I think the world's gone mad.......

Intrepid Wheelwoman

Intrepid Wheelwoman

New Member
Is it just me or has the world gone mad? I know we're all suffering from the effects of the Great Recession, but there just seems to be so many scammers and get rich quick schemes being promoted these days. This past week I received letters in my mailbox which were very cunningly worded assuring me that I'd won $33,000.00 and $15,000.00 by the good graces of some agencies which I'd never heard of before. And no they weren't from Nigeria, but as usual a payment of an administration fee was required before the money could be transferred.

Everyone can spot the Nigerian scam letters, with their creative grammar and free form spelling they are plainly bogus, but the letters sent to me this week were on an entirely different level. Having worked in a professional role for the mental health service I consider myself well educated and I've also studied psychology and human behavioral science, so it wasn't to difficult for me to quickly see these letters for what they were. BUT what worries me is that someone without the benefits of my education and who is in financially desperate circumstances might actually take these letters as being genuine.

Then this morning a phonecall from an international lottery brokers that had somehow got my number really capped it off. Now i have sometimes mentioned in my other posts that I have a deep religious faith and that I go so far as to dress modestly in a somewhat old fashioned way. I also don't believe in any form of usury or gambling and I live my life in a very simple fashion. I don't even watch television or read newspapers.
Well.... when offered the chance to buy lottery tickets and thereby win millions of dollars I replied that due to my religious beliefs I had no interest in buying any lottery tickets. To my complete surprise instead of the saleswoman hanging up in my ear as they usually do I spent the next half an hour debating my religious beliefs with this woman. Somehow I'd touched a raw nerve as she regarded herself as a woman of faith and she couldn't understand what my problem was. Among the many arguements she presented to try and convince me to buy tickets was that if i won I could give the money away to help the poor! There were others, but that was certainly the most memorable. In the end I finally had to insist that i was ending the phonecall, but i did say I would keep her in my prayers.

And then I had a good cry and I did pray for her. It shocked me to talk to someone who was so money centred and actually told me that God wasn't going to help me get rich no matter how much I prayed. Not that I ever tend to pray for riches and money anyway, but somehow she missed that point.

Mods, I'm not sure what the forum's rules are on religious discussion, but if I've put my foot in it please do delete this post.
 
I just hang up on these people.

No words, no conversation, just click.

In fact I bought myself one of those phone answering machines just so I wouldn't even have to listen to them.

I get 8 junk calls a day.
 
I have an A-440 cycle tuning fork to tune my guitar in concert pitch which I keep on my desk. Whenever I answer one of these damn calls I bat the tuning fork against my knee and then touch it to the phone handset so the 440 cycle/second tone is heard. While they're starting their pitch I say something like: "This one we want to record sir." They immediately disconnect and after that we sometimes go for a month without a solicitor calling us.
 
Well, I don't think this is a symptom of any recent world-wide madness. Scammers and their suckers have been around forever.

I'll give that woman some reluctant admiration. She's a pro who was not willing to take no for an answer. It's a pity she's using her talents for something so disgusting. But she's using her talents.

When I get telemarketers I usually interrupt them. I speak politely, thank them for calling and say goodbye. Then, just for kicks, I listen as I'm hanging up to see how many are still speaking and trying to get me to listen. Not all that many. But the few who do, I sorta wish them luck. At least if they smarten up and get into something more respectable.
 
Intrepid,
I certainly can not speak for the moderators, but I would think that in the tavern we should be free to discuss most anything so long as it is done in a respectful manner. I suspect there are many of us throughout the world who find ourselves at odds with values and beliefs foreign to us.

For myself I don't mind religious discussion so long as there is some tolerance for other views. I am fortunate to have friends who are deeply spiritual and yet not of the same religious grounding or faith or whatever you wish to call it. In my view being spiritual and religious are not necessarily the same thing. Personally, I do not like having any religion rammed down my throat. And I think what is most persuasive is when you meet someone who seems to have a kind of inner light that shines out with a quiet peace, grace and joyfulness... it makes one want to know "what is that person's secret?"

Unfortunately my experience is that all too often what starts as a discussion becomes an attempt to win you over to the other person's vantage point and not a coming together over common ground. I would consider it disrespectful to try to convince someone to my own spiritual views. I don't mind sharing them, but have no interest in trying to make a convert. I have been thinking about spiritual matters since I was a little boy. It is my center of gravity as a pipe carrier and as a human being. Many years and experiences, four near deaths, many setbacks, sorrows and blissful understandings have led me to where I am in my hard earned spirituality. For someone to think that in fifteen minutes of dogmatic flogging I will forget all that I know and take on a new religion is not likely to happen... I distance myself from such people. In fact, they are something like the telemarketers who are so irritating.

