INTRODUCTION TO BRIAN WADE'S WRITING: THERE'S A SUCKER BORN...

INTRODUCTION TO BRIAN WADE'S WRITING:                              THERE'S A SUCKER BORN...:                              THERE'S A SUCKER BORN EVERY MINUTE (PART-3)         Last week we focused on "Click Fraud,""...

                             THERE'S A SUCKER BORN EVERY MINUTE (PART-3)
        Last week we focused on "Click Fraud,""Shocking News Scams,"  and Emotional Extortion Scams. Now for my final blog on internet scams we start off with "Free Stuff!" You know what these are, the gift exchanges, free coupons, trips, free I-Phone, free likes, followers and gift cards. These scenarios usually take advantage of big brand names like Starbucks, Victoria's Secret, McDonalds or Coke. The cyber scammer propagates the con by having you click on the likes, share, or tag a friend to follow. Then voila, they have all your information, and a virus on your computer usually follows.
        Not only that you can get spam emails that claimed you have won millions of dollars for a lottery or a prize in some competition. In order to receive the prize, they prompt you to send some personal ID information, plus a small fee to the post office. Easy Money doesn't exist! These are usually bogus offers that claim to help start making you thousands of dollars. They require some sort of nominal fee to get you started.
         Fake Antivirus Software, We have all seen these messages pop up on our cell phones or home computers at least once or twice. "You have been infected, Download Antivirus X right now! to protect your computer! Many of these popups look legit but beware, if you click on it, this may contain a Trojan virus or a key logger.
         Travel Scams are likely to appear in the hot summer months or just before winter for Xmas or New Years day. You receive an email containing an amazing offer for an extraordinary hard to get to destination (exotic locale). However this offer will expire in a short period and it can't be missed.                Beware of these offersas they have necessary costs associated with them, that has to paid for the initial offer. Other cyber criminals simply take your money without sending you anywhere too. Look for the hidden costs like airport taxes, access ticket fees for local attractions, meals included or not, local transportation fares going to the airport or the hotel room, and main attraction clauses your going to, such as they can only be used on certain days and times.
         Binary Trading Option Companies are one of the worst cyber scams out on the internet today. These sleaze ball companies pray upon the elderly as well as the poor people. Surprisingly there are over 350 binary option brokers that you can open up an account with, as little as $250.00 Most are dishonest brokers who manipulate prices or won't let you withdraw your winnings. It is very important to choose a legitimate broker before investing too. If you want to avoid being taken, you need to sign up for scam investigation alerts, newsletters from legitimate companies, try before you buy, get risk free trading, and choose a regulated Binary Options Broker. Just ask your credit card company their opinion on Binary Options Trading, because overall their opinions will alarm you! A good many of these companies are located over seas or in third world companies too, so it is virtually impossible to get a hold of them, if you want your money back. Generally, they are unregulated, which means basically no recourse of action for the investor.
         The bottom line in all these scams, is one element that keeps coming up, there are no get rich quick schemes out there! If it's too good to be true, then it probably is! Do you homework before you give away your hard earned money and you will be financially better for it,in the end okay?
        So now it's back to part-3 of my little con-job on an unsuspecting fare. Again I would like to reiterate, that was who I was in the 80's not who I am now....Have a great week!
         This excerpt page was taken out of my soon to be published book "Temporary Satisfaction."
         Nice day? I questioned, “I had a fricken great day” I exclaimed, and now I walk out that store with everybody looking at me in puzzlement.

           I got in my cab and started up the car and just put my foot all the way to the floor, with the brake still on. As I released it, and shifted into gear, I smoked those tires so bad, you would have thought I was in a drag race. Not only could they smell the acrid taste of burned rubber up their nostrils but a loud screaming sound of tires meeting pavement was heard. In spite of everything, I was overtired, giddy, had a sore back but I didn’t care at that point. I needed to get back to Peace River as fast as I possibly could as I had been missing now for 36 hours! I knew the cab company would have called the cops as it was their policy, if a driver hadn’t checked in, and I certainly hadn’t. All they knew was, I had picked up a drunken Indian in Peace River a day ago, and that’s all they had to go on. I’m sure they would be thinking the worst had happened to me, and who could blame them. It’s absolutely amazing how I never got stopped for speeding that day, as I made it from Edmonton to Peace River in just over three hours. I guess if you’re driving a consistent 125 miles per hour that would be possible, but it was also dangerous and stupid, when I look back on that. All I can say, is the “Cab Gods” must have really been looking after me, because at the speed I was driving I should have been killed.

         Anyways, I turned on my 2-way radio and eavesdropped on the conversation going on the airwaves that morning.

         To my surprise, the conversation was about me, and it didn’t sound very joyous either.

         One driver in , stated “Oh Cory the Rose, you know he was a bit crazy, you never knew what the hell he was going to do next, or who he would pick up, but all in all, he was a really good guy right?

         Another driver, I didn’t recognize his voice, just agreed with what he had said. It was like a fricken eulogy as each driver chimed in, one by one and said his two sense about me.

        If you’re wondering who was “Cory the Rose” they were referring to, that was the nickname given to me, and yes I will get to that story about how I acquired it, shortly.

        After all the memorial sentiments were said about me, I waited for my moment, when the radio was silent. Dead quiet now, nobody had anything more to say about me, finally. I am just waiting for the perfect moment to strike!

       Now I click on the receiver, I said“Car 43... Clear, Three, Five, Zero, Zero, Zero, Peace River to Edmonton Out!”

       You literally could have heard a pin drop as the radio was hushed but still no one said one word. Some moments in your life stick with you forever, and that was definitely my crowning moment of glory at that time.

