A new variation on the "Windows tech support" phone call scam?

XweAponX · 16 Oct 2019

RoWin7 said:

Cashing a check requires ID, and makes sense. We were talking about ID needed to get a stupid supermarket "loyalty" card, which just impinges on your privacy. Say to yourself "Why does a store need my ID to sell me groceries?" It doesn't.

Panera's wants my phone number to sell me lunch. Why? so after I spend a few hundred $ on food, I'll get one free cookie, and they'll sell my number to marketers.

The more places you spread your ID around, the more spam calls and spam emails you'll get. I also have various anti-tracking programs on my computers, but that's a whole other topic.

As for news, get it from real news sites, NYTimes.com, CNN.com, BBC.co.uk, PBS.org. Pick one you like and check it daily. You don't need it filtered and slanted through someone' else's site.

I avoid faux and brietbart. thats not news. Apple news, they link direct to the source, it's just easier to read it all through the app.

I have a Von's Club card, which I have had sonce the early 90's, I have my bank attached to it so I can use "Smart Check" which affords me further discounts, I've never been abused through the Just 4 U app system. I use Just 4 U with Albertson's too, but there is no card, you use your phone number.

If this store of yours is asking for IDs, are they asking you to link your bank too? Thank might be why. But they don't need ANYthing more than your Driver's Licence to set up your account, they are not entitled to any "2nd forms of ID". Unless it is a credit card to set up purchases.

I've never been asked for any 2nd forms of ID for Albertsons of Von's or any other store I use that issues a member card. I don't use Panera's, I don't think they have stores here.
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XweAponX · 16 Oct 2019

Lady Fitzgerald said:

Actually, the loyalty card for the grocery store I frequent actually saves me quite a bit of money just at the register and most of the coupons I receive are actually for products I use. Pity the store has been going downhill in quality.

YES, my Von's Club card and my Albertson's Just 4 U apps both have saved me hundreds of bucks since I have started using them. I use Albertson's to buy stuff like Coffee and Creamer, cos they don't have creamer I like anywhere else. And sometimes they have their signature brand of cereal, I like Crunchy Raisin Bran, they will have it for 2 for 5 bucks.

But there is another way to save LOTS of money: I shop at the 99 cent only stores near me, and yesterday I used the Dollar Tree down the street for me, I got frozen foods that cost about 2 bucks per package for a buck apiece. I went to another bargain grocery chain and I got several entrees that usually cost 7 bucks each for 2.50 each. The trick is knowing which days to go, when they have had shipments, that's when you can find the best deals. They go fast.

I can deal with "spam" from my grocery stores, and I do use many of those "coupons". But when I buy stuff at Walmart, THAT's when I get the big spams for crap I'll never get. I had to use my Walmart card to buy a new TV recently, I used to have a Plasma TV that was using as much power as my AC, once I got a new 4K TV, my power usage dropped drastically, and I pay it off on the card little by little, and I pay off more when I can. With the Card, I got the TV for about a hundred bucks less than if I had bought it with cash in the store. I had no choice, cos I use my big TV as a monitor for four PCs including a Mac Pro. Since I have to have the TV on almost all day long, it has already caved me about 100 bucks off of my electric bill compared to last year's usage for the same months.

It's hard to avoid being marked for spam these days, with every purchase monitored.

has anyone here applied for the Experian settlement? I did and I had 2 attempts to hack into my bank account that were logged, I should get about 400 back from that settlement, but I made a mistake when I was making changes to my claim, and now I'm locked out of my claim area, I had to send a mail to the administrator, and it seems nobody is home there.

Lady Fitzgerald · 16 Oct 2019

I have a Fry's loyalty card. Fry's is an Arizona Kroger affiliate so I might be able to use it with Ralph's, another Kroger affiliate when I'm in CA (although Ralph's is pretty sad compared to Fry's, which has been declining).

I recently got a Safeway loyalty "card" (it uses my fake phone number instead of an actual card). I applied online so I didn't need to show ID to get the "card. I supposedly can use my Safeway "card" at Von's (a California Safeway affiliate that is much better than Safeway here in AZ).

