July 27, 2025 • 37 mins
Starvation Crimes and International Law: A New Era. Israel has intercepted a Gaza-bound activist boat carrying food aid. A popular online retailer's name is being exploited in a costly scam. Are you receiving discounts from your rewards points? Cross with Merrill
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand Deeper Dives.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
It's time for our deeper dive segment. Or I love
to take a closer look at something. Sometimes it's fun
and lighthearted. Sometimes it's a interesting, little off kilter, little offbeat,
whatever it may be. And in this case, it is
pretty tough territory. It's pretty tough stuff, but it is
real and I want to talk about it. As we've
(00:28):
all been following since October seventh, the aggression, the conflict
between Israel and Gaza, and if you have paid attention
in the last many months, few weeks, you have heard
phrasing that includes words like starvation or deprivation. And what
(00:51):
the reality is this is not conjecture, this is not
assumption or opinion. But what the reality is is that
AID is not going into Gaza. That has been exclaimed
by officials on both sides of the war. Now AID
is not going into Gaza. And as a consequence of
(01:15):
that deprivation of aid, whether due to the fighting that
was preventing the AID from entering just out of safety concerns,
not wanting to be killed, or if it was other
if there were other reasons, people in Gaza are dying
(01:37):
from hunger. We are seeing these reports on the news
every day and it seems to be, at least according
to news reports, peaking or not necessarily peaking, but it's
getting worse. Babies are dying. One of the youngest babies
to die at the time of their death wait, less
(02:00):
than when they were born. These are substantiated reports. This
is not opinion or emotion backed reporting. This is straight
from verified sources. Now and thinking about starvation and deprivation,
there are quite a few things at play and fingers
(02:20):
can point any which way. But the consequence, the casualty
would then be the people who are finding themselves victim
of not having enough food or necessities medicine to be
able to sustain their way of life, even the bleakest
situations for their lives. Conflict is the single largest driver
(02:45):
of hunger today. It surpasses climate related events, so it
surpasses natural disasters. It surpasses economic instability, both of which
are on the rise. Climate issues economic instability all around
the world yes on the rise and absolutely contributing to
(03:08):
the overall degradation, I would say of society now. In
a twenty twenty two report, the UN World Food Program,
which is the world's largest humanitarian organization fighting hunger, noted
that a full eighty percent of its budget went to
countries fighting themselves or others. Conflict is the single largest
(03:35):
driver of hunger today. That hunger is an inevitable byproduct
of war, and is true for nearly every major conflict
in history. You can look back at any conflict, any
war in history, and you'll find hunger as a consequence
(03:55):
as a byproduct of those situations. For example, most people
died of starvation and starvation related disease during World War One.
Over any metric of combat disease. Starvation took out way
more people during World War Two. Excuse me, World War two.
(04:20):
War destroys many things, many things. It destroys markets, It
destroys critical infrastructure. Any history buff any person who learned
anything about history from elementary up.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
These are things that we've learned. War is destructive.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
It displaces people from their homes and their overall support networks,
and it can in fact prevent farmers from planting their crops.
That's something that has been said of Gaza. On November
twenty first, last year four the International Criminal Court or
(05:04):
ICC in fact issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister
net and Yahoo and former Defense Minister Gallant with the
Pre Trial Chamber of Judges, which is a body required
to deliberate an ICC prosecutor's warrant application, and they found
that quote, there are reasonable grounds to believe that the
(05:28):
lack of food, water, electricity, and fuel and specific medical
supplies created conditions of life calculated to bring about the
destruction of part of the civilian population in Gaza, which
resulted in the death of civilians, including children, due to
malnutrition and dehydration.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Close quote.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
When I talk about things like this, when I get
into the weeds of the conflict between Israel and Gaza,
I undoubtedly receive commentary and my social media from people
who are pointing me in the direction of what happened
on October seventh.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
That can't be denied.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
You also cannot deny the findings by the International Criminal
Court which were issued on November twenty first of twenty
twenty four. Again, I have to say, this is not opinion.
This is not me being one or the other. This
is not me encouraging you to be one or the other.
This is me presenting for you the absolute facts as
(06:34):
recorded by in this case, the International Criminal Court.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
You want to argue direct, you're arguing there now.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Israel went on to vehemently deny the claims of intentional
civilian starvation, and they ultimately in fact question the International
Criminal Court's jurisdiction. But in that questioning, it did not
necessarily dispel the fact that so many were in fact
(07:06):
being deprived of food and critical medical supplies. When we
come back, we're going to talk about how civilians have
gotten themselves into this conflict, not in trying to take
up arms per se, but in wanting to help.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
With aid distribution.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
A dangerous strategy, a dangerous mission. Some might call it
downright foolish to get onto a ship in hopes of
reaching a war torn country to distribute aid and food.
But there was, in fact, and I say was because
the mission is over, there was, in fact a ship
(07:53):
filled with pro Palestinian activists who hoped to be able
to meet Gozin's on the other side to distribute food
along the Gaza Strip. That ship, the Hondala Vessel, has
been intercepted in international waters. They set out last week
(08:15):
and within I want to say twenty four to forty
eight hours of their journey, they were intercepted and they're
still being held in international waters. I'm gonna tell you
what's going on with the freedom flotilla ship, the Hondala,
and what's to be expected in the next i'd say
(08:37):
coming days for the fate of these activists on this ship. Again,
if you want to argue, the International Criminal Court is
where you can direct your angry emails, all of that
more in our deeper Dive segment.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
You're listening to kfi AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
And we are in our deeper Dive segment, a segment
I love, I'm I enjoy it and in this case,
this one is tough. This is a tough deeper dive
segment because it's it's not fun. It's not fun to
talk about starvation and deprivation, and it's certainly not fun
and can evoke I think quite a bit of you know,
(09:19):
some pretty big feelings when you're discussing, in this case,
the conflict between Israel and Gaza, because it's so polarizing,
it's so very polarizing. Whatever you say, there's someone who
is going to dissent and argue against facts, be damned,
but I wanted to get into the weeds a bit
(09:42):
of how in modern times starvation is being used. And
this is according to the study the data information coming
out of the international criminal courts and other places. And
this leads us into the next phase of our discussion
of our segment about how civilians are growing weary. We're
(10:07):
watching social media, you're watching the news, and you're inundated
by imagery, videos, news stories, talking heads, whatever it may
be about the information coming out of Gaza or Ukraine.