        In the end of it all, I had to call the Peace River RCMP to let them know I was alive and safe. Being suspended by the cab company for three days wasn’t that bad either, as I just cashed those two cheques at the next business day, waiting anxiously for them to clear. Now, to my absolute surprise they did clear, and I was a little richer for my true efforts.

       So how did I get my nickname “Cory the Rose” driving cab of all things, you ask?

       Well at that time, “Cory Hart, the Pop Singer” had just released another huge hit on the radio called “Never Surrender.” As it was, I used to pick up this full figured young woman, Rae-Lynn at the bar on Friday and Saturday nights and drive her back to her place. This little “Sweetie” of a gal’s story was that her last boyfriend had dumped her as she had put on weight and said he wasn’t attractive to her anymore. If truth be told, she was kind of chunky, although she did have a real beautiful complexion, with deep-set blue eyes. But rather large breasts! I can honestly say, I have never gone for just looks, it’s the inside of a person that makes them more attractive to me, and thus we became “FWB's after that first cab ride.

       Oddly enough, Rae-Lynn would always put a fresh red rose on the dash of my cab the next morning, after we spent a night together. That was her way of thanking me, for giving her untold pleasures. Thus a nick name was created for me by her, as a black leathered individual, who had dark brown spiked and cut short hair; sported a dangly earring in his left ear and always wore dark sunglasses. I totally emulated Cory Hart’s persona at that time, whether it was deliberate or I just looked that way, I really don’t recall. In fact, many cab-drivers would always comment on my pop star looks and that lone red rose, that was always sitting on the front of my dash, just below my rear view mirror.

       I was definitely having my cake and eating it too, as I would sleep with Rae-Lynn after my shift was finished at around three-am. Nevertheless, I had to do my solemn duty as a good boyfriend, so I would go back to the apartment to satisfy Terri in the bedroom as well. She never questioned my whereabouts as she knew I drove cab and the long hours I had to keep, so it was a perfect situation.

       Peace River was a small town back then and Terri’s co-workers were beginning to talk to her about my sordid affairs.To make matters even worse, my Malibu was now acting up, and repairs were starting to get expensive with it. Moreover, I was going through my thirteenth starter on it and I had to replace the headers a second time. Reluctantly I came to the inevitable conclusion that I would have to sell my prized possession car.

      Furthermore, there were now quite a few young women that were approaching Terri at the Saan’s Store with stories of me spending time with them. It was becoming a rather desperate situation and I knew I had to come up with something real quick so I came up with a crazy idea to move to Edmonton. “The City of Champions” as it was called, and because I had recently been there, I really liked the scenery and the layout of the city. What’s more is that I have always been a hockey fan, and they had the Edmonton Oilers that played in the National Hockey League. I had decided I was going to become an Oiler’s fan due to the fact they had this young very skilled hockey player on their team, named Wayne Gretzky

        I had also made a new pact with myself to remain faithful and true to our relationship there, as I felt I had sown enough of my wild oats to last a lifetime. I had gone through a mind-boggling 17 jobs and slept with over a dozen women in that dam town in just over a year. I mean I thought “Enough was enough right?”

        So what stupid thing in October of 1986 did I do to prove my undying love to Terri, well we got engaged of course?

                             THERE'S A SUCKER BORN EVERY MINUTE (PART-3)
        Last week we focused on "Click Fraud,""Shocking News Scams,"  and Emotional Extortion Scams. Now for my final blog on internet scams we start off with "Free Stuff!" You know what these are, the gift exchanges, free coupons, trips, free I-Phone, free likes, followers and gift cards. These scenarios usually take advantage of big brand names like Starbucks, Victoria's Secret, McDonalds or Coke. The cyber scammer propagates the con by having you click on the likes, share, or tag a friend to follow. Then voila, they have all your information, and a virus on your computer usually follows.
        Not only that you can get spam emails that claimed you have won millions of dollars for a lottery or a prize in some competition. In order to receive the prize, they prompt you to send some personal ID information, plus a small fee to the post office. Easy Money doesn't exist! These are usually bogus offers that claim to help start making you thousands of dollars. They require some sort of nominal fee to get you started.
         Fake Antivirus Software, We have all seen these messages pop up on our cell phones or home computers at least once or twice. "You have been infected, Download Antivirus X right now! to protect your computer! Many of these popups look legit but beware, if you click on it, this may contain a Trojan virus or a key logger.
         Travel Scams are likely to appear in the hot summer months or just before winter for Xmas or New Years day. You receive an email containing an amazing offer for an extraordinary hard to get to destination (exotic locale). However this offer will expire in a short period and it can't be missed.                Beware of these offersas they have necessary costs associated with them, that has to paid for the initial offer. Other cyber criminals simply take your money without sending you anywhere too. Look for the hidden costs like airport taxes, access ticket fees for local attractions, meals included or not, local transportation fares going to the airport or the hotel room, and main attraction clauses your going to, such as they can only be used on certain days and times.
         Binary Trading Option Companies are one of the worst cyber scams out on the internet today. These sleaze ball companies pray upon the elderly as well as the poor people. Surprisingly there are over 350 binary option brokers that you can open up an account with, as little as $250.00 Most are dishonest brokers who manipulate prices or won't let you withdraw your winnings. It is very important to choose a legitimate broker before investing too. If you want to avoid being taken, you need to sign up for scam investigation alerts, newsletters from legitimate companies, try before you buy, get risk free trading, and choose a regulated Binary Options Broker. Just ask your credit card company their opinion on Binary Options Trading, because overall their opinions will alarm you! A good many of these companies are located over seas or in third world companies too, so it is virtually impossible to get a hold of them, if you want your money back. Generally, they are unregulated, which means basically no recourse of action for the investor.
         The bottom line in all these scams, is one element that keeps coming up, there are no get rich quick schemes out there! If it's too good to be true, then it probably is! Do you homework before you give away your hard earned money and you will be financially better for it,in the end okay?
        So now it's back to part-3 of my little con-job on an unsuspecting fare. Again I would like to reiterate, that was who I was in the 80's not who I am now....Have a great week!
         This excerpt page was taken out of my soon to be published book "Temporary Satisfaction."
         Nice day? I questioned, “I had a fricken great day” I exclaimed, and now I walk out that store with everybody looking at me in puzzlement.

