by Jack
I was reading about this local lady who almost wired money to a con-man in Spain. The scam is directed at people old enough to be grandparents, and involves a person calling them to claim they have a relative in legal trouble and they need bail money or fine money sent immediately. Sometimes the claim is they were robbed and have no money to get home. Whatever the excuse its always to wire money to a foreign country.
You would think, who could be that stupid? Hey, it happens all the time. The elderly are a prime target because they frequently have impaired mental faculties, but they don’t always have to be elderly…I’ve seen some people in their 40’s – 50’s get scammed like this.
Here are a few openings that cons use and I want you to be aware of them. However, we don’t want to educate any potential con-men on the whole scam, so this is just how it starts out, okay, here goes: Meet and greet: “My wife is sick and I have a gold bar to sell to get money for medicine, but I don’t know how to do it or what its worth, can you help me?” Sounds laughable now, but a Chico women fell for this one.
More popular is the old pigeon drop scam, “I found this bag and it looks like their is money inside, I don’t know what to do…” Then there is the stranger meeting you on the sidewalk, “Hi, my gosh its been a long time, how are you!” Eventually the conversation gets around to this…”So how old are you now anyway? No way…you can’t be, you look way too young, come on….let me see your drivers license and the wallet comes out….”
The door to door scam: “We were in the area selling some steaks and we had a few left over we can let you have for about half the price at the grocery store….it’s all Angus, low fat and really good.” The price is really right too! Only its really horse meat. More door to door: “Hi, we were sealing your neighbors driveway and we had some extra sealant left over we can make you a deal on sealing your driveway (could by your mobile home roof).” More door to door scams – “Hello I’m / we’re from the (insert name) charity and we’re collecting donations for the…. (they can’t solicit without a license from the City, call the police if there is any doubt).
Telephone and email scams: “Hi this is Mr. Jones from the (insert name) bank and we think a teller has been stealing from your account and we need your help to catch her. Please meet me outside the bank and I’ll tell you how much money to withdraw…” “Hello Mrs. X, I’m pleased to tell you, you have won the Canadian lottery, we just need you to send us $XXX dollars to process the international money transfer..” or its some other excuse why you need to send them some money first before collecting your millions. And forget any offers or winnings from emails…there are no rebates, no money for emailing, no bank inquiries asking for your ID, no free stuff, no instant prize winner…just FORGET IT. And no, nobody in Africa needs you to cash a check and keep 90% of the money… they are all scams!!! Now as sure as I am writing, someone out here is going to get scammed by one of these, just don’t let it be you.
If it seems to good to be true it probably is. If you think it is a scam alert the police.
Yeah, Jack don’t get scammed by some con man in Spain.
After all, your city council hates competition and is doing a fine job of scamming you.
They are going to raise your sewer tax again and then of course they want a sales tax increase and a phone tax increase and then a local tax on alcohol sellers. And while they are at it they are going to outlaw plastic bags.
Then there’s a host of tax increases coming at the state level.
Your politicians put some con man in Spain to shame. It’s amazing what the force of government can do.
The City of Chico? Nay brother… it is not the City of Chico, it’s 5 liberals on the city council. Prior to that it was 6 liberals on the council and they racked up millions in wasted tax dollars thanks to their incompetent administration.
There are now 4 open seats on the council and for the first time in over a decade adults have a chance of regaining control over our financial future. We have 5 good conservatives who are running. I wish we could get all five in, but even if we got 3 we can turn this all around.
The tax hikes the city council is proposing would not be necessary if we did not have to shell out $9 million in a lawsuit they caused, or the millions more on frivolous projects. I think the cell phone tax hike is illegal…this is controlled by the FCC and I don’t think the city has any jurisdiction here. As for Lando and Stevens tax proposal it will be fought by every conservative organization in the area. The CRC, Tea Party, CRA, BCRP and CTA. They will have a huge fight on their hands.
The locals are fed up with the tax and spend crowd.
Can’t wait to learn who the five candidates are.
Sorry for missing the CRC meeting last night. Just too sick. Heard it was good!!
Jack, I imagine the Republican group here has already reached out to the small/mid-sized businesses in Chico to fight the sales tax increase (and other tax increases and other nonsense this council is trying to cram down our throats), but have you also reached out to the larger retailers (Walmart, Winco, Raleys, Target, Kmart, etc.)?
This sales tax increase and plastic bag nonsense will certainly impact them. The sales tax increase will encourage people to shop elsewhere particularly for big ticket items.
Considering how much this council hates business I would think the larger retailers would be interested in preventing the council from doing more damage and also would want to support some decent, common sense people running for a seat.
Also, the larger retailers may have some resources to offer that could match the support the big public unions are providing the other side.
Just thought these are some ideas you might want to consider.
Joseph, to my knowledge nobody has been talking with the big stores, but it sounds like a good idea for the future…if the liberals keep pushing it. One of the problems is the language for the tax proposals has not even been drafted yet. It may never be drafted if polling shows that too many people oppose it.
No offense Jack, but I don’t think the purpose of the polling is to get an accurate guage of how people feel about a sales tax increase.
As best I can tell the polling has two purposes: to figure out what to promise the voters (promises that will not be kept) and how to word the tax increase measure that gives it the best chance of passing.
If you look at the survey you can see it is misleading and contains outright lies. It’s designed to get Lando the answers he wants.
Anyway, the polling is not even required and in my opinion is irrelevant in determining if the measure gets put on the ballot. The council can put the measure on the ballot if they want even without polling. It only takes a majority of the council to put this on the ballot and the libs have the votes to do it.
I know they have not said anything official one way or another, but in my opinion it’s pretty clear the libs want it on the ballot and they want it to pass.
Joseph, I was being generous. You’re right, the polling itself is misleading. We caught them deceiving people by suggesting it is endorsed by conservative leaders when it is not. Thanks for allowing me to address this important point.
Jack, it looks to me that the council will not make a decision to put it on the ballot until the latest possible moment.
Lando wants it in the June election and we are already well into March. (He does not want this tax increase competing with the state tax increases in November.) He and the liberal council members are stalling until the very last second.
They don’t want this on the general public’s radar screen and are trying to give the impression that nothing may come of this tax increase proposal.
If people have that impression they will be less likely to go through with preparation to oppose the measure or they will wait until it is too late.
I expect the libs will wait as long as possible to decide to put it on the ballot. (Actually, they have already decided but will wait as long as possible and then vote on it at the last moment.)
Then they will have a publicity blitz a week or so before the election which they probably already have prepared hoping to catch the opposition flat footed.
But hopefully people can see through this and will take decisive action in time and not wait for survey results or for the council to vote.
By then it will be too late.