Here we are 13 days into the new year and this is my first entry. It’s not that I don’t have anything to say, I just have to be careful of how I say it so I don’t get myself in trouble.
In some of the on-line Police publications, I see articles on law enforcement officers being reprimanded, suspended or even fired for making questionable posts on social sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Some of those postings are plain stupid and if the person stopped to think about what he/she was posting, maybe they would think better of it and not make the posting. A law enforcement officer could post a questionable picture or statement, and a defense attorney might find it and use it against the officer in court. If the item puts the officer or his/her department in a bad light, disciplinary action is very possible. For that reason, I try to shy away from making work related comments in my blog or on my Facebook page.
I must really be grabbing at straws if I’m reduced to talking about this stuff in my blog!! Enough said on that subject….
Our Christmas and New Years weekends were pretty uneventful. I was on days off the entire Christmas weekend, and Jan was off Christmas and the day after. We were fortunate that we were able to spend those two days with our families. We were even more blessed with decent weather. We had to work the three days of New Years’ Eve, and even though it was pretty cold, there was no white stuff and all in all it was a fairly quiet weekend. Our Police Department had a DWI arrest about 3:30 AM on New Years Day, and the Sheriff’s Department had two more right after that.
This last weekend brought a change in the weather and now we’re going into a “deep freeze” for a few days. I hope everybody uses good sense when they have to go outdoors or travel. We don’t see as many problems in the city, but the deputies and troopers seem to have to deal a lot with stranded motorists in cold, miserable weather. According to our local newspaper, city road crews will be out through Thursday trying to get the streets cleaned. At least we aren’t having weather patterns here like we did a year ago with a new snowstorm coming in every few days.
I had to get the snow blower out to clean the driveway yesterday. I found there was a bit of a gas leak from around the carburetor, but was able to get the snow moved. In looking for a gasket for the float bowl, the parts houses I went did not have anything. I found out that one of the local lumber yards carries parts for small engines, and as luck would have it, they had the right gasket. I should be set for the rest of the winter now.
I planned to work on the race car on my Friday-Saturday-Sunday off this last weekend. I got all my parts together so I can finish my brake lines to the rear brakes. When that’s done, I can start on making the rear deck. However, the weather started to turn a lot colder and I didn’t even attempt to start the wood burner as it looked like a fire would be futile. I’m on days off Wednesday and Thursday this week, and the last time I looked, Thursday may warm up close to 30. If there’s no wind, I should be able to heat the garage to a point where I can work out there.
I am pointing toward having the car on the track at McCool Junction on March 4th & 5th. There is a USMTS modified show that weekend and in the past the open stock cars have been the support class. It hasn’t been announced yet if that will be the case, but if it is, I hope to be able to race then. When I stand back and look at the car, it looks like there is a ton of stuff to do on it, but if I can keep the garage warm enough to work out there, there really isn’t that much to do. I plan to straighten and use the old doors. I need to straighten the left rear quarter panel. I’m afraid the front fenders can’t be re-used, so I will either have to use the new after market ones I have or find some used stock ones. I’m hoping to find some used fenders for a very reasonable price. The aftermarket ones look nice, but they are so thin they crinkle if you look hard at them.
I was able to pretty much finish my expense sheet for the racing operation for 2010 over the weekend. I have to have a copy of the bill on the engine that is at Hastings so I can itemize it on the expense sheet, and 1099 forms from Beatrice and Columbus and that task will be all done. I need to remember to keep myself caught up on this stuff so I don’t have to re-construct the entire year at the end of the year.
I’ve also spent a little more time planning our ride to Chesapeake, Virginia this summer. The Blue Knights International Convention is there the 3rd week of July. One way or another, we want to spend a couple of days in Nashville as Jan really wants to go to the Grand Ole Opry. I think a day or two in Memphis should also be in order. Right now, I kind of have a 3 day ride from here to Chesapeake planned. The return trip will be a bit more leisurely and routed through Nashville and Memphis. We’re just hoping the price of gas doesn’t go up too drastically that we can’t enjoy our time.
While we’re in the Chesapeake area there are a lot of things I want to see. I was stationed at Ft Lee for AIT in 1971 and made trips to Washington, D.C. and Williamsburg, Virginia. I hope to be able to go to both places while we are there. I also went to the Petersburg Battlefield just outside of Ft Lee and would like to go back there. There’s so much history in that area that it is impossible to see it all in an entire summer, let alone the few days we will be there.
We kind of kicked around the idea of maybe camping along the way to make the trip less expensive. However, I think I’d rather have a hot shower and a real bed after riding 450 miles each day. Irregardless of what our plans are, we will have to pack carefully and wisely in order to have everything we need for the entire trip,
I’ll have to have the Gold Wing checked over closely. We now have about 32,000 miles on it, and it should go to the dealer for a complete check-up according to the owners’ manual. The front tire has almost 20,000 miles on it, but still looks pretty good. The back tire has about 10,000 miles and still looks good. The original rear tire went about 22,000 miles and I expect this one to go that far, too. I will have to pack the wheel bearings on the trailer, but other than that, it should be ready to go.
