OT Friendly customers....

[Curry Kenworthy]

Matthias:

 > So in my case it was not scam but just a rude person.

Plenty of those around. Including what comes around.

Manipulative people usually follow 2 tactics.
Either buttering up for a favor, or being rude to apply pressure.
Sometimes both; they will abruptly switch if one fails.

In which case I tend to grab either popcorn or a flamethrower.
Not a huge fan of manipulation.

Doc hawk:

 > asking about playing games like “hide the salami”

Careful - from a sandwich point of view,
that could potentially imply the "c" word!

Heather:

 > Did somebody say cheese??

Probably those damn portrait photographers again!
Truly evil people - no souls behind the fake smiles.

(A little humor now and then is the best medicine.)

Paul:

 > you should not be surprised some people assume SCAM first

My "unfavorites" were the "Windows tech support" and "Google listings" 
phone call scams.

Right now during 2020-2021 my breathing isn't good enough for phone 
conversations anymore, and all calls go to voice mail.

But in previous years those guys would call all the time. They weren't 
following any rules/laws anyway, so you couldn't get off their list by 
traditional methods.

So I tried some unorthodox methods - pranking and wasting their time.

I had one of the "Windows tech support" guys passionately defending 
himself when I asked what his family back in India would think about him 
becoming a criminal. Another couple of times, I played along with their 
spiel, got transferred from the little crook to the big crook, and 
wasted his time too for a while before scolding them and hanging up at 
the crucial moment. They eventually gave up on me just as I was planning 
some bigger pranks.

(Our "FBI" is way too busy being a partisan political tool to handle any 
real crime; no telling how many scams they've allowed to flourish that 
it is their duty and job description to shut down and prevent.)

But the "Google listings" people were unstoppable. They were operating 
in more of a legal/moral gray area, and they must have been raking in 
the $$$. Most persistent I've ever seen/heard. I suppose they are still 
at it; I just haven't been able to answer the phone for ages.

My "unfavorite" email scam is the one where your email account will be 
closed unless you log in to verify it or approve the new security 
measures, etc. A couple of variations on this theme looked very real.

Best wishes,

Curry Kenworthy

Custom Software Development
"Better Methods, Better Results"
LiveCode Training and Consulting
http://livecodeconsulting.com/