[OT] Low Tech Data Mining?

Occasionally, I get a folded paper sheet in a plastic bag weighted by a few stones on my driveway. Often the text offers to allow me to give up my major appliances, computers and car parts for recycling. The most recent instructions say to leave the items on the front of the property before 8:00 AM on 9/3. The company name, phone number and various license numbers on the sheet do not appear to be the slightest bit valid as per Google.

They always require me to fill in my full name, phone number, address and signature on their return paperwork, explaining that this info is required by my state.

Call me paranoid (please, I pay!) but this smells very fishy.

Clearly, there are enough people that actually fill out this paperwork to make it worthwhile to "Lorenzo" of "Green Hauling".

What is in it for him?

Your helpful clues, reactions or political libel please?

Thanks!

--Winston

Reply to
Winston
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Probably a local junk hauler; too small for Google to find.

Call your local Police and ask them.

Joe Gwinn

Reply to
Joseph Gwinn

Sounds ironic, but I zink dey don't want trouble with the coppers.

Reply to
Denis G.

Well, sheet. That has my stamp of approval. You should billet with a group I'm forming. The Bent Punsters translate poorly but we are real cut-ups. :)

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

(...)

OK, sounds reasonable.

Thanks Joe, but my local cops have 'way more than enough on their hands.

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

Call the local NON-EMERGENCY number. You will get a dispatcher. Ask him/her. They know more about what is going on than any of your cops and will answer you question.

Paul

Reply to
Paul Drahn

Check with the BBB to see if they have a record. Also, call the county clerk and ask if they are a real company and are non-profit.

You can probably do both online.

Reply to
G. Morgan

Reply to
Denis G.

He's -probably- being 20-questioned by the salvage yard who has legal ramifications for taking in anonymous scrap in. I've had to sign my name/addy in the sales slip when scrapping.

He's probably OK, but you might want to leave a note out there for him to come see you before he gets the goodies. Verify he's who he says he is and why he needs the info.

OR, if you're devious and use your enemy's name and address...

-- The most powerful factors in the world are clear ideas in the minds of energetic men of good will. -- J. Arthur Thomson

Reply to
Larry Jaques

:)

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

There's an idea. 'Probably what Joe had in mind. Thanks.

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

(...)

OK. Thanks!

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

Heck, I'll just continue dropping the recyclables in the big blue bin. Those guys *already* know where I live.

Um. No thankyouverymuch.

Nah. I leave deviousness to others.

Deviation, OK but never deviousness. :)

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

I scrap metal stuff myself. It fills the gas tank, wot? But only scrap hits the scrap yard. Broken machines I sell, if I haven't fixed them myself. That's easier on both me and the machine, KWIM,V?

Wuss! Make friends with the scrapper (or scrap feeder) and he might find things you need when you need 'em. Or, if you see that he's a seedy character, stop him on the way to the house and say "Never mind."

Whenever I feel that a company, whatever, wants too much info, I give them some fabricated info. Joe Bleau, 123 Main St. Anytown, USA. It lets the drone off the hook and keeps my anonymity. If you must know, Facebook doesn't have my real birthday and places other than my banks don't have my mother's real maiden name. It makes it that much harder for thieves to steal my identity.

-- The most powerful factors in the world are clear ideas in the minds of energetic men of good will. -- J. Arthur Thomson

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Yup, one of the reasons I never join the chain-email or visit the "what''s your pornstar name?" sites - mother's maiden name, first pet, street you lived on? *All* useful for social engineering hacks, for identity theft etc. - a surprising number of people still have their wives' / mothers' names as passwords, for instance, and how many banks / online shops have that info, often for recovering a lost password? I've atually been sad enough to call a company or two's complaints lines because they only allowed

*their* choice of question for a "security" password - like "mother's maiden name", "first pet's name", "town you were born in" - most of which could be looked up in public records by anyone even slightly determined...

Dave H.

Reply to
news.virginmedia.com

So pick, 'Pet's name' and put an old girlfreind's name. Or pick 'Town you were born in' and use the name of an old freind.

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

They passed a law here in Oregon requiring anyone hauling scrap metal to have a permit in hand for the scrap metal. Basically, if you don't fill out a permit, you are in violation of the law.

" SB 570 created a new crime for ?Unlawfully Transporting Metal Property? if a person transports metal property on a public highway or on premises open to the public with the intent to deliver the metal property to a scrap metal business and the person does not have a metal transportation certificate in their possession. ?Unlawfully Transporting Metal Property? is a Class C misdemeanor. "

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I'm guessing OP is in a state with similar regulations.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Danniken

You are lucky. I get cryptic notes, sealed tiny little bags filled with pea gravel and once....5 unexposed 35mm film cartridges long expired...all with cryptic notations to hide them from the Government!!

Im nice to one of the local paranoid-skitz ladies who occasionally wanders the neighborhood, and when I see her, offer her water in her walkabouts in a full length winter duster, backpack filled with canned goods and bits of this and that. So Ive become one of her secret conspirators.

Nice lady...but loony as a Leftwinger

Gunner

-- The essential differences between liberals and conservtives is that liberals could not exist without conservtives to defend their freedom and support them economicaly.

Conservatives on the other hand, can exist and live quite well without liberals."

Reply to
Gunner

My garage is where Machines Go To Die. If I can't resurrect, I'm blessed with many many lovely parts. I rarely sell and only then at a stunning loss.

However I Freecycle religiously.

I represent that remark.

Make friends with the scrapper (or scrap feeder) and he

I think I have sufficient evidence of seediness. I'm not talking 'honest seedy' here.

(...)

I suppose.

It's a little harder when my recycle goods are clearly in my driveway at 123 Catscratch Court and the paperwork attached says they came from

5622 Itchy Way, nes pas?

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

(...)

OP here.

I'm not aware of any such for California. If the law does exist, it must be *very* selectively enforced because we have donation centers generously dotted throughout the area.

Hang on ..

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Huh. That'll be what I learned today.

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

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