here’s a thing that i don’t think american kids are told often enough:
STAY AWAY FROM FOR-PROFIT COLLEGES.
ITT tech, virginia colleges, bryant and stratton, the art institutes, university of phoenix, everest, devry, etc – do NOT attend these places. do not give them your money – and it will be a lot of money. They are all, to a one, scams.
For-profit colleges prey on minority, low-income, military, nontraditional, and chronically underemployed students by promising them a quick path to a career. They are lying. They often do not allow the transfer of credits to and from, and many are either unaccredited or accredited by suspect accreditors. They rely on their students to take out massive federal student loan debt. They line their pockets with money from the government and then burden their graduates with tens of thousands of dollars of debt for inadequate education and degrees that aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.
If you’re a non-traditional student looking for a degree, don’t go to a for-profit. Find a community college in your area instead. most ccs have more flexible class times for especially vocational/technical certifications and quite a few offer online-only or hybrid degrees. Hell, if you’re a non-trad student and you have a GED and some spare cash, try studying for a few months and then taking the SATs/ACT and trying for a four-year straight out (that’s what I did). Or get an AA and then do a four-year. Or look for a technical/adult education program sponsored by a local community college or school district. Just please, please, please, don’t go to a for-profit college. They will ruin your credit rating, your finances, and your job prospects.
basically if you see a commercial for a college on TV, don’t go to it, their degrees are basically worthless and a lot of employers actually think less of someone who has a degree from this type of school than they do someone who doesn’t even have one
It’s cheaper to actually go to a community college and then an accredited state college to get a degree, and right now everyone is offering online coursework like the for-profit model.
I worked for a student loan servicer for years. I once talked to a woman who was 20,000 in debt. She was getting an online-only degree to be a *massage therapist* from a for profit school. No one would hire her, because she had never given a massage.
Another woman I spoke to was trying to get a two year administrative assistant degree. She been going to school for five years, she was 60,000 in debt, she did not have a degree.
Trump supporter Hayes Kotseos runs a North Carolina pool-maintenance company, but she’s got a side bet that she thinks might make her fabulously wealthy: the Iraqi dinar.
The currency is nearly worthless outside of Iraq, but Kotseos bought millions of dinars in April, after watching a video of President Trump at a 2017 press conference. In the clip, Trump says, with characteristic vagueness, that all currencies will soon “be on a level playing field.”
In reality, Trump was talking about trade imbalances with China. But like other Trump supporters who have fallen into the dinar investment scam, which has existed since at least 2012, Kotseos interpreted Trump’s rambling statement as proof that the Iraqi dinar would soon be worth as much or even more than the dollar, making anyone who had been smart enough to buy in early a millionaire.
“I love my president, and I was like, ‘Oh my God,’” Kotseos told The Daily Beast.
The purchase, Kotseos said, cost her and her husband somewhere between $5,000 and $10,000, counting the cut to the company that sold them the dinars. Two of her adult children have bought millions more dinars, too.
hey friends!! if you get a message similar to this one—about someone talking shit on a blog called exposingthelosers.tumblr—IGNORE IT!!!
it’s spam
the link takes you to a pretty convincing tumblr login page……but it’s fake. the url isn’t tumblr’s main but rather that blog. so don’t put in your information, just block and/or ignore
I just received a message exactly like this. Word by word but from a different user. Glad I didn’t clicked on the link. I always get cautious about these stuff since it could be a vírus u.u
i got one of these from someone yesterday and then immediately a follow-up warning that it was spam and that they didn’t send it, so apparently the blogs these come from can be real people who are not doing it on purpose
I was recently the victim of a scam in which the phone number of separate government bodies contacted me to corroborate against myself. I hesitated to write on this because of how embarrassing the situation makes me look but I am also doing this to bring awareness to a new scam tactic involving criminals who already have your information.
Incident: On 10/23/18 I received a phone call from the social security administration office phone number. They continued to read out my social security number, my current address, as well as my current bank. I had not given them this information and I verified the phone number before I answered the phone. I was scared due to the accuracy of the statements and unfortunately, fell for their trap. The scammer was letting me know there was an arrest warrant for money laundering and drug trafficking in a different state. I froze up and attempted to explain that I had never been to that state. I was also threatened with legal recourse and was contacted by the phone number that corresponded to my local Sheriff’s department. Who then instructed me on “safe guarding my assets” I withdrew the money from my bank, as I was instructed and was told to take the money to a specific location to obtain a digital wallet and that agents would visit me the following day would scan my digital wallet to allow me to use my own funds. Unfortunately, I co-operated and believed their false story. I inserted my money into a specific ATM machine after the fraudsters gave the directions and the digital wallet supposedly assigned to me and of course, the following day no one showed and the charges against me were completely false. I spent the day verifying my public records and filing the police report to confirm. My Bank had notified me today that since I was the one who withdrew the money, they have no legal obligation to refund my money, despite filing this claim the following day and with local authorities.