But in this case, Gaza is the foremost i would
(10:28):
say focus of discussing war crimes because we're seeing so
many representations of the victims in Gaza, and recently we're
hearing more and more about starvation and deprivation. You're seeing babies,
you're seeing elderly. This is intentional. This is to show
(10:52):
what is happening. That is not to disregard how it
all began, but it is to show what has now,
what it is now turned into what's been going on
for the last many months in terms of starvation and deprivation,
all substantiated again by both sides. Now civilians are growing
(11:14):
weary of seeing this, and you will have people who
say I'm going to do it.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
I'm going to go.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
I'm going to get on a ship in this case,
and I am going to attempt with these other self
proclaimed pro Palestinian activists to transport food and aid to
the people of Gaza. Here are the details the Freedom
Flotilla ship aimed to bring aid to Gaza. It's made
(11:47):
up of nineteen activists and two journalists from various countries,
including Australia, France, the UK, and the US, the US
comprising the majority of the nineteen activists. The vessel there
on is called the Handala, and it was to set
out to reach the Gaza Strip in a couple of
(12:09):
days journey. Well before they could get there, just miles
from the coast of Gaza, the ship was intercepted in
what's considered to be international waters. There's video footage of
this interception. It purportedly shows activists on boards sitting at
(12:31):
the center of the ship with their hands up. Their
hands are up in the kind of non confrontational, we're
not threatening pose as several armed soldiers. Israeli soldiers took
control of the vessel. The Israeli Foreign Minister said that
the country's navy stopped the boat from illegally entering the
(12:53):
maritime zone off the coast of Gaza, and it broke
the blockade that was in place. It added that the
ship was safely making its way to the shores of
Israel and that all passengers, the nineteen activists, two journalists
and nineteen activists were safe. They continue they posted this
(13:15):
on x on social media. The Israeli Ministry and went
on to say that quote unauthorized attempts to breach the
blockade are dangerous, unlawful and undermine ongoing humanitarian efforts. It
did not the Israeli Ministry give any details about where
(13:39):
specifically the boat was intercepted, but it was, it was taken,
it was commandeered and is now off the shore of Israel. Meanwhile,
again the crew and its representation, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition,
is calling this a quote kidnapping by Israeli soldiers. The
(14:03):
Freedom Flotilla Coalition the FFC, also posted a number of
videos with crew members urging people around the world to
put pressure on their respective governments to sanction Israel again. Australia, France,
the UK, and US all had representation not sent out
(14:23):
necessarily by their respective governments. These are independent actors. They
are acting on their own accord within this organization, the
Freedom Flotilla, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, to reach the shores
of Gaza. But they are saying those within this organization
for people to put the pressure on their respective governments.
(14:46):
The boat was carrying baby formula, formula, food, medicine and
other essential supplies. In June, there was also another example
of pavilions hoping to reach Gaza. There was a yacht
with twelve activists on board, including the very well known
(15:08):
Greta Thunberg from Sweden, and it was is intercepted by
Israeli military as well, just west of Gaza. That particular expedition,
that mission was also organized by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition,
so they've now had two ships intercepted before they can
(15:30):
deliver aid to Gaza. At that time, back in June,
so just one month ago, the Israeli Foreign Ministry dismissed
it as a quote selfie yacht. Not sure what that means,
a selfie yacht with less than a single truckload of
(15:51):
aid close quote. It added that the aid transported on
that ship, on that yacht, which did in fact include
baby formula and medicine and would be transferred to Gaza
through quote real humanitarian channels. Israeli government said that these
were not real humanitarian channels, these independently operated coalitions and ships.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
That were hoping to reach Gaza.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Now Israel stopped all deliveries of aid back on March second,
So four months starvation and deprivation has occurred. That's now
four months March, April, May, June, July going on August
just ended today, four plus months without aid coming in
(16:41):
or being allowed through Israel. Today, the Israeli military said
it it carried out that air drop of humanitarian aid
to Gaza. And this is following weeks of international pressure.
A lot of people, a lot of groups, a lot
of countries were putting the pressure on the Israeli government
to all allow food in, allow medicine in, because they're
(17:03):
saying it's a full on hunger crisis in Palestine. At
least as of now, fifty nine thousand, six hundred and
seventy six people have been killed in Gaza since October seven.
On October seven, in which twelve hundred people were killed
and two hundred and fifty one others were taken hostage
(17:23):
during that initial hamas led border attack.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Horrible, war horrible.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I think we all kind of agree on that. It
is definitely don't want it coming to your front door.
I don't know if I encourage civilians to do what
they're doing with this FCC, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. They
are braver than I. But you know, as it is,
(17:54):
they are breaking the blockade and they have been intercepted,
and these nineteen activists two journalists are currently being held
by the Israeli military. So we'll see what happens with that.
We got through it, We got is everyone okay? Are
we Are we all okay? Or are you okay?
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Robin? We got through it, okay, okay?
Speaker 2 (18:17):
In there? Oh SUPs up, she's eating? Are you okay, Richie?
Or did we get through it?
Speaker 3 (18:21):
We did get through it. Oh man. It's tough. It's
tough stuff to.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Talk about it, and it really brings out the you know,
a lot of arguing. It does, it really does. But
you know, these are these are facts. These are facts people.
It is what it is.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
All right.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
When we come back, we're gonna leave our deeper dive segment.
We're gonna get into scammers Gonna scam. Lighten it up
a little bit. What popular online retailer's name is being
used in the newest scam. It's definitely a retailer you've used,
and they're trying to use you to do what separate
(18:57):
you from your money?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
All of that and more.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
You're listening to kfi Am sixty on demand.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
I love no let me rephrase that, I am getting better.
I don't love shopping. I don't.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
I don't love shopping.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
I love the convenience of certain apps that allow me
to shop when I want and where I want.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
I don't love shopping per se.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Used to used to love going into the stores and
kind of looking at, you know, windows shopping or just
kind of wantonly looking at stuff member stores when you
can go into stores and actually buy things in person
and not have to just order online.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Richie, are you there?
Speaker 4 (19:42):
I am.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Before we get into this next story for our scammers
gonna scam, can you can you tell us you share
with the people a little bit about your recent experience
that may have been a scam, may not.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
We don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 6 (19:58):
So I want to say it was like early June,
I had dropped like about like seven hundred dollars worth
of like clothes and accessories for a trip that I
had planned for Spain. And I placed this order on
this website and I'm probably not gonna mention it, but
this website I've ordered in the past never had an issue. Well,
comes around the time that I'm about to leave for
(20:19):
my trip and my box never arrives. So I'm freaking
out because I don't have anything to wear, and I
ended up having to go inside of a store and
shop like the normal person did back in the day.
And yeah, so I came back from my trip, I
contacted the website, the store online and luckily they were
able to refund me my money. But the package never arrived.
