This is Heidi Boghossian, co-host of Law and Disorder.
In the last decade, rates of parole in New York State have declined dramatically, mainly
for persons convicted of murder, manslaughter, and other violent crimes.
Join us this Thursday, February 15th, at the New York Bar Association, located at 42 West
44th Street, for a powerful discussion of the current state of parole, the need for
reform, and ways to restore fairness to the system.
Among the speakers, John Carr, Albany Bureau Chief, New York Law Journal, and Vernon Manley,
former member of the New York State Board of Parole.
That's this Thursday, February 15th, New York Bar Association, at 42 West 44th Street.
For more information, visit nycbar.org, or call 212-382-6600.
And, it is just about 7 o'clock, on this dumbest day of the year, time once again for an edition
of Off the Hook.
The telephone keeps ringing, so I ripped it off the wall.
I cut myself while shaving, now I can't make a call.
We couldn't get much worse, but if they could, they would, from Diddley Bond, for the best
expect the worst.
I hope that's understood, from Diddley Bond.
Yeah, well, so when was the last time you used the photocopier?
Well, I don't know if you heard.
You might have heard from Lenny, but there seems to be a problem with the photocopier.
It's spilling ink all over the floor.
Were you aware of that?
Yeah, so there's a big puddle of black ink coming out of the photocopier.
I'm going to need you to get in here and fix that right away.
How soon can you be here?
I'm doing a radio show right now, okay?
Okay, yeah, that's not really going to work for us, because as I said, there's ink coming out of the copier.
I heard that.
We're going to need you to come in.
I think the thing is, you should just probably put down what you're doing, and we're going to need you to come in right now.
Yeah, fat chance.
All right, we'll see you soon.
No, you won't.
Please visit popularitydialer.com to put your phone number on our Do Not Make Popular list.
Okay, so that, my friends, was a demonstration of something called the popularity dialer.
Of course, this is the first time it ever actually screwed up on a call and played itself twice,
but if you're interested in getting out of a situation, all you need to do is go to popularitydialer.com,
enter your phone number, enter a time that you'd like to be interrupted, and you can have a conversation,
all sorts of different conversations.
So that was the return-to-the-office call.
They also have a popularity call where somebody asks you if you want to hang out.
They have a female popularity call, an affirmation call, where basically somebody just tells you how cool you are.
And then you also have a new one called cousin-in-need call, which maybe we'll try a different time.
That's kind of a funny one.
Yeah, it gets you out of a lot of situations.
It works.
I have that in real life often enough, my office calling me.
I don't need a computer to simulate that.
Yeah, I guess it says a lot if you need something really unpleasant like that to get you out of something even more unpleasant,
but that's the kind of lives we lead.
Okay, to get back to this poor person in Connecticut with her pornography charge.
So she left the students with viewing the website.
She came back, chased the students away, and started class.
Later, she says, pornographic images started popping up on the computer screen by themselves.
She says she tried to click the images off, but they kept returning, and she was under strict orders not to turn the computer off.
I did everything I possibly could to keep them from seeing anything.
Now, the prosecutor is saying that she actually clicked on graphic websites.
Several students testified they saw pictures of naked men and women, including at least one image of a couple having oral sex.
Computer consultant Herb Homer testified for the defense that the children had gone to an innocent website on hairstyles
and were redirected to another hairstyle site that had pornographic links.
It could happen to anybody.
They say the images were caused by adware and spyware programs that are often secretly planted on computers by Internet businesses to track users' browsing habits.
They can generate pop-up ads, in some cases pornographic ones.
It's absolutely plausible, said Art Schwartz, deputy director for the Center for Democracy and Technology.
It's a huge problem.
But many remained skeptical, including one of the jury members, who said so many kids noticed this going on.
It was truly uncalled for.
I would not want my child in her classroom.
All she had to do was throw a coat over it or unplug it.
We figured even if there were pop-ups, would you sit there?
I don't know.
What do you think?
Well, first of all, not only is it plausible, but it's really, really common.
And, you know, that's kind of unfortunate, but whatever.
I mean, it doesn't seem like something that a teacher would do anyway.
Just why would you risk that?
Why would a teacher in front of class decide, hey, I'm going to…
Well, okay, so there are other stories where maybe that's not the case.
But anyway, yeah.