Blue Knights just had their election for International President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. I want to pass on my congratulations to all of the new officers. I know you will do the job to the best of your abilities.
I subscribe to “Google Alerts.” This gives me an alert to other blogs about specific subjects. I came across one today by a crime analyst in Texas. He writes about a guy who, when stopped by law enforcement, gave them his cousin’s name. Turns out the cousin had a warrant for his arrest, so the guy went to jail. Now he’s suing the Sheriff’s Department for false arrest. In Nebraska, a guy like this is “Job Security.” Here’s the link to the newspaper story, in case anybody wants to read about it:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/010811dnmetalias.a15fbd.html
Showing posts with label Internet scams; nigerian scam; stock car racing; Law Enforcement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Internet scams; nigerian scam; stock car racing; Law Enforcement. Show all posts
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Internet and other scams
With the advent of the internet, there are many scams coming to the general public. Being in law enforcement, our department receives at least a couple of calls a month from somebody who has either lost money or been contacted, either by phone, e-mail or snail mail, in regards to being scammed.
Being around stock car racing, one learns quickly what an expensive sport it is. One way to save some money on parts is going on the various message boards and advertising the items you are selling or trying to buy. However, you have to be careful about accepting money orders, cashier’s checks, etc for merchandise you’re selling.
A couple of years ago, I advertised my race car in the classified section of www.dirtdrivers.com I received an email from a guy who identified himself as “Jerry Thomas.” He wanted to know if I still had the car, if I had pictures, what was the bottom dollar, etc. However, in reading through the email, I saw a lot of spelling and grammatical errors, as well as sentence structure that wasn’t quite “right.” I replied with a couple of pictures, and he answered that if I still had the car, he would buy it. I asked where he lived so we could make arrangements, but he would not answer me.
Jerry then sent me an email and told me to take the ad of the website and that he would be sending me the “funds.” He told me when I received the “funds” to deposit them. However, he told me he was sending me substantially more than what I was asking for the car. He wanted me to send the extra money by Western Union back to him so he could pay his “shipper.” By now, I knew this just had to be a scam.
In a day or two, I got a UPS envelope delivered to my door. Inside were three money orders for $890 each. Keep in mind I was asking $750 for the car. Within the hour, I received another email from Jerry, telling me to immediately cash the money orders and send the balance to him so he could get his “shipper” on the way.
The money orders looked good, but I called the number listed on the back of the check to verify that the checks were good. The security division was able to quickly tell me that two of the checks had already been cashed and the third had never been issued and was cancelled. The checks that had been cashed were both for substantially less than what the checks were made out for.
I shot “Jerry” an email back and told him I would send the money to him as soon as the money orders cleared my bank, and that it could take as long as 21 days. He said to keep in contact with him. Every couple of days he would send an e-mail asking if I had to money yet and I’d tell him the bank was still processing the money orders. In the meantime, I kept asking him where he lived, but he would never answer me.
There are free programs on the internet that allow you to find out where an e-mail has originated from. Early on, I used that to track Jerry’s e-mails and found that they were coming from three different computers located at the same address. That address was in Nigeria!!
I finally sent Jerry an e-mail back and told him the bank would not cash the money orders because my name was hand-written in instead of typed in. He told me he would “contact my client” and have “more funds” sent to me. Another couple of days and I get another Fed Ex, this time containing five American Express Travelers Checks for $500 each. The first problem had already arisen - American Express does not have $500 Travelers Checks!!
To make a long story short, I kept putting Jerry off, then I told him I would not wire money to him for his “shipper,” instead I would give the “shipper” the cash when he came to pick up the car. Jerry started whining about that, saying that wasn’t the deal. I told him that was the only way the deal was going to go, and he then demanded his money back, threatening to go to the FBI if I didn’t return his money!
I shot Jerry an email back and told him if he was going to notify the FBI, to be sure to contact the Omaha office, as that was the closest one to where I lived. I also gave him the correct number. A couple of days later, I shot him another email and asked if he’d heard anything from the FBI. I told him if I did not hear from him I’d be spending all his money on Christmas presents for my grandkids. Another day of not hearing anything and I sent another email explaining that I am a police officer and I already knew that he was actually in Nigeria. I told him he had better be watching over his shoulder because some day he would be sitting at his computer trying to scam somebody when he felt a tap on his shoulder and I would be standing there with an International Arrest Warrant.
Since the money orders weren’t cashed, there wasn’t a crime committed. If I had cashed the money orders, I’d have been the one on the hook for the money, and the scammer would have been off scott-free.
There are a lot of variations of this, including people actually getting a letter in the mail along with a check. The letter says the recipient has won a lottery and they need to cash the check and send part of it back to pay the “fees.” I’ve worked several of these and done some follow up on them. I’ve contacted the companies the checks were written on and in each case the checks were fake. The companies had been plagued with these fake checks for some time.