(20:42):
They mentioned things like it could be because it's international,
the tariffs and you know, it might be a little delay,
but yeah, I don't know. Somebody must have kept my
box or they just kept it themselves.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
That's the worst feeling to my side. It's invasive to
it almost. It's it's not the same as having your
your your home or your property broken into your car
or anything like that, but it's the same type of
helplessness of Okay, where's this stuff that I'm expecting that
I paid for it's not here, And now you're wondering
(21:17):
where did it go? Did someone take it? Did it
ever get delivered? And in your case, it never even did.
Speaker 5 (21:23):
Right? Are you there?
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Did I lose Richie? Oh yeah, I'm right here. So
cal just came in. We had a catchup.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Oh it's okay. It's a party over there and none
over here. Hey, okay, moving into our scammer is gonna
scam segment. And you just heard a bit about what
could have been a scam, what may not have been
a scam, It could have just been an issue. This
one is a verified scammy scam scam. There's a new
(21:50):
fishing scam and phishing is it's spelled pH fishing, but
it's it's very similar to casting a wide net and
then trying to digitally capture information to distribute to nefarious actors,
to extort.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Whatever the case.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
And there's a new phishing scam that's targeting shoppers with
text messages. We all get and use text messaging, and
the text messages are going to customers that claim to
the text messages claim to come from Da Da Da
Da Da Amazon, Amazon, I'm got they're gonna get me
(22:34):
every time if this is the case, because I just
ordered something on Amazon the other day, Like I know, right,
I am an Amazon person.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
I get it.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Big billionaires, yes, not good, terrible business model, horrible to
their customers. Yes, all these things are true or to
their employees.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
True, that's what they say, allegations. I don't know. I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
I don't know, but I still use Amazon. I feel
bad about it, like a horrible person. You're gonna say something, Robin, No, yes.
Speaker 4 (23:07):
Yes, I have worked at two different Amazons.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Awful. Awful.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
Yeah, especially during like Christmas areas. People would have to
do like sixteen hour shifts and sometimes people would sleep
where the bosses couldn't find them and have somebody do
their job for them and then switch off a couple
hours later.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
You're telling me to cancel my recent order. I can
do that now, can I wait? Can I get it first?
Speaker 4 (23:39):
I mean, it's not Christmas, it's not a holiday, maybe
even Prime Day.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
It's like that tooper Oh, thank convenience of it. You know,
a convenience sing right there the next day, you know
it's going to arrive.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
I live above a department store, of which I will
not name, I can literally go down and get what
I need and I will order it from Amazon instead
of going downstairs.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
How lame of a human being? Am I big lame?
It's just convenience news breaking lame. Well, it's the convenience
of putting clothes on it is.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
It is totally that so Amazon, those of us who
enjoy using Amazon is the newest manipulation tactic. And the
text messages claim to come from Amazon, and they promise
refunds on recent purchases. This comes from the FTC, the
(24:37):
Federal Trade Commission. This is a warning that they've issued.
So Amazon, you'll get a text message basically that will
say that there's a product recall or quality issue and you're,
as the customer, entitled to a full refund. You'll then
be instructed to click a link to receive the refund.
(25:00):
Bought this thing and you might not even know what
you bought. It might they might who knows you bought
this thing? It's defective. Whatever the case, here's a refund
for the item. Click the link. They also say no
return of the product is necessary and that when you
click the link, you'll claim your refund. But instead of
issuing the refund, the link opens to a phishing site
(25:25):
designed to steal your personal or financial information. Can we
not have nice things? This is why we don't have
nice things. I just don't understand how scammers are so astute.
It's like they're always one, two, three steps ahead of us.
Now they're using my Amazon, what's next? My in and out?
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Like?
Speaker 2 (25:45):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (25:46):
Like?
Speaker 3 (25:46):
What is good? Don't laugh at that. I'm just I
feel very vulnerable.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
I feel very attacked, and I feel very insecure that
we could get text messages saying, hey, that thing you
bought recently, it's no good. Here's a refund word to
the Why don't click on any link ever? Just unplug
your internet, just go dark on all of everything. Do
not click any link except for the kfi AM six
(26:10):
forty dot com link or the iHeart dot com link,
because anything else could potentially be trying to do what
separate you from your money. When we come back, I'm
gonna tell you a little anecdote about being in person
and having someone try and scam me right in person.
This is not online, This is in person, and they
(26:31):
doubled down on the scam. Oh my god, I'm gonna
tell you about it to warn you, so hopefully you
don't fall victim like I didn't.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
On the other side of the break.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand one
more segment.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
We're gonna talk to Chris Merrill in a moment, but
before we do, here is the scam that I almost
fail victim to. So you know, if you go to
a grocery store, they ask you if you want to
put your phone number in, assuming you've signed up online
or whatever, usually in the store to receive rewards points. Right,
go to Vaughn's Pavilions whatever it may be. And does
(27:09):
Arawona have stuff like that? Don't know, they probably don't
need rewards points. Well, you go put your number in,
and invisibly attached to your phone number become these points,
and the points are accumulated to offer you discounts at
certain places, including gas stations. So I'm a regular user
(27:30):
of the point system. I use my mom's phone number
because she gets more than I do. And I go
to the gas station this week, put in the phone
number and it says eighty cents off per gallon, lowering
the price to something like that particular gas station. Let's
(27:51):
just make it even four dollars. Okay, but imagine it's
a three to fifty gas station. You lowered eighty cents.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
That's a lot.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Put it in and proceed to start pumping. But before
it starts pumping, you expect for the price on attached
to your pump to reflect the eighty cent change. That's
what happens. It shows you the new price. It never changed.
What did it again? Never changed? Went inside, tell the attendant, hey,
(28:22):
rewards points eighty cents off. Didn't change. The attendants like,
huh ohhh, it's supposed to change. There's a moment, a
few moments of us just staring at each other, and
I'm blinking, like, change it. The attendance. She starts to
do something behind the counter. She's messing with the stuff right,
(28:45):
the computer and all of that, and she's not really
communicating with me. She's mumbling and she seems to be
getting frustrated. And she goes back and forth with me,
and she says it didn't change, and I'm like, no,
it didn't change. We're doing this dance of lady. I'm
here to get the discount, give me my discount. And
she continues to kind of delay the change. Finally she does.
(29:09):
She tells me to go ahead. She gives me a receipt.
I ask her just to be certain, is it going
to be reflected on my overall, because now I don't
trust anything, and she says, kind of through an attitude, Yeah, right,
have a nice day, like you caught me.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
Go back out, pump the gas.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
The discount is reflected, it shows, we get our little
eighty cents off, and we drive away. We talk about
this on the way to our destination, like, did that
lady try and scam us? Didn't seem like a simple accident.
Let's say we are one of the three thousand people
(29:50):
who visit that gas station that week. How many times
are people not checking to see that the discount is
applied and hease accumulate? Is that gas station racking up
the coins based on our kind of haphazard or you know,
kind of distracted state, whatever it may be. I don't know.
