All articles filed in Hey, Scammers!

When it comes to paying the necessary bills in my life, I do so with the knowledge that if I owe money, it must be paid. If I want lights in my house, then I pay the light bill. If I want to call someone, then I pay the phone bill. And if I want…

I swear, these scammers and spambots and griefers are just flailing. Their goal is to try to get me to click on one of their scummy links, which in turn might infect my phone or my computer with malware or ransomware. Case in point. Last Wednesday – February 16 – I received a curious text…

My blog has a “Contact Chuck Miller” link, where I often receive messages from people about my blog, or who want to contact me personally. I get that. It’s all good. Unfortunately, the “Contact Chuck Miller” link also draws a considerable amount of spam and scammers and salebots. Example – some time ago, someone used…

The term “gaslight” comes from a 1944 motion picture, in which Charles Boyer uses psychological tricks to drive Ingrid Bergman insane. One of the tricks he uses is to slowly turn down the illuminated gas lights in a house, while telling Bergman that the lights are still at the same brightness, essentially trying to circumvent…

I have cell phone coverage through Verizon. It’s a love-hate relationship with Verizon, sometimes they treat me like I’m just a bill-paying schlub, and there are other times when they barely acknowledge even that. But yesterday, they sent me a gift through my cell phone. Well, “Verizon” sent me a gift. Let me show you…

Ah, it never ceases to amaze me. The scammers will call any day or night, hoping to get me hooked into purchasing some extended vehicle warranty that’s worthless, or they’ll try to sucker me into a vacation to the sunny shores of Utica. One of the tactics these scammers will employ is to have a…

It was less than a month ago when someone contacted me, claiming that I had poached some of their photos for my blog. Upon a little careful discovery, I found that this “person” was a scammer, who was trying to fool me into clicking on a link that would have installed horrible ransomware on my…

I’m telling you, scammers must either think I’m dumber than a bag of wet mice, or that someone in the quality control department at Scam Central must have been on a bathroom break when they sent out this latest blast. This came to me via a text message. Now, my BlackBerry KEYone is smart enough…

Cold-call scammers are in my Top 5 of people that I can do without. They are the usual ilk of “Your car warranty has expired,” or “We have an exciting travel offer for you,” or “Hydroxychloroquine can be the new Viagra, let me tell you about the possibilities.” So when I started receiving cold calls…