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Post by Mini Mia on Oct 10, 2016 20:49:53 GMT -6
Yeah. A backup is a good idea.
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Post by stepper on Oct 11, 2016 19:13:16 GMT -6
You know the rule, backup often. If Phalon's friend had backed up her system, she might have the opportunity to recover some of her pictures and documents. One of my BILs has a system that is dedicated to being a back up for his files and has it's own drive. It backs up any changed files every 24 hours.
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Post by Mini Mia on Oct 11, 2016 20:15:30 GMT -6
I need one of those. I'm not good at staying on top of it all on my own.
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Post by stepper on Oct 11, 2016 21:08:24 GMT -6
I don't think it cost him all that much, but sometimes that's a relative statement. Maybe you could find a decent used backup system on Ebay. Ebid, or Letgo.
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Post by Spock on Oct 18, 2016 12:52:16 GMT -6
I don't think it cost him all that much, but sometimes that's a relative statement. Maybe you could find a decent used backup system on Ebay. Ebid, or Letgo. I use old harddrives and harddrive docks. The Norton System Works I have installed has its own automated backup system. all I need do is tell it where. I use the UNIDOCK2U for my IDE and SATA drives. I use the Connectland because it has two ports that will take a 4 GB drive each.
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Post by stepper on Oct 18, 2016 19:23:36 GMT -6
I don't make that many changes. All I need to do is get a couple thumb drives and have at it.
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Post by Spock on Oct 19, 2016 8:58:35 GMT -6
I don't make that many changes. All I need to do is get a couple thumb drives and have at it. I have 3 128 GB thumb drives as well as several 32 GB drives. I still find the dock to be more convenient.
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Post by stepper on Oct 19, 2016 19:05:20 GMT -6
On this system, one of the 128s would be enough.
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Post by Spock on Oct 20, 2016 10:47:48 GMT -6
Not if you rotate backups like you should.
What happens if your latest backup is corrupted?
How often do you test to see if you can restore something?
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Post by stepper on Oct 20, 2016 20:28:13 GMT -6
Use the large thumb drive for the full system, and CD/DVD-RWs for differential backups.
Restores: To borrow the term, the d!ckweed who partitioned the PC (I bought it used) left me with an unevenly split hard drive. I back up from C, and then restore to D drive. Yes, I could do a simple disk copy, and for the most part I do that, but I also do the occasional restore to prove both the back up medium and the process.
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Post by Mini Mia on Nov 5, 2016 1:07:06 GMT -6
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Post by Spock on Nov 13, 2016 16:10:17 GMT -6
Use the large thumb drive for the full system, and CD/DVD-RWs for differential backups. Restores: To borrow the term, the d!ckweed who partitioned the PC (I bought it used) left me with an unevenly split hard drive. I back up from C, and then restore to D drive. Yes, I could do a simple disk copy, and for the most part I do that, but I also do the occasional restore to prove both the back up medium and the process. Partition Magic will allow you to dynamically change your disks partition as well as allowing you to combine partitions.
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Post by stepper on Nov 14, 2016 20:00:16 GMT -6
Thanks Spock - I'll look into that one.
From KSAT-12 (ABC TV) - yet another scam...
"SAN ANTONIO - When Joe Sauceda opened up an envelope he received in the mail, he saw a check bearing his name worth nearly $4,000.
“My daughter asked, 'What did you do to get that?!' and I said, ‘I don't know,’” Sauceda said. “But man, three grand would go good right now.”
More Crime Fighters Headlines Cloned Facebook accounts can scam thousands from unsuspecting people Scammers push payment by iTunes gift card Sauceda called KSAT 12 and brought the letter and check to the KSAT studios where we showed it to FBI special agent Michelle Lee.
“This is essentially the cashier's check or fabricated check scam which is kind of mixed in with the secret shopper scam,” Lee said. “I am sometimes impressed by the creativity that these criminals and criminal organizations are using.”
