Scammers at it again

Posted on by smaneli

Scammers never seem to take a day off. There is a new spin of gift card scams. This time around, scammers are pretending to be a pastor, rabbi, priest, imam,  or bishop. They are asking worshippers for gift card contributions for a worthy cause. Appeals are often made by email, but there have been people getting texts and phone calls, as well.

The bogus emails often include the name of the local pastor and a legitimate-looking email address. But a closer look will raise some red flags. For example, the email address isn’t the one normally used by the church, and the service provider is different too. The message may begin with a simple, “Hi,” but doesn’t include a recipients name. There also may be spelling errors, including the pastor’s name.

The imposter asks you to buy a popular gift card, frequently, iTunes, Google Play, or Amazon and then asks for the gift card number and PIN on the back of the card. Those numbers let the scammer immediately get the money you loaded onto the card. And once that’s done, the scammer and your money are gone, without a trace.

If this has happened to someone you know report it as soon as possible. Call the card company and tell them the gift card was used in a scam.

You can go to any one of these companies and get the site to report the scam on. And do not forget to go to FTC with the complaint. Do not feel bad thousands have done it. I always get suspicious when I hear iTunes, that seems to be the favorite card scammers use when it is time to pay IRS, bail bond, pay a debt you do not owe, etc, like whoever heard of using iTunes for any of the things. This is the same scam only they are using a church as the recipient and why does a church want an iTunes card, think people.

I am sorry but I laughed out loud when I read this one. Donate an iTunes or Google Play card to a church? I also laughed when iTunes was going to get someone out of jail.  I was going to say scammers must think we are stupid, guess what we are. Hundreds of thousands have already been given to the scammers.

Social Security Scams

Calls are now being received from scammers claiming to be with Social Security and the benefits have been suspended due to suspicious activity and for a fee they can “reactivate” your number after you, of course, give them the number. These scams are now on the rise and outnumber other scams including IRS, which formerly was in first place. You can tell if the government is truly calling you,

The government will not threaten to take away benefits or ask for money or personal information to protect your SS card or benefits.

Scammers can fake your caller ID, so don’t be fooled if the call seems to be from the Social Security Administration’s (SSA’s) real phone number or the SSA Inspector General’s Fraud Hotline number. You can always call the SSA directly at (800) 772 1213 to find out if they are really trying to reach you.

If someone calls you asking for your SS number, bank account number, or credit card information, hang up.

Spread the word, as these calls are on the rise, and report them to FTC. There is no end to what these scammers will come up with next, but never be so frightened as to give personal information to anyone on the phone or by email. Check it out first.

Next is one for the books, scammers are reaching out by calling consumers for their Medicare numbers, SS numbers, and other personal information. in exchange, are you ready for this, a DNA testing kit. The callers are saying this test is a free way to get early diagnoses for diseases like cancer, or just that it’s a free test, so why not take it. But the truth is Medicare is not giving away anything especially DNA kits. And scammers are good they will give a totally believable explanation for needing your information. But before you give away your information or a swab of your cheek consider these tips to help you spot and avoid scams like this.

Rarely does any branch of the government call you unless they are returning your call and they do not ask for personal information or any type of payment. You may have paid to have caller ID on your phone, but the kicker is, don’t trust it. Scammers, of course, have the ability to hide their real number and your ID caller will show it comes from Washington D.C. or the like and for sure it is not a government agency. This, of course, is done to once again scare you into giving out personal information. And report any of these calls to FTC, it helps others and gives FTC more ammo to fight with.

Granted all this gets to be so tiresome. I no longer answer any call I am not familiar with and if it is a customer, they know to leave a message. Now they have begun to call on weekends and always remember they can make a call appear to come from next door if they wish. I am wondering when and if the day comes when there are no longer any robocalls.

Well, go out there and stay safe

Thank you FTC for all the valuable information

 

 

FTC settlement case with Facebook $5 billion

Posted on by smaneli

The FTC’s record-breaking $5 billion settlement requires Facebook to conduct a massive overhaul of its consumer privacy practices. There were major changes made to Facebook’s operations and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is no longer Facebook’s sole control over privacy. It is about time.

Facebook makes money by serving up targeted ads based on users’ personal information. Many consumers are hesitant about sharing certain data, so FB calms that concern by promising that people can control the privacy of their information through the platform’s privacy settings. Try deciphering these settings and let me know how it comes out. I had a colleague who left our company in August of 2017 and noticed a remark made by corporate on her FB page, and that meant that they still had control over her site. She went to “privacy settings” and apparently that did not work. Any time you go on your computer at work they have the right to the data. Here we have a situation where she no longer works at this company and they have no rights to anything she does on FB nor should they be able to read anything on her site. Well so much for privacy settings.

FB was sued for making misleading promises about the extent to which consumers could keep their personal information private. For example FB told users they could select settings to make information available just to “friends”. Bt despite that promise, FB allowed apps used by those friends to access consumers’ information, a decision that put money in FB’s pocket. After the 2012 decision FTC put penalties in place if FB made misleading statements about users having control over the privacy of their personal information.

Well, they did it again. Again, they gave companies access to information that consumers said they didn’t want to share. The FTC also alleges FB made other misleading statements about how it used facial recognition, consumers’ cell phone numbers, and other personal data. This is the largest civil penalty by anyone anywhere ever in a privacy case. This tells us that FTC takes it seriously when our privacy is violated. This sets a new benchmark if companies fail to honor their promises in the future. The $5 billion goes to a general fund of the U.S. Treasury.