I am usually not one to believe these allegations at a glance but because they were using my local and immediate information I was suckered into the scheme. I appreciate any donations to help with my bills or exposure to this scam so it does not happen to anyone else. Thank you for reading this
Ya boi just took some asshole for a ride. Some schmuck called me from a (spoofed) DC number with some cockamamie story about how he’s with the Federal Government and they’ve randomly selected me to receive a $7000 grant, oh and I’ll have to go pick it up at any of several chain grocery stores. Keeps using these “check-in” phrases that are meant to prompt you to say yes.
But see, joke’s on him: I’ve heard of this scam, and I don’t talk like most people. When I answer the phone and someone asks for me by name, I say “Speaking,” not “Yes.” So every single time this assclown tried to get me to say “Yes” I’d say something like “Understood” or “Go on.”
You see, the scam is, they trick you into saying “Yes,” and bonus if they can get you to repeat numbers (esp. 0-9) and/or “I agree.” What these low-lives do is record your voice and then use the sound bytes to make fraudulent charges in your name.
So fuck this guy right off the bat.
The more I dicked him around, the more frequently he started trying to goad me into saying the y-word. The funniest part came when he was going to “give me a confirmation number.”
Him: The confirmation is seven, one, three…
And he just STOPS. The “three” was pitched up to indicate there’d be more. I wait. He waits. I say, “Go on.”
And this bitch goes, “Yes, the confirmation number is seven, one, three…”
And he STOPS AGAIN. I wait. He waits. I say, “Go on,” again.
And he STARTS! OVER! AGAIN! He did this TWO MORE TIMES before giving me the “full confirmation number” and a “number to call,” which together JUST HAPPEN to include all ten digits, 0 through 9.
This entire time I haven’t said a single word that could be construed as agreement. So he asks me to repeat the numbers back to him. I decide I’ve had enough at that point. I tell him to get a better job, hang up, and block the number.
Another “DC” number immediately calls me. I reject & block it.
And then I filed a report with the Federal Trade Commission. :3
BE WARY. Get yourself on the National Do Not Call Registry. If a number you don’t recognize calls you, DON’T REPLY “YES” OR ANY OTHER GENERIC AFFIRMATIVE TO ANYTHING THEY SAY OR ASK.
The original scam is a robocall that starts off with “Can you hear me?” The most correct response is to hang up and report it to the FTC. The second best is “I can hear you,” if you’re not sure or if you forget. But get into the habit of using responses other than “Yes” on the phone. These fuckers are everywhere.
It gets worse, OP. Your voice can be spliced to sound like you agreed to something. You may have given them enough to do that with. Like those Microsoft Windows people that call and want your ‘important numbers off your computer’ I talked to them for far too long and only found out after the fact that they could make fraudulent charges just by splicing some of your words together. They were after something different, but it amounts to the same thing in the end. Also there’s the common ‘press 1′ people as well. It’s best to just hang up. The Attorney General says to get an answering machine and they can’t really do anything about them because they’re constantly spoofing numbers. Neither can the phone company, and they Charge You Money for reporting them!
Oof. Reblogging for additional warnings. I’ve already made my report to the FTC, so I’ll just be keeping a close eye on my finances for a while. (Like I’m not already given my situation.)
I’m trying not to be annoyed by this
but I’m annoyed
I understand that this is tunglr dot hell and people love to make up wild shit but llllllook boys girls and others this literally happened to me, personally, exactly as I described it. Here’s the screenshot of the two “DC” numbers that called me—the one I answered at 12:35, dicked around, and hung up on, and the one that called me immediately after which I rejected.
On reflection I do partway suspect that it might have just been the fake grant scam, but I still gotta say, super fucking fishy that he kept trying so very hard to get me to say yes and repeat numbers.
PLEASE DO NOT TRADE WITH ANYONE WHO CLAIMS THAT THEY ARE STEAM STAFF AND THAT THEY WANT TO CHECK YOUR ITEMS FOR DUPLICATES VIA TRADING AND THAT THEY WILL BAN OR DELETE YOUR ACCOUNT YOU IF YOU DO NOT COOPERATE.
At this point I’ve googled and done My Research on this and according to Steam Rep: https://forums.steamrep.com/pages/about-item-checking-scam/ The threat is a scam. Brilliant threat. It scares you into thinking that you’ll lose everything. Fear is a powerful tool to get people to do what you want them to do-like giving them your items such as my aussies and unusuals my friends gifted to me for my birthday…. Thankfully I was clever enough to not trade my items to them so, the user, Pybro The Pyro started “Banning my account” while playing a non-steam game called ‘Banning “User ID” –%’
He failed to complete his banning process and he got fed up and blocked me. C:
I AM ASKING FOR YOU TO SPREAD THIS INFORMATION BECAUSE USERS LIKE THESE ARE SCAMMING YOU OF YOUR ITEMS. I DIDN’T FALL VICTIM, BUT I DON’T WANT YOU TO END UP IN THE SAME PLACE TOO. SO IF SOMEONE TELLS YOU THEIR STEAM STAFF AND THEY WANT TO TRADE TO CHECK YOUR ITEMS. SAY. NO. TELL THEM YOU DON’T WANT TO PROVE INNOCENCE AND LET THEM THREATEN YOU. BLOCK THEM. REPORT THEM.
DON’T FALL FOR THEIR THREATS.