No doubt I have already offended somebody. It is a difficult subject...
SB
 
caduceus said:
I have an A-440 cycle tuning fork to tune my guitar in concert pitch which I keep on my desk. Whenever I answer one of these damn calls I bat the tuning fork against my knee and then touch it to the phone handset so the 440 cycle/second tone is heard. While they're starting their pitch I say something like: "This one we want to record sir." They immediately disconnect and after that we sometimes go for a month without a solicitor calling us.
Click to expand...

That beats my just hanging up immediately...
SB
 
Yes Silverbear i very much agree with you about the way some folk will attempt to convert others to their beliefs. I too have suffered, 'fifteen minutes of dogmatic flogging,' on a number of occasions and it's never pretty. Most often it's because someone has jumped to conclusions because of the way I dress, but all they had to do was ask me and i would have explained.
St. Francis advised his followers to, 'Always preach the Gospel, but only use your voice if it is necessary to do so.' I very much agree with St. Francis on this and will only talk about what I believe and why if someone asks me to. Religion and spirituality are not always the same thing, - i definitely agree with you there. The religion one might grow up with tends to be more an accident of geography than anything else, but the walk in the spirit is very much a personal path that is one's own.
When I was working as a social worker one of the joys of the job was meeting people from many different faiths and cultures. Just recently there were some Krishna monks in town and we had a marvelous chat together because the simple truth was that there was far more we had in common in our spiritual walk that we had differences.

Bless you Silverbear, wise man and pipe carrier, - it's a pity we live so far apart because I think I would enjoy being able to sit on your porch and talk with you in the silence of the forest.
 
Intrepid Wheelwoman said:
Yes Silverbear i very much agree with you about the way some folk will attempt to convert others to their beliefs. I too have suffered, 'fifteen minutes of dogmatic flogging,' on a number of occasions and it's never pretty. Most often it's because someone has jumped to conclusions because of the way I dress, but all they had to do was ask me and i would have explained.
St. Francis advised his followers to, 'Always preach the Gospel, but only use your voice if it is necessary to do so.' I very much agree with St. Francis on this and will only talk about what I believe and why if someone asks me to. Religion and spirituality are not always the same thing, - i definitely agree with you there. The religion one might grow up with tends to be more an accident of geography than anything else, but the walk in the spirit is very much a personal path that is one's own.
When I was working as a social worker one of the joys of the job was meeting people from many different faiths and cultures. Just recently there were some Krishna monks in town and we had a marvelous chat together because the simple truth was that there was far more we had in common in our spiritual walk that we had differences.

Bless you Silverbear, wise man and pipe carrier, - it's a pity we live so far apart because I think I would enjoy being able to sit on your porch and talk with you in the silence of the forest.
Click to expand...

Amen to you both, thanks for caring enough to share from your hearts ;)
 
Telemarketers can be quite irritating. This reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where a telemarketer calls at an inopportune time for Seinfeld. Seinfeld says would you give me your home phone number I call you back later. The guy says he cannot give out the number and that he does not take calls at home. Seinfeld says then you know how I feel and hangs up. HeHe!

By the way I go to temple once a year at Burning Man Event. Then we watch the temple burn and remember those love ones that have passed on.

MT
 
every time i post a bike or something up for sale on craigslist i always get some scammers bugging me. i think anything listed over a thousand bucks gets them drooling.

i always post my phone number in the ads because i want to sell the thing and don't wanna hassle with emails and wasted time.

lately i've been getting text messages from these idiots, who always stary with "is the item still for sale."

"item" gives it away. most real people would name the bike, not use "item."

i like stringing these people along for as long as i can. i'm actually hoping someone does send their courier over with a certified (bogus) check "accidentally" written with an extra zero on the end.

my new tactic for messing with them is to text them at 3am with lewd remarks and various unsavory pictures from the internet, offering to "trade" my "item" for certain services i can't type here due to bad taste and forum rules. :)

strangely enough, they always reply back.

and i still haven't sold the stupid bike...
 
Be careful in the offers to 'trade' your 'item' for certain services.........the person on the other end just may be a congressman --- most unsavory subspecies of the human race.
 
bairdco said:
every time i post a bike or something up for sale on craigslist i always get some scammers bugging me. i think anything listed over a thousand bucks gets them drooling.

i always post my phone number in the ads because i want to sell the thing and don't wanna hassle with emails and wasted time.

lately i've been getting text messages from these idiots, who always stary with "is the item still for sale."

