From: mliu@pt.com (Fred Liu)
Subject: Life in this United States of America (1)
Organization: Performance Technologies, Incorporated
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 16:38:17 GMT


Hello netters:

Holiday season is comming.  I wish you all a merry Christmas
and happy new year.

We Chinese in this country may not go crazy shoppings as the
Americans do.  If you go to a mall you may not be find a
parking place.  However, since you live in this country, you
must some how be involved in American lifes.  You will need
to go shopping every week, you will need to use telephone,
and your name will appear on the telephone book if you want
to save $20 a year.  Over all, you can't be isolated from
this world.  While I am wishing you a happy holiday, I have
some other things to tell you, to let you share some valuable
advices during your daily life and protect yourself from
being cheated or being ripped off.  Some people may have
lived in this country for many years and they may think that
what I am going to tell the netters are nonsense.  But
never mind, if every body has noticed the following things
and they know how to deal with, I will be very happy.

What I am going to tell you, especially those who just came
from China, are some real stories about telephone and mail
frauds that may happen to you some day.  I would like to
know more from other people who have experienced or heard
about such kind of things and we all can learn more about
American and more about how to live well in this country.

OK.  The first, is about a telephone fraud to a Chinese
lady.  The story appeared on World Journal (sorry, I don't
remember the date).

One night, the lady stay at home alone.  She got a call
from a man with a nice and gentel voice.  He told her that
he is an associate from MCI Fraud Control Dept.  He told
her that there telephone calling card PIN has been stolen
and he need to check with her and cancel the PIN immediately.
She was completely confused at first, their calling cards
are just sitting in the drawers and she could not remember
anything occucation that the card PIN has been stolen.
But the gentleman convinced her that the PIN is stolen and
she must immediately report the PIN to him so that he can
go ahead and process to cancel the calling card number.
She was still cautious but the man just told her all the
information about her, including her telephone number,
her home address, and some other things.  A lot of things
went through her mind and finally the man pursuaded her
to give him the PIN.  Right after that, the lady thought
the thing was still weired and she called the 800 number
of the MCI Fraud Control Dept.  Then she knew that that
call was a frauding call and that man just got her PIN.

You can imagine how sorry was her when she knew that. 
But she was lucky and MCI immediately canceled her calling
card PIN.  This time, it was real.

This lady was not a new comer, and she was not naive.  She
talked with the man for some time and the man even give
here the 800 MCI Fraud Control number.  But he was still
able to get the PIN from her.  Why, people are too easy
to be pursuaded even if they knew something is doubtful.

Do you have some similar experience?  If you encounter
such kind of call, don't tell anybody your PIN number.
If the person is really from MCI Fraud Control Dept., then
she/he must have all the necessary information.

More stories to come.

-- 
Fred Liu, Performance Technologies Incorporated		mliu@pt.com
315 Science Parkway, Rochester, New York 14620		uupsi!ptsys1!mliu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china