Today's Jim Henson's birthday and the muppets gave him a very sweet tribute

Thanks MRP. Wasn't sure if there was a Lost & Found thread on this forum

So happy to see so many familiar names still hanging around here. Hope life has been kind to all of you

It's been 2 years since my last postings. I don't think I could ever be the same chatterbox I used to be due to ...reasons.. but this is the place this crusty comic curmudgeon naturally fits right in. Looking forward to future banter with the bunch of you

Except tonight when I'll be getting prepared for the NY Yankees' A.L. Eastern Division championship celebration

Welcome back, old friend. Were your ears burning?

The rest of us are the Legion of Doom.

Had a little scare, last night. I had been home from work, for a while, and noticed I had a couple of messages, on my land line, which is extremely rare. The first said it was confirming my purchase of a VR headset, which I didn't order. The second was a spam thing that just kept repeating to call back at a certain number. The first was identified as Spam, on the caller id and the second with a name, Dynata, which is some kind of survey service, according to Google. That message tactic won't get me to respond, though.

The first call had me spun up, as I thought my bank account got hacked or my debit card compromised. However, as I researched both the number listed and the brand name they gave for the headset, I started to think it was a phishing scam, to get me to call about an unauthorized charge and get personal data from me. The message was all computer generated, never used my name and had weird phrasing, like it had been translated. It also gave a brand name of Delta Quest, but I can't find any listing for such a brand. There is Meta Quest and Occulus, but the only Delta Quest I could find was a book series and some game materials, but not a tech brand.

It wrecked my sleep for the night, but a trip to the bank this morning revealed no unauthorized charges or pending charges and my balance matched my records. I was pretty convinced it was a phishing expedition, before going to bed; but, it nagged me, until I could confirm it, at the bank.

I have had a spate of spam calls recently, after getting very few calls, at all, on that number, since Barb died. A couple of messages have been election-related, which I immediately deleted. I suspect there is more f that going on and will subside after November. The rest seems to be the usual crap and fraudsters. I have also dealt with energy company salesmen, trying to do the equivalent of phone slamming, with my electric utilities, since my local area deregulated it and opened it up to other companies providing the power, with the normal utility continuing the billing. I've had two salesmen here, claiming they were from my company and had to see my bill to verify I was getting charged at the correct rate. I told them to verify on the back end and they weren't viewing anything with my personal data, especially since they didn't verify my name.

At work, we have seen an increase in elderly people being scammed for large amounts of cash, to be shipped overnight, for earliest possible delivery. We cannot ship currency (Federally mandated) and ask if the shipment contains currency, which the people are instructed to lie. We can usually tell, because of the way the customer responds to the questions and the urgency in shipping. We bring up the scams, with calls in the middle of the night, allegedly from grandkids in need of bail money. We had one, not long ago, like that and alerted our security department that we thought the package was suspicious and it was held up and eventually found to contain nearly $30,000. We also see phony text messages that say they have a package being held, with postage due, with links to follow, which are not generated by my company. The ease at which some people seem to fall for this astounds me, especially when they say they weren't expecting a package. So why did you think it was legit? if it sounds fishy or too good to be true, it likely is. The cash scams also amaze me, though the ones who seem most vulnerable to it also seem to have either memory issues, or a real lack of awareness of fraudulent activity on the internet and via phone calls. If a relative needed bail, it would have to be posted through a bail bondsman and the court, not just ship cash to some address, fastest way possible. Or a money gram or wire transfer, from a bank. My first question would be, how the hell did you get arrested and why aren't you calling a lawyer? I'd also be calling the kid's parents to verify their whereabouts. I don't think I am that much more cynical and suspicious than average; but, I have a pretty good BS meter and usually start asking a lot of questions, before I had personal info, credit card numbers or large wads of cash over to people, who do not have guns pointed at me.

You have to understand that no legitimate institution calls or emails you. You should have called their 800 number to have them freeze your account. People are getting text messages about mail which makes me laugh. The post office doesn't text anyone.