obfuscated.org

I’ve been getting several calls a week from (727) 541-0001 for some time now. The usual shtick is for them to claim to be from United Marketing or American Express, read me the last four numbers off of my credit card and try to get me to give them various pieces of identifying information. “Hi, I’m some scammy-sounding dude from Florida. I have the end of your credit card number and want to offer you a $40 gas card. What’s your home address?” Because I don’t have it in me to say something like “My home address is 4 GFY Lane in Get Bent, WI,” I’ve been trying various combinations of “please take me off of your phone list.” It hasn’t worked at all.

Oddly, I didn’t google the number until today. It turns out that this is a pretty well-known scam (More information on this scam). I called Amex just to make sure, and they confirmed that Amex is not offering gas cards in exchange for information that they already have on file.

So what are the best steps for me to take here? There’s part of me that wants to just mess with the people making the calls, but that would cost me money in terms of cell phone minutes, and I doubt that the people making the calls are even aware that they’re part of a scam. I doubt that the Do Not Call list would help. Above and beyond going over my Amex statements with an exceedingly fine-toothed comb from here on out, what should I do?

For fun, here’s a list of their last few calls. (My caller id only stores the previous 60 calls, so this is unfortunately all I have.)

4/24 9:12AM 4/23 12:02PM 4/21 9:23AM 4/20 3:48PM 4/20 9:23AM 4/19 6:05PM 4/19 12:00PM

And I have one listing for (727) 712-0382:

4/17 1:25PM

McSweeney’s Pros and Cons of the Top 20 Democratic Presidential Candidates is pretty funny.

11.

ALLEN IVERSON

Pro: Instant offense. Con: Selfish with the ball; may have lost a step.

12.

IRA GLASS

Pro: Thoughtful; self-effacing; like many Americans, enjoys cable television. Con: At present, no budget line item exists for moody introspective music to underscore every statement president makes in order to make it sound more poignant.

16.

JESUS CHRIST

Pro: Could draw some initial interest from the Christian right until they research his actual positions in a deeper way; likable; strong leadership qualities. Con: Unkempt; pretty far left; messianic complex.

[Via]

COULTON’s “thing a week” and the “Jonathan Coulton Project” are available as podcasts. Subscribe.

So Apple is going to sell “premium” tracks on its iTunes store for $1.29. The “premium” part? 256-bit encoding and no DRM. Which I guess is pretty cool. I wonder what the over/under on how long this lasts is?

The deal doesn’t include Beatles’ tracks, but will supposedly cover the rest of EMI’s catalog. Wikipedia has a list of artists signed to EMI. Notable members of the list (for me) include:

• Frank Sinatra
• Dean Martin
• Bowie
• The Yardbirds

So what’s the more interesting part of the “premium” tracks: No DRM, or upped bitrate? One could already get around the DRM without a lot of trouble, so I might lean towards the bitrate. However, not having to fuss with breaking the DRM or burning/re-ripping is braggable.

After years of happy pet-free living, we finally gave in and got a cat. Meet Tommy:

I’ve pre-ordered a year’s supply of Claritin, but being completely zonked out 24/7 will totally be worth it to have a little feline companionship around the house. Plus I get to blog about my cat, which is braggable.