           I got in my cab and started up the car and just put my foot all the way to the floor, with the brake still on. As I released it, and shifted into gear, I smoked those tires so bad, you would have thought I was in a drag race. Not only could they smell the acrid taste of burned rubber up their nostrils but a loud screaming sound of tires meeting pavement was heard. In spite of everything, I was overtired, giddy, had a sore back but I didn’t care at that point. I needed to get back to Peace River as fast as I possibly could as I had been missing now for 36 hours! I knew the cab company would have called the cops as it was their policy, if a driver hadn’t checked in, and I certainly hadn’t. All they knew was, I had picked up a drunken Indian in Peace River a day ago, and that’s all they had to go on. I’m sure they would be thinking the worst had happened to me, and who could blame them. It’s absolutely amazing how I never got stopped for speeding that day, as I made it from Edmonton to Peace River in just over three hours. I guess if you’re driving a consistent 125 miles per hour that would be possible, but it was also dangerous and stupid, when I look back on that. All I can say, is the “Cab Gods” must have really been looking after me, because at the speed I was driving I should have been killed.

         Anyways, I turned on my 2-way radio and eavesdropped on the conversation going on the airwaves that morning.

         To my surprise, the conversation was about me, and it didn’t sound very joyous either.

         One driver in , stated “Oh Cory the Rose, you know he was a bit crazy, you never knew what the hell he was going to do next, or who he would pick up, but all in all, he was a really good guy right?

         Another driver, I didn’t recognize his voice, just agreed with what he had said. It was like a fricken eulogy as each driver chimed in, one by one and said his two sense about me.

        If you’re wondering who was “Cory the Rose” they were referring to, that was the nickname given to me, and yes I will get to that story about how I acquired it, shortly.

        After all the memorial sentiments were said about me, I waited for my moment, when the radio was silent. Dead quiet now, nobody had anything more to say about me, finally. I am just waiting for the perfect moment to strike!

       Now I click on the receiver, I said“Car 43... Clear, Three, Five, Zero, Zero, Zero, Peace River to Edmonton Out!”

       You literally could have heard a pin drop as the radio was hushed but still no one said one word. Some moments in your life stick with you forever, and that was definitely my crowning moment of glory at that time.

        In the end of it all, I had to call the Peace River RCMP to let them know I was alive and safe. Being suspended by the cab company for three days wasn’t that bad either, as I just cashed those two cheques at the next business day, waiting anxiously for them to clear. Now, to my absolute surprise they did clear, and I was a little richer for my true efforts.

       So how did I get my nickname “Cory the Rose” driving cab of all things, you ask?

       Well at that time, “Cory Hart, the Pop Singer” had just released another huge hit on the radio called “Never Surrender.” As it was, I used to pick up this full figured young woman, Rae-Lynn at the bar on Friday and Saturday nights and drive her back to her place. This little “Sweetie” of a gal’s story was that her last boyfriend had dumped her as she had put on weight and said he wasn’t attractive to her anymore. If truth be told, she was kind of chunky, although she did have a real beautiful complexion, with deep-set blue eyes. But rather large breasts! I can honestly say, I have never gone for just looks, it’s the inside of a person that makes them more attractive to me, and thus we became “FWB's after that first cab ride.

       Oddly enough, Rae-Lynn would always put a fresh red rose on the dash of my cab the next morning, after we spent a night together. That was her way of thanking me, for giving her untold pleasures. Thus a nick name was created for me by her, as a black leathered individual, who had dark brown spiked and cut short hair; sported a dangly earring in his left ear and always wore dark sunglasses. I totally emulated Cory Hart’s persona at that time, whether it was deliberate or I just looked that way, I really don’t recall. In fact, many cab-drivers would always comment on my pop star looks and that lone red rose, that was always sitting on the front of my dash, just below my rear view mirror.

       I was definitely having my cake and eating it too, as I would sleep with Rae-Lynn after my shift was finished at around three-am. Nevertheless, I had to do my solemn duty as a good boyfriend, so I would go back to the apartment to satisfy Terri in the bedroom as well. She never questioned my whereabouts as she knew I drove cab and the long hours I had to keep, so it was a perfect situation.

       Peace River was a small town back then and Terri’s co-workers were beginning to talk to her about my sordid affairs.To make matters even worse, my Malibu was now acting up, and repairs were starting to get expensive with it. Moreover, I was going through my thirteenth starter on it and I had to replace the headers a second time. Reluctantly I came to the inevitable conclusion that I would have to sell my prized possession car.

      Furthermore, there were now quite a few young women that were approaching Terri at the Saan’s Store with stories of me spending time with them. It was becoming a rather desperate situation and I knew I had to come up with something real quick so I came up with a crazy idea to move to Edmonton. “The City of Champions” as it was called, and because I had recently been there, I really liked the scenery and the layout of the city. What’s more is that I have always been a hockey fan, and they had the Edmonton Oilers that played in the National Hockey League. I had decided I was going to become an Oiler’s fan due to the fact they had this young very skilled hockey player on their team, named Wayne Gretzky

        I had also made a new pact with myself to remain faithful and true to our relationship there, as I felt I had sown enough of my wild oats to last a lifetime. I had gone through a mind-boggling 17 jobs and slept with over a dozen women in that dam town in just over a year. I mean I thought “Enough was enough right?”

