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:eek::yellowc::bhave:Don't tell me Mary Beth is getting in on the scamming now. I've actually met her as she is from MASS like me, and my Dad was a Foreign Service Officer. Let me say I'm very disappointed in Ambassador Leonard for stooping to criminal activity. She's a very naughty cookie pusher.:sdevil::wink2:
 
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I am interested to see the financial impact this will have on China. What a great time for this one to land.
There will be a general reluctance to do this kind of business with China unless they police the way their businesses operate.
Already, they've pissed off quite a few countries with certain sharp practices.
Time for them to grow up and join the rest of the world.
 
There will be a general reluctance to do this kind of business with China unless they police the way their businesses operate. Already, they've pissed off quite a few countries with certain sharp practices. Time for them to grow up and join the rest of the world.
Let me offer a different scenario. China gets locked out and embargoed hard. This causes the standard of living in China to plummet and causes a revolution that destroys the CCP, which is only in powetr on the tacit agreement that they keep China prosperous. I would encourage everyone to boycott Chinese goods until our governments catch up.
 
Let me offer a different scenario. China gets locked out and embargoed hard. This causes the standard of living in China to plummet and causes a revolution that destroys the CCP, which is only in powetr on the tacit agreement that they keep China prosperous. I would encourage everyone to boycott Chinese goods until our governments catch up.
I'm already trying to do that, but it is difficult.
 
Another scammy e-mail first one I've had trying to cash in on COID-19. Pay special attention to the date in the body of the message.

Dhia Nayla [CBMF] <xxxxxx@zavd19a-07.cbmfbrokering.com>
Fri 19/06/2020 11:38

To:
  • You
Dear Sir/Ma,

I hope you are well. In these unprecedented times with the COVID-19, we want to support you as you navigate your personal or business situation and projects.
We have decided to tentatively reach you on [email protected] to inform you that we are currently providing debt relief/debit financing or credit facility for your personal or business project. Financing could reach a maximum of $200 M USD at a 0.67% rate per annum with minimum documentation.
If you, or anyone you know, do require such financial relief of Credit Facility for Personal or Business do not hesitate to contact us before or by June 31, 2020

Thank you, and stay safe.

UMAR, Dhia Nayla
__________________________
CBMF Brokering
Kinrara Seksyen 1,
47180 Puchong, Malaysia
 
Identity theft on a grand scale, hconsequences for the victims.aving lifelong

This week around 10 million students across China have sat the Gaokao - a college entrance exam which determines their entire future.

Hanging over their heads, though, is the recent revelation that hundreds of other students before them were victim to an identity theft scandal which saw them robbed of their results.

For Chen Chunxiu, it was an exam that could change everything. Doing well in the Gaokao meant the farmer's daughter had a shot of getting into her dream university. Failing meant it would remain just that - a dream. She failed. Denied admission to college, she took up various jobs - a factory worker, a waitress - before eventually becoming a kindergarten teacher.

But 16 years later, she found to her shock that she had, in fact, earned a place at the Shandong University of Technology - and enrolled there.

But it hadn't been her. Her score - and in fact, her entire identity - was stolen by a girl whose relatives had pulled strings to make this happen.

Her case is just one of 242 student identity thefts that took place in Shandong province between 2002 and 2009, according to recent media reports.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-53316895
 
I would encourage everyone to boycott Chinese goods until our governments catch up.
Nice in theory but difficult to completely implement. Most big selling sites (I'm looking at you, amazon!) are happy to make money from dishonest firms.
Try limiting your sellers search to "UK Only" and you'll get a suspiciously huge list of sellers who turn out to be mailing addresses in the UK but explain that their delivery times are in *ahem* weeks. Other sites are equally shifty in that they are registered at Company House in the UK but if you want a refund/return, you have to send it to the suppliers ... in China. You pay postage to China and then Amazon reimburses no questions asked.
The West has always accepted the CCP inhumanity as a small ... er ... price to pay for cheap goods. Now we are complaining? That's like a junkie moaning about having to buy a fix after becoming hooked on the freebie.
 