The envelope contained a letter informing Sauceda that he had been selected to lead a secret store evaluation. He was to cash the check and purchase $3,000 in gift cards, then call the number on the letter and give them the card numbers before mailing the cards and an evaluation sheet back to an undisclosed address.
The extra amount of $700 was to serve as payment to Sauceda.
“Anytime you get a check for a large amount, unsolicited from someone, the red flag should go up, and you should suspect it's not an authentic check,” Lee said.
“If I have to do all that other stuff and would have cashed it in my bank, I would have been overdrawn that much and would have had all kinds of penalties,” said Sauceda, who immediately felt the letter was too good to be true."
They just sent him a check - didn't talk to him first - and it's going on Christmas. That's quite a combination.
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Post by Phalon on Jan 31, 2017 12:56:46 GMT -6
You guys have heard about the latest scam, (or variation of older scams) yes? (Just say no and hang up!) The one in which someone calls and asks "Can you hear me?", and if you say yes, they have a voice imprint (or something like that) of you authorizing them access to personal or billing information. www.cbsnews.com/news/beware-new-can-you-hear-me-scam/
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Post by Mini Mia on Jan 31, 2017 18:50:53 GMT -6
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Post by Spock on Feb 1, 2017 8:03:57 GMT -6
You guys have heard about the latest scam, (or variation of older scams) yes? (Just say no and hang up!) The one in which someone calls and asks "Can you hear me?", and if you say yes, they have a voice imprint (or something like that) of you authorizing them access to personal or billing information. www.cbsnews.com/news/beware-new-can-you-hear-me-scam/I would just respond, "NO, I can't hear you." and hang up.
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Post by Phalon on Feb 2, 2017 10:03:50 GMT -6
Weird, huh? The Better Business Bureau says it began receiving complaints late last year, and in the last couple of weeks the number of calls has increased rapidly. They issued an alert on their "Scam Tracker", but no money loss has been reported.
So the calls are being made, but for what purpose? Kind of like the creepy-ass clown sightings that sprang up everywhere this past fall - nothing ever became of them, and then they just stopped. Oh! The clowns, having nothing better to do during their off-season, got bored and took to the phones.
That would be the wise and logical approach, just in case it is actually a scam.
I dunno though; it might be interesting to string them along for a bit, just to see how persistent they will be.
"Hello?"
"Can you hear me?"
"No. You're mumbling; speak more clearly."
"Can you hear me now?"
"No. Now you sound muffled, kind of far away. Speak more directly into the phone."
"How about now? Can you hear me?"
"What? The snowplows just went by, and I couldn't hear what you were saying."
"CAN YOU HEAR ME?"
"Sprechen sie Deutsch? Habla espanol?"
"I. SAID. CAN. YOU. HEAR. ME??"
"I'm sorry. We have a really bad connection. Call me back on my other line."
Then give the number on your caller ID.
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Post by Mini Mia on Feb 2, 2017 18:24:40 GMT -6
I can't answer calls on my cell phone at home. It's mostly "no service," and sometimes one dot. I have seen two dots on my front porch. I can get three dots in Mom's bathtub though. Anyhoo, usually as soon as I pick up the phone to answer I lose the one dot and that ends the connection.
When I know the number, I will leave the phone where it is and put it on speaker and talk to the person with no problem. It's only if I move it that the connection is broken.
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Post by Phalon on Feb 4, 2017 9:26:19 GMT -6
It's a similar thing with my phone at work for a couple of reasons; the nursery is in a much more rural area than home. One is my carrier - I have Virgin Mobile, which uses either Sprint's or Verizon's towers (I can't remember which one). I read once that the way the cell companies provide coverage is their contracted customers get the best service, their pay as you go customers are second, and customers who use other companies that tie into their towers come last. The second reason is the store - it's a metal building. I can send and receive texts without problem, but calls seem to automatically go to voice mail, and pictures (a lot of customers will send photos when I'm diagnosing a disease or insect plant problem) won't download. Calls and downloads however, work fine when I walk outside the building even a few feet!
