Scum, sleaze, and scams

There are various nasty people on and off the Net. A few hopefully useful warnings are listed here.

"This is Steve. I'm calling from CBCS." Have you heard that on your answering machine? Don't return that call!

Do you use Second Life? Don't deal with Virtuatrade, or its subsidiary SL Exchange. I bought some Lindens from them through PayPal. Nothing ever showed up in my account. The "Contact" button on the website has no link. I think it's become a black hole.

Orbitz runs third-party pop-up ads that can result in charges to your credit card without telling you. Think twice about using Orbitz. At least don't keep credit card information on file between purchases.

Eyada.com and the "Dan and Scott Show." Now defunct, but I'm not forgetting their ten-year campaign of harassing phone calls and email and threats falsely delivered to strangers in my name. If Bob Meyrowitz (who blew away millions of dollars in investors' money in a single year on that website, with offices in the most expensive part of Manhattan) has a business proposition for you, throw the bastard down the stairs.

CarSafe is an extended car warranty scam operation. If you get a form claiming your car warranty is about to expire, and asking you to call 866-364-3336, the sender is out to fleece you. Read their BBB review, which gives CarSafe an "F" rating, and gives information of an ongoing legal action against the outfit. In general, beware of any mailing claiming to offer an extended automobile warranty.
 

The FUMP is a spam operation. If you are using it to promote yourself, don't expect any kind of support from me in anything.

Barnes and Noble has been bombarding my GMail account with more spam than all other spammers combined for months. "Opting out" merely gets you onto a special spam list for people who don't want their mail. Based on my previous buying patterns before they turned me into a non-customer with their spam, they've lost a couple of hundred dollars in business. So Barnes and Noble regards the privilege of dumping mail into my spam filters as worth at least that much.

If you send me spam, I will report it to your ISP and won't ever deal with you. If it's bulk e-mail and I haven't explicitly requested it, it's spam. There is no "except you" clause.

Copyright 2009 by Gary McGath

Last updated August 13, 2010