I suppose your garden needed the rain anyway, lol. I hope everyone gets to read the article you linked to, interesting and to the point. Thanks for posting.

Thanks Mikie. They never asked for any information nor was there any link to click. I opened the full header for both emails and could not find any discrepancies. Could it be possible that someone may have changed my password, but because I was already logged in, I was able to change it again? As you can see in my OP, the messages read the same except for the stars in the first message instead of my yahoo ID. The sender on both messages were "DomainKeys Varified" if that means anything....I know scammers are getting more sophisticated all the time.

A telemarketer is a telemarketer is a telemarketer. They prey on people to get money. These scams have adapted over the years from car warranties to phone service (remember "slamming"?) to other assorted BS. They bank on people wanting to believe that Bill Gates will pay you to spam people, and they use powerful motivators. They appeal to peoples' greed and/or peoples' fears. A Nigerian General wants to share millions with you. I'll send you a check for $5,000.00, you send me your car and a money order for $3,000.00, your grandson will go to jail for 20 years in a foreign country, you'll lose your house, be burglarized and so on. Here's a pretty good recording of this scam. It's over 1/2 hour long but you can skip through it for the entertainment, but it also has some good info in it to educate people on how they work. Once they get you to download one of the programs, they can get into your computer and you will have problems. They use essentially illusions to look credible and the non-skeptical will often swallow it hook, line and sinker. I always told my clients that if it comes to you in an email, assume it's false until proven true. And when they call you on the phone, it's not much different. The sad part is people WANT to believe scams. And they want to be the first to share this secret with people so they send it on to everyone they know. Anyone can challenge/dispute any charge, just like anyone can sue anyone for anything, however it takes proof to prevail. The banks have no liability to reimburse someone for being a sucker. The easy dispute process was tightened up on many years ago because people would buy something, then have buyer's remorse and dispute the charge. There are rules with a rescission period requirement on large purchases but on smaller purchases when you authorize a charge, you're basically on the hook for it. And to get a refund, you have to go through the proper procedures. People think a credit card protects them because if they drop the TV down a flight of steps, or leave the cake out in the rain, and they can just dispute it and get the money back. You can't challenge a charge because another store put the jacket on sale two weeks after you purchased it. Doesn't work that way. It's similar to people thinking they can buy something with a check and stop payment on the check with no ramifications or even to put them in a better bargaining position. Not always so. You can have issues with criminal charges against you for defrauding an innkeeper for one thing. Attempting to evade payment of a debt is a criminal charge in many places. For instance, writing a check on a closed account. Sadly there are some cards who will sometimes indemnify suckers and that costs everyone money. They'll do it for "customer service" I suppose but again, ever since the changes in the credit laws a number of years ago they aren't as friendly about it. Most of these telemarketers are educated, at least more than a lot of the people they call. I'd suspect the caller did not say they were with Microsoft. They probably said "tech support" or something and babble something about Microsoft certification or something and people who don't know better or don't pay attention assume something different. One of the collection agencies out of Canada operate under a name similar to a law office to gain credibility and scare people into paying up, even on debts they don't owe. People need to be educated and at least learn more than the telemarketers to protect themselves or they're destined to lose.

Bad experience with these guys, won’t use them again. We purchased an appliance (induction range) and found out before delivery that it wouldn’t work in our apartment. My bad for not understanding this in advance, or for seeing the fine print about the 35% (!) restocking fee hit for canceling the order. But they wouldn’t even work with us to apply a reasonable share of the price we paid to purchase another product from them instead. Just basically told us we’re out of luck. Absolutely their right, and fully disclosed, but seems like really bad business to lose a customer through zero flexibility and understanding. Obviously won’t buy anything from them in the future. Learn the lesson from me: do all your homework, double-check your measurements and installation requirements, and check with your building superintendent before you buy a new appliance. Otherwise, at least with these guys, it will be costly and they will take your money and won’t try to help you out in any way. Thanks for nothing AJ Madison.