The settlement requires fundamental changes at FB and removes Zuckerberg as the company’s consumer privacy decision-maker. The order establishes a new era of privacy transparency at FB and at WhatAPP and Instagram, which FB owns. It creates an independent committee of FB board of directors to oversee privacy decisions and requires an independent third-party assessor to evaluate the effectiveness of FB’s privacy program. Mark Zuckerberg also must certify every quarter that FB is in compliance with the new privacy program. This should give him something constructive to do with his time. If it is found that he has falsely certified that everything is in order makes him once again subject to civil and criminal penalties.

What you need to do now is to make sure the system is set up to honor your choices and preferences, do this everywhere you go.

The responses FTC has encountered have been of course overwhelmingly positive, in fact everyone is elated. I have often wondered if this is not part of the reason for all the robocalls and spam messages we receive. If it proves that is the case, they should really throw the book at Zuckenberg. The aggravation from the robocalls is annoying as hell and if Zuckerberg allowed and sold information to any Tom, Dick or Harry who called and this is found out to be true, I want a go at him.

FTC is there to protect us and they all take their job seriously. They are there to make sure the others do us no harm. I also have wondered with these robocalls, and I am stretching things a bit, if serious physical harm has come to anyone due to the aggravation from these calls or someone answered while driving, afraid not to answer as it might have something to do with a spouse, children, grandchildren. I realize I am way out there with this but these calls have gone on and on and on. and if it were one call a week, but somedays I have 10 calls and I get so pissed off I want to just go off on one of these callers.  Of course, there are so many robocalls and I hear it all the time the aggravation and sheer anger at having received yet another call. And another danger is the companies and or organizations these callers say they represent. OMG was that really IRS, Social Security, or any one else these callers can think of to put the fear of God in someone.

I was so excited to see the FTC ruling and the $5 billion dollar penalty I could not help but connect FB and robocalls, and really thought I was a little nuts to even consider it. But now I don’t think I am so nuts.  Zuckenberg is vermin, out to make a buck off anyone and so egomaniacal to think that he is too big and the government wouldn’t dare touch him. Well Mark, they reached out and touched someone, and this time it was little ole you.

So many like to see someone who is wealthy get hir like Zuckerberg did but in this case he deserves everything he got and more. At least another very wealthy man, Jeff Bezos came out and told everyone who cared to listen in a public speech where he was going to take Amazon, and that is exactly what he did. Zuckerberg promised that our privacy was protected and then under the table sold our information to anyone who would listen and sold us all down the river, big difference between the two. Zuckerberg falls in the slimeball category.

Now since I have to post on FB for the company I work for I better go check and see if I have announced anything to the world when I thought I only told one person. Yes, the user is many times to blame, there are those facebook users who use it as a diary, so you should not be surprised at any repercussions that come your way, but the rest of us who think we are safe and set the privacy settings only to find out it was a waste of time and facebook had no intentions of honoring them, will once again go in and set the privacy settings one more time or stay off facebook altogether.

Well stay safe out there and go check privacy settings anywhere you can think of.

Keep getting sidetracked

Posted on by smaneli

There is so much in the news and everywhere else about store closings, bankruptcies, reasons why, and I am still a bit confused. I get the main reason why it’s happening, what I don’t get is how did so many of these stores let this happen.

Charming Charlie is closing all the remaining stores it has left. It started as a unique concept of how the merchandise was displayed. Costume jewelry, scarves, handbags, and accessories were displayed in groups according to color. Green, Turquoise, Red, Yellow, you get the idea. This worked for a while and then trouble reared its ugly head.

The pending demise of Charming Charlie is a virtual checklist of everything that can go wrong in retail these days. Before its first Chapter 11, the retailer grew its brick-and-mortar footprint too quickly, built out an over-broad vendor base and ran into broad structural changes in the industry, as customers turned away from malls and other physical retail outlets.

To save money, Charming Charlie hacked away at its workforce, sometimes leaving just one associate to run a store for hours at a time, Bellon said. That hurt the retailer’s ability to convert traffic into sales and also led to poaching of its remaining employees.

To help with liquidity, the company “hastily” expanded its inventory to boost the money available under its asset-backed loan. But that created piles of “merchandise that was either off-brand or not of the quality their customers had come to expect,” Bellon said.

After filing for Chapter 11 in December 2017, the company got rid of 100 underperforming stores. The company, Bellon, (vice president) noted, was still left with numerous underperforming stores at the insistence of landlords when negotiating for concessions elsewhere in their portfolio.

Well, I had to check this place out, when one opened up across the street from my office. OK, I walk in and it looked like a rainbow had exploded in a confined space. It was so busy it made your head spin. 27 different colors, and in each color was jewelry of every kind, necklaces, rings, bracelets. etc, with scarves, handbags, wallets, glass cases, sunglasses, readers, notebooks, pens, and a bunch of other useless stuff. These were not quality items. There were women who really loved this place, to each his own, and found Charlie very Charming.

After exiting bankruptcy, the retailer was “saddled with undesirable merchandise, unfavorable trade terms, and an undercapitalized balance sheet,” according to Bellon. It also had to contend with tariffs, severe weather events (which Bellon said cost them $1.1 million in sales), and customers with smaller tax refunds. Charming Charlie was saddled with undesirable merchandise when it opened.

I  have read so many reasons about why there was a store failure but tax refunds? and weather events?

There are different reasons why retail stores declare bankruptcy, and they do differ from one retail store to another but the basic problems they all had are the same. High rent, did not recognize they needed user-friendly well developed online sights for sales, did not pay any attention to what the customer wanted and not recognizing styles change, getting caught in a time warp, if you will. They totally failed to understand customers were going to shop where they could get the most for their money and that customer loyalty does not exist today and hasn’t for years now, and a total lack of imagination with their merchandise displays, either they are outdated, or just stacks and stacks of sale items, or just reduced items, (what’s the difference), and so much of the same thing over and over. Customer service has also gone out the window. I actually witnessed in a very high-end designer clothing store, salespeople gather and talk to each other while a gentleman looking at suits was left on his own and no one ever approached him and there was no way the salespeople did not see him. They continued to engage chatting to each other. The gentleman never said a word, he simply walked out of the store after waiting a decent 20 minutes.