DO NOT TRADE. THIS IS NOT HOW STEAM STAFF WORK.
Thank you and please be safe and sleep with full inventories my fellow players.
Take note of the language used by the “Steam Staff-member”. Poor grammar and spelling all around, which is generally not how professional community managers/moderators present themselves. Remember that these folks are representatives of a corporation, and will always act accordingly.
Add to this the use of terms like “ban”, which is almost unheard of in today’s formal vernacular, instead of something like “account suspension”, which is far more commonly used now-a-days (though I will admit, this is not always the case).
Additionally, if action does need to be taken against your account, for any reason, online community staff certainly doesn’t need you to volunteer anything to them for the purposes of verifying authenticity. I guarantee you, they have 100% access to check anything and everything they could possibly need. If they don’t have access to check something on their own, then it’s not their job to be checking it.
Please note, everything stated above is more or less true for ALL ONLINE COMMUNITIES.
Finally, and I could only get basic verification for this, Valve Employees will almost never contact you through the Steam app, opting for email instead, and also display a badge on their profiles.
Thank you for the clarification and more information!
Tell them to email you on the account you have your steam registered to
It’s not visible on your profile and only a valve employee would have access to it
I remember a long time ago there was this guy on an infomercial that claimed he had the cures to many illnesses. He claimed that these were surefire treatments that the “FDA doesn’t want you to know about.” They were all contained within his $30 book. He said he didn’t care if the FDA came after him, he was brave enough to share this knowledge. And in one part of the infomercial he claimed that he had a cure specifically for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
I was so desperate back in those days. I heard him say Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and it was like my brain just reset and I was born yesterday. My brain was all, “I think this guy can cure you!” And I was all, “Okay brain! Sounds good to me!”
I barely had any money, but I sent this huckster $30 for the book. It took a very long time to get here. I guess he had to ship it through multiple secret routes to keep the FDA from intercepting it.
I opened the book and hurriedly skimmed through it. Frantically looking for my cure. I was already imagining myself taking fantastic trips to see my friends. I was thinking about what jokes I might tell at the comedy club. Maybe I’d finally go to Tokyo like I always dreamed of.
As I read the book, I noticed there weren’t a lot of cures. The only thing I saw so far was that you can drink a spoonful of vinegar for a tummy ache. Most of the book was talking vaguely about the cures the FDA is keeping from the public. But it wasn’t listing the actual cures. The rest of the book detailed this man’s perilous struggle against “the man.” Talking about his heroic quest to bring this information to the masses. He basically used made up conspiracy theories as filler to make the book long enough to seem substantial.
I finally found the mention of CFS. It was about a paragraph long. All it said was that he knew the cure. But the cure was not in the book. It was missing! I kept going and got to the end of the book. The book basically said they can’t actually put the cures inside, because it was against the law to publish them. He Mario’d me. Your life changing cure is in another castle.
But fear not!
There was a URL to a “secret” website.
Once you get to the website (which wasn’t much of a secret, you could totally google it if you knew what it was), it had a database of all the “cures.” Just sign up and pay the subscription fee to log in and search for what ails you.
I’m not sure what was wrong with my brain at this point. Normally I’d be able to recognize this scam the second I turned on my TV and saw this slithering fraud with his whitened teeth and fake smile. But I was at such a low point back then. I just wanted to be better. I just wanted to see my friends again.
So I signed up for the website and gave this bastard more of my money that I didn’t really have. Credit cards are free money, right?
The website was a mess. I’m pretty sure it was designed by monkeys. Drunk monkeys. Alcohol-impaired monkeys that used Geocities as a web design influence.
But it was now the moment of truth. I was one search away from my cure. I typed in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and an article popped up. However, the cure was not a cure anymore. It was a “remedy.” And the remedy was to help lessen some of the symptoms of CFS.
It told me to take a bath.
Not just any bath though!
It listed a few things to add to the water. Mainly lavender oil.
I guess the FDA didn’t want me to know about lavender oil, which can be purchased over the counter for $7.
My heart sunk. I finally realized what I should have realized $70 ago.
It was a scam. And I fell for it. I fell for it super hard.
And I just cried. I cried a lot.
In a way, it was a bit of a wake-up call. I realized that I needed to stop hoping for a miracle cure. I decided that I had to adapt and figure out a life I could live under my current circumstances. I had to come up with new hopes and dreams that were more realistic with my health constraints. My life will always be a struggle. And that is okay. As long as I find ways to actually live my life, to be with my friends and loved ones, and be productive in some way, I can continue forward.
I don’t know if $70 was worth that particular epiphany… but it needed to happen.
As for the infomercial huckster…
If you hadn’t guessed already, it was Kevin Trudeau.
And if you’d like a nice happy ending to this tale of woe, I think I’ll let Wikipedia take care of that for me.
The need for that help will be enormous: FEMA Administrator Brock Long has saidmore than 195,000 people already have registered for disaster assistance.
Many reputable organizations already are delivering food and care to those in need. But experts on charitable giving say donors need to be wary: con artists are also after your money. Scam charities raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in the aftermath of 2012’s Hurricane Sandy, and they are likely to try it again now.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 