Nice in theory but difficult to completely implement. Most big selling sites (I'm looking at you, amazon!) are happy to make money from dishonest firms. Try limiting your sellers search to "UK Only" and you'll get a suspiciously huge list of sellers who turn out to be mailing addresses in the UK but explain that their delivery times are in *ahem* weeks. Other sites are equally shifty in that they are registered at Company House in the UK but if you want a refund/return, you have to send it to the suppliers ... in China. You pay postage to China and then Amazon reimburses no questions asked. The West has always accepted the CCP inhumanity as a small ... er ... price to pay for cheap goods. Now we are complaining? That's like a junkie moaning about having to buy a fix after becoming hooked on the freebie.
I take your point and agree but TBH I don't choose Amazon as my platform as my on-line shopping platform. I think Amazon has the potential to get too large a market share and become a monopoly. The fact that they sell too many Chinese goods is just another reason. Seems like a win-win to me.
 
Me too. I try to always find a direct source, but - honestly - Amazon is so big, it's a great (not ethical or moral) resource.
Like Tripadvisor: I use it to find what I want then approach the 'seller' directly. It often works out cheaper.
But some products are cheaper mass-produced. My firm wants to source our packaging from a UK/EU firm but the cost makes us hesitate. We know we can get what we want in the UK but it's more expensive than Chinese cost including postage. That's the hold China has on us.

Also, there's many suppliers who aren't, actually, the producers; they've become so used to being the middle-man that now the Chinese stranglehold on production is taking effect, several are having to admit that they are only enablers.
Over a decade ago I worked for a firm that sold sound and studio equipment. They stocked all major brands in the industry. The director (sole owner) decided he wanted to increase profit by "producing" his own brand of plugs. Blatant knock-offs of a type recognised as high quality product. It was cheaper to buy 'em from China - including shipping - than to source a legit European/US company.
Also, it must be said, that the guy was a sucker for a week-long 'business trip' to China with booze, food and prostitutes provided as a perk.
I'm wondering how his staff is going to fare if a showdown with China happens and he has to clarify where his "UK firm" products are made or supplies are pinched off.
He'll be okay. He's one of those smug bastards who'd lay off staff at a pinch and, in extremis go *ahem* bankrupt and live off his savings until he found a new investment.
 
I take your point and agree but TBH I don't choose Amazon as my platform as my on-line shopping platform. I think Amazon has the potential to get too large a market share and become a monopoly. The fact that they sell too many Chinese goods is just another reason. Seems like a win-win to me.
Yeah, I rely on them too heavily myself. I guess I should find an alternative supplier.
 
I don't buy that much from Amazon. Some stuff comes from elsewhere than China - a few weeks ago I bought some proper Wrangler jeans made from sturdy thick denim, no stretch fabric, regular fit, not super-skinny, from the US [though made in Nicaragua]. They were cheaper by quite a lot, including postage/import tax/VAT, than if I'd bought them somewhere in the UK. Fortunately they fit fine - it'd be a bugger to send back/get refund if not.

There used to be jeans shops all over the place here years ago but not anymore. I searched online & couldn't find anywhere in London which claimed to have a range of sizes otherwise I'd have bought some here.

I do feel sorry for their staff - the warehouses look like hellish places to work by some accounts, with picking targets they have to run to achieve. I've noticed they now have ads on tv in which employees tell how marvellous & what a joy it is to work for them. Not entirely convincing.
 
Yeah, I rely on them too heavily myself. I guess I should find an alternative supplier
Look, one of the things about monopolies and brands is that they get people to form habitual behaviors that become irrational emotional attachment, because having formed a habit, you then don't want to change, and feel affronted at the prospect of being even asked to.
I mean, is there anything more irrational than brand loyalty to a corporation ? To me it seems a bit like a slave that loves their master. Stockholm syndrome.
 
Look, one of the things about monopolies and brands is that they get people to form habitual behaviors that become irrational emotional attachment, because having formed a habit, you then don't want to change, and feel affronted at the prospect of being even asked to.
I mean, is there anything more irrational than brand loyalty to a corporation ? To me it seems a bit like a slave that loves their master. Stockholm syndrome.
Hmmm. I wouldn't say I had any brand loyalty to Amazon at all. I just happen to find their range of goods and delivery mechanism to be very good.
If they had serious competitors, I'd use them as well.
 
Hmmm. I wouldn't say I had any brand loyalty to Amazon at all. I just happen to find their range of goods and delivery mechanism to be very good. If they had serious competitors, I'd use them as well.
LOL, I wasn't really suggesting you did, I promise. I was really sounding off about the whole ugly notion of brand loyalty, so, sorry if it came across like an accusation. I was trying to be more general and polemic than the post may have seemed. Context is everything. My bad.
 
