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In most cases because it is impossible to find out who is doing the calling because the numbers are spoofed.

For example, when my phone receives a call from my own phone number am I going to sue myself? There is no way to track down the actual caller in most cases.


When you ask for the company name, they hang up on you usually.

You have to sound like a potential buyer (sucker) in order for them to properly identify themselves.

This is true for Auto Warranty, Medicare, Timeshares, etc. robocallers.


Exactly right. It’s actually a fun exercise in social engineering, and can be a fascinating sociological experiment if you’re into that sort of thing.

The most successful persona unfortunately is that of a slightly senile senior citizen. Senile enough that you seem gullible to the caller, but believable that you have enough money and sense to continue with the transaction.


I love watching videos of Kitboga and some of the other scam-baiters impersonate elderly individuals and then unmask themselves at the very end.


Correct. Sounding old and slightly senile is what gets them on the hook most effectively.

Unfortunately - when they're calling, they also seem to have all your personal info, and know your name and how old you are. So I put on my best senile guy voice, they confirm my name, and then they hang up.

It's actually quite concerning!


I have several personas that have made the rounds in the underground somewhere. It’s actually kind of interesting - I made up a persona back in 2016 or so and even six years later I’ll get calls for that “person”.

So while sometimes the information is legitimate - especially if you’re not opted out of the major internet people search engines (ref optery which is a yc graduate company) - but you can also “poison the well” enough to get your fake persona disseminated.


In my experience it's usually a 2-step system. I get a spam call frome either a robot voice or someone with a heavy accent. This company is generally not based in the US. After collecting some basic information like your name and eligibility for Medicare, they forward you to a US based company.

I'm not a lawyer, but even though the foreign scam call company illegally called you, I don't believe the US based company is liable for anything because the scammers make you agree to be transferred to a Medicare licensing office.


The money has to be sent somewhere. Those accounts are usually more traceable.


Your carrier can trace it back. They have more information than just the spoofed CID.

They almost certainly don't have ALL the information, but they'll know which carrier sent them the call, who can then look into it... and on back to the source carrier.


I got a lot of telemarketers calling from numbers that only show up on my phone as "Restricted".

So there isn't even a phone number to trace.


Do you answer those calls? Caller ID is default on. You have to do work to turn it off. If they did that work, I don't answer.


This is going to have zero impact on the 900 spam calls I get every single day from towns in my home state with less than 50 residents.


Corso Systems | Remote with On-site work as needed at customer facilities | Full time | https://corsosystems.com/careers

Looking for systems engineers across all skill levels. You will get to work with innovative manufacturing companies and technology, build process automation systems, business information and analytics systems, as well as IIoT projects, products, and SaaS implementations.

More details on the link above.


Their stuff is a nightmare to use, and is insanely expensive.

Always nice when we get to just swap it out for something like Canary or even Ignition although folks are always trying to trash the Ignition Historian when it works well for most use cases people need to solve.


Yeah, Ignition’s historian isn’t meant to replace or compete with PI, it’s just meant to provide a basic historian that meets the average user’s needs.


Corso Systems | Control Systems Engineer | Remote | Full-time | corsosystems.com

Corso Systems is a systems integration firm focused on manufacturing execution and optimization. We work with all manufacturing industries to improve their processes through supply chain integrations, process automation, and procedural improvements.

We are looking for folks on the technical side to help with our ever increasing portfolio of new and interest problems to solve.

http://corsosystems.com/were-hiring-2018-corso-is-looking-fo...


So the basic gist is Consumer Reports is trying to find a younger audience by building a new website to compete with The Wirecutter for attention?

This was a very long and convoluted article to get to that conclusion.


Corso Systems | Chicago | Control Systems Engineer, Marketing/Sales | REMOTE | corsosystems.com

We're seeking a control systems engineer, entry level is ok. Typical tasks include developing GUIs and process control logic for manufacturing systems, database administration, web services development, and system commissioning. There is a lot of overlap with more "general" programming disciplines, CS, etc., and while a technical background is great, a technical degree is not a requirement.

Remote work is fine, along with travel to customer facilities when necessary for commissioning.

We're also looking for a sales/marketing person to help develop our marketing processes and content to drive new business. This includes written content for our site and industry publications, working with our customers to develop case studies, and developing video content for our projects, side projects, and general shenanigans.

We are a small company helping large manufacturers optimize their processes, reduce costs, and do what they do better through the use of automation, data analysis, and workforce utilization.

Check out our site and let us know directly if you are interested or have any questions.

[email protected]


How does buying pizza with a corporate credit card result in a felony conviction?


You would be surprised at what can land you with a felony. Most crimes could fall into that category if you are found with drugs on you at time of arrest.

The problem is punishment vs rehabilitation. The real issue is that we don't consider the prison time served as sufficient penalty and we continue to dog an offender long beyond what is indicated for safety.

Most research shows that non-violent offenders are actually safer than the general public if they manage to stay out of trouble for 5 years past their offense. Those people should get their record cleared at that point.


he didn't elaborate, but I was assuming it was not an authorized transaction. he might have been using stolen credit card numbers.


I have a hard time imagining that an unauthorized charge for pizza alone gets you a felony. That should be grounds for a firing, not a felony.


probably a misdemeanor larceny, but because it was credit card fraud done over the internet, that's felony wire fraud which is a much more serious crime. if it was an interstate transaction it might have even been a federal charge.


> but because it was credit card fraud done over the internet

How do you know that's what the author did? (it would nicely explain the situation, though)


oh I have no idea, I'm speculating, sorry if my language implied otherwise.