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Post by Mini Mia on Feb 4, 2017 16:30:29 GMT -6
My old phone worked everywhere. It was a Straight Talk LG TracFone, which used Verison. I only upgraded to a new phone because it didn't have enough space to add a lot of contacts and notes and such ... and it wouldn't let me uninstall all the Google Apps I wasn't using. I'm grateful I didn't switch to an iPhone until after Mom died. I needed it for all her doctor calls. (I should have gotten one of their more expensive ones, but I was ticked off that I had to buy a new phone after a few years of use.)
I bought the iPhone on WalMart.com, (because everyone in my Sister's family had one) ... and it's a Straight Talk phone too, but I guess it's not a Verison phone. Probably an ATT phone. In a few years I might go back to the brand my last one was, but I won't get the small cheap one, I'll get the more expensive one in order to have tons of space for contacts and things I really need.
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Post by Phalon on Nov 21, 2018 9:28:51 GMT -6
Urgh. I almost fell for a scam yesterday evening. In a way I did fall for it, because I let them get farther than I should have.
Two young men came to the door, professionally dressed in uniforms with name tags and badge numbers, saying they were from the gas company; the company had received a lot of complaints in the area about wrong meter readings, resulting in customers being charged too much.
"If you're salesman, I don't want to switch gas companies. Please leave."
No, No, No - they just wanted to ensure we were being charged at the correct rate per Ccf (whatever that is), because of the many billing complaints in the area they were receiving.
"The company name on your uniform is not our gas company."
They explained that they were from the gas supplier that provides gas to the utility company that bills us, and gave me a pamphlet explaining as such.
"It's very strange that you're doing this in the evening."
They were from Grand Rapids, had been out in the cold all day going door-to-door, and we were in the block of the last ten houses. They decided they'd work past business hours, so they wouldn't have to drive all the way back here the following day.
All they were here to do, they explained, was check the last gas bill to make sure the Ccf unit charge did not exceed 32 cents per unit. If I would only show them the last bill, they could make note of the per unit charge, and they'd be on their way.
My mistake - I showed them the bill. One of them circled the Ccf unit charge, showing me what they were looking for, saying "you're good - it's under 32 cents."
And then....they had to complete some paperwork I had to initial and sign, which was to basically say they'd been there, done their job, and everything was fine with our bill. He sat down on the porch chair (I wouldn't let them in the house), to fill out the form. From where I was standing, I could read the form over his shoulder - it was a contract to switch gas suppliers - the Ccf rate was 32.5 cents per unit for the first month, and then would go up after that (we currently pay 26 cents per unit, although I still don't know what that is). I told them I was signing no such thing, and demanded they give me the half-finished form. They showed me a stack of forms that had already been signed by people in the neighborhood, and really, I was only hurting myself by not completing the form, I would have no recourse if our bill was wrong in the future. Under much protest, and fast-talking, they finally relented and gave me the form.
Apparently this is legal....in a way. In some states, gas customers can choose an "alternative gas supplier" - they were are still billed through the gas company that services that area, but the company you buy your gas from is your choice.
Unfortunately this choice has lead to a lot of unscrupulous practices...I checked out the company on-line, and they have 100s of complaints on their BBB listing. Two local Grand Rapids news channels (where they said they were from) did reports on them earlier this year saying to beware of the scam; apparently they saturated the market there and decided to move south, I'm guessing. Both reports said to never show such companies your bill - which unfortunately I did. Although I have both copies of the contract - the top copy, and carbon copy, and nothing was signed by me, the unsigned contract in my possession has our gas company account number written on it. From this, I learned, they could actually switch things over to their company on-line.
I had to call our gas company this morning for them to make note of what happened, and block this alternative gas company from my account. I also called our local newspaper hoping they would run a story similar to the Grand Rapids news reports warning people of the scam - as I said, these guys had a stack of signed contracts in their folders.
