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The IT Guy vs. the Con Artist

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Re: The IT Guy vs. the Con Artist

#61

Post by Gibbon1 »

klenwell wrote: post #58
chiph wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad got taken by the "Hello this is Microsoft Support calling" scammers. They quickly got him to approve a remote connection to his machine and then they showed him a random registry entry as "proof" that his machine was infected with a virus. Which they just so happened to have the anti-virus for, for $300. Dad was computer savvy, but by this point he was 80 years old and they flat-out took advantage of him. He h…

> Please - teach your parents to just hang up on these clowns. That was the other thing. It was impossible to get my grandparents to do this. I think I eventually got them to let the answering machine answer and not return calls for messages from anyone they didn't recognize.

What would be nice is a service that just forwards unknown calls to someone competent.

Re: The IT Guy vs. the Con Artist

#62

Post by apsanz »

jansan wrote: post #46
klenwell wrote: post #10

The victims didn't come forward because they felt so ashamed about falling for the con. This is such an interesting essential part of scams. I guess it's a part of human nature. I remember tracking down a phone scam that caught my grandmother once (based out of Montreal) and I eventually got to a point where I discovered that my grandmother had provided a verbal consent over the phone that had kept it just this side…

Long time (maybe twenty years) ago I read about a fascinating scam. The scammers were announcing a totally cool sex toy (maybe early VR, don't remember), but they never intended to deliver. Through clever marketing they managed to find enough potential customers who were asked to prepay a certain amount to finance production of the product (comparable to crowdfunding). When delivery day arrived, the scammers sent out…

Why not just deposit the check in an ATM or with an image

Re: The IT Guy vs. the Con Artist

#63

Post by umvi »

Ryleah wrote: post #6

Just taking a look at the judgement, Emilio was sentenced to 84 months (7 years) around this time in 2012, followed by two years of supervision [1]. I wonder if he was released. Super interesting read overall. Thank you! [1] https://www.docketbird.com/court-documents/USA-v-Torres/JUDG...

That seems... too lenient. What are the chances he just moves back to Costa Rica and starts up another scam shop, this time refusing to leave?

Re: The IT Guy vs. the Con Artist

#64

Post by bdowling »

klenwell wrote: post #10

The victims didn't come forward because they felt so ashamed about falling for the con. This is such an interesting essential part of scams. I guess it's a part of human nature. I remember tracking down a phone scam that caught my grandmother once (based out of Montreal) and I eventually got to a point where I discovered that my grandmother had provided a verbal consent over the phone that had kept it just this side…

> my grandmother had provided a verbal consent over the phone that had kept it just this side of being outright fraud.

If it was intentionally deceptive or coercive, it was probably outright fraud.

Re: The IT Guy vs. the Con Artist

#65

Post by paggle »

crag wrote: post #30
pavel_lishin wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're being downvoted, but I hear where you're coming from. Phone scammers make my blood boil like little else does.

I don't know why he was downloaded. I mean, come too Florida and talk to some 80 year old guy who has nothing, due to being scammed or ID theft. Frankly, be better if you just killed the guy. Now this guy has to decide between food and meds because his SSI doesn't cover it all. And his savings are gone.

I was downvoted because the same people who have the influence to legalize their crimes have the influence to make the public believe that it is right and proper.

Re: The IT Guy vs. the Con Artist

#66

Post by parliament32 »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #45
parliament32 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would cause any disk-write-dependent service to crash, yeah, but the kernel isn't one of those. Syslog will stop and a bunch of things will complain, but I've always been able to SSH in and free up some disk.

Did you read/listen to the story? A non-tech person called him and said "the server crashed." I am pretty sure they would say that in case of "any disk-write-dependent-services crashed, but you could ssh in and free up some disk." The criminal boss wasn't gonna "ssh in and free up some disk", that's why he had an IT guy! Anyway none of this is particularly important for the story, but I don't think the guy telling it…

I just figured he was talking about an OS-level "crash", considering how he went on about how Linux never crashes.

Re: The IT Guy vs. the Con Artist

#67

Post by p1esk »

avgDev wrote: post #37
klenwell wrote: post #10

The victims didn't come forward because they felt so ashamed about falling for the con. This is such an interesting essential part of scams. I guess it's a part of human nature. I remember tracking down a phone scam that caught my grandmother once (based out of Montreal) and I eventually got to a point where I discovered that my grandmother had provided a verbal consent over the phone that had kept it just this side…

Ha! I feel the same way but I encountered so many con artists. My favorite con artists was actually a dentist and I fell for part of the "con". I guess you could argue if its a con but I feel like it was. I went in for a simple fillings in two teeth, he starts drilling, then tells me I need inlays $800 a piece x 2. Being young and stupid I said, ok. I was so broke at the time, I needed to borrow money to pay. When I…

So how do you pick a dentist?

Re: The IT Guy vs. the Con Artist

#68

Post by Topgamer7 »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #60
Bokanovsky wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A thousand times this. I wish more podcasts would have transcripts. I much prefer it to listening to podcasts as I can read at my own speed, which would often be quicker than the audio.

Reading vs viewing/listening speed must be at least 10:1 for most people and maybe 20:1 for speed readers. Video/audio are such timewasters if you can read at a decent rate.

I like youtube content too, however I watch it at 2X speed.

Re: The IT Guy vs. the Con Artist

#69

Post by thiagomgd »

p1esk wrote: post #67
avgDev wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha! I feel the same way but I encountered so many con artists. My favorite con artists was actually a dentist and I fell for part of the "con". I guess you could argue if its a con but I feel like it was. I went in for a simple fillings in two teeth, he starts drilling, then tells me I need inlays $800 a piece x 2. Being young and stupid I said, ok. I was so broke at the time, I needed to borrow money to pay. When I…

So how do you pick a dentist?

Amazon reviews

Re: The IT Guy vs. the Con Artist

#70

Post by gumby »

danso wrote: post #19
homonculus1 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's unnatural to include before or after, that's because it's not that relevant to the story in the first place. It's enough to be able to picture that his risk is compounded by a physical disadvantage, we don't need to know his exact dimensions if that data isn't worth bringing up afterward. And if it is that important, the middle of someone else's sentence is the most flow-breaking place you could possibly put…

Yeah I think this is definitely a style preference. Planet Money (and other featurey shows, like This American Life) often tries to describe the non-aural qualities of the people in their stories, ostensibly to better humanize them. It's not for everyone but I personally find it to make the subject more engaging.

Planet money started as a spinoff of This American Life back in the 2008 financial crisis.
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