Buy a shredder AKA Scam minimizer

nobbie48

Well-known member
Site Supporter
Shred any piece of paper that has your name or any personal info on it. Yeah I'm paranoid.

We seem to be preoccupied with Nigerian scams but what if the punk down the street wants a bit of your money? He, or it could be a she, builds a file on you, picking up info whenever they can.

You toss out a drug store receipt.

A week later you get a call: "Hi Mrs. Smith. This is Janice at XYZ drugs. There is a problem with your prescription for Blotzo 7 so we need to up date your OHIP number."

Since the person calling is very familiar with your info you assume the call is legit and give your number. Janice seems so nice.

That info can be leveraged to get another number etc. A file is built until it is sufficient to access your credit cards or???

A I will make it worse.

You chuck a birthday card signed

To Uncle Morty
Blah blah blah
Love,
Your nephew,
Joey

If the neighbourhood scammer knows your nephew it wouldn't be hard to get a voice recording, use AI to copy it to "Hi Uncle Morty this is your nephew Joey. I'm in a jam and don't want my parents to know. I need $XXX or blah blah blah."

I know a lady that got hit in a granny call. Why do we assume every scammer is in Asia or Nigeria?
 
Shred any piece of paper that has your name or any personal info on it. Yeah I'm paranoid.

We seem to be preoccupied with Nigerian scams but what if the punk down the street wants a bit of your money? He, or it could be a she, builds a file on you, picking up info whenever they can.

You toss out a drug store receipt.

A week later you get a call: "Hi Mrs. Smith. This is Janice at XYZ drugs. There is a problem with your prescription for Blotzo 7 so we need to up date your OHIP number."

Since the person calling is very familiar with your info you assume the call is legit and give your number. Janice seems so nice.

That info can be leveraged to get another number etc. A file is built until it is sufficient to access your credit cards or???

A I will make it worse.

You chuck a birthday card signed

To Uncle Morty
Blah blah blah
Love,
Your nephew,
Joey

If the neighbourhood scammer knows your nephew it wouldn't be hard to get a voice recording, use AI to copy it to "Hi Uncle Morty this is your nephew Joey. I'm in a jam and don't want my parents to know. I need $XXX or blah blah blah."

I know a lady that got hit in a granny call. Why do we assume every scammer is in Asia or Nigeria?
Seems like a Senior gets clipped for thousands every week somewhere in Kawartha Lakes. Sad that it`s come to question everything and trust no one. Gaze into your plastic rectangle and watch Canada collapse in real time.
 
Frank Abignale recommends:
WIth AI, I won't be surprised if microcut is easy to beat. Take pictures of the confetti (and if you want to be fast and fancy, analyze video of it blowing around) and see what it can put back together.

If something is really important, burn to ashes and then wet the ashes. At that point there is nothing left to reconstruct. Without wetting the ashes, you can often read the text in the ashes.
 
It’s vulnerable seniors I feel the worst for . A lot of them sure can’t afford to loose a few hundred K .

My dad hasn't met an e-mail attachment he hasn't felt compelled to click on.

My regular visit to the parents includes fixing stuff around the house and regularly de-lousing his computer of viruses, malware, keyboard loggers, etc.

On his most vulnerable accounts, I enabled 2FA and use my own phone number as the second factor for verification. About twice a month, I get an alert for authentication, meaning the password attempt was successful, but the login IP looks suspicious. Every time this happens, I call him up and ask:

"Are you trying to login to your account?"
"No, why?"
"Never mind, don't worry about it."

:rolleyes: 🤷‍♂️

My parents would be penniless several times over by now.

I shudder to think what scams *I'll* be vulnerable to when I'm their age.
 
Shred any piece of paper that has your name or any personal info on it. Yeah I'm paranoid.

We seem to be preoccupied with Nigerian scams but what if the punk down the street wants a bit of your money? He, or it could be a she, builds a file on you, picking up info whenever they can.

I know everyone on my street.
 
I have a fire pit in my back yard for this very reason

Mine is a half buried truck rim.

But I have a 100' deep ravine across the street with a vibrant carnivore population and neighbours that would help with anything heavy for a case/bottle of whatver.
 
Mine is a half buried truck rim.

But I have a 100' deep ravine across the street with a vibrant carnivore population and neighbours that would help with anything heavy for a case/bottle of whatver.
Great minds think alike. I took two truck rims and stacked them and tack welded them then cut vent holes in them. I dug a deep hole and lined the bottom with gravel until the top of the rim was just above the height of my decorative curved pavers. I did not backfill around the rims for airflow. I can have a decent fire and the flames barely touch the top of the stone ring, and it gets air through the sides and into the vent holes. Perfect pit for inner city burns. All my neighbors know to call me for any fallen limbs or branches and I pick up and burn for them.
 
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