Scammy Car Warranty Phone Call

I got a phone call from 978-409-5210 today. I usually let weird area code numbers go to voicemail, but I was in a curious mood, so I answered it.

Me:

Hello?

Recording:

This is your second notice [actually, this is the first I've heard from them] about the factory warranty expiring on your vehicle. It's not too late to renew! This is the final call you will receive. Press 2 to be removed from our list [didn't they just say this was the final call?], or press 1 to speak to a representative. [Sure, what the hell.]

Recording:

You are number 1 in line to speak to a representative.

Them:

Would you like to find out more about continuing your car warranty?

Me:

First, who are you?

Them:

[pause] Well, my name—

Me:

What company is this?

Them:

My name is is Aaron.

Me:

But what company do you work for?

Them:

<click>

I don't know why, but the <click> response to asking such a simple question really amuses me. Although I think the Spanish scam phone call was more fun. :)

A quick googling shows that someone else also had a run-in with our scamsters, although he had much more fun with the scammer. According to Google Phonebook, 978-409-5210 is a Massachusetts number belonging to Marilyn Freedman. I doubt that info is accurate, though.

Update, November 28: I just got a second call from these scammers! The new number they called from is 505-986-8074, which the Internets says is a Santa Fe number this time. I talked with "Fred" today. I immediately asked him what company he worked for. Rather than hang up like last time, he just stopped responding. I could hear his call-center scammer buddies in the background, but he wouldn't respond to anything I said. So this time, I hung up on them.

According to 16 Ways You Can Be Phone Scammed, this auto warranty call is #1. Says the site:

Typically the goal is to get you to reveal personal, bank account information, or to make you do something that will result in unwanted charges on your account. ...

Tracing the calls to the companies is difficult. The calls often come from telemarketing centers located overseas. Also, the companies often spoof their caller ID information to display someone’s else’s real number. When people receive these calls they dial the number they see on Caller ID and leave angry messages for an unsuspecting victim. Two-three days later the telemarketers change the Caller ID number and the scam continues.

Indeed, calling the number back results in that error tone and That Lady saying, "We're sorry, the number you have dialed has been disconnected."

Update, August 31, 2009: The FTC filed suit against these guys (or at least someone running the same scam) this May. The FTC complaint names Voice Touch Inc, James and Maureen Dunne, Voice Touch called Network Foundations LLC, Damian Kohlfeld, Transcontinental Warranty Inc, and Christopher D Cowart as defendants.

Comments are Fixed

Eek, posting comments was broken! I've revert back to the "full page" comments like they were before. I'll try following a suggested fix for embedded comments later. Sorry 'bout that, guys!

Help with Story Names and Terms

Yay bus! I figured out how to write on my laptop without getting motion-sick. I write with the laptop lid mostly shut, so I just have enough room to type but not see the screen. Works wonders for shutting up the Internal Editor, too. :P

Because I took the bus, I wrote 1690 words yesterday! And this morning, I woke up early, wrote 300 words before I left the house, and wrote another 842 while on the bus. Of course, the NaNo goal for today is the 10k mark, so at 6854 I'm still pretty behind. But I do feel more like I can catch up, so that's good.

In other NaNo news... Perhaps my dear devoted readers could help out with some naming problems I'm running into. Here's what I need named:

• Drei LastName, something that sounds good together for yelling at a teenage girl; Drei is an addict, runaway, and thief, so she's going to regularly get yelled at :)
• the Something Tavern, where Our Hero goes to drown the sorrows of his young daughter dying
• Grandfather Rordechin, Our Heroine's grandfather and the leader of their guild. He's a mean, demanding old coot but he's done Good Things for the guild
• GuildLeader Master, a title for the, well, guild leader :)
• better, more fantasy-esque terms for cremation, the cremator (the man who runs the shop), and the crematorium (the shop itself)
• psychic energy, the source of magic. All people have energy; only magic spirits (who were once people) can use said energy to do magic.
• a follower, someone who gives their energy to a spirit (usually voluntarily)
• a mind controller Memorist, a type of spirit with the magical ability to read, create, or extract memories from both the living and the recently dead
• the sacrifice ritual Sacrifice, when a normal person does some ritual, gives up their body, and their energy becomes a spirit with magic instead
• a priest or priestess, someone who oversees the sacrifice ritual and is a caretaker of knowledge about the spirits that isn't "common knowledge"
• a binding token spirit gem, some physical object with both a person's and a spirit's psychic energy imprinted on it, to establish a bond for giving energy and performing stronger magic on the person

Any suggestions?