        So what stupid thing in October of 1986 did I do to prove my undying love to Terri, well we got engaged of course?

INTRODUCTION TO BRIAN WADE'S WRITING: THERE'S A SUCKER BORN EVER...

INTRODUCTION TO BRIAN WADE'S WRITING:                         THERE'S A SUCKER BORN EVER...:                         THERE'S A SUCKER BORN EVERY MINUTE (PART-TWO)       Last week we talked about "Romance and Dating Scams&qu...

                        THERE'S A SUCKER BORN EVERY MINUTE (PART-TWO)
      Last week we talked about "Romance and Dating Scams" "Supermodel Date Scammers""Phishing Scams" and "The Money Laundering Scam.!" I even sent all my bloggers my most notorious con-job I did on an unsuspecting cab fare back in the 80's. I included this excerpt in my blogg, because it was something that I had done at the time. However, I want everyone to know out there in blogg-land that I definitely am not like that now! Sometimes we all do what were not proud of, but at the very least I find it to be important as it describes the person I was, not who I am now. That excerpt comes out of my upcoming to be published book "Temporary Satisfaction" due out next Spring 2017. Nonetheless, lets talk about the other scams that are duping fine respecting citizens on the net okay.
       Cyber Criminals can also trick you into visiting websites or directed ads. Most websites make their money from selling advertisements.The most common type of advertising is based on paying for impressions. (page-views,how many times did a potential customer view an ad) There are also clicks (how many times did a person click on an ad) The Impressions system is based purely on internet traffic or the number of times an ad is displayed to a user viewing a page. The pay per click system means that advertisers only pay the website when a user clicks on an ad right? This system can be tricked by generating clicks that don't come from genuinely interested users or by highjacking clicks that were intended for a legitimate user. Now you may think, big deal, only a small amount of money the cyber scammer gets right? Wrong...start multiplying those few cents from your mouse clicks with other millions of mouse user clicks and the cyber criminal can gets lots of money from it. This is called "Click Fraud" and marketers in 2015 lost over 7.2 billion dollars on the internet alone last year.
        Another awful thing is they trick you into using "malware" malicious software used for the purpose of damaging your data, software or hardware too. Viruses, worms, key loggers, Trojans are all different forms of malware and should be avoided at ALL costs. You see these scumbag cyber criminals spread this software for profit through adware( forced advertising), spyware(stealing your sensitive information) or ransom-ware (software that encrypts your content, blocking access to your system) then it demands payment in return for a key that will decrypt your data.
         Shocking News Scam is news that's hot off the press. Everyone is talking about it, in social media or a even on social networks. This might be a celebrities sudden death, a terrorist attack, or even a plane crash.Then you usually click on it,to see a video of it and bam, they got you, usually spam popups or even a porn popup. okay I will tell you about one more, its called the Emotional Extortion Scam which usually includes photos of sick babies,or endangered animals that lure you into watching a video. Then they usually ask for donations which generally the cyber-criminal gets, not the charity you thought you donated to. Next week the last of the 4 internet scams, but now I have included part 2 of my cabfare scam, back when I wasn't such a good dude. Enjoy, and not tooting my own horn, but I am a very good person now!
         Now he informs me that his brother was over at a local Country-Bar there called Tumbleweeds Night Club, a place where they frequented regularly on the weekends.

        Nonetheless, we never did make it to that nightclub, as I didn’t really know Edmonton that well and how to exactly get to it. In spite of this, we ended up driving down Jasper Avenue the infamous street that contains the hookers, johns and yes even their pimps as well. Now it was just my luck on this very unique morning, that my fare, Shad starts gawking at this nice looking native Indian squaw standing on the sidewalk. She’s all painted up in makeup, mascara, red lipstick, her breasts are advertising for her, through her black see-through blouse and wearing those black sexy pumps strutting her native booty. He immediately tells me to pull over, more towards her, and wants me to ask her what she is charging for her services. I can’t believe this one; he actually wants me to buy him a hooker! I give this some deep thought and I let Shad know, I will buy him his “Lady of the Evening” on one condition. The stipulation being, that I would tack on that additional fee onto his existing fees with me and he was only too happy to oblige. By now, my demand for this guy’s payment had reached a mind-boggling $2,500.00 for a cab-ride that originally cost $350.00. After sitting in my cab, waiting for about two hours, he finally comes out of this building that I am parked in front of in a very dark and secluded alley, I might add. You know, I never even thought about the apparent danger I had put myself in, as I later found out this area of Edmonton we were in, was a high crime area. Conversely, he has had such a large and big grin on his face, he just looked like the cat that swallowed the canary. He gets in my cab, sits in the backseat and cracks himself open another beer and just looks and me and smiles. Shad tells me that he has just had the absolute best time of his life, and nobody could ever do that to him again, like this woman had performed. I don’t want to rain on his “sex parade” but I explain to him, how much he owes me, just to see if he comprehends the large amount owing.

          “What if I just sign my cheque over to you? He asks.

             He goes on to add to that statement that we would indeed be all squared up and I would be a happy camper once again.

         “Well not exactly Shad?” I reply.

          “You’re forgetting about the $500, Hooker I just bought you, right?” I reply back to his question.

           Again he has an answer for that as well and it’s the fact that he will get the extra money from his brother, when I drop him off at their home.

         “As long as your brother pays for it, I am okay with that” I reply to his question.

