Something similar happened to me a couple of years ago. It WAS my son calling from where he lives - Las Vegas, stating if I didn't wire him $2,000 by 4 that afternoon, someone was going to hurt him. I said 'let me get back to you'. I immediately called the police, told them about the phone call, gave them his address, where he worked and his phone number. They said they'd check into it. My son called me about 3 that afternoon to say he'd handled it. My point is - it COULD be a relative who is trying to scam you. My son wasn't in trouble - he has a gambling addiction and wanted money to go gamble!

Unfortunately this scam does work, or the scammers wouldn't continue to do it. I see it mentioned in the newspapers sometimes, but I think there should be more alerts to call attention to it. Computer users are probably more aware of it, so I would be curious to know if those who do fall for it are those who don't have/use computers, and that is probably the older generation. I think no matter what name you give the caller, he will say that is his name, and if you ask for his name, no doubt he will not give you his real name. I had a similar call several months ago, so when this one came I was ready for him, and played along until I had him on the hook. I posted about it as a Memory Refresher, and hope all of you will mention this scam to any older people you know. Spread the word! Sue

Ha ha....love the ice skating costumes...brought me back....my DD skated for 11 years and there is a market for these. There is a training rink in Aston...mostly ice dancing I think (my niece trained there) and these are definitely ice dance dresses, which you can tell from the length...longer than what a single or pairs skater would wear...I strongly suspect these are from Aston ice dancers as they have produced numerous teams that have gone to nationals.

When I opened my account - and this may have chenged in the many years since then - you HAD to have a bank account and they verified who you were by putting a few pennies into the account and you would then report a day or two later how much that amount was. I never use my account for paying...I use a credit card. The problem with changing my bank account is that I have several automatic withdrawals each month - two of which are mortgages which ask for at least 30 days notice of any account change - and I am even at a loss for things like account numbers on some "paperless" monthly charges, like Comcast. I have been to the bank (actually, credit union) to fill out fraud papers and have spoken to both EBAY and Paypal. EBAY has no record of this "win" and someone WAS able to change my password for both my Ebay and PayPal accts. NO I have not responded to any phishing emails and I do have antivirus software installed.