RoWin7 · 17 Oct 2019

>"I applied online so I didn't need to show ID to get the card."

Hmmm... Maybe I can get my Shoprite card back. I have all the others for years, before they starting asking for ID.

RoWin7 · 17 Oct 2019

Anyone try Nomorobo?

Wandering one · 13 Nov 2019

This is a recent report on CBC TV regarding a really scary id theft. https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/p...tion-1.5352300 Hope the link is allowed as it is too much story for my typing skills.
Art.

RoWin7 · 14 Nov 2019

I'm not defending the hacker, but:
More and more people who rely on their smart-phone for everything, are going to be hacked. We're seeing just the tip of the iceberg. They're paying for purchases now with their phones...

The 2nd thing is that users don't realize what they put on the web is not private. Why the h--- were his naked photos on the web?

We're experiencing an epidemic of the lack of common sense.

I love ""We take protecting our customers' personal information very seriously." Every tech company has it memorized.

Lady Fitzgerald · 14 Nov 2019

Wandering one said:

This is a recent report on CBC TV regarding a really scary id theft. https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/p...tion-1.5352300 Hope the link is allowed as it is too much story for my typing skills.
Art.

RoWin7 said:

I'm not defending the hacker, but:
More and more people who rely on their smart-phone for everything, are going to be hacked. We're seeing just the tip of the iceberg. They're paying for purchases now with their phones...

The 2nd thing is that users don't realize what they put on the web is not private. Why the h--- were his naked photos on the web?

We're experiencing an epidemic of the lack of common sense.

I love ""We take protecting our customers' personal information very seriously." Every tech company has it memorized.

And people still wonder why I refuse to have a "smart" phone, do not like texting on my dumb as rocks cell phone, and keep the dumb as rocks cell phone shut off unless I'm actually going to use the dumb thing, which is rarely. I almost never give out that number, either, and rarely give out my home phone number (which, technically, is a cell phone but is set up and used like a land line).

I hate texting with a purple passion I've tried it and found it be too slow and a big pain in my ample asset (heck, I never was a able to learn to properly type on a real keyboard, despite taking typing in school, thanks to learning disabilities) so if someone wants to talk to me, they can talk to me.

Economics is part of the reason I don't have a smart phone (I'm a retiree on a so called fixed income and just can't justify the cost of a data plan) bu the biggest reason is they are too easily hacked. I've done fine for over seventy years without being connected by the lip so why the heck should I be now? I'm intelligent enough to entertain myself without the electronic umbilical cord nor do I want my life being interrupted by people thinking they are so important, I need to drop whatever it is I'm doing at the time to accommodate them.

Most of the time, I don't even answer my home phone anymore (and I check the caller ID first on the rare occasions I do answer the phone), especially if I'm doing something at the time, both because I don't like the interruption (I own the phone, not the other way around) and to discourage the miserable misbegotten phone scammers who both ignore the DNC and the fact my phones are cell phones that are not supposed to get robo calls. If a call is important, the caller will leave a message.

Heck, I no longer even use WiFi at home anymore. Ethernet is faster and is far more secure and reliable.

RoWin7 · 14 Nov 2019

Are you sure you're not describing me? A friend noodges me about getting a smart-phone, and thinks I'm a Luddite. I told her I've repaired and built computers, and it shut her up.

About our flip-phones being dumb: they're not too dumb to call for roadside assistance if your car breaks down.

Lady Fitzgerald · 14 Nov 2019

RoWin7 said:

Are you sure you're not describing me? A friend noodges me about getting a smart-phone, and thinks I'm a Luddite. I told her I've repaired and built computers, and it shut her up.

About our flip-phones being dumb: they're not too dumb to call for roadside assistance if your car breaks down.

You get it! I'm the same way. Like you, I can (and do) build and repair computers. I use an eBook reader instead of reading from dead tree books. I whole heartedly embrace new technology when it benefits me and is cost effective. I simply can't justify the cost of a data plan for a smart phone nor the cost of a phone that costs more than my notebook computers, is slower, has no reliable security, and has a teency weency screen for me to squint at (not to mention touch screens hate me!).