Can You Hear Me Now?

Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, never phoned his wife or his mother.

They were both deaf.

And, in case you didn't get the rather insensitive joke in the title of this post, here's its origin:

...although he's since gone over to Sprint.

And a ToTG public service announcement:  if someone calls you and asks you a question or speaks very faintly and you complain they need to speak up and they "make an adjustment" and in a louder voice "Can you hear me now?", do NOT say "Yes." which might lead to them using that to change your long-distance service.   Some sources on the 'net say it's not a proven scam, but best to not take chances.  At the least, you'll be telling the possible scammer on the other end of the line that it's a working phone number. 

Personally, if I don't recognize the number, I don't answer. 

YouTube Scam

I've been getting dozens of these messages in my email account over the last few days. They have obfuscated links that don't go to YouTube but to some .ru domain.

If the Russkies had put the same effort into Communism as they do into these scams, they wouldn't have lost the Cold War.

I should have saved all the email addresses of the scam mails, but I just deleted them from the junk mail folder.  Here's this one though, in hopes their fellow scammer/ spammer spiders pick it up and spam THEIR email address.

susan@fork.arvixe.com

REQUEST

From the spam folder:

alhajishettimamohammedbulama1@yahoo.com.ph

REQUEST

to undisclosed recipients

My name is Alhaji Shettima Mohammed Bulama, the est. managing director of the Bank of the North Nig.Plc. I am contacting you in a benevolent spirit; and with utmost confidence and trust to enable us provide a solution to a money transfer of $18 Million to your account. Do get back to me for more details.

Best Regards,
Alhaji Shettima Mohammed Bulama.

---

"benevolent spirit"??? I'd say that's about right, especially seeing as how there's not a ghost of a chance of anyone getting a dime of that $18 million.

A Big Difference

Here lately my spam folder has been deluged with more of what I call "wanna hook up?" scam emails.  I've been deleting them because they're basically all the same and don't have photos with them as have the others I've posted here on my blog.  It's a lot easier to poke fun at them when there's a (fake) face behind the (fake) name.

That said, I happened to open this one up instead of deleting it; here's what it said:

Simona Viola fwuinbhcpr@wellfs.com

Meow honey,

I saw your photo in the social network and realized that we live in the same town.

How about spending a couple of hot weekends together and having fun without any needless questions? ;-)

(URL removed)

With kisses,
Simona Viola
-----------------
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or write to:

233Main Street #234
Isla-Colon
Bocasdel-Toro, Republic of Panama

I'm not going to write her back, but if I did it would be something like this:

Dear Simona,

In the first place, I don't belong to any social networks besides Facebook and Twitter...and I don't even check my Twitter account.

What's up with the "meow honey" salutation?  I like cats, but if I'm scratched by one around here, I can always put a little alcohol on the wound.  You'd probably give me something penicillin couldn't cure.  Is that supposed to be some sort of veiled reference to what you're offering me?   I guess so, what with wanting to spend a "couple of hot weekends together".  There'd have to be a question or two I'm sure, such as "How much do you charge?" and "Did you see my specially made condom I brought?  You know, the one made from a truck tire inner tube."

Also, the last I checked, the town I lived in was in the Panhandle of Texas, not in Central America.   Panama, huh?  I thought ships entered the canal, not you.

Sorry, Simona, I think I'll have to pass.  I might be stupid when sizing up women, but I know Shinola from Viola.