But you're saying there are teachers who go to pornographic websites in front of their whole class?
Well, it's happened before.
Maybe not pornographic websites, but…
Is this part of the curriculum in America?
Well, you go to a cool school.
Yeah, I've never heard of something like this.
But, wow, it just seems, yeah, an incredibly dumb thing to do if you have a classroom full of people
and you want to surf porn in front of them.
Maybe somebody is going to rat you out.
That's quite possible.
I think the point is that she wasn't doing it intentionally.
No.
I guess did she get convicted because she didn't know how to close it?
She didn't know how to turn the thing off?
Well, you can't.
It's not always so easy to close it.
If you're not really computer savvy, then it might be difficult.
Also, I think we need to know a little bit more about how the actual computer was set up.
Was it a laptop?
Was it just a computer with a screen?
Was it something that was piped into an overhead projector of some sort?
All sorts, because throwing a coat over the computer won't do any good if it's set up like that.
Maybe she didn't know how to disconnect it.
Maybe it was the summer.
She didn't have a coat.
That's true, too.
Maybe she didn't have a coat.
There's all sorts of possibilities.
But here's the thing.
Even if she went in there with the intention of clicking on a porn website in front of her entire class of seventh graders, 40 years in prison?
I mean I think we live in kind of a crazy place to even consider something like that.
Again, not good at your job.
You stop doing that job.
Do something else.
Run the country.
Maybe you'd be better at that.
But 40 years in prison.
This is insane.
Aren't they seeing the same thing in phys ed class anyway?
I don't think they're seeing that.
I would hope not.
Wow.
Crazy times.
Crazy times.
Here's an interesting little factoid that came out of England.
Did you know that most people...
Actually, Mike, I think you found this story.
Most people don't know about the emergency phone number.
I'm going to ask Jim again.
Second chance you have to answer a question.
What is the emergency number, not just in England, but throughout Europe?
999?
No.
No, that's the number just in England.
That was the number just...
It still works.
In fact, 999 actually works from a GSM phone in this country.
If you dial 999, you'll get 911.
And 911 works from a GSM phone in Europe as well.
But the Europe-wide number is 112.
112?
Yeah.
The number is meant to put callers in contact with emergency services
in all 27 EU member states.
In many of them, though, it is reported to be unreliable.
But more than two-thirds, according to the BBC,
more than two-thirds of Europeans are said to be unaware of its existence.
And most people in England don't know anything about it as well.
Four in five in England, according to this article.
Don't know about this.
And I know about this, and I'm an American.
So, good lord, that's kind of weird.
You get into trouble a lot overseas.
Yeah.
Emmanuel?
Yes, Bernie.
I think it's a good idea to have 112 as the emergency number in Europe.
It wouldn't work on our system here because of the way it's configured.
But for people with rotary dial cell phones like Phil from Make Magazine,
it would take much less time to dial an emergency, just 112,
than to dial having to go all the way around so many times.
You do have a lot of people walking around with rotary cell phones, I know.
Well, we know someone who does.
It's also a lot easier for animals to dial this when there's an emergency of sorts
because all they have to do is flash a switch a couple of times
and whammo, you're connected to the cops.
Whereas dialing three nines or nine and two ones is a lot more difficult.
Not many animals can count to nine.
That's true.
I don't think any animals can count to nine.
I don't know.
But I count us as animals, which I'm all in favor of.
Okay, here's something I just don't get.
Maybe somebody here can help me.
This guy in New Jersey, this assemblyman, John Bramick,
he advanced a proposal for a law, for a bill,
that would have banned bicycle riders from using handheld cell phones.
Now, you know how I feel about the law against cell phones in cars.
I think it's kind of silly.
The barrage of criticism this guy got for proposing this law astounded me.
I mean, basically, it was reported in the media as,
wow, this is one of the dumbest things ever,
and he was basically red-faced with shame.
He says he's not going to submit any more bills for a long time.
It seems to me if you're riding around on a bicycle
and one of your hands is being used to talk on a cell phone,
that's a whole lot more dangerous than driving a car and doing the same thing
because your sense of balance is all askew.
And I've seen many people doing this, particularly in Japan,
and, wow, I've witnessed quite a few near-death experiences as a result.
Why is this so universally condemned as silly? Anybody know?
