March 21, 2026: Reader Tips

Reader Tips 42 Comments

At the risk of having you all hate me, here’s an Alfred Hitchcat Tribute. Doubling down, here’s Indiana Jonesy

Bonus: This is a Tech PSA of sorts, which will hopefully help someone: Yesterday, I received a call from an elderly friend in Toronto. He had been trying to get his printer working with his Windows 10 laptop. I’m not sure how it happened, but a window popped up and someone appearing to be a female customer service agent asked him what was wrong. That lead to either he calling a number “she” gave him or them calling him. Anyhow, some guy named “Mark” offered to help my friend. Mark convinced him to go to some website, enter a code, which allowed Mark to get control of his laptop. Mark apparently ran some tests and told my friend that because there were too many people on the Internet in his area, that’s why he couldn’t print on his own printer. Of course, that’s nonsense. Then Mark asked for $150 payment. My friend immediately called me. I ended calling the number he was given, one supposedly in El Paso, Texas. Some sketchy guy with a thick Indian accent answered, asked me what my “good name” was, and I immediately realized (strongly suspected) that my friend had been scammed. My biggest concern is that “Mark” may have placed some spy software on the computer, which could now be monitoring every keyboard press and mouse click. I don’t have enough technical expertise to know whether McAfee AntiVirus or Windows Defender can prevent spy software from being installed if someone has direct access to your computer. So everyone, do not ever let any stranger have access to your computer or phone … unless you’re absolutely certain you can trust them. And do try to protect the elderly friends & family members in your life.

Your best news tips are always appreciated!

42 Replies to “March 21, 2026: Reader Tips”

  1. This is the second “take advantage of the elderly” I’ve heard about today. This is so infuriating. Earlier today on Talk radio 99.5 in Alabama, there was a story of a 92 year old woman who lost $25,000 to a scammer. The scammer went as far as sending her to her bank, with a phone in her ear, withdrawing $25,000, and putting it in a box with the plan to “catch the guy” who’s been making charges on her Apple Pay account (which she doesn’t have). She was afraid of getting bad credit.
    PS- while in the bank, the bank people suspected a scam was happening and tried to ask her what the money was for. The scammer (on the phone) told her to tell them it was none of their business. And she did. She was that convinced.

    1. l fault family members, bankers, investment experts, anyone close to the elderly on a daily basis to DRILL IT IN THEIR HEAD AS CONVINCING AS IT SOUNDS THAT IS EXACTLY HOW YOU CAN TELL ITS A SCAM. but, some elderly are ‘set in their ways’ and get duped into thinking ‘well this one is the exception’.
      a former tenant fell for the ‘this is revenue canada we are going to send an rcmp officer to arrest you. when l found out l severely scolded him for not saying a WORD about any of it just like everything else in his daily routine.

    2. When “Bob from Telus” calls I get excited and say I have been waiting for the call from Telus. “Bob” always hangs up on me. Is that some kind of a New Dehli thing to hang up?

      When it’s a robocall, never press the number. “Bob”, who is from New Dehli, will start downloading your phone contents.

    3. i used to get a lot of calls back in the day. Then I started discussing the underwear I was wearing that day and asked the caller whether boxers or briefs would be better. I suspect the phone number ended up on a do not call list. I miss those calls

      1. Friend got a call from Microsoft Tech Support. She was starting to allow a connection and I pulled her Ethernet cable.
        .
        For a while I was getting voicemails with a spooked Social Security phone number telling me that I owed a bunch of money and to call him back. It was a obviously faked American voice. The person answering the phone number claimed to be Social Security with an Indian accent. The phone number was in the Port Angeles, Washington area, so I called the sheriff. They were aware of them but they were not physically present. Indian phone companies provide U.S. phone numbers for Indian companies supposedly so they can pretend you are getting U.S. customer support

    4. When you get a call from an Unknown Number, “Toll Free”, a series of numbers not recognized, or, Caller ID of someone you don’t know, there’s only one thing to do.
      Let it go to Voice Mail.
      100% of the time.
      Does it seem anti-social? Maybe.
      But, this world is full of scammers and “charities” trying to separate you from your money, that’s it’s just not worth the time or aggravation dealing with these miscreants.
      That said, the old in-laws, despite being told repeatedly DO NOT ANSWER EVERY PHONECALL, still run to the phone and answer it, every time. We’re just waiting for the day where they’ve been scammed.
      AI takes phone scamming to a whole new level of concern. They seem blissfully unaware and uncaring about how easy it is to get scammed. No, they’re not in dementia, though we’re watching closely.

