For a little while, scammers gave themselves away by using a fake phone number with the same area code and prefix of the number being called. The odds of that are so small that I don’t think I’ve ever had a phone call from such a number that wasn’t a scam. That behavior eventually stopped; I think they figured out that people were catching on too easily.
Yes, this. I’ve had so many of those kinds of calls over the years and I’ve never had a problem with my taxes.
I didn’t get these calls and messages last year, and I didn’t start getting them until about 3 weeks after I got the letter from the IRS so I think there may be more to it than that.
I hope you’re right though.
You should sue the IRS for $10 billion.
Then, you can “settle” for just $1B.
No, I’m going to hold out for 1.776 billion. No taxation with representation either.
How did the wedding end up going? Did they find a photographer?
The wedding was wonderful. Absolutely epic. There were a couple of photographers and a videographer so they worked it out somehow.
Another thing that the did, which was planned before all of this and apparently is common now, was there was a QR Code at every table and people could upload their own pictures and videos to the webpage of the wedding.
Thanks for asking
Fantastic, so glad it worked out and was a good time!
Glad it was; Momma Nature didn’t cooperate where we were; rainy, windy, & cold. Was St. Louis better?
Despite the predicted possibility of rain all week, it was ideal weather.
Modern equivalent of a disposable camera at every table.
I thought the same thing at the time.
They were looking at pictures videos the next morning in this case.
What I would like to do is to see the bank cards eliminate any mention of the account number from the card, front and back, and eliminate the magnetic stripe. The chip should be all that is required.
Until the crooks can duplicate the chips, if ever, whenever you use your card, the employee processing it could not get your account number at all.
The biggest problem might be if the employee had an identical looking card and gave you that back instead of yours. Maybe it would be nice to have your picture on your card, too.
For what it’s worth, I don’t use my bank card as a debit card and I use it as a credit card only at places I feel comfortable using it.
They don’t put the card number on the front of the card, but they do put it on the back.
I’d rather have a separate item/card to keep at home or office with the account number on it. Nobody processing the card has any legitimate reason to see the number.
It’s rare that the employee handles my credit card. Usually I tap, swipe or insert it in the credit card terminal. (When visiting my mother, I will take her credit card to get groceries or take-out food, and no one even knows that it’s not my card.)
Some credit cards already do that.
I still haven’t got my 9.8 million dollars from Winners International but I have to give the lady credit for being persistent. It’s been 3 weeks now. She is still asking for a tracking number for the $500 I sent her. She says she can’t understand anything on voice calls. Maybe it’s because it is all air traffic control and/or broken microwave ovens. Everything is now by text. I think she is getting aggravated because everything I have sent her this week is in French. Here is today’s text:
Maintenant que vous avez la preuve de la livraison, effectuée le 21 mai 2026 à l’adresse suivante : ****4 EW 1**0, Wewoka, Oklahoma 74884, comment souhaitez-vous procéder ?
Avez-vous toujours des problèmes avec votre téléphone ? Je n’arrive pas à vous joindre par téléphone depuis un certain temps. Cette semaine, vous n’arrêtez pas de me dire que tous vos SMS sont dans une langue étrangère. Il est possible que quelqu’un ait modifié les paramètres de votre téléphone. S’agit-il d’un iPhone ? Ma fille Victoria, qui a un handicap mental, a déjà modifié les paramètres de langue de mon iPhone. Il est facile de remettre la langue en anglais. Allez dans SETTiNGS. Ensuite, allez dans GENERAL. Ensuite, allez dans LANGUAGE & REGION. Ensuite, allez dans LANGUAGE et sélectionnez anglais .
Here’s a scam that is a lot more sophisticated than any I’ve encountered so far.
I am looking for a recumbent elliptical machine to strengthen my failing hip and there are many listings on FB Marketplace by people practically giving used ones away. I want a highly rated one (Teeter FreeStep LT3) that retails for about $900 new. There is a FB listing in my area advertising a used one for $107:
(https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/984714400734646/?ref=search&referral_code=null&referral_story_type=post&tracking=browse_serp%3A0dcc82d4-9789-40ba-99f2-280bf2b5440b).
I sent the seller a message and she replied that it had sold, but that she had bought hers online from propied,com (replace , with . for the URL), and I should see whether they have any left.
So I Googled propied,com and (Red Flag #1) Google can’t find it.
She gave an alternative URL https://propied,com/products/2609599
Red Flag #2: This brings up a “Lidl” page with one of those very suspicious “store closing selling everything 90% off” announcements (as in it would be cheaper just to take the stuff to the landfill).
But how did the FB seller buy this machine from this obviously fraudulent website?
Red Flag #3: She joined FB in 2026
Red Flag #4: The photos of the elliptical (which she said in the ad she bought and used at home) are all in different rooms. So she moved a 100+ lb machine around 3 times just to take pictures?
Red Flag #5: I looked at the seller’s “other items.” Long story short, ALL of them are available on the fake Lidl website at unbelievably cheap prices.
It appears this is a two-level scam. The perps are running a fly-by-night website supplemented with fake FB sellers in at least some markets. I imagine myself to be pretty skeptical but this one nearly got me. I reported the seller to FB, but am not holding my breath. I wonder whether Lidl knows their name & logo have been stolen?
That’s a good one; the third photo doesn’t even look like a home, more like a PT studio or something.
p.s. if you do get one, I’d be interested to hear if, and how much, it helps.
You can already store your credit card in your phone and tap your phone to pay. No physical card that can be copied or stolen.
And banks are now offering virtual credit cards that can generate one-time use card numbers (and CVV) each time you need to provide the card information.
A Guide to Virtual Credit Cards | Chase
I still carry a couple of cards, as not everything is tap to pay yet.
l also carry a debit card, as there are small businesses that only take cash and have an ATM on premises.