...evangelist & 'healer' Peter Popoff who's wife was recorded giving him direct information via VHF & an earpiece, & others.

Interesting documentary here:
 
Must be the weather bringing them out, or they've got nothing else to do on lockdown, four friend requests on Facebook from fake accounts - three of them supposedly US military - since Friday. And four Twitter followers from probably fake accounts (the Saudi prince is definitely fake).
 
Must be the weather bringing them out, or they've got nothing else to do on lockdown, four friend requests on Facebook from fake accounts - three of them supposedly US military - since Friday. And four Twitter followers from probably fake accounts (the Saudi prince is definitely fake).
I had the same weirdness on Facebook some years back. One friend request from a colonel in the US military, then a few weeks later, a friend request from a jihadi.
 
I had the same weirdness on Facebook some years back. One friend request from a colonel in the US military, then a few weeks later, a friend request from a jihadi.

You should have introduced them, they'd have lots to talk about.
 
In this 2019 essay a lymphoma survivor describes her incredulity at people who fake cancer to profit from fundraising. She also cites a blog that's dedicated to identifying and documenting such cases.
Why Would You Fake Having Cancer Online?

A lymphoma survivor investigates disease scamming — a growing trend of faking health tragedies to rake in donations.

BY JESSIE SCHIEWE

Most people didn’t know that I had cancer. ...

I was 11 years old and the last thing I wanted was to be seen as sick.

I felt gross for having a tumor in my neck and weird for having a prominent medical device the size of a water bottle cap embedded beneath my left collarbone.

I was especially keen on remaining hidden during my year-long treatment. ...

Now things have changed. With social media and cell phones, it’s harder to keep diseases a secret from others. It’s also easier than ever to fake them — and to make a profit doing so.

Pretending to have cancer isn’t something new, but it’s been made far more profitable thanks to the internet.

“Donation scammers” invite the whole town to bogus fundraisers through Facebook. They buy medical devices online, use them for selfies, and then post them on Instagram.

And, with crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe and Kickstarter, they can prey directly on people’s generosity and sympathy. Victims give away their hard-earned money with a mere click.

Fortunately, there are those like Adrienne Gonzalez who knows that the internet is an easy place to perpetuate lies. In 2015, she started GoFraudMe, a blog dedicated to sniffing out fake GoFundMe campaigns. GoFundMe is easily one of the most successful online fundraising companies; a new campaign is purportedly created on the site every 18 seconds. In its first six years, it raised $3 billion in donations from 25 million donors. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.okwhatever.org/topics/selfie/investigating-donation-scams

GoFraudMe Blog:http://gofraudme.com/
 
And another one:

In another instance, Amazon ordered a single bottle of designer perfume for $289.78. In response, according to the indictment, the defendants sent 927 plastic beard trimmers costing $289.79 each, using the ASIN for the perfume.

It all worked because Amazon is so huge that everything is automated.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2020/08/amazon_supplier.html
 
I gotta admit this West Virginia woman exhibited a lot of audacity. If you're gonna risk major jail time with a web of lies you may as well lie BIG ...
Prosecutors: Elkview woman altered $100 cashier's check to $8.4 million

A Kanawha County woman has been indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with an alleged elaborate fraud scheme.

Holly Urlahs, also known as Holly Anderson, 32, of Elkview, is charged with bank fraud, mail fraud, forging the signature of a judge and two counts of aggravated identity theft, according to U.S. Attorney Mike Stuart.

The indictment alleges that Urlahs falsely claimed to have sued Charleston Area Medical Center and was expecting a large financial settlement from her lawsuit. Stuart said she set out to defraud financial institutions and an insurance company.

According to the indictment, Urlahs altered a $100 cashier’s check to reflect an amount over $8.4 million. The indictment also alleges that she provided fake documents with forged signatures and a personal check for $1 million, although she knew she did not have sufficient funds in her account, to an insurance company to obtain an annuity contract. Urlahs’ check was returned for insufficient funds. ...

If convicted on all counts, she faces up to 55 years in prison. ...

FULL STORY (With Full Indictment Document):
https://wchstv.com/news/local/prosecutors-elkview-woman-altered-100-cashiers-check-to-84-million
 
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