February Banter 2026

[Kay]

8 minutes ago, Mrs.J said:

That is the reason I posted it. It can happen to anyone. And being a victim myself knows too well the years it takes to get things right. Me knowing that even just you letting your daughter and wife know it makes my post worthwhile. As my daughter is a film and media studies major she has a YouTube channel. She has been doing a weekly vlog and intends to spotlight this. She was a lucky one I am sure there are others out there who have not been. 

Sorry this happened, and good to spread the word. Someone tried to scam the college age daughter of acquaintances of mine about a year ago. I think she was a senior or maybe just graduated. Art student. They pretended to want to commission her work/hire her. Overjoyed of course, but a scam. Pretty terrible to prey on young people's hopes and dreams.

[wxdude64]

23 minutes ago, ravensrule said:

I mean would you really risk your life sharing a room with him. I would bring at least a $150,000 arsenal. 

A whole year's salary?? 

[Mrs.J]

1 minute ago, Kay said:

Sorry this happened, and good to spread the word. Someone tried to scam the college age daughter of acquaintances of mine about a year ago. I think she was a senior or maybe just graduated. Art student. They pretended to want to commission her work/hire her. Overjoyed of course, but a scam. Pretty terrible to prey on young people's hopes and dreams.

Yes it is. And when you think you know all the ways out there they just keep reinventing themselves. Having been an art student myself I would have been over the moon with a commission so know what your acquaintances daughter went through. What we want now is the company that was directly spoofed to respond back to us. Because it was not until the end that the pieces fell into place. Their logo was used, contact name was used in the initial contact. Mr. J is giving them today to respond then he will try to call them. He wants to alert them that their name is being used in this manner. Not sure if they will care or not but if it was my company I would want to know. 

[ravensrule]

4 minutes ago, wxdude64 said:

A whole year's salary?? 

I would borrow from him, don’t worry. 

[mappy]

36 minutes ago, AlexD1990 said:

OMG, THATS WHO HE IS? 

 

ugh, that explains SO much...

lololol yes 

[adelphi_sky]

1 hour ago, Mrs.J said:

So something happened this week that I need to put in writing I am so mad. 

So the oldest Ms. J is in her last semester. And is looking everyday and applying for jobs in this shitty market. Fast forward this week, Monday to be exact. She finally gets an interview for an internship. But on the same day she got contacted for another job that would be exactly what she would like to have. Local DC communications company, would be remote and good benefits and pay. With all the jobs she has replied to lately she did not remember applying to this one. An interview is set up over Microsoft Teams. It is one of those interviews where you are sent questions and then you have to record yourself with a 1 minute answer. Weird but I have seen interviews like these used to narrow down candidates. She is told that she would hear something back the following day. She gets contacted again through Microsoft Teams and asked if she is available to talk over the phone at a certain time on Tuesday. Let me just say here that Mr. J was already kind of surprised that someone who would be fresh out of school would even be considered for this job but we are all kind of caught up in the excitement. Anyways she lets us know she is offered the job and with an after graduation start date. Perfect right?? Well that is where the red flags started to pop up. She had class into the night and then one of her club meetings after so we had not had the time to talk with her. She asked should she cancel the interview for the internship and Mr. J said until you have a signed contract no. So we asked her about the contract. 2 pages, only 2 pages and what was on those 2 pages made the Spidy sense of Mr. J go off. He started digging. Mind you Ms. J had already checked into the name of the person who originally sent the first contact. He was an employee. But the person who called her was someone calling from an AZ phone number and had a thick accent. And his email to send the “contract” to ended not with a .com. In said “contract” it listed the job posting again and all the benefits, which mind you was what was exactly on the companies website. The second page was asking for proof of rent, ID, SS, passport and bank info for “direct deposit” At the bottom was a line for the start date and it was left blank even though she had given a start date. She was to fill out the paperwork and send it back by the end of business on Wednesday. We told her to send us what she had gotten and started to try to connect the dots. Told her to hold off sending anything until we dug a bit more. As a victim of ID theft back in the day I started to get that sick feeling in my gut. She was contacted one more time Tuesday evening saying that she can send the info that night. She did not even have anything printed out and replied she would the next day. Between that and the digging that Mr. J was doing we told her to not send anything at all. That is was looking more and more like a phishing scheme that we had never seen before. What set off his concern was the salary that was being given to someone with her qualifications. Mr. J immediately found an email to the company that was being spoofed asking if in fact she had been given a job offer. We have yet to hear back from them but were 100% sure that she should not send off any sensitive information.