Well, I agree with you that using one hand for a cell phone while riding a bike
is something that's dangerous to the bike rider,
but I think it goes against the idea that many people have
that if evolution does exist, we really shouldn't interfere with it.
Let the people who are of lesser mental ability die.
Well, that's a really profound statement from both you and Edward.
That's the first thing I've ever said on this show that got applause.
I agree with that 100%.
I'm glad the two of you feel so strongly about that,
but over here in the civilized part of the room,
I think we are going to try and look out for the betterness of society itself.
I agree, I think the law is silly, but I think both laws are silly
and common sense should dictate.
Well, here's the difference between a car and a bicycle.
A car is a multi-ton piece of equipment hurtling at many, many miles per hour,
and the momentum of this car, which is, of course,
mass times velocity, is very large.
So if it hits someone or something, it has a lot of potential to hurt them
in a way that a bicycle doesn't.
The law then is to protect the person not in the vehicle.
Yeah.
Okay.
So then by that logic, a truck driver then should not be using a CB radio
because he's much heavier and he's using one hand for the CB radio, right?
Outlaw CB radios and 18-wheelers, huh?
Fine with me.
Yeah, but they don't do that either.
Do you have anything on the other law, the law in New York City,
the proposed law?
Which one is that?
For pedestrians?
Tell me about this one.
Oh, you don't know about this?
Some city councilman has proposed that pedestrians be banned
from using cell phones or Walkman and similar ilk
because they're oblivious to their surroundings
and can be run over by traffic.
I just wanted to point out that, gee, if the pedestrian has his eyes open,
he can see the walk sign.
He's being run over by somebody who's making a turn.
You see, that I see as silly.
He has the right of way.
That's silly because you can still walk as a pedestrian
and use a cell phone, no problem at all.
He also wants to ban iPods.
You can't wear an iPod while walking down the street,
which is silly.
I wish they'd ban iPods on subway trains
because, believe it or not, they're so loud.
Even though they're pumping all the volume into their ears.
Have you ever been on the L train, okay,
on like a Friday or something like that?
Everybody's pounding all this basic music into their heads,
the basic types of techno and things,
and you can hear it just throbbing
even though nobody has an actual speaker.
It's so annoying.
I saw a T-shirt that applies to this,
and it said,
I wouldn't hear your music.
Yes.
All right.
And here's something else sort of related to that.
More than a million people in England
have signed an online petition against plans
to introduce road charging in the UK.
Now, this is kind of interesting,
and Mike is going to put you on the spot here
because I know how you feel about this.
The petition, which is the most popular
on the Downing Street website,
calls for the scrapping of planned vehicle tracking
and road pricing policy.
Number 10 has insisted,
Number 10 Downing Street, that is,
has insisted that doing nothing
would lead to a 25% increase in congestion
in less than a decade.
But basically, what they are saying
is that this is an invasion of your privacy.
People will be constantly monitored,
and I think one of the opposition people said,
I think it's a very sad day
when a democratic government wants to track your movements.
It's time for the government to listen to the people
rather than dictate to the people.
Now, what do you think about this?
I mean, yeah, obviously it cuts down on,
I guess, car travel
if people have to pay a certain amount and are tracked,
but then again, people are being tracked,
and you know where they are.
It's Orwellian.
But they're already being tracked.
I mean, the UK has more cameras
than any other country as far as I know,
or specifically London,
but this is where this applies, I think.
This is a step even more towards an Orwellian society
where they know where you are at all times, apparently.
Right, and all the OCR software
that they're using in conjunction with these cameras
to track the license plates and everything.
I mean, this already exists.
I don't think there's much extra tracking going on
because of this.
It's just a revenue thing.
So you think we're already there.
I asked Mike.
Well, there's two questions here.
One, the first question is like,
how do we solve the traffic problems
that are shutting down major cities?
You can't get around major cities during the day
in a lot of places because there's too much traffic.
How do we solve that problem?
And one way to do it is to make it more expensive
so that people who have not so much urgent business
or what have you won't drive,
or it'll be cheaper to take the train
so more people will do it.
That is one question.
Now, the next question is,
should we be following people around with cameras?
And what I think is possible,
it must be possible,
is to find a way to charge for driving
without following people around,
without retaining the data,
without doing all this stuff.
But the problem is the people who are interested in this
is a very small set.