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Post by Mini Mia on Nov 21, 2018 19:07:52 GMT -6
I hate pushy people. I had a guy drop by the house when I was babysitting, and neither Mom nor Dad were there. He pushed his way inside, told me about some investment or other, and would not leave until I wrote him a check. I was in my late teens/early 20s, and I had said I'd prefer to talk it over with Mom, and his comeback was would I ask Mom's permission to get married? I told Mom about it when she got home and she told me to call the bank and cancel the check. Woodmen of the World, I believe it was, contacted me and I wrote them a letter explaining how this person acted, and that I had canceled the check after he left. That guy doesn't bother me anymore, though years later Mom did have me invest with his brother ... and because of her, most of my money is tied up in an annuity. Would dearly love to be able to get my hands on that money now, but taxes would eat me up. The monthly payment from it right now wouldn't even be enough to pay my bills, but cashing it in would help me out a lot. I'm gonna hold out until I'm 65 or a little older before drawing from it.
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Post by Phalon on Nov 22, 2018 7:34:57 GMT -6
Pushy people are annoying, that's for sure.
These guys though, were beyond pushy. They weren't just misrepresenting the reason they were there, or not being completely forthcoming or truthful - they were lying. They lied about everything except how cold it was outside.
I thought about that after they left - how can someone lie straight to people's faces, and do it multiple times a day as part of their job. Who even takes a job like that? Can you imagine the company's training manual - I tried to imagine, and couldn't. One of the guys did almost all the talking, while the other hung in the background, I'm assuming, learning ways to lie and sound convincing doing it.
Salespeople tend to be pushy - that kind of comes with the territory. Liars are despicable.
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Post by Mini Mia on Nov 23, 2018 0:32:37 GMT -6
Yeah. Liars and scammers and the like are the worst. One can only hope that karma is an ugly, mean bitch to them.
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Post by Phalon on May 6, 2019 7:20:17 GMT -6
I've run across a couple of scams this past week.. The first was a message left on our answering machine (yes, we still have a landline). It was about LX's student loan (I assumed since she's the only one with a student loan in the house). The message was from a woman (not a recorded voice) who gave her name and said something like 'due to recent changes to the government student loan requirements, there may be an issue with your current loan. Please call (phone number given), and use reference number blah-blah-blah.' I almost texted LX the phone and reference number, but thought, what the heck, it was my day off, I'll call to get more information instead of her having to try to find time call while she's at work. I'm glad I did. There was a basic recording giving a list of options - a press 1 if you're calling for this, press 2 for that, etc kind of thing. No company name was given. I pressed the option for customer service. A guy answers asking for my "reference number". I ask "What company am I calling?" Dead air. He hung up. I called back for the hell of it, (almost positive now that it was a scam), and got a different person; I asked the same question, and was given a company name that was not LX's student loan provider. I hung up, and drilled the phone number; there were dozens and dozens of complaints with the same woman's name and reference number as left on my answering machine; all the complaints were posted within the past two weeks. I called the number for the actual student loan provider, and explained what happened. First, she said if they ever were to call about a loan, they state the company they're calling from, and second it's rare that they would call - correspondence is done through on-line accounts, e-mails, and physical mail. She said this is the part of her job she hates - when she has to tell people they've fallen for scams - bogus companies will offer to consolidate loans (not just student loans), offer lower interest rates, or partial loan forgiveness....for a fee, of course. The bogus companies take the fee and run, leaving their "customers" thinking their loans have been consolidated or forgiven when in actuality the loans are going into default. * * * The second "scam" affects nearly everyone in the U.S. over age 18! The past weekend was BP's prom; she was nominated for Prom Queen, and although she didn't win, I wanted to see the article and photos - there's an on-line Michigan news site that has been covering every high-school prom for the past couple of weeks. When I couldn't find anything on that site, I drilled BP's name, our town name, and "prom". I was very surprised when the first two items