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I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

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Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#282
post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wtf? It _is_ a dark pattern. It prevents you from _knowing_ someone has messaged you. In 99,9% of cases you want to know someone sent you a message.

In 99.9% of cases you don't. It's mostly spam. Facebook is a friend platform, not a stranger platform. Don't use it to message strangers, it's very explicitly not what the platform is designed for.

The whole world is on there. If I make my profile public I obviously intend to use it for people to find me.

Booting off the spammers seems like a much better idea to me.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#283
About 4 years ago, I found this credit card on the street in Pittsburgh when I was walking home. When I got home, I just emailed the persons firstname.lastname@gmail.com. They actually responded and I walked back to near where I found the card and gave the guy his credit card back.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#284
post #277
post #51

Every so often my pessimistic tendencies get a healthy slap across the face by the actions of someone who took the high road when they easily could have chosen otherwise. It's a couple summers ago, at the height of the summer tourist season and I'm cycling up 4th ave SW in DC. Somewhere between the NASA HQ and the National Mall my camera bag - packed full with a fairly new DSLR, a few lenses, and a secondary cell pho…

There is an interesting selection bias at work. 1) If someone on the street approaches you, they are probably up to something. 2) If you randomly select someone on the street you have probably picked a moral and upstanding person who would love to do you a good turn. Because of (1) people tend to be a lot more defensive than they need to be when assessing what the average stranger is likely to do.

The same thing applies if something gets stolen. Countless individuals have "not" stolen that item. You only take note when it gets stolen.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#285
post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wtf? It _is_ a dark pattern. It prevents you from _knowing_ someone has messaged you. In 99,9% of cases you want to know someone sent you a message.

In 99.9% of cases you don't. It's mostly spam. Facebook is a friend platform, not a stranger platform. Don't use it to message strangers, it's very explicitly not what the platform is designed for.

This is literally the only thing I have used it for in the past 10 years. And it used to work well for that purpose.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#286
post #72

Coincidentally, I was able to return four peoples' IDs and other cards just this afternoon. Yesterday I was walking in East Oakland and found a pile of credit cards, debit cards, and IDs. Oakland Police Department wouldn't take them so I brought them home and started googling names and addresses. Of the four IDs I found three belonged to adults; the third was a state ID for a minor related to one of the adults. I was…

Update for anyone who's interested:

After OPD refused the IDs/cards I contacted a handful of local news outlets and explained the situation. One of them, ABC 7, began reaching out, possibly incessantly, to the media relations office at OPD.

By 4:30 PM today I had a text from one of the ABC 7 producers telling me the OPD media relations officer wanted to get in touch and including her desk phone number. When I spoke with her she apologized, acknowledged that procedure had not been followed, and told me they were in touch with SJPD regarding the break-ins. She also told me she would follow up with OPD leadership.

Not sure how applicable this strategy would be in other communities/countries but it appears to have worked for me. I'll also note that I reached out to the mayor's office before contacting news orgs and got no response.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#287
post #168
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most cards have a business name or person's name. Taking the card to the police or the bank would get a call directly to them. Who would think, I'm going to start a chain of 1 penny transaction to contact this person at this bank account, and hope they get them before they cancel their bank account because they lost their wallet. And is this a wallet with cash and a single card with no identifiable information on it?…

A bank card has the sort code and account number of the account on. Those let you transfer money into the account. They don't let you take over the account. They're like an area code and phone number, which don't let you take over someone's house.

A lot of HN regulars come from America, where knowing the equivalent information does often make it possible to steal money from someone's bank account and where you can only make payments like this using third-party companies or paper checks. I think a lot of the misunderstandings in the comments might stem from people not realising that UK banking is different.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#288
Two weeks ago in Maui at the visitor center at Mt. Haleakala a distraught young woman came in saying she had dropped her wallet somewhere between the visitor center and the peak. When she went to the women's bathroom in the visitor center to check if she might have dropped it there, she found someone else had forgotten their iPhone by the sink. Within a few minutes an older couple walked into the visitor center and said they had found a wallet on a hike but had lost their iPhone :-) Two individuals each finding the others lost item was pretty karmic!

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#289
post #122
post #51

Every so often my pessimistic tendencies get a healthy slap across the face by the actions of someone who took the high road when they easily could have chosen otherwise. It's a couple summers ago, at the height of the summer tourist season and I'm cycling up 4th ave SW in DC. Somewhere between the NASA HQ and the National Mall my camera bag - packed full with a fairly new DSLR, a few lenses, and a secondary cell pho…

Sometimes it happens, and sometimes not. I lost my wallet 4 times in total, 3 in Brazil (which is $HOME), 1 in Germany. Got it back 3 out of 4 times. Guess where.

> Sometimes it happens, and sometimes not. I lost my wallet 4 times in total, 3 in Brazil (which is $HOME), 1 in Germany. Got it back 3 out of 4 times. Guess where.

That's highly depends on exactly _where_ in Brazil you are, time of day, your looks, general luck and many other factors. In may places you are likely to 'forcefully' lose your wallet, cellphone, car and if you are very lucky, that's all you'll lose. You can be encouraged to make a trip to the nearest ATM or even your house. Hopefully you will be alone and there won't be anyone else that can be used as leverage.

Source: have been robbed at gunpoint on several occasions. In one of them, they were discussing whether or not I should be shot. After smashing the driver's side window, while I was at a stop light. Thankfully I only had to clean up a small amount of blood from my car. On another, I was at a police station, was asked to go to a site of a police shooting to try to identify the crooks that had been shot (and were now deceased). Turns out that there was a separate event, not even 15 minutes apart a few blocks away, also two guys on a motorcycle. Those were not the crooks I was looking for, those got... caught.

That was all in a state capital, not in the middle of nowhere. Population equivalent to almost 3 San Franciscos added together.

You should be thankful of your luck.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#290
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes it happens, and sometimes not. I lost my wallet 4 times in total, 3 in Brazil (which is $HOME), 1 in Germany. Got it back 3 out of 4 times. Guess where.

> Sometimes it happens, and sometimes not. I lost my wallet 4 times in total, 3 in Brazil (which is $HOME), 1 in Germany. Got it back 3 out of 4 times. Guess where. That's highly depends on exactly _where_ in Brazil you are, time of day, your looks, general luck and many other factors. In may places you are likely to 'forcefully' lose your wallet, cellphone, car and if you are very lucky, that's all you'll lose. You…

Been robbed 3 times in parramatta, NSW, Australia.

I left Australia 🇦🇺

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