Search Results for: warranty

Found 37 search results for warranty (this is page 3 of 4).

NY Times visits MT.Net

This morning I noticed my work against car warranty scammers has garnered the attention of readers of the New York Times blog. Apparently, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has been getting the calls as well. Schumer is calling for a national investigation.

For Schumer and any others who may be interested, I have collected a lot of evidence regarding these calls (browse my Meddling category for examples). I have also tried to get the North Carolina Attorney General’s office interested as well as the Florida Attorney General’s office. The result has been absolutely no action. No response, nothing. It seems that no one cares. Meanwhile there are plenty of little old ladies who have been bilked $3000 for a car warranty that in some cases exceeds the worth of their cars.

Should you be visiting my site for the first time and are in a position to actually do something about these shady calls, contact me and I’ll give you enough information to gain a warrant or subpoena.

Slashdotted!

I got back from the James Taylor show to find MT.Net has been Slashdotted. Seems my Caller ID sleuthing in relation to Automotive Warranty Solutions caught someone’s attention.

I also see that I’m missing out on some big money. According to the NC Attorney General’s office, these warranty calls could be worth $500 to $5000 apiece! That’s some serious change in this down economy. Even better, I could invest that money in a lot more SIP phone numbers with which to snare even more fines. And I wouldn’t have to lift a finger to collect (well, I would have to show up for court, but I could earn potentially +$25k for each court case).

Hmm. Passive income paid by scammers … what am I waiting for?

IPv6

So my amigo Greg Brown has been raving about the wonders of IPv6 so much that I’m sick of hearing it. Thus, I will also take the plunge into the world of Even Longer IP Addresses.

Fortunately, I’m an Earthlink cable-modem subscriber and have an extra WRT54G lying around. Earthlink’s R&D department created a special firmware for the WRT54G to turn it into an IPv6 6to4 router, instantly making one’s network addressable by IPv6. Also fortunately, Earthlink packages their WRT54G firmware with a restrictive firewall so that all of your suddenly-addressable internal hosts are not completely exposed to the Internets.

I can’t let my geek friend have all the fun, you know. After all, I’ve got my Alpha Geek reputation to uphold. So its off to the Earthlink site tonight to void another warranty and get started on the IP Addressing Of The Future.

Roof fixed

Kelly called the original roof contractor yesterday about the leak. He and two guys showed up this morning and made quick work of the roof. I think they spent 10 minutes here, total. Probably just adding some caulk under the shingles. He originally was going to charge us, saying the home was out of warranty, but then did the work for free.

Good to have that off the list. I’m still not sure why the previous owners didn’t get that done.

Wet revelation

In 1999, Kelly and I got married and moved in right between two hurricanes: Dennis and Floyd. We spent our first night in our Garner home right as Floyd was passing over. I’ll never forget us hunkering down in our sleeping bags on the floor of the den as the wind and rain howled. We wondered what kind of luck we had moving in the middle of a tropical storm, but it showed us some things early in our home-owning experience that were better to know immediately.

Like how the roof of our Garner home leaked.
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New phishing scam targets Latinos

Got a hangup call this evening from the number 503-898-9988. No message was left, so its the same M.O. as the car warranty scams I’ve blogged about before.

A perusal of 800notes.com shows the calling party plays a Spanish recording telling the caller he’s won a prize and to press 1 for an operator. I’m not sure what happens next as no one’s posted anything, but it sure sounds fishy. Apparently speaking English to the calling party is enough to get you disconnected, from what people have said.

The calls are targeting the Triangle, Colorado, and the San Francisco areas, according to the posted reports. My Spanish is nonexistent, so I can’t bait these guys like I might’ve done for Great Atlantic Warranty.

If you’ve gotten a call like this, please send me a comment describing your call. And please post on 800notes.com, too!

Time for the Highlights of 2007

Its time for me to write my annual recounting of this year’s notable events. Putting this list together this year has amazed me at how many things I have to write about. Just to give you an idea, the AT&T billing nightmare and the bogus car warranty calls that I’ve been incessantly blogging about didn’t even crack the top ten! The Chinese proverb “may you live in interesting times” certainly applied to me this year.

With all that said, let’s get on with the list!

Annoyance Calls

For the past few weeks we haven’t just been getting car warranty calls. Another annoying situation has established itself where we’ll get a hang-up call at 9:15 PM on Sunday evenings, followed by one about 6 minutes later. Then, at 4:25 AM on Monday morning the phone will ring again and – just like the other calls – there will be nothing but a dial tone.

I’ve since configured Asterisk to block these calls so they will no longer get through. Even so, I plan to see how good the crackerjacks at AT&T are at tracking them down by filing a complaint with them. Back in my BBS sysop’ing days, I had a phone number to the phone company group that could track any number. I’m sure I can find the AT&T equivalent with a little effort.

This has gone on for weeks now and its time to fight back.

Thieves don’t want THIS credit card number

One of my first jobs was a part-time position stocking and cashiering at Dart Drug in Sterling, VA. It was a throwaway job in many respects, working for minimum wage with some shady characters and finally quitting after being falsely accused of helping myself to the till. The job was useful in that while working there I once helped track down a killer, but that’s a story for another day.
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