You guys… this world sucks! This kid has been busting her ass to not only finish college but has been stressing over not being a burden on us. Which she will never be and was told as such. She is working 2 jobs and making contacts. And wants a job she wants to be self sufficient. I feel absolutely gutted for her. She still has her interview for the internship but after what just happened she went back in to check if she even applied for this. And cross reference the contact with the actual company. This one checks out and will actually be a face to face interview. She will now be keeping a spread sheet of what she applies for on top of the email trail. We are glad that she still feels close enough to us to keep us in the loop. Because had she not this could have ended very badly. Sorry for this being so long but I needed to put my thoughts out in words with people not connected directly. 

Everyone enjoy this sunny day. 

Sorry this happened. Rule of thumb for job offers is no legitimate company will offer a job without a face-to-face or at least a video interview. Be careful of links to document sites, etc. Always check emails, those usually give scammers away. They pray on people who are too busy to check. Scam emails I get are emails that usually end with gmail.com or some domain other than the company referred to in the email. Instant trashcan for me. 

I'm super critical of most things. I'm getting older, so I may not be as sharp as I used to be. And with AI, catching scams are getting a lot tougher. I'm starting to fall for the AI slop online. Imagine how scammers can use AI in these situations. I imagine in a few years you will be talking to someone in a video conference and they are AI! 

Stay vigilant. Hope your kid gets a great job. 

[WxUSAF]

Scary stuff @Mrs.J! Our daughter is a similar age so I’ll keep an eye out!

[CAPE]

1 hour ago, mappy said:

Welcome to the world that is mdecoy (his first wx forum name) 

For some reason when I read this I thought of the illegal U-turn.

[87storms]

We need a snowstorm worse than the Wizards need to hit a home run in the next draft.

[Buffalo Transplant]

Is it a coincidence that this guy started showing up on television again or is this really Rev?

 

 

I forgot to add... I come here for knowledge and information, not to talk smack about what one says.  Rev...

 

[TSSN+]

8 minutes ago, 87storms said:

We need a snowstorm worse than the Wizards need to hit a home run in the next draft.

Better chance of me watching a wnba game 

[mappy]

12 minutes ago, CAPE said:

For some reason when I read this I thought of the illegal U-turn.

Hahahahahahahaha he was so proud of that too posting the video and everything 

[87storms]

3 minutes ago, TSSN+ said:

Better chance of me watching a wnba game 

I think we get one more, but probably not as soon as people want. I’m thinking we get some washouts and then another reboot of cold later this month or early March before it’s a wrap.

[CAPE]

2 minutes ago, mappy said:

Hahahahahahahaha he was so proud of that too posting the video and everything 

That was a classic lol

[mappy]

2 hours ago, Mrs.J said:

So something happened this week that I need to put in writing I am so mad. 

So the oldest Ms. J is in her last semester. And is looking everyday and applying for jobs in this shitty market. Fast forward this week, Monday to be exact. She finally gets an interview for an internship. But on the same day she got contacted for another job that would be exactly what she would like to have. Local DC communications company, would be remote and good benefits and pay. With all the jobs she has replied to lately she did not remember applying to this one. An interview is set up over Microsoft Teams. It is one of those interviews where you are sent questions and then you have to record yourself with a 1 minute answer. Weird but I have seen interviews like these used to narrow down candidates. She is told that she would hear something back the following day. She gets contacted again through Microsoft Teams and asked if she is available to talk over the phone at a certain time on Tuesday. Let me just say here that Mr. J was already kind of surprised that someone who would be fresh out of school would even be considered for this job but we are all kind of caught up in the excitement. Anyways she lets us know she is offered the job and with an after graduation start date. Perfect right?? Well that is where the red flags started to pop up. She had class into the night and then one of her club meetings after so we had not had the time to talk with her. She asked should she cancel the interview for the internship and Mr. J said until you have a signed contract no. So we asked her about the contract. 2 pages, only 2 pages and what was on those 2 pages made the Spidy sense of Mr. J go off. He started digging. Mind you Ms. J had already checked into the name of the person who originally sent the first contact. He was an employee. But the person who called her was someone calling from an AZ phone number and had a thick accent. And his email to send the “contract” to ended not with a .com. In said “contract” it listed the job posting again and all the benefits, which mind you was what was exactly on the companies website. The second page was asking for proof of rent, ID, SS, passport and bank info for “direct deposit” At the bottom was a line for the start date and it was left blank even though she had given a start date. She was to fill out the paperwork and send it back by the end of business on Wednesday. We told her to send us what she had gotten and started to try to connect the dots. Told her to hold off sending anything until we dug a bit more. As a victim of ID theft back in the day I started to get that sick feeling in my gut. She was contacted one more time Tuesday evening saying that she can send the info that night. She did not even have anything printed out and replied she would the next day. Between that and the digging that Mr. J was doing we told her to not send anything at all. That is was looking more and more like a phishing scheme that we had never seen before. What set off his concern was the salary that was being given to someone with her qualifications. Mr. J immediately found an email to the company that was being spoofed asking if in fact she had been given a job offer. We have yet to hear back from them but were 100% sure that she should not send off any sensitive information.

