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Scams & Holidays
5 Plays1 year ago
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Transcript
Starting the Podcast: Challenges and Greetings
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey guys, it's Salman Qureshi.
00:00:01
Speaker
You're listening to the Expat Brat Podcast.
00:00:05
Speaker
After almost 100 episodes, you know what I think about every time I record?
00:00:09
Speaker
How should I start this episode?
00:00:12
Speaker
What should I say first?
00:00:14
Speaker
It's ridiculous, isn't it?
00:00:15
Speaker
That after all of these episodes, I still go, should I just say hi?
00:00:19
Speaker
Or should I assume people don't know what they're listening to and just, you know, say something along those lines?
00:00:27
Speaker
I'm still working on it.
00:00:27
Speaker
I'll let you guys know if I ever come to a conclusion and decide this is how I say hi to people.
00:00:33
Speaker
It's abnormal, isn't it?
00:00:34
Speaker
I say hi to a bunch of people in real life and it's all fine.
00:00:39
Speaker
And then you come and record something and you go...
00:00:41
Speaker
What?
00:00:42
Speaker
What should I say?
00:00:43
Speaker
Should I say?
00:00:46
Speaker
But there's a lot of thought that goes into this.
00:00:48
Speaker
All right.
00:00:48
Speaker
There's if you say good morning, then it's kind of like, what if these guys listening aren't listening when I recorded this, which is in the morning?
00:00:56
Speaker
That doesn't make sense.
00:00:57
Speaker
Should I just say, hey, what's up?
Recording While Unwell: AI and Misinterpretations
00:01:01
Speaker
But I'm not a rapper.
00:01:04
Speaker
And I don't know.
00:01:06
Speaker
What else is there?
00:01:07
Speaker
Like what else?
00:01:08
Speaker
How else do you say hi?
00:01:09
Speaker
Right?
00:01:10
Speaker
So I'm just I'm figuring this out.
00:01:13
Speaker
Life is about figuring out all these kind of different things.
00:01:16
Speaker
And if you're listening, if you're a regular listener, you might...
00:01:21
Speaker
I've got a little bit of a cold, man, courtesy of my lovely wife and kid.
00:01:25
Speaker
I think more my kid than my wife, but they've been bringing this sort of stuff into the house for a while now.
00:01:31
Speaker
It's kind of annoying that I've been falling sick over and over again, but, uh...
00:01:36
Speaker
But here we are, and this is my sexy, cold, flu-cold voice that you're listening to today.
00:01:43
Speaker
It's just starting.
00:01:46
Speaker
It's annoying.
00:01:47
Speaker
I also have to do a video shoot today, which is going to be amazing to have.
00:01:56
Speaker
in your worst moments to know they've been recorded and saved forever.
00:02:02
Speaker
Isn't that wonderful?
00:02:03
Speaker
It's just for eternity.
00:02:07
Speaker
As long as the Internet exists and these videos might be on there or whatever, it's going to be there.
00:02:14
Speaker
People can look it up anytime and go, hey, this is what he sounded like with the cold and flu.
00:02:20
Speaker
I do wonder, though, if I do stuff like this, would it throw off AI?
00:02:24
Speaker
You know how it's like imitating people's voice and stuff, and it picks up this voice of mine, which I'm recording right now.
00:02:30
Speaker
I don't even know if it's that different from my regular voice.
00:02:32
Speaker
For all I know, people listening, regular listeners or people who know me would be like, no, you sound exactly the same, which would be...
00:02:40
Speaker
Which would be weird.
00:02:43
Speaker
But imagine AI picks this up and it goes, right, this is Salman's voice and we're going to use this to copy it and make some fake videos.
00:02:52
Speaker
Except everyone doesn't fall for it because they go, hang on.
00:02:57
Speaker
That doesn't really sound like him.
00:02:59
Speaker
It sounds a little off.
00:03:00
Speaker
It sounds like someone held his nose and threatened him to send out this message.
00:03:07
Speaker
That's how they got him.
00:03:08
Speaker
They got him to... They stopped his breathing, but just through the nose and said, if you don't say the words...
