2024 LC Thread: Name That Tune

woke up and my phone was in SOS mode, apparently there’s a huge outage on the ATT cellular network? wtf

Same.

this is what i always try to remind my uncultured self about art when some kid on the street can do drawings in pencil that are as realistic as photographs while some blurry attempt at a portrait is worth millions.

Folllow up to this:

I just completely ignored this. Then I got a notification that the person who had sent me money was claiming they had not received the item they paid for. I ignored that as well. Eventually I got a notification that because I had not responded they were deciding in the sender’s favor and returning the money that was sent. All good, right? Yes, but PayPal has assessed a $15 fee per returned transaction (there were two) and says I owe them $30. Just got my second email from them about it. When all this started I made sure no bank accounts or credit cards are attached to this PayPal account so as far as I know they have no way of stealing $30 from me. I have no idea if they have my SS#.

My options as I see them:

  1. Continue to ignore it
  2. Attempt to correspond with PayPal in an effort to explain what happened and have them remove the fee
  3. Give them $30 to go away

I do not have the patience for #2 so I’m between #1 and #3.

  1. They can’t hit your credit. How often do you use the account? Im guessing the worst they can do is close it

I never use this account.

Do you have children or employees you can foist #2 off on as a “character building” assignment?

Nobody I dislike that much. Upon reflection paying the $30 might be bad because it would look like an admission of guilt. Instead of trying to discuss it with them I may just send a message explaining the situation and telling them I’m not paying the $30, just to have my version on record. Or just ignore it.

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I would never pay the $30. But I have heard that dealing with PayPal is total hell. I’d send the message.

I’m trying to figure out what the scam is here.

I’ve gone down the rabbit hole of having defense attorneys watch body cam footage and commit on it and it pulls me in very different directions because I really don’t like direct physical confrontation, but like hearing the legal arguments.

One strategy I thought was interesting was the ‘put up or shut up strategy’ where if you think the officer is going to take you to jail regardless of what you say or do is to immediately shut up and say either take me to jail or let me go and I want a lawyer immediately.

The example this came up was a ‘drunk driving’ stop. The kid was stone cold sober and in hindsight the officer was looking for any way to make an arrest. The officer went straight into badgering the kid, saying his assumptions out loud like 'I think you’re impaired, ‘you’re showing signs of alcohol’. The kid was a bit rude back saying he hadn’t had any alcohol that night and that the cop was fishing. But when the cop asked him to take the drunk driving tests, the kid agreed. The defense attorney pointed out that it’s nearly impossible for anyone up to and including completely sober young athlete like the kid to pass 100% scott free and so by volunteering to do it the kid basically volunteered some evidence to the cops. My overall assessment now is that only the breathizer is the only thing I’d trust to count as saying I’m drunk or not, all the other tests are mostly subjective with so many false positives that, if the cops want to make a case, they can.

I thought it was interesting because my naïve strategy would be 'yea I’m sober, this will let me prove it" when in fact, the tests can easily set you up to fail.

Anyways the kid blew a 0.00 and someone actually forced the cop to come in and semi apologize to the kid.

I had a blowout and rolled my car on I-15 heading to Zion at 7am. One cop showed up and kept badgering me about being drunk. It didn’t help that I had beers in the cooler which came out and one of them opened.

I convinced that cop I wasn’t drunk. Then he left and a highway patrol officer showed up and started the same shit. It was then that I got testy, saying I’d just been through all this with the other cop, which of course made the HP officer turn belligerent. Finally I just said, “Give me a breathalyzer, give me a blood test.” That shut him up and he stopped bothering me.

The other lesson, just in case it helps someone, is the stuff they tell you about lightly tapping your brakes in a blowout is very true. It’s fine if the tire blows completely, but in my case the tread came off, leaving only the inner-tube, which acted like a skid when I hit the brakes, sending me off the road as the right rear grabbed and the left rear skidded.

Of course once the car jerked to the right I just panicked and slammed the brakes, which made it worse. I got pretty lucky to go off the road at the right place where the car hit a soft berm and rolled 3 or 4 times. So many other spots would have been a tree, or rocks, or a steep drop off. Also would be dead if I wasn’t wearing a seatbelt.

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Defintely don’t pay the $30

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This is almost always the correct answer. Never talk to cops if they are questioning you without a lawyer present. Even if they say something like “Youre under no suspicion and we just need your help with this.” Tell them thats great and since you are under no suspicion or arrest youll use your right to leave at that time.

Far too often shit people say off the cuff leads to major problems down the line regardless of the guilt or innocence of the person in question. It is the police’s burden to PROVE you have done something wrong. Never help them in that quest

I think the scam is if LFS’s account had been active eBay would have taken money out of it and returned it to the scammer?

But the scammer put the money there in the first place.

I don’t get it either.

That is weird, where did the money go since the account wasn’t active?

I guess it could be something like the scammer got access to the account, pulled the money from your old friend’s bank account, gets the money back, then sends it to a different account. Not sure if PayPal allows that.

OK so I sent the message and got a pretty speedy reply.

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Yeah LFS, this is your fault somehow. Be more careful!

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