(30:13):
We'll find out after the commercial break. I have no clue,
but I do know that she almost they almost got
us out of the twelve or so gallons eighty cents
times that that we would have not been able to catch.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Watch out, check your gas.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Stations and make sure if you're putting in your number
anywhere you're using rewards points, that you are getting the discount.
I don't care if it's five cents. It all adds up.
Chris Merrill, Chris Merrill, Hey, Hi, how are you.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
I'm glad you brought this up. Okay, First of all,
I didn't know that was a thing. It's a thing
that they could steal your rewards points.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
They can.
Speaker 5 (30:49):
But then I had a friend of mine that says, hey,
I use this app. It's one of those cash back apps,
you know. And he says, you just signed up for
the app and then whenever you buy something, you scan
your receipt and then you get the money back, okay.
And I went, okay, this sounds great, and I've seen
these things advertised before, right, And so he sends me
the link and I download it, so he gets his
ten dollars referral fee or whatever, right, And so I
(31:10):
try to use that for the first time today. And
you have to go in and you have to decide
what you're going to buy before you go, and then
and then when you get to the store, then you
have to coordinate with your store app so that you
can figure out what else is on sale? Right, and
then when I'm at the store and I scan the stuff,
I have to scan the barcode in the store in
order to get the discount that's right there. And then
(31:33):
the app doesn't work and it's like item not found,
and it is scan this app. And I'm telling you
this at this store, it happens to me. I'm going
to say seven or eight times out of ten that
the item I'm looking for item not found. And it
drives me absolutely bonkers. And I was thinking along with
your scams that you're talking about. Right, yes, we are
(31:53):
right for this because everywhere we go there are extra
steps to basic things, and we've just gotten to this
point where we go, well, you know, I have to
have an app. I have a fan in my office
right now, right the fan is behind me. To use
the fan, I have to have an app. No, yes, yes, now,
granted I can. I can set the fan from anywhere
in the world if I want to. Unfortunately, it doesn't
(32:15):
really work except for in the room that I'm in
right now. So you know it's right fan I found?
Oh oh, drive me bonkers. So this is we've gotten
to this point in society where We're trying to automate
so many different things, and I think what we've done
is just created this complicated world around us. And I
know I'm starting to send a little Andy Rooney like here,
and Kayla's going to give me NonStop crap for being
an old man, right, But at some point, can I
(32:39):
just go to the store and purchase the product at
the sale price?
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Now?
Speaker 5 (32:43):
But what's happening is the store they want to make
sure that the products that they have the margins on
they're going to put in front of my face. Yes,
then they want to be able to follow my spending habits, right,
they want to be able to track that so they
can market me create. Then the cash back Yes, the
cash back app does the exact same thing. So it's
just one more or tracking mechanism. Same thing with this
fan I have now, Granted it's a really nice fan,
(33:04):
I love it. But all these different things are meant
so they can track us so that they can specifically
advertise to us. And that opens the door for these scammers, yeah,
who'll simply find a way around the system. And the
one that really bugs me is when I see the
stuff online and I don't think it's happened to me yet,
I hope not. At least I haven't noticed. But that's
the you know, when they put that false front on
(33:25):
the credit card scanners at the stores.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Oh, that's so easily. So it's done seamlessly, you don't
even seemlessly.
Speaker 5 (33:32):
It looks like it looks like the front of your
your credit card scanner. And then it it inevitably will
end up being like the owner of the bodega or
the gas station or whatever it is, and they rip
it off and they're like, what is this? This is
a scamer, Like, I don't know what that is. I've
never seen that before in my life.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Oh, let me take a closer look at that.
Speaker 5 (33:52):
Yeah, and it's just and I don't even know if
they're using your credit card or if they're selling it
online or what that deal is. And then you get
an alert your information has been found in the dark web.
And you know, I just got another one this week
that reminded me that I had AT and T in
twenty fifteen, and now my social security is floating around
the dark web somewhere wonderful. Now am I supposed to
do with this?
Speaker 3 (34:12):
Say, not because of Facebook.
Speaker 5 (34:13):
But because of what am I supposed to do with.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
That cry in the corner because all of our socials
and all of our information out there, it's out there
for it's all out crime for the taking.
Speaker 5 (34:22):
And so what can I possibly do other than give
my money to someone else to make sure people don't
steal from me?
Speaker 3 (34:29):
Exactly. It's a circular scam, is what it is.
Speaker 5 (34:34):
Tiffany. You've put me in a really poor mood here, well,
very foul all.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Of a sudden, I think, you know, I think that
might be your perpetual state.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
Yeah, you know about the time I hit forty is
when that.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
Happened, I welcomed it, I saying no.
Speaker 5 (34:49):
Suddenly everything about Bill Handle made sense to me.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
I love him even more now that I'm north of forty.
Speaker 5 (34:55):
Yeah. Wow, I know that grumpy old man is onto
something like.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
I agree, what's going on?
Speaker 5 (35:01):
You know what what's going on?
Speaker 2 (35:02):
I also want to know what's going on on. Your
show was more grumpy stuff.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
Yeah, we fixed homelessness, so we're gonna we're gonna, we're
gonna enjoy that we don't have homelessness. So that's pretty great. Also,
could California get bluer because Texas wants to get redder
and let's not forget we have la law. Our question today,
by the way, if you're on the app, if you're
on the the iHeartRadio app, you hit the talkback button.
(35:29):
Our question today, how do you think the Epstein saga ends?
All right, we're all paying attention to the day to
days and the gossip and all that stuff. How does
it play out? Does it suddenly go away? Does it vanish?
Is this the end of an administration?
Speaker 4 (35:43):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (35:43):
Is this the you know? Are we gonna find these
child predators? How does it end? So I'm curious about
your thoughts on that. So, if you're on the app,
hit the talk back and we'll look forward to to
what you have to say.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
I have a lot of thoughts. I think I'm gonna
hit the talkback app do it. I will say I
can say colorful language on the take us started.
Speaker 5 (35:59):
Yeah you can.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
I will do that. Bye, Chris see Yeah sure, thank
you really quick bit kudos to this community, this neighborhood
in West LA. A bunch of residents painted across walk
across from a popular park. The park is called Stoner Park.