Scam Tactics and Personal Experiences
00:03:17
Speaker
That we're asking you to, A, you won't be able to breathe.
00:03:20
Speaker
B, we won't let your nose go.
00:03:23
Speaker
And so I had to record it.
00:03:24
Speaker
And so it'll be a big failure.
00:03:28
Speaker
Not that people are lining up or worrying about having to...
00:03:34
Speaker
Copy my voice?
00:03:35
Speaker
Is that... Yeah?
00:03:37
Speaker
You know, these scams and everything.
00:03:41
Speaker
You guys watch these scam videos online about people falling for Amazon gift cards.
00:03:46
Speaker
A lot of these Indian call centers.
00:03:48
Speaker
They're crazy.
00:03:49
Speaker
You should go check them out.
00:03:51
Speaker
I didn't know...
00:03:52
Speaker
It was a rabbit hole for me.
00:03:54
Speaker
I'm not much on watching random clips and stuff.
00:03:57
Speaker
And eventually I kind of came across these when I've gone through this YouTube binge for some reason these days.
00:04:05
Speaker
And so...
00:04:07
Speaker
So I kind of came across that stuff and I just got into it.
00:04:10
Speaker
Anyway, for some reason, I've never come across this stuff.
00:04:15
Speaker
It's just people calling and trying to get you to fall for this trap.
00:04:19
Speaker
They send you an email and they go, hey, listen, you've been charged for renewal.
00:04:25
Speaker
People call back the number and say, hey, I didn't sign up for this or I need a refund.
00:04:29
Speaker
And then they try to trap you and go, so the whole thing is they kind of accidentally, they hack into your laptop as you're on it with them.
00:04:38
Speaker
And they kind of make you believe that they've accidentally sent you too much money.
00:04:43
Speaker
So, for example, if your refund was $500, they pretend they've accidentally sent you $5,000 or whatever.
00:04:50
Speaker
They do this after they've kind of gone through, sifted through your bank account and gone, okay, this is the amount of money this person might have.
00:04:57
Speaker
And a lot of old people fall for it.
00:04:59
Speaker
It's very shitty because it's these innocent old people that might lose a lot of their life savings.
00:05:09
Speaker
They don't know enough.
00:05:09
Speaker
They get scared.
00:05:10
Speaker
And they act on that.
00:05:11
Speaker
These scammers act on their fear.
00:05:13
Speaker
And a lot of these call centers are operating out of India.
00:05:16
Speaker
And apparently, they make a lot of money.
00:05:18
Speaker
Like it's millions and millions of dollars we're talking about that are being scammed.
00:05:22
Speaker
So it's a huge thing.
00:05:24
Speaker
And for a long time, I just thought that that's the kind of stuff that won't happen to me, especially out here.
00:05:30
Speaker
But lately, a lot of the banks here have been kind of sending out these messages and saying, hey, listen, we've never asked this kind of information off you.
00:05:38
Speaker
So the scam that kind of runs around this region is that people call up and go, hey, your ID number, your national ID number is not updated on the bank account.
00:05:47
Speaker
We need it.
00:05:47
Speaker
And they try to get more info.
00:05:50
Speaker
I find those calls really interesting and funny.
00:05:51
Speaker
They're terrible.
00:05:54
Speaker
They call from cell phone numbers.
00:05:56
Speaker
So it's very amateurish in some ways and it's very easy to catch it versus some of the other more elaborate scammers.
Motivations and Psychology of Scammers
00:06:03
Speaker
And again, I think a lot of the people trying it are people from the subcontinent.
00:06:08
Speaker
So Indian, Pakistani scammers are out there trying this.
00:06:13
Speaker
They use local numbers.
00:06:14
Speaker
I'm not sure if they're actually based in the country.
00:06:18
Speaker
And the reason I bring this up, I don't know, is, yeah, I've been getting a lot of calls lately.
00:06:23
Speaker
I've seen a lot of emails, some of them horrible.
00:06:25
Speaker
Sometimes I want to advise them and go, listen, you could do this better by doing this.
00:06:30
Speaker
But of course I don't because I don't want to make them better at this.
00:06:34
Speaker
It's just, it's so horrible that I go, who designed this stuff?