You guys… this world sucks! This kid has been busting her ass to not only finish college but has been stressing over not being a burden on us. Which she will never be and was told as such. She is working 2 jobs and making contacts. And wants a job she wants to be self sufficient. I feel absolutely gutted for her. She still has her interview for the internship but after what just happened she went back in to check if she even applied for this. And cross reference the contact with the actual company. This one checks out and will actually be a face to face interview. She will now be keeping a spread sheet of what she applies for on top of the email trail. We are glad that she still feels close enough to us to keep us in the loop. Because had she not this could have ended very badly. Sorry for this being so long but I needed to put my thoughts out in words with people not connected directly. 

Everyone enjoy this sunny day. 

This is awful but thank you for sharing. Glad y’all’s alarm bells were going off before any sensitive information was sent! Hope it doesn’t break her confidence, something will come along for her! 

[mappy]

Just now, CAPE said:

That was a classic lol

Never ending source of lols

 

[stormtracker]

2 hours ago, Mrs.J said:

So something happened this week that I need to put in writing I am so mad. 

So the oldest Ms. J is in her last semester. And is looking everyday and applying for jobs in this shitty market. Fast forward this week, Monday to be exact. She finally gets an interview for an internship. But on the same day she got contacted for another job that would be exactly what she would like to have. Local DC communications company, would be remote and good benefits and pay. With all the jobs she has replied to lately she did not remember applying to this one. An interview is set up over Microsoft Teams. It is one of those interviews where you are sent questions and then you have to record yourself with a 1 minute answer. Weird but I have seen interviews like these used to narrow down candidates. She is told that she would hear something back the following day. She gets contacted again through Microsoft Teams and asked if she is available to talk over the phone at a certain time on Tuesday. Let me just say here that Mr. J was already kind of surprised that someone who would be fresh out of school would even be considered for this job but we are all kind of caught up in the excitement. Anyways she lets us know she is offered the job and with an after graduation start date. Perfect right?? Well that is where the red flags started to pop up. She had class into the night and then one of her club meetings after so we had not had the time to talk with her. She asked should she cancel the interview for the internship and Mr. J said until you have a signed contract no. So we asked her about the contract. 2 pages, only 2 pages and what was on those 2 pages made the Spidy sense of Mr. J go off. He started digging. Mind you Ms. J had already checked into the name of the person who originally sent the first contact. He was an employee. But the person who called her was someone calling from an AZ phone number and had a thick accent. And his email to send the “contract” to ended not with a .com. In said “contract” it listed the job posting again and all the benefits, which mind you was what was exactly on the companies website. The second page was asking for proof of rent, ID, SS, passport and bank info for “direct deposit” At the bottom was a line for the start date and it was left blank even though she had given a start date. She was to fill out the paperwork and send it back by the end of business on Wednesday. We told her to send us what she had gotten and started to try to connect the dots. Told her to hold off sending anything until we dug a bit more. As a victim of ID theft back in the day I started to get that sick feeling in my gut. She was contacted one more time Tuesday evening saying that she can send the info that night. She did not even have anything printed out and replied she would the next day. Between that and the digging that Mr. J was doing we told her to not send anything at all. That is was looking more and more like a phishing scheme that we had never seen before. What set off his concern was the salary that was being given to someone with her qualifications. Mr. J immediately found an email to the company that was being spoofed asking if in fact she had been given a job offer. We have yet to hear back from them but were 100% sure that she should not send off any sensitive information.

