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The "Nice Happy" Thread


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  • 4 weeks later...

I was walking back to my office, when my work cell rang with a number that was way out of area for me. I answered with "Hello?", and was rewarded with "Debbie from Card Services"*. I pressed 1 to be connected to a "specialist", and proceeded to waste the first agent's time for a couple of minutes. 

 

Scam Agent #1 asked, "What kind of card is it?"

"Chase Visa, it starts with a '4'" (I had to stall a little, until I got logged into my computer and could google the first 4 numbers of a Chase Visa card--I certainly don't have one)

"Can you read off the first 4 numbers?"

"Hold on, let me get the card out of my wallet. Here it is, it's 4xxx.

"Can you tell me if the next digits yy?", he asks, leading me along.

"Sure."

"And the next two, are they 00?"

"Sure."

"And what are the last 8 numbers?"

"Oh, no! I can't give you those! The agent at the Card Fraud department said to never give out my full card number again to someone who called me!" which flummoxed him enough that he tried half-heartedly a few more times to pry the number out of me, and finally suggested that maybe I'd like to talk to his supervisor. "Yes, please."

 

A brief hold ensues, then the supervisor tries all of the strong-arm tactics to convince me that she's really from the bank. I "helpfully" offer the last four digits only, then the passphrase on the account, and then ask her to verify my name on the records that they always claim to have. At one point, my agitated complaints got her to try to talk over me (bad call center supervisor! No biscuit!), and then to argue with me that I needed to only give her the last 6 digits. So I gave her:

 

"86 7530"**

 

At which point, she tried to verify the two missing digits. "Oh, no!" I wailed, "We had a deal that you only needed the last six, and the agent at Chase's fraud department said to never give out my whole number!" She gave up on the two, asked for my zip code (I gave her one from a few thousand miles away), and offered to place me on hold while they spoofed my number and called Chase. I'd really love to know how that worked out for them, as I don't have a Chase account, and nothing is tied to my work cell number anyway. The only thing that I know is that after several minutes of crappy hold music, she came back on the line and tried to verify that my phone number was the one their autodialer had called. I confirmed, and noted that I had the Chase fraud department on the other line, and needed to put her on hold, which she adamantly refused. At some point, she gave up and put the third agent on the phone.

 

By some coincidence, my work extension rang loudly at this time, and seeing that it was a different type of spam***, I said to the new agent, "That's the Chase fraud department calling me back!" The ringing stopped, and I pretended to talk to the other line, making sure that the agent could hear. I cut back to the agent, and said, "The fraud department is telling me that you're scammers and don't work for the bank, and that I need to hang up!" The agent tried to recover his script, failed miserably, so then I started asking him for a toll-free number to call him back to verify that they weren't a fraud. He seemed extremely confused, and repeated "toll-free?" as if it was a totally alien concept. I tried to ask where their call center was, and he panicked and hung up.

 

Total elapsed time: 18 minutes.

Enjoyment: Priceless.

 

 

*Apparently, "Rachel" was promoted to another scam. I last heard her voice trying to help me with my student loans.

 

**Since I didn't have my own number, I used most of the digits to Jenny's number.

 

***We get cold calls for my boss on my work extension, even though he doesn't ever answer that line, even when he's at our office (which is about once a week).

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  • 2 weeks later...

Spent the day in reading. Caught a 7:50 train and got delayed outside Westbury for 17 mins. The sea was beautiful and I saw canoists and a couple of long boats outside Exeter. Saw the gang and played Dredd (which I lost handily and Edwin Parsey won but boy was this game vicious), Fluxx Monty Python, Fluxx Firefly, Battle Cattle and Apples to Apples. Kentucky Fried Chicken was dinner.

Got John Wick 2 and Atomic Blonde to see and book 8 of Alex Verus Bound by Benedict Jacka.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It took until now for the "card services" scammers to call back on the work cell. I took a different tack, and refused to give them anything but the first 4 (of a bank card I don't have), and the last 4 (5309*). They tried a different tack, and asked for the name as it appears on the card (I gave them a name--not mine, of course), the last four of my social (yeah, right), and the zip code (once again, not mine). They apparently had some difficulty, because they kept on checking to make sure that I was on the line. I was hanging out, munching the popcorn I'd grabbed from the employee dining room, and generally processing stuff on my computer. I got a supervisor, who said that he was on the line because he thought that I had "concerns and questions". I managed to string him along for 15 minutes before he hung up.

 

*I figure that at some point, I'm just going to give them Jenny's entire number. Let them work that one out.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/21/2018 at 12:31 PM, Cancer said:

Fresh-caught whole-fish wild coho salmon on sale for $6.99/lb, includes cut & wrap to order.  Grilled salmon steaks for dinner tonight, with a layered salad and top-quality sourdough bread.

Where?  (Place to acquire said fish, since we're in the same region of Wa)

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Went up to Launceston in Cornwall as my cousin was getting married. Her sister is already married and has kids and lives in Kent. Mother and I thought we might be the only members of our side of the family going due to the lack of notice but her sister, mother and stepfather turned up. We were told the library but it was in the Town Hall. And that was difficult to find with the traffic regulation.

But we got there and the ceremony was fine. Could not go to the reception but said hello and congratulations to Diane (my cousin) and Beckie, her new spouse.

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  • 4 weeks later...

For some reason I don't need to know, this week there's free drip coffee at the coffee counter in the Law School building if you bring your own mug.  :cheers:

 

And this morning it is overcast and drizzling here, which is diminishing the Smoke From Ten Thousand Wildfires which has been accumulating over this region for the last couple of weeks.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I put the trashcan outside for pickup tomorrow morning, and as I was going back into the house, I saw some movement toward some larger rocks and bricks used as landscaping by the edge of the lawn. I caught a good look at one of the western banded geckos that live outside my house as it ran for cover. I've had a couple of juveniles end up in the house before, but I always try to gently escort them outside, away from my cat. The juveniles are small, maybe an inch or two long, and appear somewhat translucent with brown bands. The one I saw tonight was an adult, maybe five inches long, and the bands were less pronounced, which is common as they age.

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The three Grand Tours of cycling were won by British riders this year. This feat has also been achieved by France and Spain as well with this difference, three different cyclists won for Britain. The French and Spanish had someone double up on the Giro and Tour de France and a countryman then won the Vuelta. Surprisingly it was not Team Sky who won all three but they did win the first two with Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas taking the Giro and Tour respectively. Simon Yates, whose twin Adam was riding with him, won for the Mitchelton Scott team.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have been working on the Candy Crush and its ilk games since January 1st this year recording my progress. I missed only one day due to visiting friends in Reading. But I have now achieved over 1000 levels across 4 games since the start of the year with at least one level a day. I have also completed a streak of over 250 days with at least one level a day. It keeps me happy. 

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