BEWARE of the latest SCAM!!!

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Royal Bank received this communication about the newest and most clever scam that's happening in Alberta, Canada right now, and moving south....possibly to the San Francisco Bay Area!

Two of Royal Bank's clients were called by potential scammers two days ago, while an old college friend of mine who lives in Danville, California, received a similiar call just yesterday afternoon!

The warning information I'm about to share is well worth reading, so you can understand how this latest VISA/Mastercard scam works in order to protect yourself!

This one is so slick that they provide YOU with all your credit card information, never asking for your card number, because they already have it! What they want is your 3-digit security PINcode.

The scam works like this: A person calls you and says..."This is (their name), and I'm calling from the Security and Fraud Department at VISA.  My badge number is 65432, and your card has been flagged for an unusual purchase pattern that I'm calling you to verify."

"This would be on your VISA card which was issued by (so and so bank). Is that correct?"  When you say 'YES' they ask...."Did you happen to purchase an Anti-Telemarketing Device for $497.99 from a company based in Arizona?"

When you say 'NO', the caller continues...."Then we will be issuing a credit to your account.  We've been tracking this particular company, and their charges range from $297 to $497, just under the $500 purchase pattern which flags most cards."

"Before your next statement, the credit will be sent to you at (they give your address), is that correct?"  You say 'YES'.

Then the caller says...."I'll be starting a Fraud Investigation.  If you have any questions, just call the 1-800 number listed on the back of your card (1-800 VISA), and ask for Security".  "You will also need a 6-digit control number I'm about to give you.  Yours is (gives a number).  Do you need me to repeat it?"

Now, here is where the IMPORTANT part of the scam works!  The caller then says...."I just need to verify that you are in possession of your card." 

 Then, the caller asks you to turn your card over and look at the 7-numbers on the back, noting the first 4 are part of your card number, while the last 3 are the security code numbers that verify you are in possession of the card. (These are the same numbers we use to make internet purchases) 

The caller asks you to read those last 3 numbers, and when you do....they say--"Right, that is correct!  I just needed to verify that your card has not been lost or stolen. Do you have any other questions?"

When you say 'NO', the caller thanks you and tells you not to hesitate to call back if you need any further information, and then hangs up!

Interestingly, YOU aren't required to say much at all during the call, except those 3 little numbers which they don't already know...the ones that can end up taking your money and damaging your credit! Here's how!

After a fraud call taken early this week by a Royal Bank customer, they smartly called back within 20-minutes, and the REAL VISA Security Department told them it was a scam, and that over the past 15-minutes a new purchase of $497.99 had been charged to their account!  OUCH!!

Fortunatly, VISA quickly made a real fraud report, closed the account, and issued a new card to the victim. It's a good thing they called back when they did!

REMEMBER,  what the scammers want is the 3-digit pin number on the back of your card. DO NOT give it to them!  Instead, tell them you will call VISA or Mastercard directly to verify thier conversation!

In reality, neither VISA nor Mastercard would ever ask for anything on your card.  They already know it.  They issued the card!

However, if you give scammers that 3-digit code thinking you're going to receive a credit, you're in for an expensive shock!  By the time you get your statement, odds are there will be multiple charges for purchases you never made, and by then it will be too late to file an effective fraud report.

IF you receive a call like this, HANG UP immediatly and file a police report, as instructed by VISA. 

 Apparently, several police agencies including those in Santa Clara County,  have already taked several similiar fraud reports, and they ALL URGE us to tell everyone we know about this scam! 

That's why I hope you are reading this blog now, because this latest scam appears to be extremely effective and clever!

Thanks, and stay smart on the internet by logging on to www.Streetwisesd.com...the gateway to Streetwise Special Delivery.

Sincerely,

PetecCam4

Singling out Singletary!

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As an avid pro football fan and former television sportscaster, I've followed the career of Mike Singletary with awe and respect....from his playing days as a Hall of Fame middle linebacker for the Chicago Bears, to his recent post as headcoach of the San Francisco 49ers.

His honest, no-nonsense style has added a positive swagger to the team, and in two short years he's reincarnated the 49ers back into playoff form, in my opinion!

However, last week Mike un-characteristically lost his cool during a tense T.V. interview in Santa Clara with KPIX-TV's sports director Dennis O'Donnell, after the head coach was asked about difficulty getting plays called during the team's first game...a blowout loss in Seattle.