You guys… this world sucks! This kid has been busting her ass to not only finish college but has been stressing over not being a burden on us. Which she will never be and was told as such. She is working 2 jobs and making contacts. And wants a job she wants to be self sufficient. I feel absolutely gutted for her. She still has her interview for the internship but after what just happened she went back in to check if she even applied for this. And cross reference the contact with the actual company. This one checks out and will actually be a face to face interview. She will now be keeping a spread sheet of what she applies for on top of the email trail. We are glad that she still feels close enough to us to keep us in the loop. Because had she not this could have ended very badly. Sorry for this being so long but I needed to put my thoughts out in words with people not connected directly. 

Everyone enjoy this sunny day. 

Damn, this is bad.  Just read this after being involved in As The Board Turns.    I'm just glad you and Mr. J caught this shit in time before she sent over her data!  Tell her to keep her chin up and be careful and run things through yall.

[wxmeddler]

I wish I made 150k. A lot of butthurt for frozen water. A board classic since 2006(?).

[bncho]

Randy, what the hell is going on with your profile picture? You get more and more discontent every few days!

[stormtracker]

2 minutes ago, bncho said:

Randy, what the hell is going on with your profile picture? You get more and more discontent every few days!

It's the arguing version of Beethoven.  Not discontent version.  Since I did the arguing thing today.

[H2O]

He's just mad that mets, sitting in their moms basements, get to make 50K while he has to work

[SnowenOutThere]

Anyone else got some argumentative opinions to voice? I'm down to start and say that this forum is way nicer in the spring and summer. 

[wxmeddler]

2 hours ago, Mrs.J said:

So something happened this week that I need to put in writing I am so mad. 

...

My wife runs her own business and got a fairly large work/job client offer. Went all the way through the on-boarding process, they even sent 20% down but the check bounced and their "english is my second language so apologies if my emails come off weird" started to fall apart. Was just a big scam. Reported to the police and state fraud center. It's scary how good these scammers are getting with help from AI and such. Really frustrating. I'm sorry that happened to her.

[ravensrule]

1 minute ago, SnowenOutThere said:

Anyone else got some argumentative opinions to voice? I'm down to start and say that this forum is way nicer in the spring and summer. 

A couple lunatics ruin it for all of us. 

[wxmeddler]

1 minute ago, SnowenOutThere said:

Anyone else got some argumentative opinions to voice? I'm down to start and say that this forum is way nicer in the spring and summer. 

The orioles mascot is a stupid bird and needs a re-brand. Nobody can take it seriously.

[87storms]

5 minutes ago, SnowenOutThere said:

Anyone else got some argumentative opinions to voice? I'm down to start and say that this forum is way nicer in the spring and summer. 

That’s because those seasons are superior lol. When it doesn’t snow, winter is short, cold days.

[87storms]

I am, however, absolutely loving the amount of sun this week. Might be the longest stretch of that in Frederick in months.

[BlizzardNole]

19 minutes ago, 87storms said:

We need a snowstorm worse than the Wizards need to hit a home run in the next draft.

So right!  We came soooo close if not for that pesky warm layer.  We need a big dog 12-inch plus so bad!  Here's the 12-plus inchers at my location:  1979, 1983, 1987, 1993 (not everywhere), 1996, 2000, 2003, 2006 (not everywhere), 2010, 2014, 2016.  Average of once in 3.7 years and no gap longer than 6 years, and now we are sitting at a 10-year gap and counting.  

That all said, having a long-lasting snowpack in a Nina is a pretty big deal.

[mappy]

@wxmeddler @Eskimo Joe hey friends, was checking Mesonet snow depth this AM and saw that Harney jumped from 5” to 14” this morning? 

[H2O]

2 minutes ago, mappy said:

@wxmeddler @Eskimo Joe hey friends, was checking Mesonet snow depth this AM and saw that Harney jumped from 5” to 14” this morning?