           So he cracks open another beer, just as he finishes his prior one and we drive off, back to his brother Hari’s home across town. As we drove those miles across the city, I noticed in my rear-view mirror that my Indian friend had passed out again. No I didn’t suddenly pull over and just dump him in the Saskatchewan River, which I must admit I thought about, for a second. Actually in a weird sense of empathy, I now felt somewhat obligated to get this drunken fool to his final destination.

           It was around six-am in the morning of the next day when I arrived at his brother’s place. Therefore, I get out of my cab, furthermore proceed up to the front door and ring the doorbell to wake someone up. A short little native man, standing in his underwear, answers the door and it is obvious I have just woke him up. He asks me who I am, why I am ringing his doorbell so early in the morning and I begin to tell him about my whole ordeal with his younger brother. I especially mention the stuff about how I bought his brother a hooker and the outstanding tab he has with me.

           In the end of my story, I guess he was quite impressed how I had treated his brother and basically kept him safe on the cab-trip. I showed him, the total invoice and what Shad still owed me, afterall was said and done. To my bewilderment, he writes me out a personal cheque for another $700.00 and I am absolutely blown away, by what has just transpired. We both manage to get my very comatose fare out of my cab and we say our good-byes, he shakes my hand, followed by the fact I am off, back into my cab. Not only am I finally homeward bound back to Peace River, but I had made the unbelievable amount of $2,700.00! After the $200.00 I owed the cab company, I was still left with $2500.00 in my jeans! When you think about it for a moment, Shad could have flown “First Class” to Edmonton for that kind of money. On the contrary, he would never have gotten the hooker in that deal, right? I’ll never forget filling up fuel at that Esso Service Station on the outskirts of Edmonton, later on that morning. The attendant had just finished telling me to have a nice day and I will never forget what I yelled back to him.

           Nice day? I questioned, “I had a really great day” I exclaimed, and now I walk out that store with everybody looking at 

                                          "THERE'S A SUCKER BORN EVERY MINUTE!"
      This weeks blog, I feel is very important, as I know most of you out there have been caught in one or more of these elaborate scams. I am certainly not sad to admit, but yes my hands up, on quite a few of them too.So I thought I would take some time, in educating some of you on the well known cons out there and some the not so well noted schemes that appear on your internet everyday. So lets begin a trip down "Ripoff Lane" shall we.In fact, there are so many scams on the internet these days, I decided to break this one up into a 2-part blog, okay, so before I forget look for this one again next week as well. Now, the first one is so common, and even nowdays, probably even more popular with the price of liquor and beer in the bars.Not to mention the continuing threat of aids and other sexual related diseases.Lonely sex-starved people are flocking to dating sites in droves, and it has become a muilt-billion dollar buisiness too.I am talking of course about "Romance and Dating Scams" people,
       They usually take place through an on-line dating website and the cyber-scammers may even use social media or emails to make your contact. They may even call their victim as a first introduction but these scams are really known as "Catfishing" The way it is usually done is you will see, what you think are real profiles on a site, but read the fine print somewhere there. It will usually tell you if fake profiles of attractive maleor female models have been used. The site may also use "Autobot" technology whereby a  typical response is texted out to a normal question, such as what do you look like? The response might be, "Wouldn't you like to know babe?" as an example. A fictional name might also be used or a even a false identity such as military personnel, aidsworkers, or real professional working people. The Dating/Romance scammer will express strong emotions for you in a relatively short period of time too. They will go to great lenghts to earn your trust, such as showering with loving or sexy words. They might share personal stories with you, in which you have in common to get on your good side.This may take months to build a strong bond between the both of you and it may feel like the "Romance of a Lifetime" but it ain't! They may even pretend to book flights to where you live, but never actually show up either. Once they have gained your trust and your defences are down they will pounce hard on you! The individual will ask you for money, gifts or even your credit card. They may ask you to send pornographic pictures of yourself, plus videos as well. More times than not, the fake profiled person will need money for some sort of emergency. They might state they want to visit you,but have no money whereby they will reimburse you for the visit, when they see you but it never happens.
        Another more modern scam that takes place nowdays is the "Supermodel Date Scam." These people are professional escorts, hookers or con people that make you think they want to date you, because you're so attractive. They talk you up, lavish compliments on your looks, and make you feel special. After numerous conversations over a couple of days plus pornographic pictures sent to you, they then drop the bomb on you. They will guide you to a website which is usually a dating service and tell you to sign up, only on the 3 day trial, and that you arn't obligated to anything else. As soon as you test that credit card information, they tell you that they will email you their cellphone number, but rarely does that happen. In fact no date ever occurs and no you are signed up to another fake website, where after the 3 day trial expires, you end up paying an exorbitant amount of money per mth. Cancellation of these websites is nearly impossible as the real company behind the fraud is overseas somewhere or in a foreign country. In 2015, 22.7 million dollars was lost to online dating scams. Oddly enough there are only about 3 out of the thousands that are legitimate.
         Phishing Scams are next and are based on communication via email or on social networks. The Cyber-criminal will send you a message trying to trick you into giving them your log-in credentials. These usually consist of your bank account information, social network account info, or any other personal data. They often come from an official looking source as well. This could be a banking institution, or a loan company. In addition to that delivery companies and social networking representatives can also be involved in the con as well. In order for them to succeed, scammers must creat a sence of urgency. They might tell you a frightening story of how your bank account is being threatened. Therefore you must insert your personal credentials inorder to confirm your identity regarding your account. After you fill in what they request, cyber-scammers use this info to breach your own bank account. Often they sell this information to others on the dark side of the internet or other interested parties.
          I will mention one more, then I will let you read an excerpt from a scam I was the creator of from one of my books, okay.
          The third one I will mention is one of the oldest around "The Money Laundering Scam." This is truly still one of the most popular conjobs out there, nicknamed "The Nigerian Scam." Most of us reading this have already encountered it in our emails in one form or another. This typical scam starts with an emotional message. It is usually written formally by a government official, a businessman, a lawyer, or a member of a family member, usually a woman.They may ask you to provide help in retrieving a large sum of money. All you have to do is pay a small fee for necessary paperwork and legal matters to complete the transction of huge funds from a bank or institution. In exchange for your generous assistance, they promise you a very large portion of the original sum of money. However, this is just the beginning as they ask you to to pay more additional costs such as transfer fees. The person will even mail you out official looking paperwork that makes it even more realistic. Sadly in the end, the victim is left broke without the promised money. Next week I will focus on even more elaborate scams on the internet, but for now enjoy my most notorius scam when I was a cab-driver in the 80's back in Peace River Alberta.