00:06:38
Speaker
Like, and are they actually making any money out of this?
00:06:42
Speaker
You know, are they kind of like...
00:06:48
Speaker
Are people actually falling for that here?
00:06:50
Speaker
You never know, right?
00:06:51
Speaker
Like, again, there's some people who are not educated enough.
00:06:54
Speaker
You've got a lot of labor class.
00:06:56
Speaker
You've got older people who might just not pay attention.
00:07:01
Speaker
And yeah, I mean, you know, people I know have kind of passed comments and I had to go, no, no, no, no.
00:07:07
Speaker
Don't ever give that kind of information out.
00:07:09
Speaker
So
00:07:10
Speaker
So it's a big thing here now.
00:07:12
Speaker
And we're looking at like this weird kind of situation with it.
00:07:20
Speaker
I don't, I'd love to think like, I wanna go behind their lives and check it out and go, how did they get into this?
00:07:30
Speaker
How brave are they to try it in a country like this where they could get in serious trouble?
00:07:35
Speaker
Probably easier to catch here.
00:07:37
Speaker
I don't know.
00:07:38
Speaker
Unless, again, like they're operating out of the country, then in which case I'm not sure how they make the bank transfers and stuff.
00:07:46
Speaker
Like even if they get all my info, when they're actually trying to transfer money, there's some banks have like loads of other things.
00:07:56
Speaker
safety kind of double checks.
00:07:59
Speaker
Like I get an OTP to my phone number and my email.
00:08:04
Speaker
I get a notification immediately when someone's added on.
00:08:07
Speaker
So they'd have to change my email and my phone number without me actually being able to stop them.
00:08:14
Speaker
And I don't know if that's possible.
00:08:15
Speaker
So I don't know the next step that they do take in this.
00:08:19
Speaker
And I've never had a long enough conversation with them because they
00:08:23
Speaker
No one's got time.
00:08:24
Speaker
B, whenever the call goes, sir, all your money will freeze.
00:08:27
Speaker
I just pretend to panic.
00:08:29
Speaker
And they know I'm playing with them as well.
00:08:31
Speaker
And they shut the phone down.
00:08:32
Speaker
Some of them love to curse out.
00:08:34
Speaker
Like they, you know, the fact that you've been they've been caught.
00:08:39
Speaker
I don't even say like I know what you're doing.
00:08:41
Speaker
Just the fact that they realize I'm messing with them.
00:08:45
Speaker
makes them really like ugly, you know?
00:08:48
Speaker
And that's another thing that's really weird about these guys.
00:08:52
Speaker
They love to abuse.
00:08:54
Speaker
I don't know what it is.
00:08:55
Speaker
I think it's probably deep down they have issues with the whole thing themselves, right?
00:09:02
Speaker
Like at some level, they must feel bad, some of these guys.
00:09:05
Speaker
And I think by screaming and shouting and cursing, they kind of are,
00:09:12
Speaker
are trying to get like like like offset it or like just get rid of that guilty feeling and they lash out by doing that or they don't want to be embarrassed because I bet a lot of people would probably also say hey you know aren't you ashamed of yourself and stuff and so I think to preempt
00:09:32
Speaker
Having to listen to that and feel bad for the rest of the day, they just go, let's start cursing, cussing these people out.
00:09:40
Speaker
And it's interesting.
00:09:42
Speaker
Some people just cut off.
00:09:44
Speaker
I also don't know whether it's worth reporting those numbers on and off.
00:09:49
Speaker
But I do, I have seen a bit of a trend, an increase in the amount of this stuff happening.
00:09:57
Speaker
And I don't know, again, is it because it's easy money or people are desperate or a combination of both?
00:10:04
Speaker
I can imagine it might be because they just want to make some money somehow, right?
00:10:12
Speaker
So probably a different mix of people as well doing it.
00:10:16
Speaker
Anyway, it's a dumb way.
00:10:19
Speaker
It's very short term.
00:10:21
Speaker
You might succeed a little bit at the beginning.
00:10:23
Speaker
The guys running these scam centers are the ones making real money, and you're just a little pawn.