For the first time ever, I questioned Singletary's integrity in handling this situation. Yes, it may have been bad timing!  Yes, Singletary looked tired and agitated from the outset! 

Yes, the team was preparing for an intense Monday night game against the defending world champion New Orleans Saints, and this was probably just his "pappa bear" style of watching over his cubs!.

Still,   there was no call for Singletary to snap at O'Donnell following a few reverently asked and fairly phrased questions about his expectations of quarterback Alex Smith regarding play calling and clock management!

"I don't want to talk about any of that", shouted Singletary. "I only want to talk about New Orleans if you want to talk about them. Next Question!"

O'Donnel looked stunned, Singletarly appeared vindicated, and the interview ended abruptly in embarrasing fashion. 

Frankly, I was more embarrased for Singletary, and ironically.... the 49ers ended up losing a heart breaker  to the Saints that night at Candlestick Park.(now called Bill Walsh Field) The story doesn't end there, however, as O'Donnell was immediately removed as host of this "Coaches Corner" interview segment, and replaced with field reporter Kim Coyle.  Question!  WHY does the reporter(interviewer) ALWAYS get the short end of the stick? In this instance,  the show is part of a contract partnership whereas the 49ers have editorial input power,  and spokesman Bob Lange claims the change in hosts was "a joint agreement to give future interviews a better dynamic". I think it was more the case of Singletary getting ticked off at O'Donnell, and wanting a new interviewer!  Either way, the move sparked many heated comments from fans around the Bay Area such as: "O'Donnell did nothing wrong. It was Singletarly who acted like an idiot!" "He's lucky he isn't in a more aggressive media market like Philly, Chicago, or New York....where Singletarly would never make it!'   "You get your ass handed to you by a team like Seattle with 15 new starters, and THAT is a situation where you have to be smarter. Get this guy out of here!"    "Singletary is now officially on the NUT LIST.  The reporter just asked him questions that any fan would want to know the answers to....and the coach says the interviewer baited him?  How stupid!" "We're talking post concussion syndrome here.  If this is how Singletary's handling things, he's un-prepared for the job, and ON the short list for goodbye coach land!" Ok. Ok! These comments may be a little "over the top",  because what happened to O'Donnell is just the way things often work!  When I was a TV sports reporter I saw the same thing happen to a few colleagues. While I always played fair, I was also careful to maintain healthy relationships with head coaches.  It was either that or start looking for another job! Five years ago,  'KNBR' sports radio host Larry Krueger was fired outright in San Francisco  for harsh, questionable, and boarderline racist comments directed at Giants baseball manager Felipe Alou, along with several Central American-born teammates. This time the coach was dead right to complain and DEMAND that  Krueger be fired!  However, O'Donnell didn't deserve his demotion! Fortunately, he's still the sports director and lead sports anchor at KPIX, and Singletary did express a little bit of  remorse following the incident.   "I say things that I feel, and I have to do a better job of not letting the media bait me the way they did in last week's incident.  I have to do a better job at that end, and I have to be smarter in that sort of situation". After the fact, I'm still pulling for Mike Singletary to succeed, and,  while Kim Coyle should fill in nicely as his new show host, O'Donnell is also still around, and will survive. Let's just hope for the 49ers, and their fans... that THEY are still around when playoff time arrives! After all,  this is the year Singletary's team is highley expected  to step up and take part in post season play--or else HE may very well be looking for another coaching job! Good luck to the 49ers, and, being fonder of their East Bay Area Rival in Oakland....GO RAIDERS!! Thanks, and stay logged on to www.Streetwisesd.com Sincerely, PeteCam4

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THE VALUE OF "OLD SAYINGS"

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I've made a hobby of collecting and remembering old sayings.  We hear them everyday from everywhere and by everybody--whether as coined phrases, one-liners, words to live by, or lines from a movie: 

"Hey dude let's party" helped launch Sean Penn as 'Jeff Spicoli' in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High".  'Scarlett O'hara's' "Tomorrow is another day"(Vivien Lee in "Gone With the Wind") echoed throughout my childhood. 

True, some old sayings get old fast, however,  many become thought-provoking, words of wisdom which enlighten us--as I hope this blog does for YOU!  Are you there?  Still reading? 