         

          Probably my best con-job occurred in Peace River as well.

          I have told this story to many people, too numerous to mention here, and not one of them was ever bored in hearing it. Again it is something only I would have attempted to pull off to the fullest extent. As previously mentioned, I was a cabdriver at the time and in those days there was no such thing as meter charging for a fare. All passengers were charged by distance only and this had now become a game of hustle due to this known fact. By far, my most productive and busiest days, usually occurred on Friday’s and Saturday’s, mostly in the evenings. Remembrance Day has always stood out in my mind for a couple of reasons actually; one of those is this little tale I am about to tell you now. So there I am driving by the Peace River Inn on this day in question. I am the first cabdriver there to focus my attention on a rather tipsy-looking native fella, leaning against the outside of the building.Oh, I should tell you this before I get too far into the explicit details of my great caper.

          You see, nearly all the times when you picked up a Native Indian in Peace River, there was very little chance that you would actually get paid for the fare. Most often, they would give you some cock-amamie excuse as to why they couldn’t pay, when I drove them to their intended destination. Usually on more than one occasion I would receive some sort of collateral for the fare. It could be anything really, ranging from leather jackets, belts, purses, switch blades, hunting knives, native jewellery, to sexual favours. As for me, I always preferred to pick up the male Native Indians, at least you could sell the stuff off at a local pawn shop. In fact, odd as this sounds I never picked up “Female Native Fares” for fear they could charge you with Attempted Rape! I mean you gotta draw the line somewhere right?

          I told you this important anecdote so you understand I did what I did, not because of prejudice toward Native Indians, but more of revenge for cabdrivers. So, for sake of argument, we will call our Native Indian in this chronicle Shad-Thu okay. By the way that’s Indian for “Sound of Water” from what he told me that day.

         So here comes Peace River’s most inebriated Indian that is about to approach my cab. He proceeds to explain to me that he needs to travel to Edmonton and can I transport him to the local train-station that’s just across town.

         I reply “Sure, why not? Saddle on in, here Partner”.

         Now at this point I am thinking to myself, I will charge him double the fare for my trouble anyways.About 15 minutes later we get to the Peace River Train Station; however it is closed due to the fact it is Remberance Day. To my surprise this Shad-Thu guy is still hell-bent and determined to get to Edmonton, as I can see he is most disappointed by this new turn of events. He asks me a real doosey of a question that quite frankly, I am not prepared for which is, can I take him to Edmonton myself.

         Now a fare to Edmonton from Peace River at that time would be charged at about Three-Hundred Fifty Dollars.

         I let Shad know the fare price, but I also tell him for me to leave town, that I would need all the cash up front first.

         It doesn’t surprise me that he doesn’t have all the money on him at that moment. On the other hand, he does hand me a dirty old crumpled one hundred dollar bill out of his jeans pocket.

         I answer back, “Ah Chief, that’s nowhere near enough cash”, “I need alot more if we are leaving here today?”

         He comes back with the fact he has a little bit more on him, excluding that he needs that cash for some drinking money and smokes. Shad does his best to assure me that he is good for the rest and can we now travel to Edmonton.

         He promises me that when we arrive in Edmonton, his brother Harry Two-Shoes will pay for the rest of the cab fare.

         As I had mentioned previously, I had been so screwed over by these Peace River Indians, I definitely didn’t believe him. I replied that I needed at least three-quarters of the fare before we left town. Again he countered with the information that would be cutting into his drinkin money if he did that. I respond to that statement by repeating that I need the three-quarters up front before going ahead with this fare. Reluctantly he pulled out another $100.00 out of his right side jacket pocket and gave it to me. Now I had acquired $200.00 towards the outstanding balance but Shad was still $150.00 short. Next, I radio’d into my dispatcher and informed her of the reason for the fare. I was told that in no uncertain terms that I couldn’t leave town without all the cash. Subsequently, I let my fare know the bad news and told him that I needed the money he was short, but this dude told me, he just doesn’t have it on him now. However, what he did have on him was a cheque he told me, that if he could get it cashed, I would have the remainder of the fare. I’m thinking at that point that its maybe his welfare cheque for a couple $100 dollars more, so maybe, he could give me the money he still owed me. He showed me the cheque and I have to tell you, I was absolutely blown away by what I read. Not one word of a lie, the amount of the cheque was $2000.00 and it’s made out to Shad-Thu Proudfoot, himself. Not only that but it’s a legitimate company cheque with the name Alberta Oil Riggers Inc. emblazoned on it.

          This changed the whole ball game, as I knew it was a real oil company and  my sense of immediate greed took over my mind at that point. I told him that we will try and get this cheque cashed as we travelled to Edmonton, Alberta. In point of fact I still have three things that are against me now, that are quickly brought to my attention. One, Shad apparently has lost his entire ID which had been previously in his wallet, which he lost, of course. Two and this one is real important, it is Remembrance Day and all the banks in Peace River are closed.

