public service announcement

[notes1]

had a message on the home voice mail today. caller said they were from the united states treasury and we were to call 202-864-1369, or face prosecution and so on. of course, it sounded like a scam, but one never knows.  i googled the telephone number and up came pages of folks who had simiar experience. also called us treasury, where one is greeted with a recording telling one that they do not contact folks via email or phone.  i am getting really ticked off by the amount of money the country and we spend on crooks and security. i would like to see hackers, scam artists punished hard. i think a 'reality tv show' where these guys are shown in their prison cell 24/7 might just deter those who think it is an innocent misdeed. screw their privacy rights.   

[DaBurglar]

+1  on the hatred for scammers, although I love to actually answer the phone and "Screw with them" when I catch a "live" one and not a robo-call scammer.+1 on the deterrence factor (although in another thread on theft of tickets, onemoretry recently stated that most criminals are NOT at all deterred from committing crimes by punishment) sadly, in the case of certain criminal justice penalties, such as the DEATH PENALTY, it has been empirically shown that states with the death penalty do not exhibit any lower rates of crimes that incur the death penalty than states without a death penalty, and in fact it may actually ENCOURAGE people to KILL (the theory is "leave no witnesses" to testify and thus, send me to the needle or gas chamber....)   I myself never grasped the wisdom behind a death penalty, since it ends up costing the taxpayers oooodles more in the 10-12 years it takes to exhaust all appeals and then another boatload actually performing the actual execution.I honestly believe FORCING all criminals to perform REAL actual work that benefits ALL society, like picking up the trash year round, or repairing roads or other public works projects, like they used to back in the day makes a lot more sense than just locking them up and feeding them/housing them/caring for them 24/7/365, and certainly killing them.    Hell, these arseholes do not care about their own life so taking it from them does nothing......forcing them to work and live for the rest of their life IS punishment.But you probably don't realize that there actually is a very large, significant and PROFITABLE  "Penal, Incarceration & Corrections Industry" in this country, for profit concerns that run prisons and correctional facilities.   It is big business:   The vendors that perform services and supply goods to these institutions are significant, and let us not forget the corrections officers union(s), where everyone who couldnt qualify as a cop goes to work......it will never change,Likewise, ask yourself this:  what would happen tomorrow if everyone in the USA who uses illegal drugs just stopped......flat out STOPPED using?    Overnight, demand is gone, the suppliers pack up and leave to do something else.....what would happen to all the infrastructure, resources and PEOPLE devoted in the USA to enforcing the archaic and useless drug laws currently in play?   Think about it.....what incentive do the DEA, FBI, CUSTOMS, ATF, COAST GUARD, BORDER PATROL, INS, and every state and local POLICE force in the USA, all of whom spend HUGE chunks of their time resources and budget fighting the SAME exact scourge/war, that being DRUGS.....what incentive do they really have to SOLVE and stop this ongoing problem/nightmare?   Answer:  NONE whatsoever.....as long as the problem persists, and keeps getting bigger (but not too big too fast otherwise people get wise to the fact that the effort and all that we spend is pointless and a waste), then their jobs are secure as well as all that goes with it (i,e.  their "POWER"  over everyday people)      Tell me I am wrong......

[Chicagoan]

Notes, even if it is a US-based area code, almost always the call is forwarded offshore at least once, and sometimes it is forwarded (bounced) multiple times. There is really very little that law enforcement can do. The obligation is on the citizen to be wary and to refuse to be sucked in. Many years ago, in the infancy of the internet, Interpol could at least try to pinpoint the location of offshore and foreign scammers. Now, with mobile devices, proxies, and bounces, it is almost impossible.

[notes1]

chicago, it is not that i am blaming law enforcement. my complaint is more about how society and judges treat this as a crime that is not as serious as other crimes. because someone does not use a firearm as a weapon, the cost to the public is escalating. just today, it was reported that a CA hospital paid a ransom to hackers, to regain access to their computer sytsem.  it used to be white collar crimes, such as financial theft was treated lightly, but that has changed as society found out the devastation that these crooks caused to innocent victims. you make a good point, but when we get one of these thugs, we should broadcast to everyone, the conditions of their confinement. 

[Carcounter]

Agree we need to be more serious about this. Reminds me of an idea George Carlin put out there some time ago. Let's build four different prisons at the four corners area in the southwest where those states border each other. Put different criminal types in each facility. Sex offenders in one, violent criminals in another, white collar criminals in another etc. Once a week in prime time and televised, open the gates between them for a few hours and see what transpires. Brilliant.

[DaBurglar]

George Carlin.....best comedian, ever.

[Tedlark]

Again, your opinion.

[Carcounter]

Carlin was good. Anyone catch any of Rob Bartlett's videos from the Imus show? Google Rob Bartlett-The Godfather on John Edwards. Great stuff.

[olds442jetaway]

Carlin....what a riot....your stuff is stuff and everyone else's is sh..

[Tedlark]

DaBurglar has brought Carlin up before and many responded with names like: Gleason; Carney; the three Red's (Skelton, Buttons, Foxx); Carson; Brooks; Reiner; Murphy, the list can go on for days.


Everyone has their (and is entitled to) opinion.