SCAMS

THE ANTI MOSQUITOES SQUAD

I was washing my car when a man, in his early twenties approached me. Looked up and studied him. He has an ID tag hanging of his pocket, white "office look" shirt and black "office look pants". No neckties. Carrying a folder of some sort. Damned! I thought. A salesman. What now?

The office look guy : "Encik, I am from company so and so, and we have been contracted to spray anti mosquito chemical here in this area".

Akula : "Yeah, so?"

The office look guy : " The cost is RM 30.00. Its compulsory. Its to kill mosquitoes"

I said nothing at first, and observed the other houses in my row. I know there are at least 3 or 4 houses which is vacant.

Akula : "Tell me, what about those empty houses, will you spray there too?"

The office look guy : "Of course not, nobody there to pay and I am sorry to say, if you dont pay, we wont do your house either" With a bored face.

Akula : "And this is to kill mosquitoes, right?"

The office look guy : "Of course, I 've told you that before". He's getting irritated.

Akula : "Ok , let me see the letter from the Municipality saying you have been contracted to do this."

The office look guy:"We dont have any such letter, but your house must be sprayed."

Akula : "It doesnt matter anyway, if I pay you, mosquitoes will still breed in those empty houses area."

I fixed my eyes, glaring at his face and in a slow, clear voice, I explained to him like I would to a 7 year old.

Akula : "You see, mosquitoes breed where ever they want. They dont need to know if I paid for your service and they won't go around knocking people's door asking questions. They will not say, show me the receipts so that we won't lay eggs at your house. Further more, I can just spray Ridsects or Shelltox in my house. Which one do you reccommend?"

The office look guy doesn't say anything else and walk away.

THE CREDIT CARD VERIFIER

I just received my new credit card.

Ring, ring. (Well, not exactly, my handphone plays Sanitarium - Metallica when it rings). Hmm..private number.

Akula : "Yep, Hellowp!"

The sweet voice lady : "Sir, are you Mr. Akula?"

Akula : "Yeah, who's asking"

The sweet voice lady: "I am from a credit card verification company and we wish to ask you to verify a credit card you recently received. I have your credit card number here with me but can you recite it to me to make sure it matched with what I have. I also need to match the last 3 digits at the back of you credit card."

I noticed that she did not mention her name.

Akula : "No I cannot do that."

The sweet voice lady : "Its really important Mr. Akula. Otherwise you cannot use your credit card."

Akula : "Sorry babe, BTW, I just want to make sure, you know, I just move back here from overseas. I dont know how you do things like this over here . Do you have a credit card?"

The sweet voice lady: "Sure, I have one"

Akula: "Did you go through the same process? Unkown people call you to verify and you gave your credit card number"

The sweet voice lady : "Of course I did that". Sense a proud-I-am-smart tone in her voice.

Akula : "Then you must be so f***king stupid. You bitch!"

She hang up on me.

I still sprayed Ridsects (sorry Shelltox) in my house. No Denggi outbreak yet in my area.

And I have no problem at all whenever I use my credit card.