"item" gives it away. most real people would name the bike, not use "item."

i like stringing these people along for as long as i can. i'm actually hoping someone does send their courier over with a certified (bogus) check "accidentally" written with an extra zero on the end.

my new tactic for messing with them is to text them at 3am with lewd remarks and various unsavory pictures from the internet, offering to "trade" my "item" for certain services i can't type here due to bad taste and forum rules. :)

strangely enough, they always reply back.

and i still haven't sold the stupid bike...
Click to expand...
Forgive me for getting this thread off track a little, but bairdco reminded me of a story. Years ago when I was stationed in Japan I learned how to cook various Japanese dishes, and my favorite was Fried Rice. Living in Minnesota I adapted my fried rice recipe to include locally grown and sold wild rice and I still make it occasionally. Back in the early 1980s we had my sister and her family over for fried rice and my sister said something like, "Wood, this is so good! You could make money selling this fried rice recipe."

It was a simple statement, innocently voiced by my sister, but I got to thinking. I worked some voluntary overtime, typed up my fried rice recipe on my then-new Commodore 128 computer, and set about trying to sell it. Enter into the picture my wife who subscribed (and still subscribes) to the National Enquirer and Star magazines. For about a hundred bucks each, I placed an ad in the classified section of those two magazines for one week. The ad said; "Fried Wild Rice Recipe SASE and $1.00." In the ad I also printed my address.

And then the come-ons started packing my mail box. All the hucksters, shills, make-a-quick-buck artists and just plain beggars flooded my mailbox with requests for money and offers of never-ending wealth or love. For weeks afterwards I pulled wads of scams out of my mail box.

Oh, and one letter from New York actually sent me a $1.00 bill and a self addressed stamped envelope. I sent him my fried rice recipe and framed that dollar bill and hung it on the wall of my office as a reminder to myself that sometimes good ideas get trampled by reality. And also not to take my sister's suggestions seriously.
 
Unfortunately, the scam artists thrive during recessions.. and also that there are many who would still fall for the scams.

This one brought to our attention recently was targeted at Aussies. Apparently couples were winning trips that included sets of luggage. The luggage was prepacked with drugs by those running the contest. They're out maybe $5000 to supply the prize, and then they make millions on the drugs. Here's a link for the story: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Ca...contest+winners+drug+mules/9085360/story.html

A few years ago I worked with a guy who was both a spiritual and a faithful man. Great guy, haven't talked to him in a while now that I think about it. When we chatted, we covered just about everyhting. When the topic came around, I explained to him that I can find a greater sense of spirituality on a quiet walk in the woods than I can crammed into an uncomfortable seat with people trying to look more pious than their neighbours. He not only understood completely, but confided that that would be a much nicer use of his Sunday mornings, with a good chance of a better day following it than he'd otherwise have.

As for telemarketers, I love it when they catch me at the keyboard. As I put up with them I rattle keys, type random junk. After a minute or two, I'll ask them if they understand what using an internet phone implies. (Many telemarkets now simply sit at a computer with a headset/mic anymore). Most are clueless, so I'll explain that "since you're actually using a computer to talk to me, it's far easier for me to have fun. You see, I don't even have to work hard to get into a system that contacts me. (Rattle more keys) Oh, wow, your last performance review doesn't look too good, does it? Well, it doesn't now anyway. But that's okay, because you can get by on a couple bucks less per hour, right? (keys rattle) Oh, hey, the security camera system isn't protected... <chuckle>... Really, what were you thinking when you put that on this morning...."

Then there's a guy Harley and I know.. Now, one thing many don't know is that a lot of the telemarketers aren't allowed to be the one that hangs up or ends the call. Anyway, here's a couple of posts he made in his blog about calls he got. There's a bit of NSFW language, so I'll link to it rather than copy it to here.

http://www.goblinscomic.org/i-won-a-trip-to-cancun-not-really/
 
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Whatever works for you.

I see no reason to screw with these people, I just avoid them.

Scams are as old as man. If it sounds too good to be true it is. You haven't won anything and nothing is free. If you really want to win big, buy lottery tickets. Not many though, the lottery is not a good investment.

I have come to the same conclusion, I believe in God, but I do not believe in religion.

Have fun, be nice and avoid confrontation. Works for me - :)
 
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