I hate @&*#$ fraudsters

[SpacemanSpiff]

Fortunately, I'm not dealing with them personally. Then again, I might do something more drastic (see end comment).

We run the company's regional cellphone service (adding lines, upgrading) out of our office, although our corporate office out west is trying to wrest it away.

The company (I won't say which one, but it's one of the three majors) is supposed to notify our local contact when something is ordered, before it's shipped. Yesterday, she got notice that our regional president had ordered a new phone and that it had already been shipped (indeed, it'd already been received.)

Except that our president is out of the country.

And the phone was shipped to Pontiac MI (instead of here in Virginia). Our corporation has no presence in Michigan whatsoever.

So, when she got to talking with the phone company, it turns out that not only did this person order and receive two phones yesterday, using people's names that work for us, but he's ordered 17 more yesterday -- all going to Pontiac. So he somehow knows who is getting upgrades and is using that knowledge to get the phones.

(The downside -- the first two were sent FedEx; the new order is sent USPS, so we can't have the shipment stopped.)

Needless to say, we're giving the phone carrier what-for, and are trying to get law enforcement involved. Needless to say, the phones are inactivated, but that won't stop some fool from buying a phone out of the box that doesn't know better -- or, if someone is clever, to figure out how to "unlock" it from the carrier.

What I'd like to do is to get a good PI to watch for when the delivery is made. And then have him and a couple of baseball bat-wielding friends take care of things (and get more info).

And, at my suggestion, we're starting to look at the Craigslist for Detroit to see if any of these phones show up.

[silverscreenselect]

And the phone was shipped to Pontiac MI (instead of here in Virginia). Our corporation has no presence in Michigan whatsoever.

So, when she got to talking with the phone company, it turns out that not only did this person order and receive two phones yesterday, using people's names that work for us, but he's ordered 17 more yesterday -- all going to Pontiac. What I'd like to do is to get a good PI to watch for when the delivery is made. And then have him and a couple of baseball bat-wielding friends take care of things (and get more info).

And, at my suggestion, we're starting to look at the Craigslist for Detroit to see if any of these phones show up.

Don't mess with any of that stuff. You need to sue them and pronto.

I'm sure the Michigan Bar Association will be glad to help you.

[littlebeast13]

Needless to say, we're giving the phone carrier what-for, and are trying to get law enforcement involved. Needless to say, the phones are inactivated, but that won't stop some fool from buying a phone out of the box that doesn't know better -- or, if someone is clever, to figure out how to "unlock" it from the carrier.

I'll bet you could unlock one with an amplified splitter....

lb13

[SpacemanSpiff]

Better yet, I'm overhearing our contact talk to the cell phone company. They say WE need to call the police/law enforcement in Michigan. They seem to have the approach that as long as they've cancelled the (already) shipped order off of our account, that's all they have to do, and the loss of 19 top-of-the-line Apple I-phones is just a cost of doing business.

They also said they've locked out access to our online account yesterday. But we've just logged into it. And the 17 phones were ordered six hours after we notified them that there was fraud on the account.

Go figure.

[Bob Juch]

The company (I won't say which one, but it's one of the three majors)

I'll bet it starts with "V".

[Bob Juch]

Better yet, I'm overhearing our contact talk to the cell phone company. They say WE need to call the police/law enforcement in Michigan. They seem to have the approach that as long as they've cancelled the (already) shipped order off of our account, that's all they have to do, and the loss of 19 top-of-the-line Apple I-phones is just a cost of doing business.

They also said they've locked out access to our online account yesterday. But we've just logged into it. And the 17 phones were ordered six hours after we notified them that there was fraud on the account.

Go figure.

I'm sure it's frustrating but you've done all you should do. If the company doesn't take further action that's their problem.

Windows Phone 8 phone (such as mine) are the only ones that can be remotely locked without adding an app to do that. All the carriers have agreed to add that to their systems but that's going to take a while.