I know we all have said going into a store, I wish the salespeople would just let me shop, and I will let them know if I need something. Well, you don’t need to worry about that today. You will be left entirely alone and if by chance you need something, the salespeople look at you as if you are bothering them, if you can find someone that is.

I hear Amazon mentioned so many times as the reason brick and mortar is sinking. I participated in the prime day sales on the 15th and 16th, and today is the 20, I received all my items on the 18th and 19th, was notified within 18 hours a package had been damaged and upon its return to Amazon my account would be credited and to please let them know if this is not done in 2 to 3 business days. It all happened within 36 hours. It is also easy to speak to Amazon and they will find a way to solve your problem or just to answer a question you might have, and I waited a whole 15 seconds for someone to come on the line. This time   I did call about the damaged package and was given a generous credit toward the next item I purchased. There is more customer service from online sellers than at the brick and mortar stores. Don’t get me wrong, one of my talents is shopping and I loved to go with my children, my friends, I was first in line to go shopping and do lunch, so I am old enough to remember how much fun it was. The fashion shows,( modeled in some of them) and meeting designers who came to the store to visit with customers, just a lot of fun. So it is clear to me what is happening to brick and mortar. Most of it is the fault of the retail store. Some things are out of their control, for sure, but for the things they could do something about, they did nothing, and that is what I do not understand.

This, of course, begs the question, who is minding the store?

Thank you Retail Dive and JCK Magazine

Go out there and stay safe and have fun. next, the politicians running for office have ads on FB, tired of robot calls. Sign this petition and I can end this, another gimmick, as soon as you sign, would you like to give a donation to speed up the process. In this case, some things never change.

Gave up today trying to get computer to behave

Posted on by smaneli

I can honestly say today has been the most frustrating day on a computer that I can remember unless a couple of days ago counts, of one day last week. Part of my work load is to blog about our business. This is done on you already know not my favorite, FB, CL to advertise gold, bullion, coins and the like, then Telegram system so we can all keep in touch, and within this APP we have several divisions, so be careful what you say or it goes to everyone, how many times do you think I have done this, please I lost count the other day when I did it. Then we have the blogs on WP and I have been remiss about this one and it is my favorite thing to do all day. I feel I can say what I want and hopefully no repercussions. I also have google voice so I can thank new customers for coming in and not reveal my personal number. Well when I started here I was not attached to a particular store so my own email was used for the responses but I could still use it to send messages and answer messages. When I was assigned a store and had a business email address google insisted on this being my address for google voice and it was not, it was a yahoo address and there is a particular number attached to google voice. The end result is I have to sign into yahoo.com that is not used at work, then go to google voice and then the google voice with all the right messages will be there. If I do this with google they say oh all caught up and there is not a damn thing on the page, then I have had to reload every page i have been on 20 times. And then the passwords and user ID. you know when you forget your password they send you a code a six digit number to reset your password or to verify it is you, I know some of you know that and you are smiling,  I have a list of, and your google verification code is ……….I  got a million of them.

The other Word Press is designed for the business so I try to write about jewelry,  coins, gold, silver, but lately the demise of the brick and mortar stores has me going. The funny thing is everytime I wrote about it I would think of this site because some of it was just too much and I found it funny. Not that a store going out of business is funny but some of the written articles about it were like Laurel and Hardy fast at work. And I would think in this day and time people would have an interest in what is going on around them in business whether brick and mortar or ecommerce. I mean there are articles daily on Forbes, Washington Post, NY times.

The first one was about Sears, of course, sad because there are so many who remember getting in the car and riding to Sears with Mom and Dad, and it really was a sad thing, but all the wasted money that was spent later for attorneys fees was just mind boggling, it got to the point it was like 5 zillion dollars a minute, to try and save Sears and that is and was insane. In the meantime with all the closing of the Sears stores, JC Penney who will be in bankruptcy shortly or if not should be, decided to get into the appliance business. So they spend enough money to buy a small country on appliances, washing machines, dryers, dishwashers, ovens and the like so they can fill the stores with appliances. Now why did they do this, this was done to have all these appliances ready for the people who usually shopped at the now closed Sears stores. The first month things are not too good and by the second month they are up the proverbial creek without the paddle. And why you ask did this happen? That is because no one bothered to find out where the X Sears shoppers were buying their appliances, and I will give you two guesses, and you are correct Home Depot and Lowe’s. Now this was a decision by the CEO and they pay him how much to come up with this idiotic plan without one page of research about it to present to anyone.

Now we have the shoe store, Payless. They were headed for trouble a couple of years ago but they devised a plan to reverse things, yeah it really reversed itself right into selling off all the stores and bankruptcy court, the biggest closing of a retail chain in history. They were going to have a great Easter but because of strikes at the ports on the West Coast,, by the time the merchandise got to the stores we were well into summer., and now it turns out, shipping strike at the ports and clerical error in the order and the lateness of the order itself , the merchandise never made it to the stores for the correct season. And there were several of these. So what do you do, you have to slash prices to get rid of off season merchandise not just once but several times and the loss was so huge there was no way to recover from this. Hence all the stores should be closed by the end of this month. they are even selling the fixtures in the stores. No one wants to wear boots in summer or sandals in winter, hence it all went to hell in a hand basket and the head honchos at the top are being blamed and rightly so.