        Do you recall the third one? “Don’t leave town until all the cash is your hand.”

        Decisions, decisions! What could I possibly do, I mean I would leave town and head south, surely that couldn’t hurt right?

        I would make it a point to stop at every town, we passed through, surely to God, someone or some institution would cash this cheque. My impulsive part of my personality now took over and I made the decision to leave town anyways, so I told Shad to get back into the cab. I bought him up to speed on what we did, and he agreed to my crazy idea anyhow.

      “There’s just one glitch, here”, I tell him.

      “What’s that cabby?” He asks.

      “Everytime we have to stop, I will charge you $25.00 waiting time and that goes towards the fare at the end of the trip”, I told him.

        Surprisingly again, he agreed to this and off we leave the town of Peace River. In fact, I didn’t even radio in the trip or give any possible indication that I left town. It was like I had vanished! Furthermore, we had travelled though about 20 to 30 different small towns in our trek to Edmonton. Nobody! And I mean nobody would cash that $2000.00 cheque made out to my Indian friend. By the time I made it to Whitecourt Alberta, Shad-Thu Proudfoot, was now extremely drunk and intoxicated but was into me for a cool $1,000.00.He had run out of beer-money so I invoiced him another $300.00 just in waiting time. Nevertheless I was kind enough to buy him more cases, just so he could drink in my cab and yes I did tack that all onto his now running tab. It was around midnight that next morning of November 12^th, 1986 that we finally arrived in Edmonton. I am happier than “A Pig in the Mud” as I strongly felt we would most certainly get this cheque cashed.

       “Maybe if we’re lucky, at one of these all night 24 hr “Money Marts” I am thinking.

         At this period, I had made myself another $500.00 cash profit towards this fare, which went in my pocket. Shad suddenly woke up now from his drunken comatose state, and handed me previously written directions on a bar napkin.

      “Wow, I thought to myself, imagine that”

      “His brother’s residence is actually not on a reservation but in fact is located in downtown Edmonton” I surmised.

        I drove to the downtown area and when I pulled up to the address where Shad’s brother presumably lives; no one is home, as there is no vehicle parked in the driveway. However I had to admit to myself for an “Alberta Native Indian” to live in a house such as the one I saw at that time, it did come off as a very luxurious residence.

       Unfortunately nobody was home at this address, “so now what was I going to do, to fill in some time?” I thought to myself.

              NOT MR ROGER'S NEIGHBORHOOD IN OUR JOBS ANYMORE!!!
 This week's blog is so easy for me, as it is so fresh in my mind, in fact it happened so suddenly,I could spit venom! Yes my faithful bloggers, I am talking about "Workplace Harassement" which occurs more often than not in today's job market,where we try and scrape out a paycheck every week! So you may have guessed it by now, I was the victim "once again" of "Workplace Harassement." This is quite odd, due to the fact that I am truckdriver that hauls live chickens for a poultry plant here in Calgary. Needless to say, I am also 6:3 and about 260lbs, no slouch that's for sure. So how then did a big dude like me, become the victim of such a creul and mean undertaking. Well hold that thought for a moment, okay, first we need to define what exactly is "Workplace Harassement" in that place we become slaves for a 2 week financial reward. So just what is it then?
        Now to start off with, it is definitely a form of discrimation which usually involves unwanted physical or verbal behaviour that offend or humiliates any person. This of course occurs over a period of time, regardless whether its 1 week, 1 month, 6 months or a year or more! Harassement is and always has been a form of bullying in making fun of you or me? The bullier usually is making fun of you, or picking on that person because of age, disability, your sexual preference, and even your skin color. Even threatening someone with physical violence or oppression is "Workplace Harassement" Nevertheless so is physical toucking,patting, derogatory comments, pinching and punching as well.Needless to say, a one-time incident can also sometimes be construed as harassement! Last but certainly not least, how bout discrediting a person by spreading malicious gossip or rumors,and ridiculling him or her.Don't ever ignore it because I guarantee you, it won't stop, unless you do something to cease this behaviour from another person intent on destroying you in many different ways possible.So I could go on, but let's focus on how this happened to me okay.
        Actually sorry to say, this is not the first time, I experienced this either. In fact, I can think of one particular example, where I was more than harassed in the workplace. Maybe its my nice, playful, laid back nature that make certain people out there, think they can screw with me. I am really not sure, why it has happened to me at least half a dozen times in my life! What happened Brian? you ask me, so let me tell you a short story now.
        A couple of days ago, I was at a farm, having modules(steel crates) of live chickens being loaded onto the b-train trailer, I was hauling. Now I admit, I am not the sharpest tool in the shed at times, when it comes to fixing things on my bosses truck.But I do try, I am certainly reliable, trustworthy and responsible, so I ask that sometime all I guy can ask for, is that you give the man your best right. It so happened somehow, as that black cloud that follows me quite often, decided I wasn't worthy anymore for this job. To make a long story short, I was fixing a sidestep, by advice given to me by what were supposed to be mature young Managers for the "chicken hauling company" out of Olds Ab. Little did I know of their very devious and cruel intentions to actually videotape me on their cellphone, as I was performing this less than good advice.People whom I thought were my friends, decided to stick a knife in my back, the very next morning by distributing this said video tape, via the wonderful world of the email, through the internet. Thus this was not only embarassing for me, but I also had to do damage control in explaining to my boss, why I did, what I had done, to fix the sidestep. Unfortunately the advice prescibed was completely in-accurate and quite damaging to the side step, that was already bent in.My only saving grace, is once I quickly realized, the step was bent the wrong way, I immediately halted the in-nane procedure. Now to add further salt upon my wound, people I didn't even like, were sending me texts, asking me about my assinine decision in this fix-job of the side-step. So where did the "workplace harassement" occur in this scenerio and am I completely at fault in this mess? Your answer is, by these ill-advised morons, distributing the video to all other truck drivers whom I work with and thought they had respect for me, well I became the fricken laughing stock of all the truck drivers now. However the joke was really on these 2 so-called managers of the chicken crew company, because they just committed "Workplace Harassement!" I could go into all the sordid other details, but I won't. Let's just say my boss, has my back,my job is safe, and in the end, maybe they will get what they deserve, but who knows right? So in conclusion I encouraged all you bloggers to comment on similar experiences of "Workplace Harassement" This should not and will not be tolerated by hard working people such as us right?Afterall I am just there to make a paycheck, not make new friends. Besides with friends like them, who needs enemies. Have a great week, and as a special bonus, another page excerpt from my upcoming second book "Sidewinder" from an incident similar to this....Enjoy 
    