that came up in the drill were my name and LX's name with our correct ages and birth-dates; both listings were on a site called My Life. Curious as hell, I clicked on my name. OMG! and WTF?!! First thing you see a big red "Alert!" header stating I have family members, friends, and associates with criminal records; I, myself, may have a criminal record also. There is basic information about me that is correct - name, age, current address, a past address, current phone number(!), "aliases" (maiden name), some family members, some neighbors, etc. Everything else is incorrect. Granted, I have a common last name, but even some of "my aliases" are incorrect; misspellings of my actual name - it seems also, my "family members" are family members of people with the same name as mine (most of whom have a "criminal record"). My "current place of employment" some branch of Michigan's Congress that I've never heard of; it even lists my salary range at this place I've never heard of, much less worked. It lists credit ratings, criminal background reports, photos, social media profiles, etc, etc, etc, along with "reviews" about me that other users have left - all of which are viewable for a fee. I can also claim and control the information on "my page" - for a fee. LX's is even more incorrect; again the basic information is right, but I snorted out loud at her listed political affliction, and current salary. Apparently, this is legal - information is gathered from public records on the internet, although it seems the information on a person is combined with anyone else with the same name (I'm just guessing on that part). And nearly everyone in the U.S. has a listing on My Life! There is site after site of hundreds of complaints of inaccurate information people have found on MyLife about themselves, as well as how difficult and costly it is to remove or correct the information. Here's just Consumer Affairs' complaints: www.consumeraffairs.com/online/mylife.htmlAnd here is a site with suggestions on how to have your profile removed without paying the fees to My Life: what-is-privacy.com/2016/01/how-to-get-out-of-mylife-directory-site/Go ahead - Google your name, and chances are if you've ever been on the Internet, you'll show up with a My Life profile.
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Post by Mini Mia on May 7, 2019 1:19:23 GMT -6
There are a lot of sites just like that one. I don't think anything can be done about them. Even Facebook creates pages that they make you call them to get control of. Because my sister and I own a farm, and have a farm bank account, I discovered I have a Facebook page they created. If I call them to get control of it, my phone will be charged, and I refuse to call them. I've tried reporting the page, but it's still there. It shouldn't be legal to create a page of any kind and then charge people to have their info removed.
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Post by stepper on May 7, 2019 17:54:09 GMT -6
Thanks for the heads up on my life. Fortunately, when I looked for my name there were so many hits that without giving them nearly all of my personal information up front, I couldn't have picked me out of the group. Actually, I didn't dig that deep into the pile so as far as I know I'm not there. The same was true for Steppet. She graduated from a university with a near 4.0 and a double major - and I still couldn't find her. Of course, I'm not complaining. I had a recent run-in with a scam. The short version is that I got an email with my user name and a valid password as the subject. The email said they wanted $1400 to keep my personal and account information private. First, I warned everyone who might have my address to be careful of anything that they received saying it was from my address. Then I started digging. It turns out that what I received was a variation of the CIA scam. Once I found the warning about it, the email was quoted virtually word for word in the site that talked about it. (They got my user name and password when YAHOO got hacked. I had to change the password to that account but the old information is still available on the dark web.) The site said the scam email frequently claimed to include a picture taken on the person's own system. When I looked, the scam email I received had made the same claim. It's not possible though. One of the computer courses I had to take a few years ago included classes on hacking. (We had to sign an agreement about not ever using the skills from the class in the course of actually hacking someone.) One of the things we learned was how to access the camera in a home system and record whatever it saw, and to do it without the owner's knowledge or permission. Knowing it was possible I took the easy way out. When I bought my current lap top I took a piece of black electric tape and put a piece over the lens. It doesn't matter how good the hacker is when it's impossible to use the lens. Still, it cost me time and effort to ensure things were okay here.