00:10:32
Speaker
And I don't even know who I'm lecturing because I know my listeners are not the type that will.
00:10:37
Speaker
But if you're for some reason, if you're listening to this podcast and you're considering this, I would just say it's a very bad idea for the long term.
00:10:44
Speaker
Because unless you're running your own call center.
00:10:46
Speaker
See, I'm not trying to give you tips on how to do this right.
00:10:50
Speaker
I just think it's people who...
00:10:54
Speaker
really will be willing to like push anyone under the bus.
00:11:01
Speaker
And those people make the money and those people will kind of will look at these guys are probably like just churning them out.
00:11:11
Speaker
So one goes, another one comes out, blah, blah, blah.
00:11:13
Speaker
They don't care.
00:11:15
Speaker
you're doing a call center job for them and they make the big money over long term.
00:11:19
Speaker
Those guys will probably be okay.
00:11:22
Speaker
Individuals, not so much.
00:11:24
Speaker
Imagine being exposed.
00:11:26
Speaker
Imagine not having a career after this.
00:11:28
Speaker
I don't know.
00:11:28
Speaker
Like I think...
00:11:30
Speaker
I think it would go a long way to destroy your future unless one more way is to go.
00:11:35
Speaker
You do it and then you kind of play the game of I've learned my lesson from this and then go on like a YouTube and try to create a whole vlog about how you used to do it and these are the tricks and tips and this is how to combat that.
00:11:52
Speaker
That would be kind of cool, right?
00:11:54
Speaker
So I'm giving career options to these guys now.
00:11:57
Speaker
It's...
00:11:58
Speaker
If you happen to have a call from these guys, please recommend this episode and tell them, listen.
00:12:06
Speaker
You got to listen to this guy.
00:12:07
Speaker
He's got some great options for you.
00:12:10
Speaker
You're going to enjoy it.
00:12:11
Speaker
You might do better in life because, see, I'm such a nice guy.
00:12:15
Speaker
I help out everyone and anyone.
00:12:19
Speaker
I hope these people stop, man, because I do really feel bad for the victims.
00:12:24
Speaker
Anyone who's lost a big chunk, I know how that feels.
00:12:30
Speaker
I haven't been scammed, not in this traditional sense, but everyone at some point has made a mistake and lost a lot of money or whatever.
00:12:38
Speaker
And I think that's...
00:12:41
Speaker
It's a hard one.
00:12:42
Speaker
I think it's one of those that like it sticks with you forever.
00:12:46
Speaker
It's hard to kind of like let go and sort yourself out of it because anytime there's a little bit of struggle in life, those stories come back into your life and you go, if I only hadn't lost that money, I would have been here
Year-end Reflections on Personal and Financial Habits
00:13:01
Speaker
or there.
00:13:01
Speaker
And it's this line of thought that you just got to nip in the butt.
00:13:09
Speaker
It's just ridiculous.
00:13:11
Speaker
Anyway, that's me and scamming and what I think about it and how you can help these people out.
00:13:22
Speaker
I'm just saying shit now.
00:13:24
Speaker
It's a hard one because I'm – man, it's the end of the year.
00:13:30
Speaker
I get like this because I'm – it's this thing in my head that starts going, okay, okay.
00:13:36
Speaker
What'd you do all year?
00:13:37
Speaker
How did it go?
00:13:38
Speaker
My last episode was kind of going down that stream as well.
00:13:41
Speaker
This time it's a bit more because I, okay.
00:13:43
Speaker
So one of the worst things and at the same time, one of the best things you can do is because of all this stuff, we do all our shopping through debit cards and stuff, right?
00:13:54
Speaker
So it's so easy to pull out all the data and, um,
00:13:58
Speaker
And for me, the biggest shock was the amount of money I spent on eating out.
00:14:05
Speaker
You know, it was ridiculous.
00:14:06
Speaker
And this is after at the beginning of the year, I thought I'm going to keep a bit of a lookout on that.
00:14:11
Speaker
And it's I haven't just so you know, I haven't even finished tallying that up.
00:14:18
Speaker
And the amount that's already hit, I'm like, wow, like, wow.