I put an app on my company cell phone, a Galaxy S5, that will not only allow me to locate and lock or wipe it but takes photos of the person using it.

[ghostjmf]

lb says:

I'll bet you could unlock one with an amplified splitter....

Gee, yet another thread in which I was not involved to which lb has added a ref to my posts. Perhaps lb would like to usefully tell SpacemanSpiff how to "unlock a phone with an amplified splitter"?

[SpacemanSpiff]

I could unlock it with a log splitter. But it wouldn't be good for much afterwards.

I did get satisfaction with a fraudster two years ago. Some woman in Charlotte NC (again, we don't have a presence there) managed to get the information off of our checking account and used it to pay for back taxes and utilities (all via EFTs). We managed to get the money back from the bank once we notified them, at which point we set up a "positive pay" system - we send them a list of checks and EFTs we've issued online, and if something doesn't match, they check with us before honoring. (And yes, we got a name -- a simple online search showed that she had quite a list of "priors," and we notified the Mecklenberg County DA's office of it.)

Then, about a month later, we received notice of a check written by the same person, and we had that returned.

A week later we got a nasty call from an auto dealer/loan company to whom the check was written. Apparently the perp was about to have her car repo'd, so she gave them a check. When it bounced, he checked with the bank, got our name, and called us. And we told him about the fraud.

Somehow, I have the feeling he took care of things for all of us.

[littlebeast13]

lb says:

I'll bet you could unlock one with an amplified splitter....

Gee, yet another thread in which I was not involved to which lb has added a ref to my posts. Perhaps lb would like to usefully tell SpacemanSpiff how to "unlock a phone with an amplified splitter"?

With all due respect to Spiff's main post, I have to say this....

What in the fuck is your problem, ghost? And specifically with me. Seriously....

lb13

[ghostjmf]

Usually I ignore your jibes, lb. Like I used to mainly ignore them from some former denizens of the board, not because I'm a noble ignorer, but because there was no point at all to responding when all the jerks want to do is poke at me.


But because I did respond here, I ask again, what advice are you giving SpacemanSpiff with your comment about amplified splitters, a topic that you lifted from an entirely different thread, one in which I was involved? And if you have no relevant advice for SpacemanSpiff (as I know I don't), why did you bring that comment in here?


Meanwhile, I hope SpacemanSpiff gets his company's hijacked phone-buying ID back. As well as any $$ lost.

[BackInTex]

Why does it matter that someone lifts a topic or phrase from another thread, even one you are part of, as were 100 others? Do you feel you own some special copyright for every thread you post in? It was SSS's thread anyway, so if there is some special copyright it would be his.

In that thread you first mentioned a TW splitter then Bob J used the term "amplified splitter" saying "That's total B.S. Splitters are splitters. You can even get an amplified splitter."


[edited because I mis-read BJ's post]

[littlebeast13]

Usually I ignore your jibes, lb. Like I used to mainly ignore them from some former denizens of the board, not because I'm a noble ignorer, but because there was no point at all to responding when all the jerks want to do is poke at me.

Do you like to take it upon yourself to feel jibes directed at everyone, or do you really just believe that everything I say must concern you since you have this idea that I hate your guts. If my comment was a jibe at anyone, it was a poke at Juch over his brand of "expertise" he likes to insert into many threads on this Bored... and at that, it wasn't even a particularly harsh jibe! You didn't bring up the topic of amplified splitters, he did for Christ's sake! Am I now no longer allowed to even reference threads you post in!?!? Holy crap, I can never wish anyone on this Bored a happy birthday now except possibly Fanny since I'm sure you have never wished her a happy birthday before...

But because I did respond here, I ask again, what advice are you giving SpacemanSpiff with your comment about amplified splitters, a topic that you lifted from an entirely different thread, one in which I was involved? And if you have no relevant advice for SpacemanSpiff (as I know I don't), why did you bring that comment in here?