I currently have the SCS race car advertised on dirt drivers.com. Today I received an obvious scam email from “Donna Salter.” The context of email follows:
“Good Day,
I saw your advert posted am so much interested in buying your older SCS stock car and firstly i will like to know your last asking price for it and i also hope is in great condition.. so get back to me ASAP and i look forward to hear back from you.
Thanks
Donna…”
The email address is from a United Kingdom address. I can’t believe there isn’t a race car for sale closer to the United Kingdom than Nebraska! I guess I’ll see how much I can get this scammer riled up!
Being around stock car racing, one learns quickly what an expensive sport it is. One way to save some money on parts is going on the various message boards and advertising the items you are selling or trying to buy. However, you have to be careful about accepting money orders, cashier’s checks, etc for merchandise you’re selling.
A couple of years ago, I advertised my race car in the classified section of www.dirtdrivers.com I received an email from a guy who identified himself as “Jerry Thomas.” He wanted to know if I still had the car, if I had pictures, what was the bottom dollar, etc. However, in reading through the email, I saw a lot of spelling and grammatical errors, as well as sentence structure that wasn’t quite “right.” I replied with a couple of pictures, and he answered that if I still had the car, he would buy it. I asked where he lived so we could make arrangements, but he would not answer me.
Jerry then sent me an email and told me to take the ad of the website and that he would be sending me the “funds.” He told me when I received the “funds” to deposit them. However, he told me he was sending me substantially more than what I was asking for the car. He wanted me to send the extra money by Western Union back to him so he could pay his “shipper.” By now, I knew this just had to be a scam.
In a day or two, I got a UPS envelope delivered to my door. Inside were three money orders for $890 each. Keep in mind I was asking $750 for the car. Within the hour, I received another email from Jerry, telling me to immediately cash the money orders and send the balance to him so he could get his “shipper” on the way.
The money orders looked good, but I called the number listed on the back of the check to verify that the checks were good. The security division was able to quickly tell me that two of the checks had already been cashed and the third had never been issued and was cancelled. The checks that had been cashed were both for substantially less than what the checks were made out for.
I shot “Jerry” an email back and told him I would send the money to him as soon as the money orders cleared my bank, and that it could take as long as 21 days. He said to keep in contact with him. Every couple of days he would send an e-mail asking if I had to money yet and I’d tell him the bank was still processing the money orders. In the meantime, I kept asking him where he lived, but he would never answer me.
There are free programs on the internet that allow you to find out where an e-mail has originated from. Early on, I used that to track Jerry’s e-mails and found that they were coming from three different computers located at the same address. That address was in Nigeria!!
I finally sent Jerry an e-mail back and told him the bank would not cash the money orders because my name was hand-written in instead of typed in. He told me he would “contact my client” and have “more funds” sent to me. Another couple of days and I get another Fed Ex, this time containing five American Express Travelers Checks for $500 each. The first problem had already arisen - American Express does not have $500 Travelers Checks!!
To make a long story short, I kept putting Jerry off, then I told him I would not wire money to him for his “shipper,” instead I would give the “shipper” the cash when he came to pick up the car. Jerry started whining about that, saying that wasn’t the deal. I told him that was the only way the deal was going to go, and he then demanded his money back, threatening to go to the FBI if I didn’t return his money!
I shot Jerry an email back and told him if he was going to notify the FBI, to be sure to contact the Omaha office, as that was the closest one to where I lived. I also gave him the correct number. A couple of days later, I shot him another email and asked if he’d heard anything from the FBI. I told him if I did not hear from him I’d be spending all his money on Christmas presents for my grandkids. Another day of not hearing anything and I sent another email explaining that I am a police officer and I already knew that he was actually in Nigeria. I told him he had better be watching over his shoulder because some day he would be sitting at his computer trying to scam somebody when he felt a tap on his shoulder and I would be standing there with an International Arrest Warrant.
Since the money orders weren’t cashed, there wasn’t a crime committed. If I had cashed the money orders, I’d have been the one on the hook for the money, and the scammer would have been off scott-free.
There are a lot of variations of this, including people actually getting a letter in the mail along with a check. The letter says the recipient has won a lottery and they need to cash the check and send part of it back to pay the “fees.” I’ve worked several of these and done some follow up on them. I’ve contacted the companies the checks were written on and in each case the checks were fake. The companies had been plagued with these fake checks for some time.
I currently have the SCS race car advertised on dirt drivers.com. Today I received an obvious scam email from “Donna Salter.” The context of email follows:
“Good Day,
I saw your advert posted am so much interested in buying your older SCS stock car and firstly i will like to know your last asking price for it and i also hope is in great condition.. so get back to me ASAP and i look forward to hear back from you.
Thanks
Donna…”
The email address is from a United Kingdom address. I can’t believe there isn’t a race car for sale closer to the United Kingdom than Nebraska! I guess I’ll see how much I can get this scammer riled up!
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