The Miracle of Late Life Popularity

I've never been so popular as I have since I turned 70.

As you can see by the image at left, just a few of the apparently attractive and needy young women who want relationships with me, I'm very popular.

It doesn't matter that I'm almost past my use-by date, or that I'm married, these young ladies are looking for a serious relationship with me. So they say.

I'm flattered.

However, at the back of my mind, I envisage a group of people sitting in a poorly lit room, littered with take-away food packages, beavering away snatching photos from the internet and pretending to be the lovely ladies you see here.

When I decided to respond to a couple of these "photos", it's a similar story:

1. They live alone
2. Are unemployed or between jobs
3. Have trouble writing a complete sentence using sound grammar
4. Are largely monosyllabic - "Ok"
5. Are looking for a serious relationship - age or marital status doesn't matter
6. Use the term "Babe" frequently (Maybe this is an Americanism, who knows)

After serving 12 years in police work and a lifetime of living, I can smell a scam a mile away.

Some of these photos say they are looking for a sugar daddy. At least that is honest and could have potential if they are actually the attractive young women they claim to be. 

One lady I chat with at least seems genuine, but in reality, you never know what is at the end of your text message. One way to decide, I guess, is when they tell you their mother has cancer and needs an operation, could you help with some finance.

Or perhaps, it might be a suggestion to fly from the US to Australia to meet you provided you buy a ticket or send them cash to buy one.

In life, everybody needs something. You can bet your bottom dollar these people need something too, whoever they really are.

Every year, millions of dollars are scammed off gullible, unsuspecting Australians, many from relationship scams. If you need a relationship, think about hiring a local escort, at least you'll get something for your money.

 

Sales Sites Need to State Currency Being Used

There I was, paused to press the BUY button on a sales site when I thought I had better check whether I was paying in US dollars or AU dollars.

Currency exchange rate

There's a vast difference at present as can be seen in the image.

So I checked and suddenly, the product that I thought would have been a good deal for me turned into a bad deal because of the exchange rate.

This reminded me of a few years back when I used to create internet sites and audit the sites of others to ensure compliance with the: Australian Guidelines for Electronic Commerce.

One of the requirements is spelled out as:

"All information referring to costs should indicate the applicable currency, including guidance on how to get information on exchange rates, or a link to a site where such information may be found."

If an ecommerce site is selling widgets in the USA, then one would expect the currency to be in US dollars; similarly, an Australian ecommerce site would be expected to display currency in AU dollars.

This was much simpler when the US used the two vertical lines through the S and Australia used a single line. Now, both US and AUS use the single vertical line it's confusing.

Where sites are actively advertising internationally, although these guidelines are only valid for Australian businesses, it is good business practice to make it as easy as possible for someone to buy your product or service. Doesn't that make sense?

It's very easy to install a link to a currency calculator and indicate the currency you are using where it's not readily identified.

There's nothing more annoying than going through a purchase routine only to find at the end of it that the price is in USD when you thought it was in AUD. Obviously, US customers purchasing from an AUD site wouldn't have the same problem since they'd be paying much less.

What do you think? Are you an Australian consumer who has paid much more than you thought because your purchase was in USD?

My son's cochlear implant

My son Dale was born hearing impaired because his mother, a midwife, picked up a German Measles infection while she was pregnant.

The prevailing medical wisdom in the mid-70s was that if you have already had the measles, you wouldn't get them again. Either my wife was misdiagnosed when she had a measles infection during her teen years, or the prevailing wisdom was incorrect.

Whatever the case, at 9 months of age, Dale was fitted with two hearing aids and despite a profound hearing impairment, managed to learn to read and write and communicate reasonably well with the help of many wonderful people.

During the last decade, one ear, the one with the implant, lost all of its hearing. Even his hearing aid didn't make the situation any better.

We heard about cochlear implants and with his sister's encouragement, convinced Dale to get an implant to see if any improvement could be made.

Recently Dale, me and my wife drove from Alice Springs (Central Australia) to Darwin to get the implant surgery. The photo herein shows Dale with the implant.

Inside his head a surgeon implanted the internal component with 22 electrodes that go into his cochlear. The external fitment has a magnet that attaches to the internal component.

It's several weeks since Dale had his implant and now he can hear noises he hasn't heard for decades: birds singing, the whirr of his DVD in his DVD reader, his feet making a noise on gravel. Soon, once his brain becomes accustomed to language sounds again, he may be able to use a phone for the first time in years.

By all measures, the implant has been a remarkable success and will be life-changing for Dale.

We are so fortunate to live in a country with an excellent medical system and numerous dedicated surgeons, nurses, and audiologists.

The Great Covid-19 Lockdown

When you're self-isolating or under health department orders to isolate, it's important to retain your sense of humour and perhaps catch up on some of the things you've been putting off.

Someone spent a bit of time producing this valuable sign to remind us to social distance.

At this end, I've advertised on Gumtree a couple of items I no longer want. One attracted an attempt at fraud, which is reasonably common on Gumtree and elsewhere.

This scammer wanted me to send money to a transport company (via wire to the Philippines no less) that she would include in the price she was going to pay for the goods. The idea being that she works on a vessel off the coast of New Zealand and didn't have access to her credit cards etc.

After 12 years of police service, I'm not naturally a trusting person. I decided to go along with the charade long enough to get all her emails which I have used in an article about scammers with actual examples. Obviously I never sent any money anywhere.

One fellow who lives nearby lost $4,000 in the same type of scam when buying a motorcycle apparently stored in another state. How one could be so gullible is anyone's guess.

While researching for the article I'm writing, I found from Scamwatch Australia that Australians were screwed out of $28.6 million on relationship scams alone. People under 25 years lost a staggering $5 mllion.

The message for all of us is to use due diligence when someone asks for money.