      1. As soon as they say, “Oh it’s so nice to get a live voice…” you immediately know the caller has its hand out.

  2. l had what could be deemed what *could have* developed into a close call.
    forgot the leadup but l hand over the system, dont like what l see, refuse to ante up anything during the process during which l concluded l was being scammed, got in a race to take over keyboard control including screen captures whereupon the scammer undid things and disconnected.
    sparse on details it was well over a year ago but after thorough scanning 6 ways till sunday l concluded there was no residual spyware.
    some are not so lucky.

  3. My email junk folder is full of that crap. Nobody cares. I even called the bank to tell them their emergency number was being used for scams. They should cut several internet cables from shithole countries. I get calls all the time too. The scammers are so lazy they leave a message and expect you to call a number to scam yourself. It looks like day to day communications are being monitored for hate speech but not for actual crime. They run local ads here about phone scams (a white dude in a toque is the eeeevil scammer. Black Jacques Shellack?). That is the extent of the protection they offer: Don’t be a dumbass. No wonder; I went to get a simple haircut and they wanted my phone number. It just goes down into a big scam funnel.

    1. Scammers using toll-free numbers for calls back annoyed my neighborhood in the 2000s. I called them back to grill them with questions about their organizations, from a land phone, once for almost four hours at the scammers’ expense.

      These days, even if calling them back from a flatphone were fee of charge, it would probably give the scammers access to your flatphone account, so they’d be able to harass other people from what appeared to be your phone number.

  6. I have taken to having a full back story for them, Peter Svarte, 17 Pole Road North, I’m in the NWT, but the post office is across the street in Nunavut, postal code H0H0HO.

    If I am short of time I act like I called them and got misdirected, ask them if they are accounts payable. Tell them I am from the Soap St. Paper Company, and I need to talk to them about some unpaid invoices for office supplies, and when can I expect payment.

    If I am feeling really bored and creative I say I am from merchant services, and I need to talk to the person responsible for their account as there has been some suspicious activity on their account and we would like to clear it up rather than suspend their payment processing.

    So far I have resisted the urge to use a barely intelligible accent and respond to everything as though I am taking a food order (‘dis pickup delivery’, ‘any drink’, ‘number 17, you want fried rice with that’, ‘you be here twenny mins’).

    I saw one voice actress on youtube that can switch between the voices of Siri and an old lady telling stories about not recognizing those charges on her amazon account because all she bought was a camping axe, garbage bags, duct tape, a box of lye and a personal massager, then going on a tangent about her husband cheating with suzie Q and how she put extra medication in his metamucil, and that why she needed the garbage bags, camping axe, and duct tape, but she never bought any iphones or gift cards, just the camping axe, hefty garbage bags, duct tape, lye, and a personal massager… all while Siri interrupts regularly warning her that this sounds like a scam.

  8. we had 2 phone lines in st catharines when the missus was with an engineering company that relocated to oakville so she could login and check out stuff. l knew *any* time there was an incoming call on that line it was a telemarketer, l would answer in my best paki voice
    “who is it that is calling’ ‘you will tell me who it is that is calling”
    can . . . . . l . . . . . speak . . . . . .to . . . . . the . . . . . . .home . . . . . owner
    “you will tell me who it is that is calling” full throated paki accent.
    got them every time.

  9. 1970. What a time to be alive … and discovering in 8th grade that love is full of flaws … just as Linda Ronstadt did.
    https://youtu.be/lafaMF9uXZU?si=8qxx_04MiM5IXGmR
    Bobby Darin on guitar … beautifully … who knew?

    And life’s full of flaws
    Who knows the cause?
    Living in the memory
    Of a love that never was

    Who’s not had one or two of those? Still. Better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all. Because the greatest of these is love.

  11. “ Some sketchy guy with a thick Indian accent answered “

    My parents (both in their 90s) get about 10 calls a day (posing as numbers from local towns) from these filthy street s******s trying to scam them out of money. When I’m there, I sometimes pick up the phone and just heap boatloads of virulently racist vitriol at these vermin until they finally hang up. It makes me feel so good inside. They still call of course, but it’s a small victory for me until such time that I find out where these people live, douse them in gasoline, and, well, you get the picture.

    1. They need to let it go to a message.
      What is it with the OLD generations (aged 80plus) that they reflexively NEED to answer the phone? Even the in laws have said that all their old friends are dead. If that’s the case, why are they rushing to answer every phone call?
      Give them an answering machine? They mistrust all technology to a fault.
      “I don’t need a celly phone, I don’t want to pay for it, I leave it off most of the time.”
      Is it Ed McMahon calling from the Sweepstakes?
      Oy Vey.

