Safe Gas Spammers disappear

What happened to the “Safe Gas” or whatever it was spammers? All posts on this discussion suddenly vanished! I wish I could do that with telemarketers!

@sgtrock21‌, I happened. :slight_smile:

…and speaking of telemarketers, yesterday I experienced the most amazing attempt at obtaining personal information via the phone.

Me: Hello
TM: (Female voice with heavy Spanish accent) Is his Mr. V?
Me: (Suspiciously) Yes, who is calling?
TM: This is XXX from XXX Associates. We are not trying to sell anything, but we have a few questions. First, is it correct that you live in NJ?
Me: (Tempted to say, “No, they moved my area code to Alaska”) Yes, that is correct.
TM: Is it correct that you have an annual salary of approximately $200,000, and a net worth of over $3 million?
Me: (Attempting to suppress laughter) No, it is not correct.
TM: Well, then how much is your annual salary and what is your net worth?
Me: Why would I discuss my financial situation with an anonymous person on the telephone?
TM: Click…dialtone…

I am still dumbfounded that anyone would actually disclose personal information of that sort over the phone to…God only knows who. However, if everyone refused to give information, then I don’t think that they would be doing this. I believe that some people–perhaps in an attempt to correct misinformation–DO disclose personal financial information to charlatans like this.

Exactly what might happen after that type of disclosure, I can’t say, but I’m sure that it wouldn’t be good.

cdaquila Thank you very, very much.

VDCdriver My first experience with something similar was around 1995. I received a call from Citibank security. A female asked me to confirm my name, address, (which were correct) and phone number plus credit card number. They obviously had confirmed my phone number. I asked why? They said it was a standard security update. I informed them that I was born at night but it wasn’t last night. Click, dial tone.

wesd Concerning the match in the bucket of gasoline magic trick. On the military and OSHA requirements I had to be familiar with flammable liquid flash points. Flash point is the temperature when they start to vaporize. I don’t want to research all the various ones. but if say gasoline is 70 degrees F and temperature is 50 degrees F a match thrown into a bucket of gasoline would extinguish. Personally I wouldn’t care to test it.

yeah, I wasn t happy with the guy who tested it either… I was about 16 then

At 16 years old I would have just said cool. At that age we were immortal!

@cdaquila You replied to me in that thread, and then deleted the thread so I can’t see it. This means I cannot have a beer until you tell me if I was right or not :wink:

I would like to know where to get that “safe gas”. I have a fire extinguisher that I need to recharge.

@VDCdriver, my youngest daughter would have given them a fake salary and net worth to string them along. She would have had an answer or question for them every time they said something. She likes to see how long they will stay on the line with her while she messes with them.

@shadowfax, how do you know it wasn’t a quirk of our notification system? :wink: I do owe you a beer and some apologies to Meat Loaf for abusing his lyrics, 'cause two out of three ain’t bad. Ericgagnon and dossodossi had IPs in the same place, and our spammer mastermind probably recruited his mom in another state to play the part of LindaLea.

spam spam spam… spam

Like we talked about before, make enough calls and you’ll get a response. Maybe only 1% or .01% but you’ll get a response at some point. I sometimes give the answer that I got cold calling for AAA (back to cars), “Oh he’s dead, didn’t you know that?” How would I know, he’s still in the phone book? Ah to be young again.

I had a guy call me and said I won $20,000 and all I had to do was verify my ID with a credit card. Said I can’t do that and he said don’t you want $20,000? I said naw, who needs it? Screws up taxes.

@cdaquila Fortunately, the bet was with myself, so I have won a beer from me (which I am drinking as we speak). Feel free to send beer if you really want to, though :wink:

Lets treat Spam with a little respect. It is made just south of me and lots of people like it. When I was a kid we’d have fried Spam, Spam sandwiches, etc. The whole town is a Spam supporter and they even have a Spam museum down there.

I guess I missed the whole safe gas thing though.

Spam, it’s super popular in Hawaii. Supposedly goes great with poi. Who knew?

@cdacquila … just curious, is that you on the sound board on the CBS 60 minutes “Car Talk” segment they broadcast a while back"?

@VDCdriver, I prefer to string those guys along, and then when we get to whatever information they want, I pretend to lose the signal. For example, for salary I say “I make 3.” And then stop talking until the other person says something. Then I say, “you didn’t get it? Let’s try this again. I make 3.” It can go on for longer than you’d imagine, especially if they ask for a credit card number. I’ll give them the first 12 (made up) digits and then trail off. After I’ve had my fun, I’ll say “you should find an honest way to make a living.”