They reminded me of small army barrack type rooms with either one bed and a small dresser or two beds side by side. Now the people working here were a mixed bag of ages ranging from 18 to 60, if you can believe it.

        The guys running the crusher were fairly young compared to me, about 18 and 20 or so. There was one guy whose job was solely to be outside mostly cleaning up the gravel that had fallen to the ground around the crusher. He also had to do light maintenance such as greasing the moving parts of the large machine as well as making sure everything was running properly. There was also a Tower Operator whose job it was to be well versed in the operation of crushing equipment as well as supervising and assisting with crusher maintenance. At first everything in the beginning seemed all well and good; I worked 12 hour shifts from 6am to 6pm, with 4 days off in between as well. Those shifts alternated to 6pm to 6am the following 10 days so it was not only a good variety but it was really nice having those 4 days off as well. I enjoyed the camaraderie at first; in fact we were all enjoying watching the playoffs at that time. The “sad sack” Calgary Flames had actually made it to the finals against the more skilled Tampa Bay Lightning. I can recall talking “hockey talk” with our Gravel Pit Manager Jay there many a nights when they were playing. In fact if it wasn’t for that stupid bumbled call the Ref made on a Calgary player’s goal the Flames would have won the cup that year.

        Now I also had to do other more intensive laborious jobs there such as greasing my truck, changing the screens on the crusher as well as learning to run the loader too. I even managed to get my 17yr old stepson Jack a job as a Grounds Worker there, so it was definitely becoming a bit of a family affair. Everything seemed to be working out fine, when 60 year old Sye of all strange things started picking on me, even calling me names! Not only that he was constantly taunting me, furthermore advising me I should be wearing pink spandex with the way I was working there. I mean he thought it was great fun at first with all the other guys laughing at me, but that it started to affect our relationship working together .The whole thing actually managed to manifest itself so bad that the Gravel Pit Manager Jay actually had to get involved. My new boss was none too impressed either when he actually had to physically separate us one day from trying to kill one another.

       The other issue was the Tower Operator Mick and his friend Bowie had been pressuring me to smoke pot after work was done. In the dying months of the season it was very apparent that things were getting difficult for me working there, as my stepson Jack had picked up on that too. However in the last month of the season Jack wasn't there as he had broken his right foot while on the job. Thus he was forced to end his employment with Hopscotch Construction, so now I was left alone to fend for myself. Needless to say things at that point kind of spun out of control for me at camp one day, and to say the least it was not a good situation for me either. I was working the 6pm to 6am shift one particular day. I literally had enough of that peer pressure bullcrap from Mick and Bodie about smoking a joint with them. It actually had gotten to the point of physical violence that I was threatened with, if I did not partake in smoking up with them. Ultimately my fear of being ganged up on won me over and I decided to give in to my reservations about smoking pot with these two young men.

        The situation escalated however, when I was not used to this new skunk weed I was smoking, furthermore I was totally blitzed! Now of coarse when you are stoned, what happens is you get the munchies, as a consequence I made a complete fool of myself. Where did I do this and with whom you may ask? Well as my bad luck would have it, the camp cook Rona, was my presumed romantic target. It was completely embarrassing by what I did, as I professed my extreme gratitude towards her cooking and kindness. I guess I was kind of draped all over her, and at one point I even offered to kiss her good-bye as the job was ending soon anyways.The woman was not by any means attractive, but quite hideous in fact.

        Things that week went from bad to worse in the gravel pit, when I had to drive a brand new tandem dump truck. Apparently my unit was getting a new box put on so I was forced to drive this new “Sewing Machine” on 10 wheels.

        From the very first moment I sat in that “Piece of Crap”truck I really didn’t feel comfortable as the steering seemed to be extremely tighter to what I was previously used to. The traction was definitely off, as well the side mirrors were smaller, because my visibility when backing was a lot harder too. As it turned out, where this particular crusher was situated; I could not pull forward from the scales. Instead I had to back out, and proceed backward for about a quarter of a mile, and around a large stockpile. After I reached just past that stockpile, I could turn around and proceed to the other stockpile a few yards away. All I know is the Cat Operator should not have parked that dam bull dozer so close to the stockpile, that was around that blind corner. Nonetheless, my hours were numbered in this job now, as you guessed it, I backed up into something I shouldn’t have. In fact I drove the back of the box of the dump truck right square into the side of the blade of the bulldozer which was primarily aimed at the diesel fuel tank that was situated just beside the side step. I dented that tank so bad that even I was surprised that it didn’t even explode! Well thank the “truck gods” that the fuel tank was nearly empty that day. The Gravel Pit Manager Jay had finally had enough of me, and told me to go pack my things as I was permanently out of here for good this time! So about 2 weeks short of the season I was now looking for work as a truck driver again, it was nobody’s stupidity but my own, this time!