I got interested about 20 years ago in the office restroom of all places, where, above the urinal hung a two-foot by three-foot painting frame totally filled with hundreds of tiny sentences, each a different color, and each--an old saying!  The first was; "The journey of a thousand miles starts with but one, single step"...and the last was; "Have a nice day". 

 In between, I read hundreds of great ones over a period of bathroom visits--only a handful of which I will share!(I promise)  One night I took that painting down and started jotting them down:

"Those who talk the most have the least to say".

"A welcome guest is one who knows when to leave".

"Easy street is a blind alley"

"Those who pays too much attention to their reputation, often loose their character".

"Those who ignore the past, are condemned to repeat it".

"A person who trusts no one, should include himself".

"To truly hear you must quiet the mind".

"Trust is like money; you spend it, lend it, save it, and sometimes get robbed of it".

"A rumor is as difficult to unspread as butter".

Here are a few sales meeting motivators:

"A goal without a plan is just a wish". 

"Nobody plans to fail, they just fail to plan".

"A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner".

"A wish changes nothing, a decision changes everything".

"If a situation is constantly confusing, to solve the problem...look to the financial interest".

"A meeting is an event at which the minutes are kept, and the hours are lost"...(the one I prefer)

Then there are the love letter tools:

"Success in marriage is more than finding the right person, it's becoming the right person".

"The heart has reasons which reason does not understand".

"Better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all". (Boo,hoo,hoo) "A woman never shot a man while he was doing the dishes".

Are you still reading? These are good aren't they?  Here are a few more:

"Good taste is boundless, while bad taste has no bounds".

"When there's nothing on TV, most people will watch it anyway".

"A young person knows the rules, but an old person knows the exceptions".

"Smile. It increases your face value".

"Stewardesses is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand".(You stopped to visualize that one, didn't you?) "Life is like playing a violin solo in public, and learning the instrument as you go along".

"There are no atheists in foxholes".(My dad taught me that one) "Life is a bowl of cherries, just watch out for the pits"--"Life is a bed of roses, just watch out for the pricks".(My sisters taught me those) "Chance favors the prepared mind".

"Fortune favors the brave".

"Once in a while, you meet someone who thinks they are all eight wonders of the world".

"To be a good sport, one has to lose to prove it".

"Show me a good loser, and I'll show you someone who's playing golf with their boss".

That last one came from my family priest, the late Reverend John Sweeny, who pastored the much known "Our Lady of Peace" Parish in Santa Clara, California.What a wonderful soul he was, an not a bad golfer.  He helped inspire me to add this next batch of quotes--all with authors.

"Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves". Confucius "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody". Bill Cosby "The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still, small voice of conscience". Mahatma Gandhi "To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible". St. Thomas Aquinas "Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who, only dream by night". Edgar Allan Poe "A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the moment it starts raining'. Mark Twain "A hero is someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom". Bob Dylan "A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs, who has never learned to walk forward". Franklin D. Roosevelt "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise". Benjamin Franklin "You can't separate peace from freedom, because no one can live in peace unless they have their freedom". Malcom X "The bitterest tears shed over graves, are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone". Harriet Beecher Stowe "All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word; freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope". Winston Churchill "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have told me...faster horses". Henry Ford "Sure there are dishonest men in local government, but there are dishonest men in national government too". Richard Nixon "The nice thing about being a celebrity, is that when you bore people they think it's their fault". Henry Kissinger "If all economists were laid end to end, they would never reach a conclusion". George Bernard Shaw "Death is not the greatest of evils; It is worse to want to die, and not be able to". Aristotle "Do not fear death so much, but, rather the inadequate life". Bertolt Brecht "Thanks to the interstate highway system, it's now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything". Charles Kuralt "I'm the one who's got to die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to". Jimmy Hendrix "I have a dream",that one day all mankind "shall not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character". Martin Luthur King Jr.