00:14:24
Speaker
My whole goal for the coming year, if there's only one thing I do, and that's like cutting this number by at least two thirds, I think I will be so pleased with myself.
00:14:36
Speaker
I think I will feel better about my life.
00:14:39
Speaker
With everything else could go wrong right now.
00:14:41
Speaker
That number for me was the biggest shock.
00:14:45
Speaker
I wonder what if you do it.
00:14:47
Speaker
I think you should take some time to do it.
00:14:49
Speaker
Right.
00:14:49
Speaker
I think some people are financially savvy.
00:14:52
Speaker
They watch out for.
00:14:53
Speaker
But for a lot of us who are, I don't know, messed up in the head, ADHD or whatever it is that, you know, makes it harder for you to kind of keep tabs on things.
00:15:02
Speaker
This is a great way.
00:15:03
Speaker
Digital.
00:15:04
Speaker
Digitalization.
00:15:06
Speaker
has been a real help for people like me in terms of carrying a calendar on my phone, in terms of having this data, because I know I'd lose receipts.
00:15:17
Speaker
I'd never sit down and finish tallying that up against a manual bank account or whatever it is, or wondering where all my cash went.
00:15:25
Speaker
I've really forced myself to digitize
00:15:28
Speaker
mainly because it really helps me to look at data and see what and how I need to like shock myself every so often.
00:15:36
Speaker
It's like just taking what do you call the fibrillators and just pumping into your chest to wake your shock yourself up and go, Oh, I got to stop doing that.
00:15:46
Speaker
And
00:15:47
Speaker
And so, yeah, I wonder if you're anyway, a little bit like me in any way whatsoever.
00:15:54
Speaker
Have a look at it and see where you stand and where you spent the most money.
00:15:58
Speaker
I've been good in some areas.
00:16:00
Speaker
I'm actually quite pleased.
00:16:01
Speaker
I've really stopped some things, but I think.
00:16:05
Speaker
eating out.
00:16:06
Speaker
And there's too much entertainment in my life.
00:16:09
Speaker
I keep going, oh, life's boring.
00:16:11
Speaker
But when I look at how much I ate or did stuff outside or spent on these subscriptions, oh my Lord, the amount of subscriptions I have, I just went, let's cut this stuff in half.
00:16:22
Speaker
It was like the easiest answer to what I need to be better at, you know?
00:16:27
Speaker
And it's kind of like,
00:16:30
Speaker
I've always had a hard time watching The Pennies.
00:16:34
Speaker
And lately, I've been fixated on it.
00:16:36
Speaker
Not fixated, but kind of conscious of it.
00:16:39
Speaker
And I've realized, damn.
00:16:42
Speaker
I've been losing a lot of pennies all my life.
00:16:46
Speaker
And so I think if you come back in a year, end of 2024, and I hope I'm able to stick through this, I want to know the impact of watching my pennies go through.
New Year Resolutions: Personal Health and Social Media
00:16:58
Speaker
A couple of other things I will be doing in the coming year is I'm going to cut down my social media time.
00:17:04
Speaker
Financially, that hasn't...
00:17:06
Speaker
made an impact, but I kind of want to narrow it down to a few things.
00:17:10
Speaker
So you might find a very different experience with me online.
00:17:16
Speaker
And again, I'm excited about it in some way.
00:17:18
Speaker
So, you know, it's the worst was for me was another part that I failed completely at was my weight.
00:17:28
Speaker
And it's been a trend for the last three, four years.
00:17:30
Speaker
And I'm and I've been sick of it and blah, blah, blah.
00:17:32
Speaker
But it keeps like it's plateaued.
00:17:35
Speaker
At least it hasn't gotten worse.
00:17:36
Speaker
But it's kind of just stalled.
00:17:39
Speaker
And I feel like my fat is frozen in my body.
Holidays and Their Commercialization
00:17:44
Speaker
And that's another one, another area that I'm just like, man, I got to just break through this wall.
00:17:51
Speaker
So it's been, I know 2023 hasn't been like wonderful, but...
00:18:00
Speaker
It's still kind of helping me align in.
00:18:02
Speaker
I'm also recording this like outside a little bit.
