal with second stage approval. I think the problem might be Google is a Monopoly Utility and needs to be regulated like one. It's like Comm bank is scared of Google and the Northern Californian hegemony , and if Comm bank can't stand up to them, I don't think Canberra has a hope in hell of standing up to them. No enforcement means no law.
I have heard, and it has appeared to work on a couple of occasions, that the automated calling doohickey is listening for a “hello”, and then connects “Bob”from Castle Hill to torment one with visions of solar panels or great telecom deals. If one answers the phone but says nothing, the doohickey will disconnect the call, and if the call is from a real person, they will “Hello Hello, are you there?”, etc, and you can respond.
The do not call register cut out a lot of mine, and I do derive a certain satisfaction in blocking the numbers of the ones who slip through. But I can certainly recognise the annoyance such unrelenting intrusion cause, especially with the knowledge of how many $$$ are lost each year in scams that many can not afford.
$3B is such a big sum of money that it is hard to comprehend. I still remember the days when the house phone would ring and it was someone you actually wanted to talk to. On the odd afternoon it might be some bored kids playing a prank, maybe someone trying to sell a trees worth of paper in the form of an encyclopedia that was already out of date by the time of printing, then the scam phone calls started but you could get away from it because we didnt have a computer/phone in our pocket then. I used to have a bit of fun with the scammers but now its short thrift - read that you just ignore any calls that dont go to voice mail and dont actually speak when you have the wherewithal to actually answer the phone on an unknown number. Like social media accounts and bot followers it would be interesting to see what percentage of calls these days are bots/scammers.
These are just poor innocent sub-saharan princes seeking to right their misfortunes with a little bit of assistance from someone they know to be an honest and trustworthy individual such as your most benevolent self, JB. Why you gotta be like this?
But seriously, swing the solution-focused power of the new Scyne Advisory (look it up if you need to, non Canberra people) to identifying suitable targets and I'm seeing a win-win-win (and, to be sure, a small but non-zero number of lose) here.
C4 for the win.
These is a wrong thought, but I sometimes think it would be good if a small incendiary device could be sent back down the internet to these arseholes.
Terminate with extreme prejudice is a solution that works for me. Mind you, I do like having some fun with callers from certain non-Australian countries. I consider it a massive win to have one of them tell me to ‘GF’ before THEY hang up!