Well, I mean, I have an idea on how to do that.
How about you double or maybe even triple the price of gas?
Huh?
You could do that,
but it's not narrowly targeted enough.
It's targeted to people who are driving.
But the question is,
how do we prevent people from driving in, say, Manhattan,
in lower Manhattan,
without affecting so much the people driving out of,
you know, farther away
where there's not so much mass transit?
I'm for stopping driving altogether,
but how do we first,
a first step would be reducing driving in lower Manhattan only,
you know?
How do we do that?
You can't really do that by raising the price of gas.
How about you raise the price of gas
in a 100-mile vicinity around Manhattan,
but like in Iowa,
gas is like $0.10 a gallon or something.
I don't know.
That doesn't solve the problem.
Well, that addresses the concern of people driving in the city,
but not the country.
You see?
People driving in the country get cheaper gas,
and then you'd have to ship the gas by FedEx to New York
in order to get around that system,
and that's probably illegal.
People will do.
They do that with cigarettes.
I don't think you can ship gasoline through FedEx.
Not Kevin.
Well, what's interesting is that
people are in such uproar over this in Britain,
even though they're being tracked by cameras every day,
but we already have a system exactly like this with E-ZPass.
Every movement, every time we go through a toll,
we're all being tracked.
But you have to go through the toll.
I think what they're proposing
is to have it all over the place on all their highways.
We also have that here.
On certain highways,
they'll have little receivers embedded in the highway
that will track where you are and how fast you're going,
and if you're going over the speed limit,
a state trooper will pull up.
Has that actually happened
where someone's gotten a speeding ticket through E-ZPass?
Has that happened?
I know people who've gone too fast
through the new don't-stop E-ZPass things.
Uh-huh.
Well, no, if you speed through a toll booth, that's different.
I'm saying if you go through one E-ZPass checkpoint
and then another,
and obviously the only way you could have gotten there
was to have driven 80 miles an hour,
has anybody gotten a ticket for that?
Not that I know, but I'm sure.
Because that day is coming.
That day is coming.
But I think in England,
what they're proposing is something
that's a lot more widespread than just certain highways
like we have here.
Basically, I think it's every road, every major road.
Of course, they have a lot less roads over there.
But, yes, Jim.
What we're doing is combining two thoughts at once,
and consequently, our thinking process is unclear.
There's congestion pricing, which, as we've discussed,
has to do with central London and lower Manhattan.
And then there's road use, and the article is unclear.
Maybe I just missed it
as to whether this is congestion pricing or road use question.
But if it's just road use,
there are plenty of ways to allow to bill the correct people for road use
without being invasive of their privacy.
You can generally raise the price of gas.
You can have everybody get a permit to slap on their vehicle,
which doesn't necessarily have to be sold to a specific person.
You can just go into your auto shop and get the permit,
and they don't know what car it goes to.
Congestion pricing, yes, would involve some invasions of privacy,
but it may be worth it.
Bernie.
Yeah, there's been such an uproar over this congestion pricing in London
that apparently some people are so upset
that they've been sending mail bombs, letter bombs,
to some of the local government offices that manage this system.
Apparently they're kind of amateur mail bombs,
not using serious explosives, just sort of like fireworks
that they took the innards out of, that sort of thing.
But it's a big, you know,
Tony Blair is making noise about this and whatever.
So people are really upset about this,
where they're actually mailing letter bombs
to the people responsible for managing these congestion pricing systems.
As far as E-ZPass in this country,
there's no reason at all E-ZPasses could not be sold for cash
anonymously at, like, an auto parts store or anywhere else, for that matter.
But if the government didn't intend on tracking people,
they wouldn't insist on having it be linked to your identity
when you buy an E-ZPass.
There's no reason you couldn't buy it.
I think the reason for that is because it's linked to a credit card
and you have to get billed every time you use it.
So how could you sell that?
I would be happy to buy one,
put a couple hundred dollars down
and get a couple hundred dollars worth of tolls on my E-ZPass,
and I can go just charge it up at any refilling station
where you go to a, you know, you just pay and say, you know,
just plunk it down, just like a credit card.
You could buy these prepaid credit cards.
A prepaid E-ZPass.
Okay, that's an interesting idea.
Let's see if that one floods.
Now, Kevin, you have something rather interesting that you discovered,
rather scandalous, something that's sort of...