00:18:05
Speaker
So have you noticed these cars with the reindeer stuff?
00:18:08
Speaker
I found when I saw one of them do it, I thought it was quite cute.
00:18:12
Speaker
Now I'm just kind of annoyed at it.
00:18:13
Speaker
I don't know why.
00:18:14
Speaker
It's like this big red nose they put on the front and then these two ears sticking out.
00:18:18
Speaker
And I'm like, what are you trying to do?
00:18:19
Speaker
You're trying to...
00:18:22
Speaker
How far away from nature are we that we need to do things, silly things like this?
00:18:27
Speaker
I'm just kind of I just want to rip it off.
00:18:30
Speaker
The first time, I'm not joking.
00:18:32
Speaker
The first time I saw it, I thought it was quite cute.
00:18:34
Speaker
But now every time I see it, it's too many cars.
00:18:35
Speaker
There's too many of these SUVs doing it.
00:18:37
Speaker
You know, rich people with too much time on their hands.
00:18:41
Speaker
Just grab them by the ears.
00:18:43
Speaker
Not the people, but the reindeer things they put on their car.
00:18:46
Speaker
And just rip it off like fast band-aid.
00:18:50
Speaker
And just go stop it.
00:18:51
Speaker
You know, I...
00:18:55
Speaker
the Christmas spirit, Range Rover, dressed like a reindeer.
00:19:00
Speaker
Um, we always complain about these holidays becoming too commercial.
00:19:04
Speaker
And, uh, I think that's what bugs me.
00:19:06
Speaker
It's always bugged me.
00:19:07
Speaker
It's always kind of, it's one of the things that drove me away from, uh,
00:19:11
Speaker
a lot of these holidays and how we celebrate them and just knowing that, yeah, there's this spirit behind it and the idea behind it that that's great.
00:19:21
Speaker
But who does it with that?
00:19:23
Speaker
Let's be honest.
00:19:24
Speaker
And so are we just fooling ourselves and going, oh, there's a great spirit behind it?
00:19:28
Speaker
Or are we just masking our commercialism and our need to celebrate this in whatever way that we like and just finding an excuse to do it and masking it with this, uh,
00:19:39
Speaker
This idea that, oh, no, you know, the idea behind it is so beautiful.
00:19:44
Speaker
It's so beautiful.
00:19:46
Speaker
I don't know anything that's beautiful about sending an old guy up in the North Pole to work on gifts all year long with a bunch of short people slaves.
00:19:57
Speaker
I'm so glad I was born in, you know, in the Middle East.
00:20:02
Speaker
And so because if I was born in the West, I'm short.
00:20:05
Speaker
Would that be an elf my whole life?
00:20:07
Speaker
Lord, right?
00:20:08
Speaker
That would be horrible.
00:20:10
Speaker
That would be horrible.
00:20:12
Speaker
Reindeers and elves and the Christmas spirit, people, that's where we're at.
00:20:16
Speaker
That's what I'm up to these days.
00:20:18
Speaker
It is crazy.
00:20:21
Speaker
So scammers and commercial holidays, kind of similar topics, aren't they?
00:20:29
Speaker
Yeah, wonderful.
00:20:30
Speaker
All right, guys, it's been great recording this episode.
00:20:35
Speaker
I think my nose can't take it any longer.
00:20:38
Speaker
It feels like it needs to run away.
00:20:42
Speaker
And my brain's a bit clocked up too, so I can't believe I've actually managed to finish up this episode.
00:20:48
Speaker
But I hope you enjoyed it.
00:20:50
Speaker
And keep listening and share it, blah, blah, blah, whatever.
00:20:54
Speaker
And also, I'm going to try recording one last episode to sum up the whole year.
00:21:01
Speaker
But in case I don't, because I'm lazy like that sometimes.
00:21:05
Speaker
Have a great new year ahead.
00:21:07
Speaker
Make those plans.
00:21:08
Speaker
Don't worry about stuff that went down this year and just have a good one.
00:21:13
Speaker
Okay, you take care and I'll catch you in my next episode.
00:21:17
Speaker
Thanks for listening.