Granted ecommerce has a lot to do with the closing of well established brick and mortar stores. But the truth is the CEO’s of so many of these stores are not retail people they are there to report to stockholders. Of course this is necessary but retail people know what it takes to get people in the store to enjoy the experience. Now it is table and tables of the same stuff on sale or marked down. There is absolutely not an attractive display of merchandise any longer. Anyone can dress a dummy but the rest of the department stores simply do not have attractive displays today for any items. And the customer service well that is gone as well. So now there is no loyalty among shoppers they are there to compare prices only and get the best item possible for the best price, wherever that might be. They will go on line or brick and mortar who has the best price for what I am looking for. Brick and mortar simply could not or would not keep up with the times and they find themselves with less customers and possible bankruptcy in their near future. There have been more bankruptcies the first six months of this year than all of last year.

And being in the business of buying precious metals, and gold going up, there does not seem to be a lot of takers when it comes to selling ,  and that has become bothersome and nerve wracking. Any thoughts on this from anyone.

Oh yes, and one more thing, if I was a better typist this might move along a lot faster.

Be careful out there

 

Popular Toys for Christmas 2018

Posted on by smaneli

Teddy Ruxpin, and I can remember buying him for my kids. But this is the Teddy Ruxpin of the digital age, touch sensors, apps, LED eyes, over 40 animations and he has an eye mask in his vest pocket. I am not asking any questions about that one. Teddy Ruxpin with eye mask, He is disguising himself as who exactly? Cute

Then there is a 3 ft by 3 ft doll house by LOL and it comes completely furnished, so in case your kids have the LOL dolls all over your house, get this and the dolls now have a place to live with a working elevator, lights and sounds, and pool, spa and sandbox. OK, let’s think this through, dolls get your house, you move in and AHH is it time to get in the Spa, or shall we go for a swim first. That was easy.

Next is the Whisper II car in pink also available in blue, and it is so cute and makes noises so everyone knows you are coming. Think I will look into finding one in my size. Really adorable, purple hood, oh I am  so there.

This adorable, super cute doggie  when fed falls asleep in your arms. Oh my gosh, he is too cute for words. Hint, when changing out the batteries, there are separate ones for his back legs. He is like precious. There are more he is the latest. Check out the bottom of his footsies and his collar and tag, and the tiny tongue, AWWW Does it get any more precious, unless it was a kitty, oh so sorry, love doggies and kitties both. Whew had to think quickly on that remark. 

Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle

Pick out who you want to be, Harry, Hermione, Ron, Neville,  and begin defending the wizardly world from evil forces. This looks cool, mastering  magical spells, recruit allies, gaining influence, and just have a great time in the world of wizards. I want this game, in fact take me away to Hogwarts. Never mind the Calgon take me away, forget beam me up Scotty, take me to Hogwarts like now!

OK this is hysterical, the Grumbies, these guys do not hug and cuddle, the object of the game is to annoy, how many adults are on your Christmas list you could give this to, or were they the role model for this game. You annoy till the dude blows up and melts down. There are 3 different grumbies. I am telling you give it to the most annoying on your Christmas list, or just give it to someone who deserves it…after all Santa wants everyone to get the toys they deserve..Heh Heh Heh.

Despicable 3 Talkin Jail time Tom Minion’ has 25 different sayings and movable eyes and arms, and when you press his pocket you get like more of the greatest reactions ever. Don’t these guys remind you of a twinkie with arms and eyes and legs and shit. I mean look at the body shape, Twinkie all the way. 

Nerf and Strike Mega Strike Mega Furry Blaster, you are on your own with this one. Fires 10 darts at once without reloading. Stay out of the room where your kid is firing this, is all I can tell you. Think I want one too. could use this at work. Couldn’t you?

OK this one is an inappropriate appropriate game for mischief makers. This got all kinds of awards, so I am thinking kids need to think with this game. The front of the box says it all. I like this one as well. 

 

We remember these rain boots from when we were kids.  Well, they’re back and better than ever this season.  They’re comfortable, water tight, and super safe.  More importantly it’ll keep their little feet dry and warm when the weather is cold and yucky and they come in all kinds of bright colors. And kids love to splash in puddles and what better rain boot for that than this one. In fact I would love a pair in this rubber ducky yellow color, wonder if it comes in my size? Never let it be said that I would pass up a puddle. Man, gotta have these rubber ducky yellow boots.

 

Now this is the ultimate LEGO build for the kiddos this year!  It’s the official Ferris Wheel and, better yet, when put together it can actually spin!  This is one that you’ll help them with (you love working on LEGOs anyway and you know it) and they’ll have a blast getting it to work and setting up the ice cream cones, balloons, pretzels, LEGO people and more! This Ferris Wheel is something else. It is an ultimate in the LEGO builds. WOW, who wants one for Christmas, raise your hand!!!lego ferris wheel

I know for sure the rubber boots, the Ferris Wheel and the Harry Potter game,  are on my list . Do you suppose if I am on my best behavior, (well the best I can muster up), Santa would consider these gifts, or two of them, ok I gotta have the rubber boots. Oh man, I almost forgot I gotta have the dart shooter.

This was fun, and I am looking up more toys, it has been so neat doing this.

I got the list from simply looking up best toys for 2018 and it gave me brostrick.com. All smart ass remarks are attributed to me.

Happy Thanksgiving Janet,

A year has gone by but that hole in my heart will remain there always.

Love, Little One

Random thoughts

Posted on by smaneli

This is Friday and I had some very simple thoughts floating around in my head.

