Hi Quasi, and anyone else who may have read my post above, I meant to mention something very important.
In a lot of spam messages there will be a “Click here to unsubscribe” link or button. DO NOT click that link or button, whatever you do. In many cases email addresses used for mass mailings are generated by software that might take a starting letter or a name like Tina or Jerry, and then create permutations to form a name format. Because you aren’t seeing all the other messages that were sent to “quasimodem_2”, “quasimodem_3”, etc, you may believe that there was no other way that the sender knew your email address.
In fact, on as many occasions, the Sender’s name is also one that is either manufactured by the same character-crunching software, or is one extracted from the same spam recipient database.
The vast majority of emails sent out en masse like that are never confirmed as received, but you will get the odd person clicking that “unsubscribe” button and actually confirming that they received the email. So what do they do? The log files on their website add your email address as a confirmed destination - a fact that could not have been known had the person not announced “Yes, I got your email, send me loads more”.
OK, so sometimes the unsubscribe link works, but if you just keep deleting spam that seems to be related it often just fades away and you don’t get any more.
No, there is no real sense in reporting them to the FBI, CIA, domain administrator, etc. You may well feel as though you have been personally victimised or targeted, spam is as common as stupid pedestrians wearing iPod headphones who walk out in front of motor cars on busy streets. You want to grab them and kick their ass, but what’s the sense when there’s just another imbecile right behind him.
After almost 2 years of trying and failing, I now have a hearing with an admin law judge scheduled for 2/2011. I’ll have one of the Binder & Binder law reps there with me, but I wish I could have every one of you hwo has known me for the past 10 years there as well.
If anyone knows about my bat-shit level, it would be you Dopers.
All my hopes and prayers will be that this goes very, very well for you. You know that with the right legal representation, they may even make your disability retroactive. That happened to my sister a few years ago. Yes, like you, she had to get legal representation, yes, they took 1/3 of her first money. But hey, 2/3 of a chunk of money beats the hell out of 100% of nothin’! Am I right?
Hey Quasi, your ‘bat-shit’ doesn’t even come close to some of the other crazies on this board, as you well know. There’s your sort of nutty, and then there’s the others who claim smarts and sanity but still make no sense whatsoever…almost tempts me into investing in the Acme TinFoil Hat Company, gotta be a winner eh??
That shouldn’t have happened. I’m pretty sure attorney fees are capped at 25% of a retroactive award, and must be approved by the social security office. Assuming the contract/fee is approved, social security will deduct the fee from the lump sum payment, and send the attorney his money directly.
I also wanted to add (and sorry I forgot the first time) that D and I are doing fine as she is once again able to work a little prn in her sleep lab.
We are also very grateful to our Doper friends for helping us get together the money to file my bankruptcy, a kindness we will never, EVER forget and one we hope we can pay forward for many years to come. (Not helping folks go bankrupt, just helping folks period!:))
Oh, and I wanted to report that my credit score is now 566! Whoohoooo! (I have a small limit card I use very sparingly).
So all in all, things aren’t looking as bleak as they did and I am so thankful I have all of y’all to care about me/us.
That kind of gift you can’t wrap up in a box and tie a nice ribbon around.
and that’s the best kind of gift ever: Friendship.
[removed the altered quote and a remark by me about bad coding]
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twickster, MPSIMS moderator
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