Warning from a friend of a friend.

809 Area Code We actually received a call last week from the 809 area code. The woman said 'Hey, this is Karen. Sorry I missed you- get back to us quickly. I have something important to tell you.' Then she repeated a phone number beginning with 809. We did not respond. Then this week, we received the following e-mail:
Do Not DIAL AREA CODE 809, 284, AND 876 from the UK . U.S. or Canada .

This one is being distributed all over the US ... This is pretty scary, especially given the way they try to get you to call. Be sure you read this and pass it on. They get you to call by telling you that it is information about a family member who has been ill or to tell you someone has been arrested, died, or to let you know you have won a wonderful prize, etc..

In each case, you are told to call the 809 number right away. Since there are so many new area codes these days, people unknowingly return these calls.

If you call from the UK . U.S or Canada , you will apparently be charged a minimum of $2425 per-minute. And you'll also get a long recorded message. The point is, they will try to keep you on the phone as long as possible to increase the charges.
WHY IT WORKS:

The 809 area code is located in the Dominican Republic ...

The charges afterwards can become a real nightmare. That's because you did actually make the call. If you complain, both your local phone company and your long distance carrier will not want to get involved and will most likely tell you that they are simply providing the billing for the foreign company. You'll end up dealing with a foreign company that argues they have done nothing wrong.

Please forward this entire message to your friends, family and colleagues to help them become aware of this scam.

ZoneAlarm Search

ZoneAlarm Search:

JULIAN ASSENGE.

'As Julian Assenge is under the protective hospitality of the Ecuador Embassy, he isn’t the concern of either the Police Service or the British Government. Why therefore are the Police wasting their time and squandering our money by targeting the Embassy. If Sweden has a problem, surely its problem is with Ecuador not us. It was obvious that this matter was being mishandled the moment some bright spark voiced his
 'I'll huff and I'll puff and I will blow your house down' threat .

I suppose if the Civil Service is to be privatised one can expect no end of such nonsense. If Assenge leaves the Embassy, that will be time enough to apprehend the fellow.

No safe passage out of the UK for Julian Assange, says William Hague - Crime - UK - The Independent

I have no personal knowledge concerning Mr Assange nor of what alleged shenanigans he might or might not have been up to in Sweden, but somehow the Rape complaints against him do seem all  too convenient . It is common knowledge that our American Cousins would like to have his Guts for Garters, so one would be very naïve not to believe that America wouldn’t seek the man’s extradition from Sweden, should he ever be sent there to answer the current charges against him.

Guilty or not guilty in Sweden, there is something else about this charge that stinks to high heaven, one does'nt need to be dyslexic to read ‘Rape in Sweden’ as Rendition . One understands that our Government finds itself in a tight corner, but playing the role of Pontius Pilate discredits it no end. Hopefully the threats made against the Status of the Equadorian Embassy, emanate from some underling rather than our Foreign Secretary, for surely any fool would see that such a happening would be akin to shooting our Diplomats in all their feet.  

SPAM SPOOF AND STUPIDITY.

Google:
There are times the Internet irritates. Not sure whether one has to blame the internet service providers, or solely their advertisers. Do  retailers really think they are doing their firms a favour by sending out  all the spam that so many of them send. At Christmas I bought a second hand book from a firm called Abe Books, a business located in Cheshire. Ever since it has incessantly made me offers of this that and the other. Apart from them doing that I have no complaint with the firm, but would assure them that given a choice of retailer their firm would not be the one to get my business.

OTHERS  I do wish to hear from i.tunes or Love films or Boiler Juice who seemingly deliver oil to one or another of my nine neighbours every week of the year, nor Nero or Kodak. etc etc. Naturally one has binned all such advertisers, but then here bins only get emptied once a fortnight.

AMAZON.
A while back I thought to buy a Sat.Nav.  hoping the device might be more useful than it seems to be. One looked here and there to compare prices, however the best deal on the internet didn't have my choice in stock, so I took the easier route through John Lewis'. Why in the name of Heaven does Amazon keep sending me deals relating to Sat Navs. weeks after one purchased the device elsewhere, and fully acquainted myself of information such as' you are now driving along the A.303'. But then I haven't as yet located the how to use instructions on the Internet.