First of all my birthday was Monday the 22nd,  absolutely worst birthday I have ever had. All I wanted to do was go home as soon as I could after work, or during, I did not care. It would seem Saturday there was a bit of a fiasco that I did not find out about till Monday morning, that was cheerfully delivered to me. I was caught between go to hell and thank you for your care and concern. The ultimate outcome of all this may not be as bad as predicted.

I personally have never heard of keeping my car keys in the  microwave or an empty coffee can or an item such as this. It would seem our scammers are able to use our fob to our vehicle from a distance of over 30 centimeters and open our cars. So the garage has become a not so secure place for your vehicle. A couple of years ago Jeep was doing a test run with one of the vehicles and it was taken over while it was being driven by the Jeep test driver by a hacker. Lets just say Jeep immediately recalled 1.3 million jeeps. I should think so. Another way to guard your keys is to wrap them in foil  Now I can see how tedious this could become wrapping and unwrapping like a tuna sandwich, but it works. That is why the refrigerator or freezer is great. First I would check with your car maker if the fob should be exposed to these temperatures. You may make the fob useless at this point. I decided on the microwave. I can’t heat something with the fob in there, I would see it first and take the keys out, right? I somehow missed the scammers ability to take over my vehicle and/or open it take what they want, lock it, and I would never know. No fingerprints left behind on this gig.

I was also thinking about Sears and filing bankruptcy. Now Sears was a household word years ago, but I was reading some of the errors they made. First of all Sears was already doing badly, when they bought KMart who was doing badly. Now you have two big companies doing badly. I believe that is a biggie in anyone’s book. Then we have JC Penney who how they are still open is beyond me. When they see the closing of Sears, they run out and get into the appliance business big time. The first month after Sears closed 147 stores Penneys  held their own and then it all went to hell in a handbasket.  Guess what,they did not bother to check and see where the X Sears people were going for appliances. Do the names Home Depot and Lowes ring a bell?

The executives with these companies make big bucks why? Actually I was amazed that no one called them on these decisions.

Now we have eBay suing Amazon because Amazon is being accused of trying to steal sellers from eBay. First of all eBay sellers make more $$$ and on the other hand eBay treats their sellers like dirt, so I guess if you want to go you should go.  And does Amazon really need more $$$. Stealing sellers from eBay. My oh my oh my.

Sam’s Warehouse is not doing all that well either, well they are the little sister of Walmart and many times you can get the same thing at Walmart for less that Sam’s and no membership necessary. sam’s nemesis is Costco. Costco treats their employees fairly and gives raises, and better benefits. The day the minimum pay raise issued by Sam’s was going into effect, they closed a bunch of stores and left out one detail, the employees did not know till they got to work to see the sign, store closed. Shame on you Sam’s. And if you are interested here are some codes to look for above the price code the number 1 is good sale, A and N will try to keep the product at all times, O One time only, S is Seasonal, C cancelled expect a sale on this item. Can’t swear by them but there they are.

And Janet it’s been a week, not one of my best, sure wish I could run home pick up the phone sit back with a coffee and tell you all about it. I miss you my dear dear friend. I am kinda lost here. Not sure what all this is about..Bye Janet, its just little one here signing off

 

Stay safe out there

Shirley

Dear Janet

Posted on by smaneli

Dear Janet,

It has been a long time since I have written and I made myself sit down and do this today. It has been almost a year since you died, I never understood the word passed, passed what, nobody passed, they died. I don’t get that and I really don’t care enough to find out why that word is used, it is stupid, the word is DIED.

It is just as bad now as it was when I was told you died. It does not change, I still on a daily basis think oh, I need to tell Janet that. And then I stop and remember, no can’t pick up the phone anymore and just call. There are times when I don’t think I can stand it, and then I do of course continue to go on.

I have to go to the doctor every 3 months because of the ADHD to get my meds, as you know. Well, one day on my appt the girl at the front desk asks me if for today would I see one of the PA’s. and I go fine, I am there for med check so I am ok, but that day I was not in a good mood. She says hello and I say hello, simple chit chat, then she says how are you and I said profoundly sad, my best friend died, and she does her I am so sorry, you will get through the grief, and blah bla blah, and I looked at her, and I was quiet for a moment and I stated, no people do not get over it, they go on, but they never get over it. She looked at me and said Oh you are just at the angry stage now, and I said if there is any anger it is directed towards you at this moment for having a total lack of ability of understanding what I am saying to you or maybe you lack the understanding that is needed at the moment . You are a therapist are you not, and this is a Psychiatrists office is it not,  or is it you just don’t give a damn and think mouthing platitudes is a sufficient response to my expressing where I am at, profoundly sad. Well, it is very clear to me that I have challenged you beyond your capabilities so, I leave you with this,  you can eat shit and bark at the moon, and we shall not meet again.

Well, that went well. My next visit was with the Doc himself and he was so nice and understood how I felt and that I should continue to talk to you and then he said it is understandable how you feel, and this is a void that can’t be filled. I thought, he understands and he had the kindest gentlest smile as he said you will always grieve. But you will go on, not the same but you will make it. I thought damn, he knows how I feel. Anyway that was a good visit, and I did behave myself and i said thank you, and good bye see you in 3 months.

We have not been as busy as we were before Harvey. I remember telling you I ran to the grocery store and was hell bent on getting the carpet cleaner, and I notice all this water being purchased by everyone, and thought, yeah its hot out but, whatever, the ADHD brain is concentrating on the carpet cleaner, and off I go, never giving it another thought about the hundreds of gallons of water being purchased. I called you and went on about whatever and then got to the water, and you calmly said there is a major hurricane headed for Houston, I shall assume you have not paid attention to the weather reports, so I find this the proper time for you to write down what I tell you to purchase so that you will have sustenance with this storm coming. The first thing she says for me to write down is WATER.  I started to laugh and thought better of it. And then she proceeded to give me the rest of the list, since she knows what I like and that cookies needed to be somewhere at the top of the list. I remember her telling me she was prepared to call me as I might not pay attention to the weather reports and wonder what all the scurrying about is about, and then proceed to tell me what to do.