For fourteen years on this Bored and in thirty-nine years of life, I have been inserting irreverent comments into conversations since, for better or for worse, it is the one form of communication I am actually good at. I'm pretty sure Spiff knew I had no actual advice for him, and especially if he had read the thread you have now claimed as wholly your own, he probably realized I was making a joke.[/quote]

And for the record, Spiff's post is what most of us would call a "rant". He wasn't really looking for any actual advice on how to deal with the situation he was venting about, he was just getting some frustration off his chest. I know interpreting the intent behind posts is not your strongest suit either, but please trust me on this....

You have as much right to say what you want about me as I do to continue making irreverent remarks in whichever threads I choose to do so... but all I ask is please, give your vile hatred against me a rest, will ya?

lb13

[littlebeast13]

Now you're gonna have ghost AND Amazon.com mad at you!

lb13

[BackInTex]

Now you're gonna have ghost AND Amazon.com mad at you!

lb13

Yeah, but not Bob J. I corrected my post because I read his post wrong. I've since corrected by post.

Wouldn't want him mad at me.

[Bob Juch]

Now you're gonna have ghost AND Amazon.com mad at you!

lb13

Yeah, but not Bob J. I corrected my post because I read his post wrong. I've since corrected by post.

Wouldn't want him mad at me.

I don't know what you think you misread but that photo is of the type of device I was talking about.

[SpacemanSpiff]

I think I'm gonna split now.

EDIT: We just contacted the Oakland County Sherriff's office (since, as we discovered, Pontiac no longer has a police department).

They said since we didn't live there, we'd have to call our local police, and have our police call them about it.

Translation -- go away, don't bother us. (Baseball bats are starting to look pretty good...)

[TheConfessor]

Bruce Sutter threw a wicked amplified splitter.

[Beebs52]

Usually I ignore your jibes, lb. Like I used to mainly ignore them from some former denizens of the board, not because I'm a noble ignorer, but because there was no point at all to responding when all the jerks want to do is poke at me.

Do you like to take it upon yourself to feel jibes directed at everyone, or do you really just believe that everything I say must concern you since you have this idea that I hate your guts. If my comment was a jibe at anyone, it was a poke at Juch over his brand of "expertise" he likes to insert into many threads on this Bored... and at that, it wasn't even a particularly harsh jibe! You didn't bring up the topic of amplified splitters, he did for Christ's sake! Am I now no longer allowed to even reference threads you post in!?!? Holy crap, I can never wish anyone on this Bored a happy birthday now except possibly Fanny since I'm sure you have never wished her a happy birthday before...

But because I did respond here, I ask again, what advice are you giving SpacemanSpiff with your comment about amplified splitters, a topic that you lifted from an entirely different thread, one in which I was involved? And if you have no relevant advice for SpacemanSpiff (as I know I don't), why did you bring that comment in here?

For fourteen years on this Bored and in thirty-nine years of life, I have been inserting irreverent comments into conversations since, for better or for worse, it is the one form of communication I am actually good at. I'm pretty sure Spiff knew I had no actual advice for him, and especially if he had read the thread you have now claimed as wholly your own, he probably realized I was making a joke.

And for the record, Spiff's post is what most of us would call a "rant". He wasn't really looking for any actual advice on how to deal with the situation he was venting about, he was just getting some frustration off his chest. I know interpreting the intent behind posts is not your strongest suit either, but please trust me on this....

You have as much right to say what you want about me as I do to continue making irreverent remarks in whichever threads I choose to do so... but all I ask is please, give your vile hatred against me a rest, will ya?

lb13[/quote]


Beast, you're such a fomenter. What makes you think you'll convince anyone of anything on this bored...tee hee hee.
Conflating even MORE threads!

[ghostjmf]

Vile hatred? Huh?

"Annoyed at being poked at" is more like it. And, for the record, I haven't read irrelevant comments you lifted from somebody else's posts & injected into non-relevant threads. Just from conversations I've had. If you say you do it I'll take your word, but I sure haven't seen it. And no, I don't think the Aereo thread is "my" thread, as I didn't start it, but I did contribute to it &, I admit, somewhat divert it from "only Aereo".