This definitely needs much more elaboration. Felonies are reserved for very serious crimes. It should take much more than an unauthorized pizza purchase.


> Felonies are reserved for very serious crimes

Not true in any real sense. I've seen a State of Texas employee charged with a felony for making a $0.25 personal call from a state telephone back in the early 90's.

The unreal magnitude of criminalization of "normal" behavior in the US is beyond anything most people can imagine.


> Felonies are reserved for very serious crimes.

This is true only in the tautological sense, in which designation of something as "felony" is held to designate it as a "very serious" crime.

Beyond that, no. In fact, this is expressly recognized many places in law, such as California's three-strikes law, where a "strike" is a "violent or serious" felony.


"Felonies are reserved for very serious crimes."

False. It's a real problem that people think this. No wonder our justice system in the US is so fucked up. People don't even know what's happening.


Adultery is a felony in Michigan, though it's obviously not really enforced.


Yeah, that sounds fishy. Definitely more to it than that. Maybe the card was stolen?


Mindy Kaling's character on The Office was ahead of her time. WUPHF!


I could be wrong but wasn't that Ryan's idea?


Supposedly originally Mindy's idea, until Ryan stole it from her. She later threatens to sue him.


I don't think they support printers...yet.


There's always Google's API!

https://www.google.com/cloudprint/


Ha! :) I work at Twilio. In a comparison between the 2: I think are orchestrations are more sophisticated than WUPHF, but we are lacking fax support...


The problem I have with Musk's use of government money is that his companies most reliant on the money are still reporting net losses after being in business for a decade. Maybe in the "start-up" world of hoping to make a big exit he is successful, still, I don't know how anyone can call this Musk being successful. Maybe he will be down the road, but I don't see it that way.

I'm originally from Reno NV, which will be directly impacted by the gigafactory. I think NV took a huge gamble on the tax incentives there, including cutting huge amounts of funding for other, much more diverse industries. As NV has seen, focusing on one or two extremely unstable industries (gambling and mining) can quickly put you in a bind when things go south, the economy, price of rare metals, etc. They are simply banking on Tesla as a third pillar of industry, one without a track record of returning on its investment in the form of profits. If things continue on the same track they have been with Tesla, I don't see NV getting a very good return on investment in the long run.

Also, no one is taking into account the skilled manufacturing workforce (or lack thereof) in Reno, the existing manufacturing going on there, and the fact that either people will need to either come from out of state, or be poached from just about every manufacturing company in the area to supply Tesla's workforce requirements. If manufacturing in Reno is brought to its knees to support Tesla how is that any better than not having Tesla there in the first place?

Finally, the location of the gigafactory is going to lead people to live in Reno, but the factory is in a different county. Therefore the burden of all of the extra children, traffic, government services, etc., will be focused in an area not receiving any money from the overall package for those services.

While I hope someone besides Musk and his shareholders can take part in the upside of all of this investment, I personally don't see it coming to fruition anytime soon.


Of course the companies most reliant on the money are still reporting net losses. If they weren't reliant on money it'd be because they were turning a profit. So perhaps a more succinct and accurate statement is that you have a problem with government investments in long, as-of-yet unprofitable (earnings) companies. You don't like the long-shots that take a long time to potentially mature. And I probably wouldn't either if they were near my town.


I'm not against long-shots that take time to mature, as long as those are part of a diversified investment portfolio.

The legislators gave up or severely decreased tax incentives to other industries to make up the gap. Could Tesla be worth all of that in the long run? Possibly, still, I think it would be wise to continue to invest some of the money in other ventures rather than putting it all in on Tesla.


I imagine NV sees this as a kind of loss leader. If they bring in Musk this, it is expected, could kick off more innovative industries which would diversify the NV economy.

The hope is, that like zappos, this could kick off more technology oriented industries to consider NV as a possible location for their business. You don't want your state to become the Rhode island --the one which does little to diversify and attract new industry.


I agree, I'm just not sure that having to give up existing tax incentives to other industries to fund a $1.3B subsidy to one company is the way to go about generating new industry in the area.

There is a small group of start-ups in the area that seem to be doing well for themselves and every so often there is talk of Reno becoming the next Silicon Valley, so I think the SAAS sector is covered.

Reno also has Sierra Nevada Corp, which was in competition with SpaceX and Boeing on some space related ventures for whatever that is worth.


Well, sometimes the country can't just put its trust into private investors to really accomplish something in innovation. There is already a lot of money sleeping, sometimes off shore, so I don't think it's really relevant to judge this aspect.

It's the nature of current capitalism and how big players just won't even try going towards the electric car because it's a risk for their business model. If you want to go forward, sometimes you have to force your hand, and it involves using government money. You could also argue that putting a flag on the moon is worthless too. Sometimes the answer is not in accounting. Markets and money are just that, tools. You can't always think in a logic that revolves around capitalism, you have to look further than that.


as employees are paid in county X and live in county Y, doesn't the second county receive tax side effects from the employees? Such as property taxes and secondary spending?

Perhaps Nevada gave too much away (or not?), but the tone of your argument seems to suggest that you think NV and Reno would be better off without the gigafactory. Apart from 'they were bribed' what reasons do you think your state/county lawmakers had for making this deal? What data and evidence did they consider, and how is your opinion different?


I don't think it would be better off without the gigafactory, I think it would be better off without such a steep investment in one company.

Sure, there will be tax and other money spent where the people live and work, but I'm not seeing how that will be enough of a boost to the economy to justify $1.3B in incentives given to Tesla, especially when their ask was for less than half of that amount.


You are seriously arguing against more jobs in an area to protect current employers?!


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