Then over the weekend I called my Mother-in-Law. She was concerned about a call she received where the caller quickly said that her social security benefits were in jeopardy and were about to be terminated. She was supposed to call some number to resolve whatever problem they had dreamed up, they left a number, and hung up. I Googled the number and the first thing to come up was a warning about it being a number used for a scam involving Social Security. I told her that if anything was really happening then she would have received something in the mail, and pointed out that if she was REALLY concerned then she could simply go to the local administration office in her hometown and talk to them in person. I was sure they'd tell her nothing was wrong but for her own piece of mind - that was an option.
I recently read about one more scam called the single ring scam. I guess someone calls your number and lets the phone ring only once, then they hang up. They've been known to call at all hours and will sometimes make more than one of the single ring calls. They are hoping to get you to call back in your effort to determine what's happening. You calling them is the scam - the originating number is actually not in the US - in this case it was Africa - and there's a high fee for calling the number. They get your money because you called them and you have to pay the phone bill. The longer they can keep you on the phone the more it costs you.
Some people (scammers) just have no morals.
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Post by Mini Mia on May 7, 2019 21:17:17 GMT -6
I keep getting that same email, Stepper. But they've never posted any password to prove they know it. This email is my personal one, and I only use it for shopping and banking and health. I don't use it for social media or message boards, etc. My phone company's spam setup catches it every time. It still scares me. I always check my sent folder, and there has never been a file in there even though they claim they sent the email from my very own online email system. I don't think I have it connected to any of my other emails. Not sure why this one gets these emails, and not the ones I use publicly. Although, because I co-own a farm, and my name, address, and phone number are on the farm account checks, Facebook set up a page with my name and all that info for the world to see. Over the years I've gotten a number of calls and mail for different types of businesses that I don't own, and I think Facebook is to blame.
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Post by Phalon on May 9, 2019 5:06:54 GMT -6
I've run across those kinds of Facebook pages when searching local business. A small business I'm searching for might not have a website, but there will be a Facebook page - though, it'll be empty except for maybe the phone number and address. I always thought the page was maybe put up by the Chamber of Commerce, or a local business association. Pretty cr@ppy of Facebook to do that.
You're lucky! According to Wikipedia, "MyLife claims to have over 225 million Public Pages with information about almost everyone in America, 18 years old and over." Hubs isn't on it either - and my marital status is listed as "U"; unmarried? unknown? The company used to be Reunion.com (which is how I think I ended up on there? I was never a member, but sort of remember using that site or a similar site when checking in for my 30 year high-school reunion), and has just been partnered somehow with Ancestry.com.
I have to clarify something in my earlier post - I wrote earlier the Alert! said family and friends (it does not list actual friends - like how would they even know who I hang out with?) have criminal records. It actually says criminal or civil court records. It does kind of irk me that all these people who have records who I'm not related to are listed as my relatives, but doesn't irk me enough to do anything about it.
It irks me more that they can post information, most of it inaccurate, and make a person pay to get it corrected. Who even uses that information? A prospective employer or landlord? If so, it seems really sh!tty a "yes" or "no" for a job or apartment could be based on all kinds of wrong information about a person from this company.
MyLife, btw, has a rating of "F" with the Better Business Bureau.
I was going to say that Joxie got an e-mail like that, but she beat me to it.
Mine is covered with a Chiquita banana sticker. When the girls told me to keep the lens covered, the banana sticker was the closest thing handy!
I think it's especially sad that many of these scams seem to target the elderly, or in the case of the college loan scam, the young and naive.
That one has been all over the news this past week!
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Scam Dam
May 9, 2019 13:12:07 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by Mini Mia on May 9, 2019 13:12:07 GMT -6
My profile has a picture of another woman, and has the wrong education information. But it connects to my sister and two different bil with the same name but different information. Also connects to my niece and nephew. I found a page on another site doing a drill that tells you you can send them an email telling them to remove it. You don’t have to join the site or pay them. His was removed. Or so the comment says.
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