And, for the record, in another thread I can't remember the name of but I'm sure you'll find if you really want to, you told people that "someone would have no problem talking about their blah-blah heart problem not caused by blah-blah", a line lifted from an irritating commercial. I assumed you meant me, but I didn't jump on that because I was in tighter control of my jumping-on than I guess I am today. Just for the record, that, like most of your stuff lifted & put in threads the victims usually won't even be reading, isn't funny. It's mean. And you mean it to be mean. Also, that isn't one of my particular health problems.


For someone who's talked about kidney stones a lot, how can you knock those of us who talk about health problems, including kidney stones, here?

[ghostjmf]

SpacemanSpliff says:

I think I'm gonna split now.

EDIT: We just contacted the Oakland County Sherriff's office (since, as we discovered, Pontiac no longer has a police department).

They said since we didn't live there, we'd have to call our local police, and have our police call them about it.

Translation -- go away, don't bother us. (Baseball bats are starting to look pretty good...)

There's got to be some interstate-fraud agency you can get into this. It looks like these phones were shipped over state lines & all that.


I remember a while ago someone else on the board got a similar response from local police to internet interstate fraud; "ooo, it happened in another state & went over the internet, we cannot do anything about that". Internet's been around a while. And I don't see how/why this stuff is any different to policing agencies than someone sending a fraudulent invoice through the snail mail, trucking stolen goods cross-country, etc.

[Bob Juch]

SpacemanSpliff says:

I think I'm gonna split now.

EDIT: We just contacted the Oakland County Sherriff's office (since, as we discovered, Pontiac no longer has a police department).

They said since we didn't live there, we'd have to call our local police, and have our police call them about it.

Translation -- go away, don't bother us. (Baseball bats are starting to look pretty good...)

There's got to be some interstate-fraud agency you can get into this. It looks like these phones were shipped over state lines & all that.


I remember a while ago someone else on the board got a similar response from local police to internet interstate fraud; "ooo, it happened in another state & went over the internet, we cannot do anything about that". Internet's been around a while. And I don't see how/why this stuff is any different to policing agencies than someone sending a fraudulent invoice through the snail mail, trucking stolen goods cross-country, etc.

Since SS's company had no loss, just irritation, they have no standing.

I found this out the hard way when idiots sent me counterfeit checks that I was supposed to cash and wire most of the money to someone. Only if I had actually done that would I have any standing.

[littlebeast13]

Vile hatred? Huh?

"Annoyed at being poked at" is more like it. And, for the record, I haven't read irrelevant comments you lifted from somebody else's posts & injected into non-relevant threads. Just from conversations I've had. If you say you do it I'll take your word, but I sure haven't seen it. And no, I don't think the Aereo thread is "my" thread, as I didn't start it, but I did contribute to it &, I admit, somewhat divert it from "only Aereo".


And, for the record, in another thread I can't remember the name of but I'm sure you'll find if you really want to, you told people that "someone would have no problem talking about their blah-blah heart problem not caused by blah-blah", a line lifted from an irritating commercial. I assumed you meant me, but I didn't jump on that because I was in tighter control of my jumping-on than I guess I am today. Just for the record, that, like most of your stuff lifted & put in threads the victims usually won't even be reading, isn't funny. It's mean. And you mean it to be mean. Also, that isn't one of my particular health problems.


For someone who's talked about kidney stones a lot, how can you knock those of us who talk about health problems, including kidney stones, here?

And now we've begun to delve into the deep ghostspeak (That, you may consider to be a jibe at yourself), because I really can't make heads or tails of what you are even talking about or what it has to do with my comment...