It's in the Sawtel area, and they'd been seeing a
(36:20):
lot of accidents, a lot of really close calls, actual accidents,
kids everywhere, and the neighbors. The residents were saying they
really wanted to do something because the local municipality wasn't
doing anything. They weren't responding to their calls for help,
you know about maybe making the intersection safer with a
cross walk. Perhaps the residents went out there and painted
(36:44):
their own cross walk right around that park, around Stoner Park,
and it was up for a few days. People said
it was helping for the time that it was up,
and then within seventy two hours the city sent a
crew out to paint over it to make things unsafe again.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
Good Old La, Good Old La
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Kfi A M six forty on demand
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand Deeper Dives.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
It's time for our deeper dive segment. Or I love
to take a closer look at something. Sometimes it's fun
and lighthearted. Sometimes it's a interesting, little off kilter, little offbeat,
whatever it may be. And in this case, it is
pretty tough territory. It's pretty tough stuff, but it is
real and I want to talk about it. As we've
(00:28):
all been following since October seventh, the aggression, the conflict
between Israel and Gaza, and if you have paid attention
in the last many months, few weeks, you have heard
phrasing that includes words like starvation or deprivation. And what
(00:51):
the reality is this is not conjecture, this is not
assumption or opinion. But what the reality is is that
AID is not going into Gaza. That has been exclaimed
by officials on both sides of the war. Now AID
is not going into Gaza. And as a consequence of
(01:15):
that deprivation of aid, whether due to the fighting that
was preventing the AID from entering just out of safety concerns,
not wanting to be killed, or if it was other
if there were other reasons, people in Gaza are dying
(01:37):
from hunger. We are seeing these reports on the news
every day and it seems to be, at least according
to news reports, peaking or not necessarily peaking, but it's
getting worse. Babies are dying. One of the youngest babies
to die at the time of their death wait, less
(02:00):
than when they were born. These are substantiated reports. This
is not opinion or emotion backed reporting. This is straight
from verified sources. Now and thinking about starvation and deprivation,
there are quite a few things at play and fingers
(02:20):
can point any which way. But the consequence, the casualty
would then be the people who are finding themselves victim
of not having enough food or necessities medicine to be
able to sustain their way of life, even the bleakest
situations for their lives. Conflict is the single largest driver
(02:45):
of hunger today. It surpasses climate related events, so it
surpasses natural disasters. It surpasses economic instability, both of which
are on the rise. Climate issues economic instability all around
the world yes on the rise and absolutely contributing to
(03:08):
the overall degradation, I would say of society now. In
a twenty twenty two report, the UN World Food Program,
which is the world's largest humanitarian organization fighting hunger, noted
that a full eighty percent of its budget went to
countries fighting themselves or others. Conflict is the single largest
(03:35):
driver of hunger today. That hunger is an inevitable byproduct
of war, and is true for nearly every major conflict
in history. You can look back at any conflict, any
war in history, and you'll find hunger as a consequence
(03:55):
as a byproduct of those situations. For example, most people
died of starvation and starvation related disease during World War One.
Over any metric of combat disease. Starvation took out way
more people during World War Two. Excuse me, World War two.
(04:20):
War destroys many things, many things. It destroys markets, It
destroys critical infrastructure. Any history buff any person who learned
anything about history from elementary up.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
These are things that we've learned. War is destructive.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
It displaces people from their homes and their overall support networks,
and it can in fact prevent farmers from planting their crops.
That's something that has been said of Gaza. On November
twenty first, last year four the International Criminal Court or
(05:04):
ICC in fact issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister
net and Yahoo and former Defense Minister Gallant with the
Pre Trial Chamber of Judges, which is a body required
to deliberate an ICC prosecutor's warrant application, and they found
that quote, there are reasonable grounds to believe that the
(05:28):
lack of food, water, electricity, and fuel and specific medical
supplies created conditions of life calculated to bring about the
destruction of part of the civilian population in Gaza, which
resulted in the death of civilians, including children, due to
malnutrition and dehydration.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Close quote.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
When I talk about things like this, when I get
into the weeds of the conflict between Israel and Gaza,
I undoubtedly receive commentary and my social media from people
who are pointing me in the direction of what happened
on October seventh.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
That can't be denied.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
You also cannot deny the findings by the International Criminal
Court which were issued on November twenty first of twenty
twenty four. Again, I have to say, this is not opinion.
This is not me being one or the other. This
is not me encouraging you to be one or the other.
This is me presenting for you the absolute facts as
(06:34):
recorded by in this case, the International Criminal Court.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
You want to argue direct, you're arguing there now.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Israel went on to vehemently deny the claims of intentional
civilian starvation, and they ultimately in fact question the International
Criminal Court's jurisdiction. But in that questioning, it did not
necessarily dispel the fact that so many were in fact
(07:06):
being deprived of food and critical medical supplies. When we
come back, we're going to talk about how civilians have
gotten themselves into this conflict, not in trying to take
up arms per se, but in wanting to help.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
With aid distribution.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
A dangerous strategy, a dangerous mission. Some might call it
downright foolish to get onto a ship in hopes of
reaching a war torn country to distribute aid and food.
But there was, in fact, and I say was because
the mission is over, there was, in fact a ship
(07:53):
filled with pro Palestinian activists who hoped to be able
to meet Gozin's on the other side to distribute food
along the Gaza Strip. That ship, the Hondala Vessel, has
been intercepted in international waters. They set out last week
(08:15):
and within I want to say twenty four to forty
eight hours of their journey, they were intercepted and they're
still being held in international waters. I'm gonna tell you
what's going on with the freedom flotilla ship, the Hondala,
and what's to be expected in the next i'd say
(08:37):
coming days for the fate of these activists on this ship. Again,
if you want to argue, the International Criminal Court is
where you can direct your angry emails, all of that
more in our deeper Dive segment.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
You're listening to kfi AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
And we are in our deeper Dive segment, a segment
I love, I'm I enjoy it and in this case,
this one is tough. This is a tough deeper dive
segment because it's it's not fun. It's not fun to
talk about starvation and deprivation, and it's certainly not fun
and can evoke I think quite a bit of you know,
(09:19):
some pretty big feelings when you're discussing, in this case,
the conflict between Israel and Gaza, because it's so polarizing,
it's so very polarizing. Whatever you say, there's someone who
is going to dissent and argue against facts, be damned,
but I wanted to get into the weeds a bit
(09:42):
of how in modern times starvation is being used. And
this is according to the study the data information coming
out of the international criminal courts and other places. And
this leads us into the next phase of our discussion
of our segment about how civilians are growing weary. We're
(10:07):
watching social media, you're watching the news, and you're inundated
by imagery, videos, news stories, talking heads, whatever it may
be about the information coming out of Gaza or Ukraine.