As I think about and write this my eyes fill with tears as it still does not seem possible that you are gone. I would give everything I own to speak to you one more time. I think of trying to tell this woman with an IQ off the charts how to take pictures and transfer them to the computer, reading about the Rothschilds to her on the phone, it was a review of a book on them and I told her I hope he used a pen name or he is a dead man, you agreed.

There is no one for me to talk to really. I have wanted to get your advice on so many things and I remember things you have told me and make my decision based on this, and hope it was the right one. I am famous for just doing something off the cuff the same way I have yet to discover what the word budget means. You seemed to get quite a kick out of that as I recall.

The same thought still haunts me, do you understand how much you are missed and how much I loved you. You saw me through the last divorce and oops the one before that as well, I remember calling you every night on the way home from work and telling you I can’t do this one more time, and you said yes you can it will be over soon, I make one request, I would ask what, and the same answer, keep that mouth of yours shut.

It was not supposed to happen this way, no matter how much planning or one’s desire to have it different, this shit happens. You loved life, and I remember that daily. I know when I write this on WordPress, I probably repeat things but it bears repeating. I had so hoped to come to Florida in the Springtime of this year, it was to be a surprise, imagine that,the surprise was on me.

You are gone and your last words to me continue to haunt me as does the fear of you not knowing how much you were loved, “little one, you must do something, they have no idea what they are doing, you must tell them what to do”.

I go over this and over this and over this, the doctors would not speak to me I was not blood relative, and that idiot daughter of yours did nothing to help. So I am left to wonder if she told you I tried to speak to the physicians, and for sure you did not know how much she did not do to assist in this matter. I let you down and I know you, since you would defend me at the drop of a hat, you would say little one, you did all you could, and there is nothing to forgive. Ah, but there is.

Love,

Little one

Everyone be safe out there.

Identity Theft

Posted on by smaneli

I know everyone is sick of hearing about it, but since I have spent so much time writing about all the scams going on from FDA, I thought I would touch on this one. and I have a very good reason. I can tell you it is not a picnic to do all the things necessary to protect yourself and report the theft.

In August I get a message from Lifelock that someone has applied for a loan, small one but nonetheless, they used my information. Lifelock says did you do this I say no, and we are off and running. I get a message directly from these people telling me that I am inches away from receiving my loan. Now this message comes to my email address. So by the time I get the email from this company, they are closed. I found that most irritating, because now I have to wait till morning.

So I call this company as there is a real phone number that works, imagine that, and tell them who I am and that I received an email about a loan and I wanted them to know wasn’t me, you can mark that one fraud. Now this woman on the phone asks me for more info, I say uh no. She said ok what is email address, I tell her and then she says  yes this is you. Then she proceeds to tell me that individuals apply to a third party who then reach out to see if there are any “financial institutions” who would be willing to loan whatever the amount is. She says so we have no idea who applied, and I say you have the name of the third party who sent it to you. Who are they? She says any number of “third parties” can do this. I say thank you, and I want to commend you for all the assistance you have given me.

Next step and the first anyone wants to do is go to FTC. Of course there is a special section devoted just to this with instructions on what to do and it is a laundry list. Number one is fill out what information you have with the company who was going to process this loan, on FTC site. This particular one at least had a phone number and address. Then you need to file a police report and go there in person, report to all the credit agencies, report to your bank, report to your credit cards, report it to IRS, and any other financial institution you are connected to.

Now one of the first things I did was go to the Police Department Identity Theft site and see what they had to say. They have an Identity Theft Kit you can download and print. One afternoon I look them up thinking I might be able to go in online, give them some info and presto I am out of there. No, that is not what happened. I see that I will have to print this “kit”. Now the tray on the printer that catches the paperwork, had been knocked off  several times, funny thing, they do not snap back into place, and they never stay on the same once knocked off,  and of course It was me who did this.

So just as I hit print, a customer comes in and as this report is printing and I think oh well a few pages, whatever, no as I am speaking to the customer, pages are flying out of the printer at record speed. My customer is laughing as the papers are everywhere behind me, and I am knee deep in papers. Who would have thought. My customer offered to help me but I can’t let him behind the counter, so I said thank you and then I turned around to pick them up. The pages were numbered but there were a dozen sections. I kind of groaned and got it all together and immediately stapled each section.

In the days that followed there were 5 more applications for loans made with my personal information. I simply added them to the list on the FDA site and then made copies of the report. The Identity Theft Kit, spells out everything you need to do to cover yourself. It is a lot of paperwork and in my case hunting down these fly by night financial institutions, and I use that term lightly, and get some kind of address or phone number so I can sent them this report. As well as the police, IRS, 3 credit bureaus, bank, credit cards, and anyone else I can think of.

I will say this everyone connected with FTC, law enforcement, and Lifelock bends over backward to help and give you instructions on what to do and how to do it. Oh yes, after I had a field day writing about the breach at Equifax, they were first to jump in to help and tell me what to do as well. Ate a little crow that day.

It is a major pain, and worrisome, and you just want to find out who is doing this. Since we believe in being armed down here in the Lone Star State, I intend to shoot and ask questions later..