Two Days Behind for NaNo

NaNoWriMo conveniently started on a weekend this year, which was great. I was right on target both Saturday and Sunday. Then the work week started up. :( Monday, I wrote 519 words while waiting for a doctor's appointment. Yesterday, I only managed 165 words. That puts me two days behind already! (See the Google spreadsheet of my sad progress.)

I decided to take the bus today for the sole purpose of giving myself an hour and a half of dedicated writing time during the work day. So this morning I wrote 515 words on bus ride to work. If I write around the same on the way home, that'll be 1000 words, leaving 667 to pick up to meet the normal quota. Of course, because I'm behind I need to hit 1818 words per day now instead of 1667... *sigh*

Unfortunately, writing while driving seems almost as bad for me, motion-sickness-wise, as reading while driving. Maybe some I should stock up on non-drowsy dramamine for NaNo. Or practice typing without looking at the screen. :)

Code Monkey Like Fritos

I've had the song Code Monkey Like Fritos by Jonathan Coulton stuck in my head today, and realized that I had never blogged about it! Now, I know most of my geeky friends have already heard the song, but just in case you haven't, go listen now. :)

The first stanza of the song is probably my favorite:

Code Monkey get up get coffee
Code Monkey go to job
Code Monkey have boring meeting
With boring manager Rob
Rob say Code Monkey very diligent
But his output stink
His code not "functional" or "elegant"
What do Code Monkey think?
Code Monkey think maybe manager want to write god damned login page himself
Code Monkey not say it out loud
Code Monkey not crazy, just proud

1690 Words Down, 48310 To Go

As you can see from the fancy-dancy progress meter in the sidebar, I'm 3.4% of the way done with my NaNoWriMo writing. The goal is 1667 words each day, so I'm a tiny bit ahead with 1690 today!

On the downside, I'm writing really slowly: only 440 words per hour. I'm spending way too much time wondering what exactly to write, or deleting a sentence and re-wording it. This is not how NaNo is supposed to be. This is supposed to be a quickly written first draft, no Internal Editors allowed. So I need to stop editing even as much as I'm doing (which is only half-assed editing, since I know I'm not supposed to be editing during NaNo), and I think I need a more detailed outline that covers what to write for the next day.

So maybe I'll go outline a bit before heading to bed...

And here's a shout-out to my two friends who are also doing NaNo this year. They haven't posted today's numbers yet; I wish you both 1667 words! :)

Pro Obama, Anti Raptor

My household is a pro Obama, anti raptor household, and we are announcing such this Halloween!

(Don't get the raptor? See comics Velociraptors, Substitute, Search History, and the xkcd store. :))

Magic or a Body, Take Your Pick

For NaNoWriMo, I was going to write about some story set on Cresaea again this year. But I couldn't think of a story I really wanted to do right now — I'm feeling more like a magic-related story, and there's no magic on Cresaea.

Then, last weekend while falling asleep, my brain thought, "What if anyone could have magic, so it's not only 'special' or 'talented' people, but in order to get magic, you have to give up your body?" So that's the premise behind the world I'm writing about this November.

I'm still exploring the implications this premise of magic would have on a society. Many things are still in flux or undecided. I have a very draft-y plot outline and world-building notes, but mostly I'm going into NaNo less prepared than I'd like. Hopefully it works out anyhow! Wish me luck. :)

NaNoWriMo, Attempt 3

My first year of participating in NaNoWriMo was in 2004. I got to 19,292 words by the end of that November. In 2005, I made some character notes and had an idea for the story, and I even blogged that I wrote something like 4,000 words, but that text file is nowhere to be found now. :( I didn't even try to participate in 2006 or 2007, after the dismal failures that were 2004 and 2005.

So this morning, I got an email from my best friend from high school, asking if I was going to do NaNoWriMo this year. I hadn't really thought about it, and I didn't have a story idea, but this year it sounds like a fun and silly challenge again. I spent the day at Barnes & Noble, reading books on writing. I'm still not sure what I'll write about, but I have two more weeks to come up with something...

JIT Mochas

JIT Mocha

I like mochas; just ask my wallet. But I get free coffee at work, so I'm not buying as many mochas as I used to. Yet I miss my mochas...

So, I tried to come up with a way to satisfy my mocha cravings while still taking advantage of free corporate coffee (which tastes better than the Kool-Aid here). I really don't care for ghetto mochas. Instead, I came up with something that I still find tasty, even if it's not quite the same as a real mocha.

I present to you the JIT mocha! (JIT stands for "just in time," if you're not in computer science.) You've got the coffee in the mug, and the chocolate Hershey's Kisses in your mouth, and they mix "just in time" as you sip the coffee. If the coffee's hot enough, the Kiss melts right away, making it a very rich, chocolately experience.

So now you know. :)