Well, I can't say I discovered.
This actually comes from the felon over at TeleFreak.
This is another reason why you shouldn't use Sprint.
He's not really a felon, is he?
You shouldn't talk to felons.
There's no way to tell.
Oh, okay.
Well, anyways...
Scary world out there on the internet.
If you go to sprint.com, and in the lower right-hand corner
there's the check upgrade eligibility link,
and all you do is you plug in a phone number and a zip code,
and up comes the account holder name.
Oh, I believe Bernie is an account holder at Sprint.
Sprint, the phone company people.
Sprint, the phone company.
So all you have to do is click on the box that says check availability
and put in the person's phone number and what other...
Zip code.
Zip code, so you have to know their zip code.
All right.
Well, that's not hard.
And then you'll get their...
Their account holder full name.
The full name.
Okay, now how many times does this happen, though,
where you know the person's phone number,
and you know their zip code, but you don't know their name?
Well, but you could guess.
I mean, if you know that my area code is 646,
you could guess there's probably only a few dozen area codes,
a few dozen zip codes I could possibly live in.
That's true.
That's true, assuming it doesn't time out after,
or it doesn't allow you three guesses or something like that.
But what I'm asking is how many times have you gotten a phone number,
and you basically...
You're saying if you got a phone call from somebody in 646,
it has to be somebody in...
I guess it is somebody in New York.
I mean...
They could bill it anywhere in the country.
Yes, they could move, but people...
The odds are good that it's somewhere in...
But then again, you'd have to know that it was Sprint as well.
How would you know that?
You just try.
You try 10, 15 times, and if it doesn't work,
you're pretty sure they don't have a Sprint phone.
It's just another resource that you have.
Well, okay, now we're looking at this, I think,
in the opposite way that it's being presented here.
We're looking at it as a resource.
You're looking at it as a privacy invasion of some sort,
or a massive security hole.
What's interesting is Sprint actually disbanded this two years ago.
Because of privacy concerns.
And now they're bringing it back.
Uh-huh.
Why?
Yeah, well, this also reminds me of things like MCIs,
friends and family,
where they basically list all your phone numbers of friends.
If you gave them a minimal amount of information,
I think phone number and zip code was all they needed.
Bernie, how do you feel about this, being a Sprint customer?
I'm not very happy that Sprint is making my information available
to anybody who wants to make some guesses.
Uh-huh.
Not a good thing.
No.
Although, of course, lots of times, if you call a landline,
your name will show up from a cell phone.
I don't know if Sprint is one of the companies doing this.
Not yet.
Not yet?
Okay.
Well, I'm pretty sure Verizon is.
Pretty sure they are.
All right.
Well, nice bit of privacy lost there.
We'll be taking phone calls.
212-209-2900.
First, a couple of letters.
OTH at 2600.com is our phone number.
That's our phone number.
Wouldn't it be our email address?
Okay.
I was just testing you.
It's not our phone number.
Look, I've got these crazy headphones linked to my head, right?
It's draining the blood.
Okay.
A couple of letters for Jim, actually.
Oh, really?
Jim!
Exclamation point.
Sounds better.
Could you please bring up hacker-related chemistry stories?
It's awesome that you're a chemist.
Why are you not talking about it more?
And not this mic.
A different mic.
Is it a mic I know?
Well, I don't know.
All I have here is mic.
Okay.
All right.
I'll come up with some in the weeks and months ahead.
Okay.
And here's something else.
I have a comment for Jim.
I notice there are emergency exits at the non-booth entrances in many train stations, subway stations.
I see people wait for the train to come and either ask someone to open the gate so they can get in for free,
or sometimes people just exit using the gate.
The alarm will sometimes go off, and sometimes it will not.
Also, another tactic I have seen is when there are cops at a station with a table set up to search people's bags.
I've seen people jump the turnstile, and the cops do nothing.
Wow, those are some brave people there.
I've seen this many times.
I've even looked, and there were no undercover cops stopping these people.
I, however, at one time or another have been asked by a cop in the subway if the MetroCard I was using was mine.
I don't ask.
I didn't know why, but maybe you can speculate.
Well, okay.
The first part of that about people farebeating, please write the TA and complain about it.
A specific instance will not get cops there, but at least they'll know that somebody actually cares that somebody is getting away with that crap for free.
