UPDATE: Calls to stores, banks...money wired!

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Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2007 12:38 am

Edit: UPDATING MY POST...

This story was ran as the leading, breaking, news story on the biggest news channel here in Cincinnati just a few minutes ago (5 p.m. EDT). This crime has spread all over the country, and southwest Ohio is getting hit hard.

Today, in Cincinnati, several businesses including the Biggs chain, and banks have been vic'd (only the bank wired money.) Just up the road, in Dayton, other stores and an elementary school was hit. The news report said calls were made all over the USA today.

Every business, school, etc. called was evacuated for hours while bomb squads searched. Many sent money. This is a form of terrorism, and if the other lads find out it's successful, they'll all start calling.

From Yesterday: A short piece in my local newsrag this morning...

Quote:

Caller gets employees to send money, strip

Dateline: Newport, R.I. Large groceries and discount stores across the country have been targeted by a caller who threatens to blow up shoppers and workers with a bomb if employees fail to wire money to an account overseas, authorities said.

Frightened workers have wired thousands of dollars-and in one case took off all their clothes to placate a caller who said he was watching them but may have been thousands of miles away. The police and FBI said Wednesday they are investigating similar threats in more than 15 stores in at least 11 states-all of them in the past week.

No one has been arrested and no bombs have been found.

In Newport, employees at a Wal-Mart got three calls Tuesday morning, and wired three payments totaling more than $10,000 to an account out of the country, Sgt. James Quinn said.

Also targeted were Dillon's Grocery Stores in Hutchinson, Kansas. At one store on Tuesday, the caller ordered customers and employees to disrobe. Shocked

Employee Marilyn Case told the Hutchinson News that store manager Mike Piros argued with the caller, who demanded that one of Piros' fingers be cut off for every hour the demands were not met, and another employee got a butcher knife [ Shocked

] on his, Piros's, orders.

Never underestimate the gullibility of our neighbors. Has this happened anywhere else in the civilized (?) world? Would anybody in here remove their clothing at the direction of a telephone caller?

Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2007 12:41 am

That's the hitman.

I know one baiter who was baiting the hitman as a hotel owner, and the hitman was threatening to blow up a non-existent hotel. LOL

Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2007 2:39 am

Yep it was on CNN earlier today.

Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2007 3:11 am

That's an old scam-
Sick guy calls woman, says he's across the street from her kid's school, etc.
Tells her the kid will be ok, as long as she takes off her clothes.
Sometiimes the victim doesn't think to ask "Which school?"

B4st4rds deserve torture. For weeks. No, months.

Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2007 3:32 am

LaBrea wrote:

B4st4rds deserve torture. For weeks. No, months.

With somebody that sick they deserve several chunks of plumbous material appended to their body at a high velocity. I can guarantee I would not take a call like that as a scam right off the bat growing up in the family and situations I grew up in. I'd be armed, out, and hunting heads in a situation where the scammer mentions family, even though I deal with and see scams every day.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!

Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2007 3:46 am

what would you do if someone called the office/shop where you worked and said they had a bomb?
When I worked in nightclubs (many a year ago now) I had an occasion to take a phone call where someone said they had placed a bomb in the club.
We evacuated immediately. This was in the UK at the height of IRA threats/bombings.(And to be fair, I sh*t myself)
Having said that, just a couple of months ago in NZ a bar in the city was evacuated as someone had called to say they had left a bag with a bomb in it.

Bastards. Absolute lazy, scumbag, bastards. Evil or Very Mad

I hate anyone who feeds off other peoples fear.

Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2007 5:31 am

We had the same story happen at a local grocery store yesterday. Today the college across the street from me had a bomb threat and closed for the day.

Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2007 2:50 pm

Read about this last night at work... Rolling Eyes

Cheeky bastards. Evil or Very Mad

There are some sick people out there (as we all very well know) ... Anyone got their email address? Twisted Evil

Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2007 3:19 pm

Another sicko got off on posing as an LEO and "directing" strip searches of "suspects" over the phone. This was the most publicized case, as it resulted in lawsuits and a trial.

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051009/NEWS01/510090392

The discussion this triggered about the following subject

Quote:

Perceived authority carries much power, studies show

Psychological experts say it is human nature to obey orders, no matter how evil they might seem -- as was illustrated in one of the most famous and frightening human experiments of the 20th century.

in the wake of the case was especially interesting.

Exude some perceived authority, and you're rarely stopped or questioned. Working in IT, I see proof of that a lot. While I do work on a small campus, I'm rarely (unlike coworkers) out in other offices on calls. The majority of the campus community does not have a clue that I've worked here eight years. I still (occasionally) get mistaken for a student. I still (much more often) get asked by longtime employees if I'm "new". I've sometimes been here longer than they have.

Yet, I find I can stroll right in to most offices on campus, particularly if there is a student worker or someone like a "divisional secretary" on duty, without a sniff of an explanation or proof that I'm who I say I am, and get them to "log in for me" or allow me access to any machine on campus. This includes, for example, the equipment we use to produce campus IDs. Which also tie into our campus security...

This section was pretty interesting, too.

Quote:

Prizing obedience

Employees are trained to think, `Can I help you?'

In her book, "Making Fast Food: From the Frying Pan into the Fryer," Canadian sociologist Ester Reiter concludes that the most prized trait in fast-food workers is obedience.

The behavior described in the article is the main reason I really don't trust employees of companies or offices that have access to my personal data to protect my privacy. I've seen way too many people say "Well, I'm really not supposed to tell you this, but..."

Or, to put it another (more entertaining) way, Terry Pratchett totally nailed it when he had Sam observe the following about his wife in The Fifth Elephant.

Quote:

Sam Vimes had learned a lot from watching Lady Sybil. She didn't mean to act like that, but she'd been born to it, into a class that had always behaved this way: you went through the world as if there was no possibility that anyone would stop you or question you, and most of the time that's exactly what didn't happen.

Master Baiter Joined: 04 May 2007 Posts: 139

Further news:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20532032/

This is gaining popularity. As with any successful criminal act, there are bound to be copycats, but I'm willing to bet our hitman is behind a lot of it. He's not getting anything from targeting individuals, but hold a store hostage from the other end of a cell phone and not only are you rich, you've got the whole world's attention.

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