I just was reading the latest edition of the AARP Bulletin with its roundup of scam after scam that people STILL fall for. I do understand that people of a certain age tend to isolate themselves from new information, so maybe that's their excuse for thinking that they have to pay some angry government agency in gift cards or bitcoin (!). But there's no excuse for buying into a Ponzi scheme that promises to return 20% interest on your investments. Or for giving $800,000 to some fake love you've never even met.

I know people simply want to believe, but spammers mostly aren't silly at all. Their dupes are. 

The AI impersonations of close family members is a tougher one. Verify, verify, verify.

I've been getting the one for the toll road fees. Apparently I am in severe violation and about to be arrested, or worse.

No eMails on that, but I did receive two different text messages claiming I owed tolls.  Seems unlikely since I've never driven on a toll road and I don't even know of any close.  There certainly aren't any where I regularly drive.

I just hit the button to report both as junk and haven't received any new ones since.

Plus, I'm at the local police department fairly regularly and also interact with the county sheriff's office with some frequency, so if there was a warrant out for my arrest, I think they would have gotten me by now.

I've been getting the one for the toll road fees. Apparently I am in severe violation and about to be arrested, or worse.

Also, I have been removed from the group. Wow. That's so sad.

In my state, we get something in the mail if we get on a toll road, with the fine to be paid. The state doesn't have my email, nor my cell phone number, so there's no way for them to contact me that way. I've reported it as spam, but it keeps coming.

I used to get texts about some property near me, if I still wanted to sell it. Always using some random name for me, and for them. I've driven by that property, and if it's actually listed to someone, they'll never sell it. It's full of rock, goes straight up about sixty feet, and in no way, shape or form would ever be sold. I'm actually pretty sure the state owns it.

Orchids flowering in our gazebo garden. Not sure the name of the orchid. Staghorn fern below them. 

Beginning my Lenten journey: https://vijayabodach.blogspot.com/2025/03/lent.html