But in this case, Gaza is the foremost i would
(10:28):
say focus of discussing war crimes because we're seeing so
many representations of the victims in Gaza, and recently we're
hearing more and more about starvation and deprivation. You're seeing babies,
you're seeing elderly. This is intentional. This is to show
(10:52):
what is happening. That is not to disregard how it
all began, but it is to show what has now,
what it is now turned into what's been going on
for the last many months in terms of starvation and deprivation,
all substantiated again by both sides. Now civilians are growing
(11:14):
weary of seeing this, and you will have people who
say I'm going to do it.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
I'm going to go.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
I'm going to get on a ship in this case,
and I am going to attempt with these other self
proclaimed pro Palestinian activists to transport food and aid to
the people of Gaza. Here are the details the Freedom
Flotilla ship aimed to bring aid to Gaza. It's made
(11:47):
up of nineteen activists and two journalists from various countries,
including Australia, France, the UK, and the US, the US
comprising the majority of the nineteen activists. The vessel there
on is called the Handala, and it was to set
out to reach the Gaza Strip in a couple of
(12:09):
days journey. Well before they could get there, just miles
from the coast of Gaza, the ship was intercepted in
what's considered to be international waters. There's video footage of
this interception. It purportedly shows activists on boards sitting at
(12:31):
the center of the ship with their hands up. Their
hands are up in the kind of non confrontational, we're
not threatening pose as several armed soldiers. Israeli soldiers took
control of the vessel. The Israeli Foreign Minister said that
the country's navy stopped the boat from illegally entering the
(12:53):
maritime zone off the coast of Gaza, and it broke
the blockade that was in place. It added that the
ship was safely making its way to the shores of
Israel and that all passengers, the nineteen activists, two journalists
and nineteen activists were safe. They continue they posted this
(13:15):
on x on social media. The Israeli Ministry and went
on to say that quote unauthorized attempts to breach the
blockade are dangerous, unlawful and undermine ongoing humanitarian efforts. It
did not the Israeli Ministry give any details about where
(13:39):
specifically the boat was intercepted, but it was, it was taken,
it was commandeered and is now off the shore of Israel. Meanwhile,
again the crew and its representation, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition,
is calling this a quote kidnapping by Israeli soldiers. The
(14:03):
Freedom Flotilla Coalition the FFC, also posted a number of
videos with crew members urging people around the world to
put pressure on their respective governments to sanction Israel again. Australia, France,
the UK, and US all had representation not sent out
(14:23):
necessarily by their respective governments. These are independent actors. They
are acting on their own accord within this organization, the
Freedom Flotilla, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, to reach the shores
of Gaza. But they are saying those within this organization
for people to put the pressure on their respective governments.
(14:46):
The boat was carrying baby formula, formula, food, medicine and
other essential supplies. In June, there was also another example
of pavilions hoping to reach Gaza. There was a yacht
with twelve activists on board, including the very well known
(15:08):
Greta Thunberg from Sweden, and it was is intercepted by
Israeli military as well, just west of Gaza. That particular expedition,
that mission was also organized by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition,
so they've now had two ships intercepted before they can
(15:30):
deliver aid to Gaza. At that time, back in June,
so just one month ago, the Israeli Foreign Ministry dismissed
it as a quote selfie yacht. Not sure what that means,
a selfie yacht with less than a single truckload of
(15:51):
aid close quote. It added that the aid transported on
that ship, on that yacht, which did in fact include
baby formula and medicine and would be transferred to Gaza
through quote real humanitarian channels. Israeli government said that these
were not real humanitarian channels, these independently operated coalitions and ships.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
That were hoping to reach Gaza.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Now Israel stopped all deliveries of aid back on March second,
So four months starvation and deprivation has occurred. That's now
four months March, April, May, June, July going on August
just ended today, four plus months without aid coming in
(16:41):
or being allowed through Israel. Today, the Israeli military said
it it carried out that air drop of humanitarian aid
to Gaza. And this is following weeks of international pressure.
A lot of people, a lot of groups, a lot
of countries were putting the pressure on the Israeli government
to all allow food in, allow medicine in, because they're
(17:03):
saying it's a full on hunger crisis in Palestine. At
least as of now, fifty nine thousand, six hundred and
seventy six people have been killed in Gaza since October seven.
On October seven, in which twelve hundred people were killed
and two hundred and fifty one others were taken hostage
(17:23):
during that initial hamas led border attack.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Horrible, war horrible.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I think we all kind of agree on that. It
is definitely don't want it coming to your front door.
I don't know if I encourage civilians to do what
they're doing with this FCC, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. They
are braver than I. But you know, as it is,
(17:54):
they are breaking the blockade and they have been intercepted,
and these nineteen activists two journalists are currently being held
by the Israeli military. So we'll see what happens with that.
We got through it, We got is everyone okay? Are
we Are we all okay? Or are you okay?
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Robin? We got through it, okay, okay?
Speaker 2 (18:17):
In there? Oh SUPs up, she's eating? Are you okay, Richie?
Or did we get through it?
Speaker 3 (18:21):
We did get through it. Oh man. It's tough. It's
tough stuff to.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Talk about it, and it really brings out the you know,
a lot of arguing. It does, it really does. But
you know, these are these are facts. These are facts people.
It is what it is.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
All right.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
When we come back, we're gonna leave our deeper dive segment.
We're gonna get into scammers Gonna scam. Lighten it up
a little bit. What popular online retailer's name is being
used in the newest scam. It's definitely a retailer you've used,
and they're trying to use you to do what separate
(18:57):
you from your money?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
All of that and more.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
You're listening to kfi Am sixty on demand.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
I love no let me rephrase that, I am getting better.
I don't love shopping. I don't.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
I don't love shopping.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
I love the convenience of certain apps that allow me
to shop when I want and where I want.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
I don't love shopping per se.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Used to used to love going into the stores and
kind of looking at, you know, windows shopping or just
kind of wantonly looking at stuff member stores when you
can go into stores and actually buy things in person
and not have to just order online.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Richie, are you there?
Speaker 4 (19:42):
I am.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Before we get into this next story for our scammers
gonna scam, can you can you tell us you share
with the people a little bit about your recent experience
that may have been a scam, may not.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
We don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 6 (19:58):
So I want to say it was like early June,
I had dropped like about like seven hundred dollars worth
of like clothes and accessories for a trip that I
had planned for Spain. And I placed this order on
this website and I'm probably not gonna mention it, but
this website I've ordered in the past never had an issue. Well,
comes around the time that I'm about to leave for
(20:19):
my trip and my box never arrives. So I'm freaking
out because I don't have anything to wear, and I
ended up having to go inside of a store and
shop like the normal person did back in the day.
And yeah, so I came back from my trip, I
contacted the website, the store online and luckily they were
able to refund me my money. But the package never arrived.
(20:42):
They mentioned things like it could be because it's international,
the tariffs and you know, it might be a little delay,
but yeah, I don't know. Somebody must have kept my
box or they just kept it themselves.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
That's the worst feeling to my side. It's invasive to
it almost. It's it's not the same as having your
your your home or your property broken into your car
or anything like that, but it's the same type of
helplessness of Okay, where's this stuff that I'm expecting that
I paid for it's not here, And now you're wondering
(21:17):
where did it go? Did someone take it? Did it
ever get delivered? And in your case, it never even did.
