Quoting George Carlin

"people are f**king stupid!"

My wife and I decided to sell an oriental rug a few weeks ago. We put an ad out on the internet in a local "for sale" portal, and received a response from someone within a couple of days. The buyer was very interested, and even offered me an extra $50 to hold the carpet for him.

But of course! I responded with my address information, so he could send the cashier's check, and kept in contact with the buyer. Well, there were some personal issues he ran into and such, and so it actually took 2 weeks for the cashier's check to arrive at my house. However, prior to this receipt, the buyer apologized profusely, but due to his personal problems, he made a mistake and sent me a check for 3 times the amount of the sale. After apologizing, he requested that I wire the difference back to him via Western Union and keep the difference for my carpet.

WHOA! Started smelling like a bit of shit here. Mrs Thew and I went on high alert at this point, it just seemed fishy. But, trying to still make things ok, we took the check (drawn on FNB) to our bank and deposited it after having the staff there check it out to see if it was legitimate (it looked "good enough" to use, but my old bank teller in me wasn't convinced). Well, my bank said it looked good and deposited it, and the money went into our account.

Somewhat satisfied after my bank said the check was good, and with the money in my account, I was prepared to give it a few days to clear via inter-bank transfer (even cashier's checks have to clear), but Mrs Thew, as stubborn as she is, took it a little further and checked into a couple of extra things:

a) the phone number on the Fedex envelope was a number in Ohio and was not in service (the buyer was in Florida)
b) the person to whom I was to wire the money lived in New York, and after digging, Mrs Thew found out that HE WAS DEAD (died in July 2007) - what the FRIKK?!
c) she went to the bank's website, and the front page of the bank's website said "BEWARE OF CHECK SCAMS!"

Armed with THIS information, I contacted FNB and spoke to a manager. Turns out that
1) the cashier's check number is not a sequence number that they currently use
2) the ABA number was NOT their bank ID number
3) the account on which this check was to be drawn was not one of theirs.

BAM! Gotcha! I wrote back to the buyer and said "you're out of luck asshole, we found you out!". Haven't heard from him since. Oddly enough, the money is still in our account earning interest - I am waiting for it to come back unpaid. Nothing yet tho.

Why do I think people are f**king stupid? BECAUSE STUPID PEOPLE FALL FOR THESE SCAMS!

"Hello, Thew, congratulations, you have won the Canadian Lottery. You have won $100,000! All we need to get the money from Canada to the US where you live is a $1000 processing fee. Please send and we'll cut you a check for your winnings." WOW, I didn't even play the Canadian Lottery, COOL!
"Mr Thew, I am Robert Zongo, I live in Nigeria, and I want to transfer money to my family in the US, and I need your help. I need to move $1,000,000 to a bank account, and will pay you $10,000 if you'll help me - to get the money there, I'll need $2,000 for fees and such to get the money there, can you send it to me, and I'll pay you your cut once the money has moved to my US accounts."
"Dear Thew, I would be happy to purchase your chair for $1,000, but I mistakenly sent $4,000 - can you please send me back the difference, and I'll arrange for a company to pick it up."

The manager at FNB told me a story about a man who deposited a check, then got upset when it came back as invalid. When questioned about the origin of the check, he said "well, it came in the mail and I just thought I got lucky". OH MY GOSH! You are f**king stupid!

These types of scams are perpetrated hundreds of times each money, targeting all types of individuals. But they are attempted constantly like that BECAUSE THEY WORK enough times to warrant continuation. DON'T BE F**KING STUPID. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. You never get something for nothing. Remember that! Stupid lazy americans...

**********

Vick got 23 months, close to the max sentence. A little credit for time already served, but still...good luck keeping up your "NFL calibre" skills in the slammer. You're entering prison as a tight end, I hope you don't exit prison as a wide receiver...

Mitchell's report is a severe blow to MLB. There are some significant names on that list, and even others not named have admitted using HGH to get better (ESPN analyst Fernando Vina as one), mostly because HGH is undetectable. Clemens? WOW. But frankly, Mitchell's report is a lotta hot air and powerless, since he says "these people shouldn't be punished, I'm just naming these people to illustrate the fact that we NEED testing and monitoring. Ho Hum... It'll be interested to see if Bud Selig actually grows some actually balls to deal with this, but frankly, I'm not sure. However, I will leave this discussion to a more than informational Buster Olney, who's blog nearly hits the nail on the head!

NHL Thuggery - Chris Simon (again), Ohlund, the entire Flyers team - more attempt to injure opponents, more "I'm sorry I lost control of myself and reacted in a dangerous manner" incidents and apologies - Colin Campbell needs to REALLY punish people with games and salary, not just continuing to slap people on the wrist. Yes, it's only a few bad apples, but being a fringe sport as hockey is, the less bad press they have, the better. Oh, yeah, get rid of the instigator rule and let the players police themselves - nothing will stop some cheap ass stick swinging Euro player from whacking someone like a facial beatdown from, say, Georges Laraque. You swing your stick, I'll majorly kick your ass.

**********

Update on Mrs Thew. Big. Getting bigger. Phat and happy. Little Thew better be a soccer player cuz of all the kicking - I certainly hope he's not a dancer - unless it's Thewlette, and they SHE will be a wonderful prima ballerina. :) Due date still in early March, things are goign along wonderfully.