Stay safe out there,

Shirley

FTC, De Beers and Lab Gemstones

Posted on by smaneli

FTC is part of this but not like I usually write about. The latest scams afoot. This pertains to the jewelry guidelines FTC has placed on the jewelry industry or to anyone selling a piece of jewelry like on a website. In other words FTC is saying tell the truth, now isn’t that a novel idea.  As stated before FTC wants the consumer to get a fair shake and that includes buying jewelry. download (5)

You can’t lie about what metal is being used, or what gemstone it is , and what type of treatment did the stone receive. These have to be divulged to the consumer. If you think this happens everyday think again.

At the moment I am going to give you an example of what I see everyday. A nice little old lady from the East Coast is selling some very nice items on a website I will not name, and she is touting a vintage ring that belonged to her great grandmother and it has this bright blue stone set in it that has not received any treatment. There are two things wrong with this scenario, if this is a vintage ring from let’s say the 20’s or 30’s, the stone she calls a Tanzanite was not discovered until 1967 and every Tanzanite has received heat treatment to give it that gorgeous purple/blue so admired by gem collectors. Tanzanite is not neon blue. Someone is going to pay $375.00 plus her outrageous shipping charge of $15.00 for a 3 oz package and never bother with having it checked out and this customer has been bamboozled.. That is not right by any stretch of the imagination. That is what FTC is saying to anyone who sells jewelry, tell the truth. The flip side is if someone takes it to their jeweler and the info she stated is a lie, this will come back to bite, and if the info is made public which it would be she has really damaged her reputation for the future and what items she has sold, well these customers make take their items to a jeweler to validate what they purchased. It seems to be a new concept to tell the truth about what you are selling or FTC would not be busy 24 hours a day protecting consumers from sellers who lie about the items they are selling. I don’t care if it is an individual or a company.  I sell jewelry and I work at a jewelry store  and you can bet your bottom dollar it would never occur to me or to the store owner to lie about any item we have for sale. blue spinel 11 ct 12,800

We also have some sellers selling Mahaleo rubies, as if this was special. GIA does not even recognize this as a gemstone. Why, because it is lead filled and if the stone takes an accidental hit,  we now have ruby dust. These “stones” are red but to give the appearance of uniformity pump it with some lead to fill the fissures, and the color becomes a very pretty red ,even with some translucency, but we have sellers who are not divulging this information to customers who purchase them. The problem is it is not a genuine “ruby”. Now if the seller divulges all this and people buy them that is on the buyer as the information about the treatment of the stone has been divulged to him or her. mahleo ruby

Now on to lab stones. Lab grown stones have been around for quite sometime. The diamond cartel De Beers is going to be selling lab diamonds in blue, pink and white come September. The name of the company is Lightbox. The stones will be in  3 colors and a one carat stone will sell for $800.00 half carat $400.00 and down the line. They will have earrings, rings, pendants with these one carat stones and I have to say the stones are drop dead gorgeous. The impact this has had on all the lab growing diamond companies has been amusing. Remember De Beers is the big kahuna in the diamond world . As one long time veteran cutter said its like they are Elvis, If they smoke pot ,it gives everyone permission to smoke it. De Beers has just said without saying anything they approve of lab diamonds. pendant and earrings de beers lab

  • Now the FTC has shown a bit of favoritism towards lab gemstones. They dictated that the jewelers advertising “from the earth” stones can’t call them  natural diamonds and that is because lab gemstones test positive for diamond, emerald, whatever. They have the same optical and physical characteristics as the”from the ground stone”. This only added fuel to the fire for gemstone dealers dealing with from the earth gemstones. Now don’t get me wrong lab gemstones are not cheap and even GIA will grade them, but the fact remains they are cheaper than the from the ground stone. It makes stones more affordable for some who would never be able to afford even a one carat diamond. or a 4 carat sapphire., for example. And FTC also said the diamond merchants, or jewelers can’t call their stones eco friendly stones, they are to cease and desist now. There are quite a few jewelers and jewelry stores who are not happy with De Beers at this time. Just one of the reasons they are complaining is that De Beers is not including engagement ring in any part of their marketing.  That’s the big complaint? Why does every solitaire diamond have to be an engagement ring? Is there a rule book somewhere I don’t know about that  says only brides can wear a solitaire diamond, I have done it three times and it just didn’t take., now  I have a one carat solitaire that I wear as a “ring”. And somewhere in the fallout from the announcement about Lightbox, the CEO or another higher up said he would buy a lab stone for his daughter, And many in the jewelry industry just had a fit, an honest to goodness conniption fit and they went on and on about it. This is his company, do you think it wise to say something like, oh no I would never let my daughter wear one of our pink, blue or white lab diamonds. That’s a new marketing technique , speak badly about your product that is being released to the public in less than 30 days.  De Beers

So De Beers came out ahead again. The other lab diamonds are sold for more than $1000 a carat and now De Beers has the blue and pink diamonds which are stupid expensive in the real world, like does the Hope Diamond ring a bell, the one that  resides in a burglar proof glassed in case at the Smithsonian Institution valued at half a billion dollars. The colored diamonds are just plain rare and no one can afford them except the very few, the untreated ones that is. Those that have been treated are considerably less expensive, but they would still be far more than the Lightbox pink or blue one carat diamond. I am all for new technology especially this kind,  and the creation of lab stones has gotten more and more sophisticated. Check out the Chatham lab gemstones.

So all in all the lab gemstone just got the stamp of approval , and the truth is a jeweler with the naked eye can’t tell the difference between diamond, Moisannite, or a Russian cut lab diamond. It is not possible and more than one prominent jeweler in the US admitted this.We have some top of the line jewelry stores who have decided to carry lab stones and then we will have to wait and see if the company with the blue box will carry them as well. I have no doubt that some of the employees with this particular company would have their eyebrows permanently arched over the thought of carrying  lab diamonds or any other lab gemstone.lab pink diamond

I confess I am excited about Lightbox, I admit it, I guess I did not hide it very well. I can’t wait. I see them as a diamond from De Beers, it does not get any better than that. I know what you are thinking. I still can’t wait for Lightbox to open.