ESTATE AGENTS.
 That I happen to look up detail of a house in the Thames Valley doesn't signify that I wish to buy one there, so why do Estate Agents adverts keep appearing on my computer screen. If I wish to hear from them I am more than capable of contacting them. Since one isn't thinking of buying a house it follows that I am not in need of the Services of a Removals firm, despite having e.mailed an 1870's  lithographed Advertisement of such a firm to a friend.

SCREWFIX.
Another ubiquitous enterprise whose Ads proliferate. I am not given to buying more than one Central Heating Pump in any Decade, so why keep intrusively  posting me offers of more and more of the things, especially since they didn't have the fittings for it stocked in Salisbury when I went in to buy it, though these were promised for the morrow.Unfortunately I wanted them 'yesterday.'

FACEBOOK once advised me that a very old friend wished to be a Friend. One fell for it, and I now have the seeming availability of friendship with some hundred or so delightful persons, including my own daughter and the daughter of a sometime friend next door, and too a son in law. Possibly such thoughts are unrealistic for I never posted my picture on line. That's all great stuff but the original friend tells me that she had never joined Facebook in the first place, despite that yesterday she allegedly posted a whole new Ball Game of inexplicable photographs which might or might not be connected with a member of her family.

PAYPAL. is a way of paying for things bought on the Internet. Yesterday one received a very convincing personally addressed communication, allegedly sent by them. Well that got forwarded to the Fraud Office, for had I had a Paypal account there was no reason for the real firm to need to have detail of my Bank Account or Password. One hears much of other accounts I don't hold at The Halifax, Nationwide, Santander, HSBC etc. All these things being so, surely no one should Bank on line, but they do.

Google

Google:

'via Blog this'

ELECTED POLICE COMMISSIONERS.

Couple of Headlines on the News Page of Google caught my eye.

'Plans for the first police commissioner elections this autumn have been thrown into fresh disarray with the disclosure that magistrates – who make up a significant number of the candidates – have been banned from standing.'  From the Guardian.

'A second candidate for the job of police and crime commissioner has been forced to withdraw his application because of a minor offence he was convicted of 47 years ago at 14. **** *******, Labour's PCC candidate in Derbyshire, who has been vice-chairman of the Derbyshire police authority for the last three years, said on Friday he had made "the difficult decision" after receiving clarification from the Home Office and Electoral Commission that juvenile convictions for offences that carry a prison sentence if committed by an adult bar candidates.' From the Guardian.

Possibly this is a recurrence  of the Caesar's  wife Dilemma ? First one might wonder how many Magistrates have an entirely clean slate before the time of their appointment to the Bench, let alone after it. Does anyone do a CRB check on them. What of those members of the House of Lords who get detained at her Majesty's Pleasure, or of other 'Office Holders' who offend ? Parables of 'Lost Sheep' are one thing, but surely there is an overwhelming majority of the community who have neither offended nor been caught offending. Should those who offended 'Let Conscience make Cowards' of them, or just go for it, as I suspect most people might, for to rake another chestnut from the fire 'Feint heart never won fair lady'.

Way back in the late sixties, the call went out for Lay Magistrates, and when I answered it, The Clerk of The  Wokingham Bench sent me a questionnaire which I was asked to fill in. Seemingly thereon one was expected to extol ones virtues. I took it for granted that an unblemished escutcheon was called for, and  would have been surprised if others volunteering their services did not have one too . I never returned the Papers firstly because one seemed to have been expected to have an exceedingly high opinion of oneself, secondly because I had a then unresolved Capital Gains Tax situation, and thirdly because the Government of the day, finding that it was but the usual suspects, such as I , who were volunteering their services, amended their specification as a need for Blue Collar Magistrates. At a personal level heard little more of the Magistracy, until  well past retirement age when it was suggested that I might submit my name for consideration.
 I too might have been a Judge ' If only I'd had the Latin.'

I do not see the Job of a Police Commissioner as being compatible with the Magistracy. Do some of the Bench regard their Courts as what used to be termed a Police Court, or what ? I have no knowledge of anyone be  he or she a Magistrate or not, who has submitted their name for Election as a Police Commissioner, but would be suspicious of the motivation of any Magistrate  who might, for I am given to wondering whether such persons have the impartiality the rest of us expect of their High Office.

Of course Magistrates wishing to stand for Election as a Police Commissioner should resign before embarking on the process, whilst all Candidates should have a 'Clean Slate'.