  12. one time, it was the umpteenth exhortation to get the air ducts cleaned.
    so l relented set the date.
    truck shows up.
    ‘give me a moment’. l go back inside call them back
    ‘sorry gotta reschedule’ go back outside,
    ‘sorry guys l gotta rerschedule can you come back later?
    oh, by the way, IM GONNA RESCHEDULE EVERY TIME YOU SHOW UP STOP CALLING ME
    oh they werent happy, so l told them again, every time you call, l schedule the truck
    and when it shows up l reschedule. EVERY TIME. GOT IT?

    1. Love those.

      “Clean my ducks? How do you do it? With a vacuum truck?! But my ducks are very small and have lots of feathers. You can get the feathers out? Does it damage the ducks? I need them to be in good shape for when I cook them later. What do you mean you don’t cook ducks?! You eat them raw?! That’s not very healthy. Why do you want to come and do something that will make me sick?!” Etc etc. Lots of opportunities to frustrate Rajesh with that one…

      RNrn

  13. My father lives in our basement and has a Bell landline which attracts scammers for some reason. He assumes everyone is a scammer. He’s hearing impaired so we hear much of his conversations.

    Someone called wanting to clean the ducts. “We don’t have any ducks. The occasional goose, but no ducks.” No, ducts to heat your house. How do you heat your house? “I have a fire place.” Do you have a furnace? “No. My son won’t pay for one so it’s really cold in the winter and I have to chop my own wood and I’m 85. I’m not sure how much longer I can do this. Could you help me?” Click.

    Recently someone phoned claiming my father’s computer had been hacked (according to their screen). They asked what operating system he used. He answered Windows 10. He owns an Apple product. The scammer confirmed it was a Windows 10 attack. My father became very concerned (in voice) and asked if he could get his son because it sounded serious. But if there are any charges, make sure to put them on his credit card because his son shouldn’t have to pay for this. The scammer agreed and my father set the phone down and went back to reading his paper. The scammer stayed on the line for about 23 minutes, occasionally yelling into the phone “hello, hello?”

    1. I got a call about a large lottery win once. I burst out crying, explained I was living in my car and down to my last 10$ and they were saving my life.

    1. I wish I could un-see that.
      “You don’t need heating, cooling, lighting or transportation. The system you have is lovely.”

  17. Pretty much every week I get a call supposedly from Telus and another supposedly from Rogers. Since my phones are on every do not call list known to man, I tell them to eff off and die.

  20. Innocent Canadian woman and daughter kidnapped by ICE and tortured with prison food.

    https://nationalpost.com/news/local-news/b-c-woman-and-daughter-7-detained-at-ice-jail-in-texas-despite-having-visa/wcm/def989c2-a4ac-4cdd-80ce-bb803ec3eb48

    Oh, yeah, she entered the US 5 years ago on. B1 business permit, got married months later, and played the Alien immigrant stay and play game.
    She presented her Canadian passport, and Texas work card (!) when re-entering the US. The card clearly says “Not Valid for re-entry into the US”. Can’t fix stupid.
    In these cases, potential spouses must follow the K1 visa process for legitimate entry.
    No exceptions. She was offered voluntary deportation to Canada, but refused.
    The media is selling this story as you can imagine.
    Whether this occurred by ignorance of the proceed or a purposeful deception, doesn’t matter. Clear violation of the Visa. Of course, emotional blackmail to the ElBoWZos Trumps facts

    1. Like I noted when this BS first surfaced: I’d have “waxed” his balls for him. With a GD hammer. And you can bet your sweet patootie that’d be the last f’ing time he ever asked someone for that particular treatment…

  22. Couple of points:

    Most of the major anti-virus companies have stand-alone virus removers you can download.

    We were getting at least a dozen scammer calls a day (starting at about 3am). Bought a call blocker device off amazon. Put it in learn mode for a month, then went active. Passes anyone through on the allowed list, Hangs up on no caller ID, any number on the ‘dis-allowed’ list, and other wise plays a 30 second message ending up with directions “to press 0 and call back”. Automated robo-callers hang up after 10 seconds into the message. Only had one person listen to the message and call back and through.

  24. This Will Reduce Airport Screening Wait Times
    Trump says he’s sending federal immigration agents to airports on Monday amid DHS shutdown
    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-threatens-send-federal-immigration-agents-airports-dhs-shutdown-rcna264467
    “If the Democrats do not allow for Just and Proper Security at our Airports, and elsewhere throughout our Country, ICE will do the job far better than ever done before!” he wrote in a post on Truth Social, adding later, “I look forward to moving ICE in on Monday, and have already told them to, ‘GET READY.'”

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