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Post by mailartist on Mar 26, 2018 17:25:37 GMT
A thread to discuss nuisance/criminal communications, regardless of media (telephone, email, snail mail, etc.):
______
So I'll start:
So far this month, we've gotten mid-night prank phone calls (likely from "truth or dare" kid sleepovers), and a series of phone messages, supposedly from the US Internal Revenue Service, claiming a warrant issued for our arrest, and please call the following number to settle things, etc.
[Now, my understanding is that arrests are usually issued by uniformed humans on one's doorstep sporting badges and handcuffs -- not pesky robocallers -- so we ignored these calls. (And yes, we were once randomly selected for an RS audit, so we've had the detailed, regimented, and legitimate experience before. We are current and honest in paying all legal taxes.]
Those "long-lost relative, multi-million-dollar inheritance unclaimed" missives have long come through email (usually with misspellings, and usually ending up in SPAM before they're even seen), but today not only brought one to our snail-mail box, but one that "gave all appearances of" being foreign (from Canada), while obscuring any details as to where it actually came from.
There wasn't a separate stamp on it, just a printed "Postes Canada/Canada Post" bar, and the only marks on it were on the lower bottom, where the USPS put the zip code reading. No address or phone number on envelope or letter (the signature was scanned and so generic as to be illegible), but a request to contact some supposed "account manager" from a bank in Ontario, Canada, but at this individual's private email. (The email included this account manager's personal name, but it probably should have more accurately read "weirfelons@gmail.com").
I did an internet search for this bank (not even sure it existed), and it appears (from discussion boards) that they have a whole raft of "account managers" (extortioners?) of differing names, and a dizzying amount of unclaimed inheritances (all valued at $9.2 million dollars -- if you can imagine that ever happening).
No real news here, since we've all seen this drivel before, and been advised away from it. What was new was its appearance in snail mail, and with supposed foreign postage. It certainly doesn't look (in franking) like any other letter that's come from Canada (it looks so totally like typical bulk, postage paid US mail), so I am not convinced that this letter has ever seen foreign shores. BUT international letters do tend to capture people's attention, and get opened, so perhaps this type of thing will continue.
Anyway, criminals are becoming more creative/desperate, so be wise. If it smells stinky, then take a wide step around it. Or, as my mother always used to say, "If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is."
EDIT: The US post office has a way to submit suspected cases of mail fraud. I reported this "bank" today.
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Post by mailartist on Mar 22, 2018 18:41:43 GMT
Now, how to fit a traveling notebook into the platen . . .
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Post by mailartist on Mar 20, 2018 0:40:35 GMT
I was able to get it mostly working. The “L” sticks and there is an issue with the right margin not functioning properly. Still, if I’m careful to watch the right margin and pull the L key back frequently, I can use it. "Mostly working" is what I love most about a typewriter (especially a manual one). It's a solid box of levers and mechanics, and since typing is so intimate a process, you become aware of a machine's quirks. Some of them can be "adjusted away," I suppose, but I think that some just add to the personality of the device and demand your respect. It's a bit like singing a duet, where you have to blend your voice with the other party, only in this case, you have to discover, and come to respect, the machine's temperament (which keys you have to hit a little harder, for example, and which will gum up if you type too fast). I suppose a fountain pens could have similar personalities, but with the large number of moving parts, no two typewriters handle in the same way. (There are You Tube videos of typewriter geeks going through cleaning/adjusting/using various models. Not sure if there's one for your new machine, but it's worth checking out.)
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Post by mailartist on Mar 14, 2018 11:54:36 GMT
I just got a letter (type-written, no less) from a penpal who mentioned this documentary as well - I'll have to figure out how I'm going to watch it since I don't subscribe to any streaming services. Since we exchanged our last round of letters and I got my grandmother's typewriter back from the shop, I feel like typewriters are everywhere now! I was hoping somewhere my mom still had the old blue & white Smith-Corona I remember from childhood, but I think it got tossed out years ago. I'm on the hunt now for at least 2 more, because my husband & son each want their own, and I'm rather protective of the old family heirloom. See if your local library offers streaming for patrons. We can "check out" up to five movies a month, each one for three days max. All we had to do is enter our library card number, and request the film. We had immediate access (similar to an ebook check out). If they don't have streaming out there, they may at least be able to request a DVD copy for you through interlibrary loan. Contact them with the title, and see what they can do to access it. As for finding old typewriters, check online listings (such as Craig's List), or large flea markets. Our local Catholic parish has an annual rummage sale. Last year, I got two typewriters there (an electric, and probably the same old blue/white Smith Corona that you mentioned). The electric works perfectly (just needed a new ribbon which I found online), but the blue/white is in desperate need of a good "key clean." The "o's" don't type as little donuts, but as blobs completely filled in.
