Goodness, I wish I could have the sound of someone vomiting
on scam calls.
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
sonshines59@xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, July 25, 2020 5:29 PM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Fake Messages
I think you're right.
It's going to take someone, or a group of someones who have
influence and money in the disability community that
internalizes how freeing the optacon can be, then hops on
the bandwagon.
Also, regarding scammers, at some point, they will be asking
for personal information. Or, more insidious, will verify
all of your personal info for you, only needing the teeny
tiny CVV code on your card.
Another thing NOT to do is when they say something like,
"Can you hear me okay," don't say anything, and certainly
not a Yes, because they record that response and insert the
snippet into authorization information that will give them
the door into your info, because they have your recorded
affirmation.
Sometimes, the only thing I say is "Do not call." Then, the
recorded scammer very rapidly gives you a number to punch
for do not call, which you could do, but best not to punch
anything on those calls, or say anything on those calls.
There is an app on the Android play store, I think it is
called RoboKiller, and, from within the settings, you can
have various audio scenarios answer your phone for you. In
other words, when your phone answers, the scammer may hear
someone talking to himself on a sailboat in the middle of
the ocean, or someone trying to get to sleep, or any number
of crazy scenarios that can prank their call.
Judy
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of David Plumlee
(Redacted sender "knobman" for DMARC)
Sent: Saturday, July 25, 2020 10:35 AM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Fake Messages
I also want to warn all listers about a telephone-based scam
which has come twice to our house on two different phone
calls. On one call, a fellow said that he was offering me a
grant of $80,000 which I could use for anything I want, tax
free, coming from something he called a reinvestment and
recovery act. I knew that nobody, especially the U.S.
Government, is out there to give me EIGHTY THOUSAND DOLLARS
with no strings attached! I recorded the information he
gave me on how to apply for the grant.
When I discussed the call with Debbie, she agreed that there
has to be a "hook" somewhere by which the scammer would get
money from us while providing us nothing; or maybe the scam
was to get us involved with some crooks stealing government
money. We stayed out of it!
A few days ago, I received a call from a woman supposedly
offering me a grant of $15,000. Having already discussed
this kind of scam with Debbie, I told the woman on the phone
that nobody is out there to give us that amount of money and
that we are not interested. I then immediately hung up the
phone. More than likely, the phone numbers from both of the
callers were spoofed and therefore untraceable. The calls
probably came from someone overseas. I haven't yet figured
out how the scamming group was going to get money while they
were giving money to me with no requirement that I pay any
kind of fee to get it; but I'm sure there is a "hook"
somewhere in those deals, and our best approach was to leave
both of them alone!
I take time on this list to tell of these scams because I
wouldn't want any of us to think, if we got such a call,
that we could apply for a grant in order to provide funds
for research and development of a new Optacon. Most of us
are in no position to get scammed out of our own limited
funds, and it is sad indeed that scammers have apparently
discovered this list and sent some fake messages, perhaps
"feelers" to see if anyone will offer to advance some money
"down the rat hole." I also share the opinion that we
cannot expect a new Optacon anytime soon - and maybe not at
all. If I understand "the way the wind blows" these days,
education of young blind children has moved so far into
recordings and computerized speech that nobody will
seriously look at the device which has been so helpful to
us.
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carolyn
Sent: Saturday, July 25, 2020 9:19 AM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Fake Messages
That was why in my post, I said that $10,000 was a lot to an
individual, but not to a foundation or the like, and not
much money for R&D.
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Noel
Runyan
Sent: Friday, July 24, 2020 6:31 PM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Fake Messages
Catherine and listers,
I will start by echoing a strong warning about getting your
hopes up for a new Optacon 3 product anytime soon, and I
encourage you to be extremely suspicious about anyone asking
for money to fund new Optacon research.
With that said, I hasten to point out that Charles Pond's
recent messages to this list were not asking for money,
although he did state that he needed
$10,000 to $13,000 in order to finish his new Optacon
display development.
Clearly, that relatively small sum of funding would not come
anywhere near the many hundreds of thousands of dollars
needed to develop the rest of an Optacon 3 device, assuming
the tactile display development portion was successful and
working well.
I also encourage us all to be extremely careful when making
and sharing assumptions or suspicions about the poor health
or death of individuals.
Does anyone on this list have any actual proof that Charles
Pond is truly deceased, or do we only have unsupported
assumptions and irresponsible gossip?
In two of his recent posts to this Optacon list, Charles
Pond mentioned being his brother and writing for Charles.
These appeared to me to be the kind of ill advised humor one
might expect from someone who has been falsely proclaimed to
be deceased.
In the last several months, I have had two direct Email
exchanges with Charles, and they both were very consistent
with his former writing style and technical issues. He
mentioned Halbach magnetic arrays, a technical term for a
special kind of magnet I told him about several years ago.
I am sure that a poser would not have known to use such a
unique technical reference in Optacon discussions with me.
Certainly, I am comfortably convinced that Charles Pond, the
one we've heard from in the past, is still alive and has
recovered enough from his severe health problems to be able
to continue some discussions about Optacon tactile displays.
However, I am also convinced that we have not had
independent observation of and confirmation of any working
prototypes of Charles's Optacon 3 tactile array devices,
something that causes most experts in the field to have
serious doubts about its performance and viability.
To be taken seriously by researchers in the tactile display
field, Charles Pond will need to be more open and willing to
share details of his design concepts and any prototypes.
Sincerely,
Noel
-
Noel H. Runyan
Phone: 1-408-866-7564
Email: Noel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
-
At 11:35 PM 7/23/2020, Catherine Thomas wrote:
I think someone is having a joke at the list's expense. Idoubt vey
seriously that the messages are authentically from Charles.The english
is wrong, the writing style does not match and the tone iswrong. If
anyone receives any private requests for funds claiming tobe from
Charles, just delete them. This is only my opinion based onyears of reading Charles'
messages.----------
Catherine
------------------------------------------------------
-Catherine Thomas
braille@xxxxxxxxx /
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