Buuuuut, since you have brought it up, another thing that should be pretty apparent to anyone who reads my posts for reasons other than trying to find da Vinci Code like jabs at themselves, I have a rather liberal sense of humor. I take very little seriously. To use the example you so graciously provided, kidney stones would suck ever worse than they already do if I couldn't laugh about them and make a few jokes about them. Then again, I am very sure that anytime I have addressed a specific thread in which YOU are talking about YOUR own condition, I have actually kept any levity at bay. And to that effect, mini and many of the others who you would put in my clicque used to rib me about my stones all the damn time... should I have gotten all bent out of shape at them!?!?!?

Of course not... because unlike you, I don't keep a 2X4 constantly jammed up my ass (that's two, TWO jibes I've made at you in this post... cue the thunder and lightning!) and I can actually view the shitty things in life with a smile and a sense of humor. That doesn't mean you have to find my sense of humor funny, everyone's taste may vary, but it doesn't mean you get supreme authority over what deciding what's funny and what's not... I'll stake my reputation on the number of friends I've made online both here and on my blog on the fact that I'm not actually an asshole...

And just the fact that I am even responding to you means at some deep, dark level in my cruel, mean spirited, black heart, I actually do care about you... because if I didn't, I'd ignore your ass and your out of nowhere accusations about me completely... unlike someone else on this Bored who I haven't even acknowledged in almost four years....

Love ya, baby...

lb13

[ulysses5019]

Vile hatred? Huh?

"Annoyed at being poked at" is more like it. And, for the record, I haven't read irrelevant comments you lifted from somebody else's posts & injected into non-relevant threads. Just from conversations I've had. If you say you do it I'll take your word, but I sure haven't seen it. And no, I don't think the Aereo thread is "my" thread, as I didn't start it, but I did contribute to it &, I admit, somewhat divert it from "only Aereo".


And, for the record, in another thread I can't remember the name of but I'm sure you'll find if you really want to, you told people that "someone would have no problem talking about their blah-blah heart problem not caused by blah-blah", a line lifted from an irritating commercial. I assumed you meant me, but I didn't jump on that because I was in tighter control of my jumping-on than I guess I am today. Just for the record, that, like most of your stuff lifted & put in threads the victims usually won't even be reading, isn't funny. It's mean. And you mean it to be mean. Also, that isn't one of my particular health problems.


For someone who's talked about kidney stones a lot, how can you knock those of us who talk about health problems, including kidney stones, here?

And now we've begun to delve into the deep ghostspeak (That, you may consider to be a jibe at yourself), because I really can't make heads or tails of what you are even talking about or what it has to do with my comment...

Buuuuut, since you have brought it up, another thing that should be pretty apparent to anyone who reads my posts for reasons other than trying to find da Vinci Code like jabs at themselves, I have a rather liberal sense of humor. I take very little seriously. To use the example you so graciously provided, kidney stones would suck ever worse than they already do if I couldn't laugh about them and make a few jokes about them. Then again, I am very sure that anytime I have addressed a specific thread in which YOU are talking about YOUR own condition, I have actually kept any levity at bay. And to that effect, mini and many of the others who you would put in my clicque used to rib me about my stones all the damn time... should I have gotten all bent out of shape at them!?!?!?

Of course not... because unlike you, I don't keep a 2X4 constantly jammed up my ass (that's two, TWO jibes I've made at you in this post... cue the thunder and lightning!) and I can actually view the shitty things in life with a smile and a sense of humor. That doesn't mean you have to find my sense of humor funny, everyone's taste may vary, but it doesn't mean you get supreme authority over what deciding what's funny and what's not... I'll stake my reputation on the number of friends I've made online both here and on my blog on the fact that I'm not actually an asshole...

And just the fact that I am even responding to you means at some deep, dark level in my cruel, mean spirited, black heart, I actually do care about you... because if I didn't, I'd ignore your ass and your out of nowhere accusations about me completely... unlike someone else on this Bored who I haven't even acknowledged in almost four years....

Love ya, baby...

lb13

Darn...no wonder I've never gotten a fruitcake from you...

[littlebeast13]

Darn...no wonder I've never gotten a fruitcake from you...

How about I make up for it with an amplified splitter?

lb13

[Bob Juch]

Found it.