"It is easier to fight and die for one's principles, than to live up to them". Alfred Adler "Charity is no substitute for justice withheld". St.Augustine "Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face". John Updike "My brain; it's my second favorite organ". Woody Allen "Ninety-eight percent of this country's adults are decent, hard working, honest Americans.  It's the other lousy two-percent that get all the publicity...but we elected them". Lily Tomlin "It is not an old movie if you haven't seen it". Lauren Bacall "Nobody in the game of football should be called a genius.  A genius is somebody like Norman Einstein". Joe Theismann "Computers are useless. They can only give you answers". Pablo Picasso "Life....is a sexually transmitted disease". R.D. Laing "Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance". Edgar Bergen

"If the law is against you, bang on the facts. If the facts are against you, bang on the law. If both are against you, bang on the table". No One

I can't end this thing without sharing the first saying that inspired me, the worst ever written, my all-time favorite, and one I made up myself!

As a TV sports anchor-reporter some 26-years ago in Bakersfield, California, I did my first quality feature package(story) on a guy who's legs were blown off in Viet Nam--yet he lived life fuller than most! Entertaining 500 school children, Bob Weilan took batting practice sitting down with the baseball team, bench-pressed 380 pounds in the gym, and told of how he walked across the entire country on specially made hand-shoes! He also walked the LA Marathon a few years later!

I closed the feature with his final message...that the joy is truly in the journey--and that, "The only time you fail in this life, is the last time that you try". 

My favorite saying comes from the late comedian George Carlin, of all people...who wrote:"Life should not be measured by the amount of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away".

The most diabolical, hypocritical saying of all still remains posted above the front gate at 'Auschwitz' death camp in Poland, where innocent millions(mostly Jews) were murdered during World War Two. It reads: (In German) "Arbeit Macht Frei"...work will set you free.

 Almost finally, Diogenes of Sinope happily wrote once:

"One original thought is worth a thousand mindless quotations". 

Nevertheless I end with an original: 

"Men have all the lines, and women have all the curves. Happy are those who can read between both". 

I hope you enjoyed all of these inspired words! Take care and check out more blogs on www.streetwisesd .com

Sincerely, PeteCam4

  

  

"Best Wishes"--PTCJr

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What does giving 100-percent really mean?

What does giving 100-percent really mean? What do people REALLY mean when they say they're giving 100-percent and more? We hear it all the time in motivational speeches and at sales meetings..."I'm going to give it 110-percent"or, "I demand no less than a 100-percent from everyone"!

But, how is 100-percent measured? Let's turn to a simple math formula worked out many years ago by two college math professors with more than 80-years of experience between them.

IF,

A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z is represented by:

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-20-21-22-23-24-25-26.......

then,

H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K

8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11=98%

and,

K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E

11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5=96%

while,

A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E

1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5=100%

and,

B-U-L-L-S-*-*-T=103% [ * means..'use imagination']

2+21+12+12+19+8+9+20=103%

NOW...look just how far a little as* kissing will take you,

A-S-* K-I-S-S-I-N-G

1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7=127%

Therefore, one can now conclude with mathematical CERTAINTY, that while [hard work] and [knowledge] will get you close, and [attitude] will get you there....it's the [BULL* * IT]and [AS* KISSING] that will put you over the top....every time!

Thank you, and always give it 100+percent!

Petecam

"Best Wishes"--PTCJr

ROLLER COASTERS ACCIDENTS

ROLLER COASTERS ACCIDENTS Being a person who loves roller coasters, has me wondering are they really safe as they can be . Great America in Santa Clara Ca. had a problem on Monday August 10, 2009 with a roller coaster called Vertigo. This similar thing happened back in April 2000, in the same year a boy fell from the Drop Zone roller coaster. I started going to Great America when it first open in the late 70’s. I’ve rode the Vertigo 5 times through out the years. There have been consumer complaints on roller coasters accidents and fatalities throughout this nation over the years. Even though these accidents have occurred, I’m still going to ride. http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_13031694?source=rss http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2000/04/20/MNR4BA4.DTL http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PREREL/prhtml80/80032.html LM

RECYCLED WASTEWATER

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Our water supply is dwindling. It’s coming down to recycling wastewater.
Here in San Jose Ca. and Santa Clara Ca. were in a drought situation. I
think recycling wastewater sounds gross, but what other choice do we have
our rainfall season isn’t enough. I think the water district should come
up with a program that gives consumers a bigger incentive to cut there
water use that might help. Orange County is already recycling wastewater;
I sure would like to poll the people to see how many exactly drink water
from the tap.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2009/08/03/focus7.html?b=1249272000^1870338


LM