Speaker 5 (21:23):
Right? Are you there?
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Did I lose Richie? Oh yeah, I'm right here. So
cal just came in. We had a catchup.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Oh it's okay. It's a party over there and none
over here. Hey, okay, moving into our scammer is gonna
scam segment. And you just heard a bit about what
could have been a scam, what may not have been
a scam, It could have just been an issue. This
one is a verified scammy scam scam. There's a new
(21:50):
fishing scam and phishing is it's spelled pH fishing, but
it's it's very similar to casting a wide net and
then trying to digitally capture information to distribute to nefarious actors,
to extort.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Whatever the case.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
And there's a new phishing scam that's targeting shoppers with
text messages. We all get and use text messaging, and
the text messages are going to customers that claim to
the text messages claim to come from Da Da Da
Da Da Amazon, Amazon, I'm got they're gonna get me
(22:34):
every time if this is the case, because I just
ordered something on Amazon the other day, Like I know, right,
I am an Amazon person.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
I get it.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Big billionaires, yes, not good, terrible business model, horrible to
their customers. Yes, all these things are true or to
their employees.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
True, that's what they say, allegations. I don't know. I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
I don't know, but I still use Amazon. I feel
bad about it, like a horrible person. You're gonna say something, Robin, No, yes.
Speaker 4 (23:07):
Yes, I have worked at two different Amazons.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Awful. Awful.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
Yeah, especially during like Christmas areas. People would have to
do like sixteen hour shifts and sometimes people would sleep
where the bosses couldn't find them and have somebody do
their job for them and then switch off a couple
hours later.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
You're telling me to cancel my recent order. I can
do that now, can I wait? Can I get it first?
Speaker 4 (23:39):
I mean, it's not Christmas, it's not a holiday, maybe
even Prime Day.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
It's like that tooper Oh, thank convenience of it. You know,
a convenience sing right there the next day, you know
it's going to arrive.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
I live above a department store, of which I will
not name, I can literally go down and get what
I need and I will order it from Amazon instead
of going downstairs.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
How lame of a human being? Am I big lame?
It's just convenience news breaking lame. Well, it's the convenience
of putting clothes on it is.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
It is totally that so Amazon, those of us who
enjoy using Amazon is the newest manipulation tactic. And the
text messages claim to come from Amazon, and they promise
refunds on recent purchases. This comes from the FTC, the
(24:37):
Federal Trade Commission. This is a warning that they've issued.
So Amazon, you'll get a text message basically that will
say that there's a product recall or quality issue and you're,
as the customer, entitled to a full refund. You'll then
be instructed to click a link to receive the refund.
(25:00):
Bought this thing and you might not even know what
you bought. It might they might who knows you bought
this thing? It's defective. Whatever the case, here's a refund
for the item. Click the link. They also say no
return of the product is necessary and that when you
click the link, you'll claim your refund. But instead of
issuing the refund, the link opens to a phishing site
(25:25):
designed to steal your personal or financial information. Can we
not have nice things? This is why we don't have
nice things. I just don't understand how scammers are so astute.
It's like they're always one, two, three steps ahead of us.
Now they're using my Amazon, what's next? My in and out?
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Like?
Speaker 2 (25:45):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (25:46):
Like?
Speaker 3 (25:46):
What is good? Don't laugh at that. I'm just I
feel very vulnerable.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
I feel very attacked, and I feel very insecure that
we could get text messages saying, hey, that thing you
bought recently, it's no good. Here's a refund word to
the Why don't click on any link ever? Just unplug
your internet, just go dark on all of everything. Do
not click any link except for the kfi AM six
(26:10):
forty dot com link or the iHeart dot com link,
because anything else could potentially be trying to do what
separate you from your money. When we come back, I'm
gonna tell you a little anecdote about being in person
and having someone try and scam me right in person.
This is not online, This is in person, and they
(26:31):
doubled down on the scam. Oh my god, I'm gonna
tell you about it to warn you, so hopefully you
don't fall victim like I didn't.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
On the other side of the break.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand one
more segment.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
We're gonna talk to Chris Merrill in a moment, but
before we do, here is the scam that I almost
fail victim to. So you know, if you go to
a grocery store, they ask you if you want to
put your phone number in, assuming you've signed up online
or whatever, usually in the store to receive rewards points. Right,
go to Vaughn's Pavilions whatever it may be. And does
(27:09):
Arawona have stuff like that? Don't know, they probably don't
need rewards points. Well, you go put your number in,
and invisibly attached to your phone number become these points,
and the points are accumulated to offer you discounts at
certain places, including gas stations. So I'm a regular user
(27:30):
of the point system. I use my mom's phone number
because she gets more than I do. And I go
to the gas station this week, put in the phone
number and it says eighty cents off per gallon, lowering
the price to something like that particular gas station. Let's
(27:51):
just make it even four dollars. Okay, but imagine it's
a three to fifty gas station. You lowered eighty cents.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
That's a lot.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Put it in and proceed to start pumping. But before
it starts pumping, you expect for the price on attached
to your pump to reflect the eighty cent change. That's
what happens. It shows you the new price. It never changed.
What did it again? Never changed? Went inside, tell the attendant, hey,
(28:22):
rewards points eighty cents off. Didn't change. The attendants like,
huh ohhh, it's supposed to change. There's a moment, a
few moments of us just staring at each other, and
I'm blinking, like, change it. The attendance. She starts to
do something behind the counter. She's messing with the stuff right,
(28:45):
the computer and all of that, and she's not really
communicating with me. She's mumbling and she seems to be
getting frustrated. And she goes back and forth with me,
and she says it didn't change, and I'm like, no,
it didn't change. We're doing this dance of lady. I'm
here to get the discount, give me my discount. And
she continues to kind of delay the change. Finally she does.
(29:09):
She tells me to go ahead. She gives me a receipt.
I ask her just to be certain, is it going
to be reflected on my overall, because now I don't
trust anything, and she says, kind of through an attitude, Yeah, right,
have a nice day, like you caught me.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
Go back out, pump the gas.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
The discount is reflected, it shows, we get our little
eighty cents off, and we drive away. We talk about
this on the way to our destination, like, did that
lady try and scam us? Didn't seem like a simple accident.
Let's say we are one of the three thousand people
(29:50):
who visit that gas station that week. How many times
are people not checking to see that the discount is
applied and hease accumulate? Is that gas station racking up
the coins based on our kind of haphazard or you know,
kind of distracted state, whatever it may be. I don't know.