 

Stay safe out there,

Shirley

Did your favorite celebrity get in touch with you

Posted on by smaneli

Did your favorite celebrity reach out to you on social media? Are you sure that is who it was?

Scammers will try anything to separate a consumer form their money, they are like trolls under a bridge, they are everywhere. They have now hit the celebrity circuit. They are posing as celebrities and asking for donations for claiming a prize, donating to a charity, or giving help of some kind and that will be in the form of money without question.

Imposter scammers operate the same way no matter who they are impersonating. They always pretend to be someone you trust, government agencies, charities, and now celebrities. Picture this, your friend tells you,  Leonardo di Caprio just got in touch with me on Facebook and asked for a donation to a cause near and dear to him, saving endangered species and I donated $500, I did not want him to think I was cheap. I just love him, he is so handsome and I just love his movies, and I know how he feels about saving animals, after all he headed up the Save the Tiger, with World Wild Life. So now your $500 just went to a scammer, it did not go to Leonardo. And now that you have told everyone you know that Leonardo reached out to YOU for a donation, smiling ever so proud of yourself, well don’t be,you just threw $500 away, it is now in the hands of a scammer laughing all the way to the bank. We are a gullible lot, and mention a celebrity and people go stupid.  I don’t get it. Got the picture. Everyone knows there is a group of celebrities who donate and donate a lot to their favorite causes. You may not give a rat’s ass about their causes, but because it is a celebrity consumers empty their pockets. SMH

So if you fell for this, and decide to research it after the fact instead of before,  go to  whoever you got to fund this transaction, your bank, credit card, etc and explain it was a fraud, and report this to FTC and for sure put it all over FaceBook. So now before parting with your money and telling everyone you know that some celebrity got in touch with YOU, do your research. Another reason we keep FTC busy, we as consumers are not too bright.

I am also here to confess, I am a card carrying member of the Identity Theft Club. I got an email from some loan company thanking me for applying and just go to page two to finalize this and the money is all mine. Well first of all I did not apply, so I call this company and told them who I was and said I got your email, now I have a news bulletin for you, I did not apply. She goes uh I guess we mark this as a fraudulent application, and I said uh yes that is exactly what you do. I had already been notified by Life Lock that this had occurred, They simply asked did you apply for a loan, and I said no and then the email comes a few hours later, from the loan company.  So now we have Life Lock aware of it, they notify Transunion who in turn notifies Experian and Equifax, and then I have to personally get reports from two agencies who would have the details in their records, file police report and this is to continue to get 5 years free monitoring from the 3 credit bureaus. The peculiar thing about this is I got the report from Tele Chex and nothing popped up and why would you use my email address to verify that the loan was approved knowing I will read it and know instantly I did not do this. I have an idea who did this and the more I think about it I think I am correct. So I explained my theory to an attorney and he even said sounds reasonable to me and you may have something, now proving it is another issue, but I intend to find a way. Oh yes, and of course give FTC what information I have. If you go to your local police dept and go to identity theft, they have a kit that you download, I was not expecting 80 pages, It is unbelievable, took me forever to get it in order as the tray on the copier broke, ( yes I did that), and all these papers are flying everywhere, because I am waiting on a customer and can’t stop to get my catchers mit to grab all the pages, preferably in some kind of order.  SIGH

And I got a speeding ticket for going 72 in a 40 mph zone. I thought things were going rather well,  until the Sheriff  asked me did I know what the speed limit is and I could not say I knew, so I said 55 mph, and it was 8 years ago,  and was told , no Miss it’s 40. I say 40!!!, see all the exclamation points, why don’t we all get out and push our cars down the highway, it took under 5 seconds for me to get the ticket. Oh yeah, it was a woman, so I figured I had little chance of getting out of it. I have always gotten out of it before when it was a male Sheriff, Constable, HPD, yes stopped by all of the above, I think the only law enforcement agency I have not been stopped by is Texas Rangers. SIGH

Then had a small fire outside the store. Outside at the end of the cement walkway is a lot of green bushes that also have a tendency to grow into the power lines, anyway there are what were once upon a time planters, now I have asked the grounds people to cart them off numerous times, they have debris, dead leaves and so forth and with the heat and it is dry, this is a fire waiting to happen, do they pick them up, no. About a quarter after  6 PM a customer and his wife leave and 2 minutes later the wife rings the bell over and over and I look up and let her in, and she says there is a fire at the corner of the building. To myself, I say, of course there is, I get up go out to see what I am dealing with and bring water with me, as this is not electrical or chemical so I am ok, and this customer pours the water on it, in the meantime a woman in her car who was across the street drives up and says he is starting a fire, because she saw my customer bending over pouring water, I say he didn’t start it he is putting it out. She becomes rather sheepish, and the customer and I come back in, and presto fire extinguisher, and we go out and put it out just as its going to go up this bush and that would have taken about 3 seconds to become a problem. In the meantime corporate, bless their hears, is calling me to tell me about the fire, I go really, I said yes and I need to go now. Fire dept shows up tells us great job and then they saturate the area with water so they do not have to come back later. I say thank you and all is well. The owners still 3 weeks later have not removed the planters nor asked about the fire.

Yes, things are going swimmingly this month and it is so hot here, even if there is a breeze, it is just hot air, but this is whole lot better than this time last year, its been  10 days less than a year when Harvey hit, so we will take the heat, bring it on. None of us are going to melt, and it has last year at this time beat all to hell.

Stay safe out there, I am making a concentrated effort to,

Shirley