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Post by mailartist on Mar 13, 2018 21:17:34 GMT
Too funny; I just watched this on Amazon Prime. It's interesting for sure; I should consider getting up to the Bay Area to visit. Now I want a second (or third?) typewriter if I can get my hands on some better ones. I love that the first machine I got second-hand "just happened" to be the one that Tom Hanks would take to a deserted island, if he could only take one of his immense collection: the Smith Corona Silent. Sometimes "dumb luck" works in your favor . . . Now, if I could just dump the "smart" thing and revert to a functional rotary phone . . . .
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Post by mailartist on Mar 12, 2018 17:50:43 GMT
One of my pen pals mentioned a 90-minute documentary that I hadn't heard of before: "California Typewriter." There is a trailer online (link below), and we were able to stream the full version through our local library account and Hoopla at no charge. (It is also available through Amazon -- both DVD, and through Amazon Prime.) It's not a sappy, PollyAnna-ish expose with excellent production values. Instead, it gets you thinking about how "ye olde technology" can still fit in an e-tech life. Of particular interest is the actor Tom Hanks appears, who talks with great gusto about his typewriter collection. Also, The Boston Typewriter Orchestra, and the playwright Sam Shepherd. Well worth looking into . . . www.google.com/search?q=california+typewriter+trailer&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b
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Post by mailartist on Dec 30, 2017 20:42:01 GMT
With me, it depends on how those ongoing exchanges are.
I understand that sometimes "life happens," so otherwise diligent penpals aren't able to write as lengthy of a letter as they'd like (and they often say so in the card). In that case, I'd either reply with a letter (if I felt so inclined), or I'd respond in kind (with a card, short note), letting them know that whenever they can get to responses, it's fine with me.
Then again, I've seen so-called penpals who never move beyond "just a card." If a couple of typical letters on my part fail to elicit any reply other than a sanitary greeting, then I feel no guilt about letting things drop.
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Post by mailartist on Nov 23, 2017 0:57:38 GMT
It must be *obvious* to them that someone using so many old stamps must be doing it for aesthetic reasons... A Forever is a Forever stamp, forever. but those pesky "old stamps" require arithmetic: Imaginary Postal worker, looking at a constellation of vintage stamps on a US letter: "Let me see, a four-cent stamp plus an 11-cent stamp is . . . 4 + 11 . . . hmm, 15 . . . adding an eight and a 14 is 15 + 9, so 23 plus . . . what again? Oh, fudge! And there's also a F stamp on this? How on earth much is an 'F stamp'?" No wonder the franking marker might be a bit vigorous! My rule of thumb, when I use these "oldies," is that I will "round up" (i.e., affix a little more than needed), just to compensate for the "gee, I gotta add" factor. (Since I can often get them at less than face value online, it seems a fair thing to do.) Not sure how modern postal machinery "reads" Forever stamps, but I think vintage stamps have to be scrutinized by hand, because they will be bumped back to the sender if the amount isn't correct. Then again, I did have a letter delivered without a shred of postage on it. It was a lovely handmade envelope, so maybe the artiness of it obscured the fact that, hey, the sender forgot to put a stamp on!
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Post by mailartist on Nov 22, 2017 22:42:01 GMT
Schnacks, I rather suspect that you just have an overzealous mail delivery person directly upstream from you, who is attentive to such omissions. I know that I've received a lot of vintage stamps on letters, so I'd just say to send and receive more mail. Eventually you'll get some more "pristine" stamps.
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Post by mailartist on Nov 22, 2017 22:38:25 GMT
This absolutely true story just came to mind, which underscores how complex "postal ownership" might be:
A few weeks ago, I pulled from our mailbox an unusual, but seemingly innocuous, mailer from a local, currently serving politician. (I don't recall who, or what party. The mailer was patriotic red, white and blue -- so it could have been any party, sad to say, based on how this story unfolds.) Anyway, it claimed to be a survey mailed to everyone within the represented area, with questions about "How important do you rank . . . " with several issues listed and a way to indicate my level of concern.
Fine. I'm happy to participate in the political process. It's what you do as a citizen.
Ah, but before making a mark on the thing, I read all the way to the end. Okay, so I'd have to affix my own Forever stamp. Once again, fine. I'm happy to participate in the political process. It's what you do as a citizen.
But then: I was required to provide my email address (which I generally don't, offhand, except to family or close friends), which, if I did, constituted my permission to send me any and all missives, at any time, for any purposes, and in any quantity, for perpetuity of time.
NOT fine. I'm happy to participate in the political process (it's what you do as a citizen), but I don't want to be badgered by email any more than I already am.
I go to chuck the thing, but then read some even more interesting verbiage. It tells me that returning it is voluntary, that I'm under no legal obligation to complete the survey -- but the piece of paper I was holding in my hands was printed and mailed by taxpayer dollars, and thus is, and remains, property of the government, which I am not permitted, ever, to destroy.