Now, wait.
Now, I don't care about the farebeating.
It's not my problem.
But the people going out the emergency exit, it makes this really loud noise, and it's not an emergency.
It happens every day at the subway station.
I go to work because the only other option is these stupid things.
I'm making a gesture that the people on the radio can't see.
High exit turnstiles.
They're not high capacity.
They're very slow.
People don't like them, so they go out the emergency exit.
This is a problem that needs to be stopped, that noise.
Why don't they just make the exit into—
They're actually reopening some booths that have been closed for nearly a decade in order to watch people exiting, in order to open up the low turnstiles to let them exit faster.
Yeah.
I mean, it seems like this wasn't a problem a few years ago.
They're making it more difficult.
Well, now the fire department has said that the high exits are too slow, and you have to have emergency exits so people can get out fast in case of emergency.
What was the last question about—
Whether or not—
Why somebody asked if the MetroCard they're using is theirs.
That's kind of peculiar because what are you going to do?
Say, no, it's not mine?
Yeah, of course it's yours.
It obviously is some sort of trick question by the cop for some reason.
They're worried about student and reduced fare cards.
Yeah, that's the only thing.
If what you're holding is a student or reduced fare card, either citizen or handicapped.
Okay.
Also, I've donated to the station.
I still did not get my TV begun.
Okay.
Jason from Queens.
If this is the current fundraiser, the one that just ended, it's going to take a little while, a few weeks.
If it was the one before that, if anybody has donated to the fundraiser from October and has not received either their TV beguns, any premiums we were offering, or their off-the-hook t-shirts for every pledge of 25 and above, let us know.
Because we've given all this stuff to the station.
It should have been sent out.
OTH at 2600.com.
Let us know.
You should have gotten everything from that fundraiser.
This next one, we're still making the things.
$11,000 in a single hour is a lot of work for us.
Finally, I love the show.
I'm a subscriber to the magazine.
I'm just pleading that next time BAI does a pledge drive, you would offer the promos on the 2600.com site and not just during the show.
Signed, Florian.
Well, the problem with that is we were offering something at a real cut rate, something that we normally offer for $400.
We were offering for $200, and it wouldn't make any sense for us to undercut ourselves on our own website.
Plus, we try to publicize the radio show as much as possible so people listen live.
That's what it's for, is for people who listen to the radio show.
We'll try to publicize it more next time.
Thanks for your letters.
OTH at 2600.com.
Let's try and take some phone calls.
212-209-2900 is our phone number.
Let's take the first call, which I knew was going to be a dial tone because it hopped over here.
This is the first call.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Hi.
I have a similar complaint.
I guess I did get – I pledged in the drive before the last one.
I got the TV begun, which I'm thrilled with, but I didn't get the T-shirt.
You didn't get the T-shirt.
Well, we delivered a whole bunch of them to the radio station, so we're going to ask why that is.
We'd like to know from people who have pledged if they've received their T-shirts.
They certainly should have by now, and we'll definitely look into this.
I did have a question about the TV begun.
The info on the card is a little nonconclusive, I guess.
I guess I didn't fully pick up all the information in terms of turning stuff back on again
or the range or stuff like that I haven't been able to do,
but everything else like turning stuff off has been very thrilling.
You can go to tvbegun.com and get more information.
It's a pretty entertaining website, too.
Great. Thank you very much.
Okay.
And email us with your contact info so we can get the T-shirt out to you, oth2600.com.
Is there a way that you can just take me offline and I can tell you that information rather than emailing it?
Not really.
Yeah, it's more difficult than you would believe.
Okay.
Believe it or not.
All right. That's no problem. I'll figure a way to do that.
Okay. Thanks.
Thank you. Bye.
This happens when we're preempted.
We get no calls.
Look at this. It's dead.
There's one call.
I'm not going to pick up until we get three calls.
We're not asking for money.
We're asking for phone calls.
We were doing better when we were asking for money.
212-209-2900.
We can only take one at a time.
We can only take one at a time.
It's not the pledging.
There's many people answering phones here.
There's two.
It's just us.
There's two.
Now there's another one coming in.
212-209-2900.
We're asking to hear your opinion.
There.
Now it's four.
Okay. Here we go.
Good evening.
You're on off the hook.
How are you doing?