(30:13):
We'll find out after the commercial break. I have no clue,
but I do know that she almost they almost got
us out of the twelve or so gallons eighty cents
times that that we would have not been able to catch.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Watch out, check your gas.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Stations and make sure if you're putting in your number
anywhere you're using rewards points, that you are getting the discount.
I don't care if it's five cents. It all adds up.
Chris Merrill, Chris Merrill, Hey, Hi, how are you.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
I'm glad you brought this up. Okay, First of all,
I didn't know that was a thing. It's a thing
that they could steal your rewards points.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
They can.
Speaker 5 (30:49):
But then I had a friend of mine that says, hey,
I use this app. It's one of those cash back apps,
you know. And he says, you just signed up for
the app and then whenever you buy something, you scan
your receipt and then you get the money back, okay.
And I went, okay, this sounds great, and I've seen
these things advertised before, right, And so he sends me
the link and I download it, so he gets his
ten dollars referral fee or whatever, right, And so I
(31:10):
try to use that for the first time today. And
you have to go in and you have to decide
what you're going to buy before you go, and then
and then when you get to the store, then you
have to coordinate with your store app so that you
can figure out what else is on sale? Right, and
then when I'm at the store and I scan the stuff,
I have to scan the barcode in the store in
order to get the discount that's right there. And then
(31:33):
the app doesn't work and it's like item not found,
and it is scan this app. And I'm telling you
this at this store, it happens to me. I'm going
to say seven or eight times out of ten that
the item I'm looking for item not found. And it
drives me absolutely bonkers. And I was thinking along with
your scams that you're talking about. Right, yes, we are
(31:53):
right for this because everywhere we go there are extra
steps to basic things, and we've just gotten to this
point where we go, well, you know, I have to
have an app. I have a fan in my office
right now, right the fan is behind me. To use
the fan, I have to have an app. No, yes, yes, now,
granted I can. I can set the fan from anywhere
in the world if I want to. Unfortunately, it doesn't
(32:15):
really work except for in the room that I'm in
right now. So you know it's right fan I found?
Oh oh, drive me bonkers. So this is we've gotten
to this point in society where We're trying to automate
so many different things, and I think what we've done
is just created this complicated world around us. And I
know I'm starting to send a little Andy Rooney like here,
and Kayla's going to give me NonStop crap for being
an old man, right, But at some point, can I
(32:39):
just go to the store and purchase the product at
the sale price?
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Now?
Speaker 5 (32:43):
But what's happening is the store they want to make
sure that the products that they have the margins on
they're going to put in front of my face. Yes,
then they want to be able to follow my spending habits, right,
they want to be able to track that so they
can market me create. Then the cash back Yes, the
cash back app does the exact same thing. So it's
just one more or tracking mechanism. Same thing with this
fan I have now, Granted it's a really nice fan,
(33:04):
I love it. But all these different things are meant
so they can track us so that they can specifically
advertise to us. And that opens the door for these scammers, yeah,
who'll simply find a way around the system. And the
one that really bugs me is when I see the
stuff online and I don't think it's happened to me yet,
I hope not. At least I haven't noticed. But that's
the you know, when they put that false front on
(33:25):
the credit card scanners at the stores.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Oh, that's so easily. So it's done seamlessly, you don't
even seemlessly.
Speaker 5 (33:32):
It looks like it looks like the front of your
your credit card scanner. And then it it inevitably will
end up being like the owner of the bodega or
the gas station or whatever it is, and they rip
it off and they're like, what is this? This is
a scamer, Like, I don't know what that is. I've
never seen that before in my life.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Oh, let me take a closer look at that.
Speaker 5 (33:52):
Yeah, and it's just and I don't even know if
they're using your credit card or if they're selling it
online or what that deal is. And then you get
an alert your information has been found in the dark web.
And you know, I just got another one this week
that reminded me that I had AT and T in
twenty fifteen, and now my social security is floating around
the dark web somewhere wonderful. Now am I supposed to
do with this?
Speaker 3 (34:12):
Say, not because of Facebook.
Speaker 5 (34:13):
But because of what am I supposed to do with.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
That cry in the corner because all of our socials
and all of our information out there, it's out there
for it's all out crime for the taking.
Speaker 5 (34:22):
And so what can I possibly do other than give
my money to someone else to make sure people don't
steal from me?
Speaker 3 (34:29):
Exactly. It's a circular scam, is what it is.
Speaker 5 (34:34):
Tiffany. You've put me in a really poor mood here, well,
very foul all.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Of a sudden, I think, you know, I think that
might be your perpetual state.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
Yeah, you know about the time I hit forty is
when that.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
Happened, I welcomed it, I saying no.
Speaker 5 (34:49):
Suddenly everything about Bill Handle made sense to me.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
I love him even more now that I'm north of forty.
Speaker 5 (34:55):
Yeah. Wow, I know that grumpy old man is onto
something like.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
I agree, what's going on?
Speaker 5 (35:01):
You know what what's going on?
Speaker 2 (35:02):
I also want to know what's going on on. Your
show was more grumpy stuff.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
Yeah, we fixed homelessness, so we're gonna we're gonna, we're
gonna enjoy that we don't have homelessness. So that's pretty great. Also,
could California get bluer because Texas wants to get redder
and let's not forget we have la law. Our question today,
by the way, if you're on the app, if you're
on the the iHeartRadio app, you hit the talkback button.
(35:29):
Our question today, how do you think the Epstein saga ends?
All right, we're all paying attention to the day to
days and the gossip and all that stuff. How does
it play out? Does it suddenly go away? Does it vanish?
Is this the end of an administration?
Speaker 4 (35:43):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (35:43):
Is this the you know? Are we gonna find these
child predators? How does it end? So I'm curious about
your thoughts on that. So, if you're on the app,
hit the talk back and we'll look forward to to
what you have to say.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
I have a lot of thoughts. I think I'm gonna
hit the talkback app do it. I will say I
can say colorful language on the take us started.
Speaker 5 (35:59):
Yeah you can.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
I will do that. Bye, Chris see Yeah sure, thank
you really quick bit kudos to this community, this neighborhood
in West LA. A bunch of residents painted across walk
across from a popular park. The park is called Stoner Park.
It's in the Sawtel area, and they'd been seeing a
(36:20):
lot of accidents, a lot of really close calls, actual accidents,
kids everywhere, and the neighbors. The residents were saying they
really wanted to do something because the local municipality wasn't
doing anything. They weren't responding to their calls for help,
you know about maybe making the intersection safer with a
cross walk. Perhaps the residents went out there and painted
(36:44):
their own cross walk right around that park, around Stoner Park,
and it was up for a few days. People said
it was helping for the time that it was up,
and then within seventy two hours the city sent a
crew out to paint over it to make things unsafe again.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
Good Old La, Good Old La
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Kfi A M six forty on demand
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