I held in my hands an (extortive?) "survey" that I didn't ask for and had to pay to submit (giving not just my political views, but permission to use my contact information any time that office pleased). I was not required to submit it, but it was "illegal" to toss it out. What was I to do with it then? Pass it along to my great-grandchildren, along with the heirloom family spoon collection? Or frame it and hang it on the dining room wall?
I am all for government working to solve real problems, and citizens following the laws of their countries, but this seemed comical, if not unethical bordering on illegal. (After all, if pyramid schemes can't be mailed, then political extortion probably can't be either.) I suppose I should have just dropped the entire thing (unstamped and without a single additional mark on it) into the nearest postal drop, and let the Federal Dead Letter Office decide if they want to invoke the ire of the local government by tossing it out. But you know what they say about hindsight, and I didn't want to burden one governmental arm by the blathering nonsense of another.
In any event, I handed this egregious political office mailing to my husband, and said "No way I'm sending this back, but I can't ethically trash it either." I'm not sure what he did with it (wink, wink), but I confess that I haven't seen it around since . . .
Wait! What's that I hear outside? [Distant police sirens, getting louder and louder, before stopping entirely. Loud BANG, BANG, BANG, on the door, followed by "Open up! Politic police! You're under arrest!"]
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Post by mailartist on Nov 22, 2017 21:38:00 GMT
A separate question is who "owns" the stamps. Someone may buy and install a mailbox, but my understanding is that an official US postal mailbox is "the mail's." (In other words, I can't buy and install an official mailbox on my property, with the understanding that some other entity will deliver items there.) Are stamps similar, with the person buying the stamp paying for a service (delivering the mail), but the US government retains "custody" as well?
Interesting questions . . .
I have seen such slashes, and I expect that it's some postal worker who has discovered a letter has gone through unfranked. Were people not inclined to "steal" stamps by picking them off and reusing them, the postal workers may not be so worried if they could trust that a "used" stamp remained "used," whether franked or not.
This issue may concern others more than me (since I don't see myself as a stamp collector, but more as a snail mail enthusiast), but I understand that a stamp needs to be franked, and whether it's by wavy postal machinery, or someone with a permanent marker -- I don't care. In my mind, it gives a "personal feel" to an envelope (evidence that a real human being handled and looked at it, and that the envelope has a personal story and journey), rather than it just being run through postal machinery.
Never heard of personal cancellation, with an individual stamp. Not sure how that would work. I also think that the stamp could well end up double cancelled, since I'm not sure the machinery would recognize an alternative frank.
I do know that our local postal clerks are insanely busy, but they are generally happy to hand cancel my letters with the local stamp. Yours might be also, so that way you know your outgoing mail will look right? (Not sure how to handle that with incoming letters, though.)
Also, if I'm needing a hand cancel, I try to pick a non-busy time of the day to do so. So, not when there are 20-some people in line.
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Post by mailartist on Nov 16, 2017 17:31:15 GMT
Huh? The postal explanation makes no sense to me.
Then again, I've found even domestic UPS mailings to be inscrutable. The online postage calculator used to make sense, and be reliable, but more often than not, my mail is returned to me "Insufficient Postage" -- even though I put on exactly what the system tells me to. "Packages" are particularly devilish, since they no longer have the "Enter the length/width/height dimensions of your package." It looks like they are pushing people toward official UPS boxes, and thus the standardized $$$ prices.
I'm not sure what they consider "document." Is a photo a document? Is mail art a document? ["Art" is typically considered a good, although there is a spectrum between art (strictly visual) and something like an illustrated letter, which employs art to communicate.]
And what I can't figure out is that individuals from China can mail Ebay goods completely across the globe to US citizens, at prices that are often along the lines of "39 cents, free postage!" -- when I can't even mail some piddly birthday socks to a friend two states over for less than $10.
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Post by mailartist on Oct 11, 2017 18:51:20 GMT
What I've never been able to figure out is whether US postcard stamps are "forever," too. In other words, a postcard stamp will mail a postcard, whenever, regardless of what the prices may increase to? Same question regarding "extra ounce" stamps.
I'm not sure about this because the postcard stamps often don't have the monetary value printed on them, even though they say "postcard."
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Post by mailartist on Sept 4, 2017 17:05:03 GMT
This 30-second spoof is in German, but what's going on is understandable (and laugh provoking) in any language. Not exactly "postal," but it does underscore the difficulties of writing technology (i.e., which end of the pen is up?): www.snotr.com/embed/8965
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Post by mailartist on Aug 30, 2017 19:49:11 GMT
If anyone hears anything official about when mail delivery will resume in the areas impacted by Hurricane Harvey, can you indicate that here?
I have some penfriends in that area (particularly Houston), and would like to send a cheery "something" their way. However, they are inundated with so much there at present, I don't want to create further problems.
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