Good. How are you?
Hey, by the way, needing more phone calls, I really disagree.
And I agree with your fellow co-host.
This is on a marathon.
If you get one call, that's worthy of being on the air.
You don't need to get two or ten calls before anybody is deemed worthy.
Am I right about that?
Maybe.
But let's get on to something relevant.
Okay.
Just wanted to say, I talked to this man, Eric, yesterday on Stony Brook Seldon
about the Nicole case, Nicole's death.
And I was just making the point about that she was...
Okay. This has got nothing to do with this show.
Call that show to make the comments on that show.
My God.
Good evening.
You're on the radio.
Hello?
Go ahead.
Is that WBAI?
This is WBAI.
You're live on the air.
Yes.
Please say something relevant.
Okay. You had your chance. I'm sorry.
Good evening. You're on the radio.
Live.
Live.
How are you doing?
On the air. Oh, great.
You sound surprised.
Yeah, I do, because you were talking to somebody else a second ago.
Yeah, I was, but they weren't being relevant, so I had to move on.
What's on your mind?
I just got something in the mail last week, or the other day,
that I thought you guys might be interested in.
Okay.
It is a form that says I won the lottery,
and I got a check from GEICO for $3,800.90.
I see.
And don't tell me that's the exact amount that you would save
by choosing GEICO over another insurance company, right?
I'm driving around in an uninsured car.
I'm not sure you want to be telling us that.
Because you don't know who I am.
It's a real check from GEICO.
A real check from GEICO?
Yeah, and the lottery is from Ontario.
Uh-huh.
Yeah, so this is a whole big scam.
I've been checking it out on the Internet.
Okay.
And people are actually cashing these damn checks.
And what are they agreeing to by cashing them?
Well, what you have to do, it says on this particular one,
apparently they're all different,
because what I found on the Internet is numerous different companies.
What does it say on the back of the check?
The back of the check, it's got the watermark.
It's got everything.
But does it have an agreement that you're signing when you endorse it?
There is no agreement.
Okay.
Can you tell us very quickly?
Because we have to move on.
What is the scam?
Oh, okay.
Well, the scam is you won this lottery,
and if you cash this check and call this number,
the check is good for processing the fee to win the $250,000 that you just won.
And how much is that fee?
And it doesn't say.
Probably $3,800.
Well, I would assume it's at least $3,000.
Yeah.
And what happens is you deposit the bogus check,
and you send them a valid check for the $3,000.
They get away with that.
Yeah.
So watch out for those.
Yeah.
It came in the mail.
It didn't come in the Internet, but it's my Internet name.
So they found me on the Internet.
Okay.
Well, listen, thanks for that info.
That's kind of crazy.
Okay.
Let's see if we can fit in one more really quickly.
Good evening.
You're on off the hook.
Hello?
Speak up.
Yes, go ahead.
Yes, I'd like to tell you about Verizon has a new scam going on.
Verizon has a new scam?
Yeah.
On your bill, if you have sensible minutes,
or regional calls, like upstate New York.
Yeah.
And it's $0.09 a minute.
But if you do away with it, it's like $0.14 a minute.
I told the guy, I hardly make any calls upstate.
Why are you charging me $2 a month?
Plus tax.
So people should look at their bills.
Get rid of sensible minutes, because it's not so sensible.
Thanks for that info.
And thanks to everybody who called in.
Write to us, oth at 2600.com is our phone number.
And why is the theme for the computer show coming up?
Because I have that up.
Oh, I'm sorry.
All right.
We'll be back again next week with another Action Packed Edition.
See you then.
Good night.
You're wondering now what to do, now you know this is the end.
You're wondering how you would pay for the way you did behave.
Curtain has fallen, now you're on your own.
I won't return, forever you will wait.
You're wondering now what to do, now you know this is the end.
You're wondering how you would pay for the way you did behave.
You're wondering how you would pay for the way you did behave.
Curtain has fallen, now you're on your own.
I won't return, forever you will wait.
You're wondering now what to do, now you know this is the end.
You're wondering how you would pay for the way you did behave.
You're wondering now what to do, now you know this is the end.
You're listening to WBAI.
Isn't that wonderful?
Off the hook.
Off the hook.
These guys are off the hook.
And, all right, let's say Happy Valentine's Day to all the good folks out there.